Have you ever noticed that there are some people at work that you just couldn’t hold down if you tried. They will get the best project, the coolest chances to do exactly what they want, and are the most likely to get promoted. You might look at them with just a little bit of green colored glasses wondering how they go so lucky. Why do some people get all of the opportunities while others come in saying, it’s just one of those days, every single day? Well, I’m ripping off the band-aid. Successful people really do get more opportunities. It isn’t favoritism or good luck either. Successful people are actually making their own opportunities and you can too. Want a leadership example to drive the whole point home? Check out the YouTube video here.
It isn’t favoritism, I’ll prove it.
Several years ago there was massive change at work. There had been a 70% change in the leadership team. I was one of the minority leaders who remained in my same position. I worked my tail off helping to onboard and acclimate my new peers and navigating the fears of my team. Supporting my new boss’ direction felt like learning my job all over again. Then I started to notice my calendar freeing up. I realized I had been taken out of every meeting that focused on cross department planning and overall strategy. When I questioned the change my boss had a slew of choice words for me. You can learn more about that exchange here. The point is, I wasn’t just missed in an invite, I was intentionally removed from any discussion outside of managing my team.
My boss controlled every top level meeting including invite lists and agenda items. If she didn’t want me there, I wasn’t. What she couldn’t stop was side bar conversations. I developed great relationships with leaders in my department and outside of it. When other leaders started to realize I no longer would be at the table, they sought out my opinion. I was a person who got things done. One Sr Leader often referred to me as ‘One Stop’ because he knew no matter what his problem was I could help solve it. I leveraged the hard work and problem solving I’d done for years to support people, even if it was outside the room. I couldn’t rely on a weekly huddle to learn and share my ideas. So, I treated every happenstance conversation in the hallway as a way to bring value and use my skills. I couldn’t wait around anymore.
Successful people don’t wait on other people
I’m truly thankful that the story I shared happened. Prior to that situation, I had gotten a little comfortable in my career and I was relying on other people to give me opportunities. For the most part, it was happening. My prior boss brought me into just about everything he was a part of. When I got kicked out of the meetings, it hurt, but it caused me to get back up. I didn’t have the luxury of waiting around for someone else. Waiting for other people is what comfortable people who want a cop out from their dreams do. Harsh, I know, but it’s true. When you’re comfortable in your job but dreaming of something more what do you say? If the right opportunity comes along I’ll make a change. Basically, you’re waiting for someone to message you on LinkedIn.
Successful people don’t wait for other people to create opportunities for them, they go out looking for them. They are ready and open to new opportunities all the time. Successful people welcome opportunities in all shapes and sizes. They jump at them. A successful person who is truly open to that right opportunity will go to the events where people with openings are. They will offer up their skills in their community building on those skills and their connections along the way. The successful person identifies their blind spots and limitations and looks for ways to improve them. They aren’t waiting on someone else to provide opportunity, they are creating opportunities for themselves.
Photo by Gerd Altmann on Pexels.com
Make your own opportunities
You are not predestined to be a winner or a failure. There isn’t some God given right some people have so everything they touch turns to gold. You aren’t cursed to have every dream fall apart. You can impact the opportunities every step of the way. No one has more impact over your success than you. That means you are the absolute best person, most equipped for the job, of creating your success.
When you behave in a way that is authentic to you, and builds successful actions, you can have exactly what that most successful version of you dreams of.So, how do you harness that power to work for you? What do you do, to become the most successful version of yourself?
Successful people build on skills they have
Successful people understand the value of what they do on a daily basis. You wouldn’t find a successful person moping around saying they just set up meetings and they just send emails all day. They know that they are facilitating environments for problem solving and supporting their team in the most efficient way possible. It isn’t always that the work they are doing is different, but the way successful people think about work is. Successful people link the work they are doing to the bigger picture. When you understand the meeting your setting will prevent group think, allow for spontaneous problem solving, and give people a voice in the final decision, you enter the meeting differently. You know it isn’t just a meeting, you created an opportunity to create the best results.
Successful people prepare for every shot
Successful people know that there is never one make or break situation. Like Alex Hermozi says, it’s not one silver bullet it’s a million golden BBs. You use every shot you have as a means to keep peppering your great work. One client I worked with was worried his shot was blown when it didn’t go exactly the way he’d hoped. In passing a Sr Leader asked him what he was working on and between his nerves and his limited experience he didn’t share his skills well. In fact, he realized he totally belittled a project he’d been working on for months calling it ‘just another process.’ This client turned the ship after we discussed why this specific leader would be particularly interested in the process. He decided to make a point of learning his elevator pitch of the project to share it when they met again. That first BB didn’t go as far as he’d hoped but because he knew he wasn’t relying on that one bullet he could propel the next one even further.
Successful people share success differently
Successful people aren’t looking for credit. They expect success to happen so they don’t need to point out they had it. They are objective about what went well so they never have to dwell on how they made it come to be. When you expect success as a natural byproduct of living out who you are it is much easier to point to what went well and who else made it happen.
For example, two supervisors could put incentives in place to bring up productivity numbers on the team. The next month, both teams have exceeded their metrics! One supervisor tells his boss everything he did to raise the numbers. He offers to teach other supervisors how to run the same incentive policy to get results. The other supervisor sends out a team wide congratulations to those who earned the incentive with a CC to her boss. The boss gets to be part of the celebration and the team gets to be recognized by multiple levels of leadership. She wasn’t surprised that her plan worked so she didn’t need to explain it. This successful supervisor assumed she’d have success and leveraged it as one more opportunity to practice her communication skill and share the success with everyone.
You get to pick if you’re successful or not
Fortunately for me, and all of us, we aren’t just born into being successful or not. We get to learn it. I wasn’t doomed to wait on opportunity and watch as all of my influence got stripped away from me when I got a new boss. I got an opportunity to learn a new way and decide to be a success. If the three notes above of how successful people are different don’t describe you, you just mean they don’t describe you yet. You can learn all of these skills and more to lead with influence at every level. Leadership comes from courageously leveraging your skills, practicing some new ones, and applying them in every situation you can.
You can confidently lead and influence any group of people when you have the right skills and mindset. In a few short days, I’m challenging you to do just that in the Lead with Confidence Challenge. If you’ve wanted to learn to lead but felt like you didn’t have the title or the clout to get anyone to listen, this challenge is made specially for you. If you’re sick of taking a backseat and waiting for your opportunities to happen, you need to check this out.