Richard Hall - The Secrets of Success at Work: 10 Steps to Accelerating Your Career

10 steps to accelerating your career

Richard Hall

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2012 by Pearson Education, Inc.
Publishing as FT Press
Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458

Cartoons Bill Piggins

Authorized adaptation from the original UK edition, entitled The Secrets of Success at Work, by Richard Hall, published by Pearson Education Limited, Pearson Education Limited 2008, 2011.

This U.S. adaptation is published by Pearson Education, Inc.

2012 by arrangement with Pearson Education Ltd, United Kingdom.

FT Press offers excellent discounts on this book when ordered in quantity for bulk purchases or special sales. For more information, please contact U.S. Corporate and Government Sales, 1-800-382-3419, .

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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Rights are restricted to U.S., its dependencies, and the Philippines.
Printed in the United States of America
First Printing May 2012

ISBN-10: 0-13-306638-X
ISBN-13: 978-0-13-306638-8

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hall, Richard, 1944
The secrets of success at work : 10 steps to accelerating your career / Richard Hall. 1st ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-13-306638-8 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Success in business. 2. Interpersonal communication. 3. SuccessPsychological aspects.
4. Career development. I. Title.
HF5386.H2357 2012
650.1dc23
2012011463

Think of this as being a book-sized career manual.

When it comes to planning our lives and our careers and then trying to make the plan come true, most of us live in a fog of confusion. Few have a destination in mind. Even fewer have a route map.

We have a vague sense about getting along and doing well but few of us are sure exactly why and spend periods of our lives slightly or very discontented.

The word career itself is a bit strange.

It sounds, surprisingly, much more exciting: full of images of surging speed, racing, shooting stars, momentum and, perhaps surprisingly, more of a sprint than a marathon.

Hawks and racehorses seem generally to know where they are going and they do it with style, speed, and focus. So lets take that need for speed as the first thing to tackle.

Not rocket science you sayand you are right. Its much more complex. Any fool can build a rocket. Very few can build careers that give them what they deserve, let alone a lot more.

Have a destination, have a map, have a plan and recognizepragmaticallythat doing well in your career and being good at doing your job are not necessarily going to be the same thing. Its like examsits not always the cleverest who do best.

So here are ten strategies for maximizing your chances of doing well or much better than youd hoped. They are shameless crutches on which to lean and with which to leverage your talents so you look as good as possible. Its about marketing yourself so you achieve the best you can.

I want you to win even when you shouldnt; get promoted; get an eye-watering salary increase when you were worried about being fired.

But most of all I want you to have fun.

Even in the toughest times we should aim to enjoy life.

As Jerry of Ben & Jerry fame (and very considerable ice cream wealth) reflected:

If you dont enjoy it why do it?

This book tells you how to win and enjoy yourself doing it.

Richard Hall
http://marketing-creativity-leadership.blogspot.com/

Your WOW factor is that thing which everyone has, although many people keep it very well hidden, and which if nourished or encouraged would make them stand out from the crowd. Winston Churchill was hopeless academically, the incredibly rich Felix Dennisentrepreneur and authorwas allegedly worse, J.K. Rowling was unpublished until she thought of Harry Potter and the rest is, well, the rest is magic.

They all had or have WOW factors that they identified and developed.

But what is WOW? It stands for Walk on Water. Its that moment when ones wonderfulwhen youve made a good speech or youre revelling in your managers praise. Its a moment of sheer infallibility, when nothing is impossible, when you want them all to bring it on.

(And it also stands for Wow!that noise you make when you are incredibly impressed by something or someone. Amazement and awe in just three letters.)

Everyone has moments in their life when they do something that turns on a light in their head and when they become reborn in some intriguing way. Its that moment when youand the outside worldlook on yourself with new eyes and see new talent. It is, in short, a career-defining moment.

Its like falling in love. But falling in love with what you do, in the office.

You dont hope for the best, you dont pray for it, you visualize yourself doing it. The next time someone says, Can you do something? say Yes, and then work out how you are going to get it done.

Congratulations. Youve taken my advice. Youre down to speak at an annual company conference and youre really not that skilled at public speaking. So thats another fine mess Ive got you into. Will you sink like a stone or walk on water? First of all believe in yourself, secondly set aside lots of time to work on the presentation, thirdly get some one-to-one presentation coaching (which the company will pay for because its actually in its interest to do so). But most of all practice, practice, practice.

Someone senior you like and trust who will help you in constructing your presentation and make the idea of WOW come to life. Someone who will mentor you. They themselves probably wing it a bit now, but in you theyll see the energy, hope, and nervousness of a younger them.

Walking on water is what happens when you believe in yourself, work at it, share ideas, and listen to experts.

The deliberate attempt to change the way you are perceived.

She was a very attractive woman. She was loved and admired by a lot of people but theyd gotten comfortable with her. She was a little in the good old ... category. The sort of person you could always rely on. Not so much WOW as MOM. One day to everyones surprise she went blonde. Very blonde. And everyone took notice. Someone said, It was like the sun coming out. I looked at her afresh instead of taking her for granted, and I saidWOW.