IBD's 10 Secrets To Success
Gaining Long-Term Job Success

By:Cord Cooper – Friday, April 6, 2001
From: Investors Daily

Investor's Business Daily has spent years analyzing leaders and successful people in all walks of life. Most have 10 traits that, when combined, can turn dreams into reality. Each day, we highlight one.

1. How You Think Is Everything: Always be positive. Think success, not failure. Beware of a negative environment.
   
2. Decide Upon Your True Dreams And Goals: Write down your specific goals and develop a plan to reach them.
   
3. Take Action: Goals are nothing without action. Don't be afraid to get started now. Just do it.
   
4. Never Stop Learning: Go back to school or read books. Get training and acquire skills.
   
5. Be persistent And Work Hard: Success is a marathon, not a print. Never give up.
   
6. Learn To Analyze Details: Get all The facts, all the input. Learn from your mistakes.
   
7. Focus Your Time And Money: Don't let other people or things distract you.
   
8. Don't Be Afraid To Innovate; Be Different: Following the herd is a sure way to mediocrity.
   
9. Deal And Communicate With People Effectively: No person is an island. Learn to understand and motivate others.
   
10. Be Honest And Dependable; Take Responsibility: Otherwise, Numbers 1-9 won't matter.

9. Gaining Long-Term Job Success
In a culture of downsizing, forget employment � think employability, says executive coach Sharon Jordan-Evans. With layoffs a prime force behind workers' free-agent mind-set, employment increasingly is seen as temporary.

The trick is to remain employable amid changing conditions, says Jordan-Evans, who with Beverly Kaye co-authored the book "Love 'Em or Lose 'Em: Getting Good People to Stay," released by Berrett-Koehler Publishers Inc.
"Changing technologies and a slowing economy can be a double whammy," Jordan-Evans said in an interview. "Being prepared is the only option."
To stay employable over the long term, follow a few simple guidelines, she suggests.

• Know your selling points. every so often, inventory your skills - especially those you don't use on the job, but could if given the chance. Then make those skills known. "Too often, people keep some of their best traits and skills hidden," Jordan-Evans said.
  Discuss your strengths with your boss. The more he or she knows about your talents, the stronger your position if he or she is forced to downsize. "He might move you into another slot, or move you up," she said.
• Manage your reputation. Reputations are based on perception, and perception creates reality, Jordan-Evans says. "I just worked with an executive who found out he had a reputation as a naysayer, a devil's advocate, a downer. He saw himself as a critical thinker," she recalled. He got the lowdown through feedback, but there are simpler ways to learn how you're viewed, she says. "Go to people you count on to tell you the truth, who don't have an ax to grind, and just say, 'How do I come across? What's the chatter about me? How would people describe me?" Once you know the negatives, you can do something about them. "The executive I was coaching realized he needed to react differently in meetings. He started focusing on areas of agreement. He didn't become a yes man; he looked for positives to agree on. Over time - and this is the key - his reputation began to change," she said.
• Keep your antenna up. Stay clued in to what's going on around you. Know what's changing and how it will affect you, your department and the work you do. "People often get so mired in their work, they miss that all-important heads-up," Jordan-evans said. Dot-com employees are a classic example she explains. "The writing was on the wall. All the signs were there that the organization wasn't going to make it. Many just stayed in denial."
• Keep Your Skills Up. Make sure they are cutting-edge, and learn new skills so your options increase. Stay on top of industry break-throughs, then find training programs to keep you up to speed. "If your company won't pay for them, take the courses anyway," Jordan-Evans said. By expanding your skills, you're creating a plan B. "If the need for skill A goes away, you've got B - or C or D."
• Be politically savvy. This means understanding human nature, knowing what motivates people and employing tact where necessary. "It also means learning how things get done in your organization and your department - knowing who the movers are and how they think and work." Being politically savvy doesn't mean being phony, Jordan-Evans says. "You can be politically smart and still be authentic and true to your values." If necessary, she says, find a "mini-mentor," someone in the organization who deals well with people and knows how things run.
• Be indispensible. "Underpromise and overdeliver," Jordan-Evans said. "And do it consistently." Emulate the people in your company who move things forward, are always available and can be counted on.