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Three Core Work Habits of High Performers

Guest post by: Stephen Blakesley

Article Overview: There is a difference between mediocre and superior performance. Some say superior performers are 7 times more productive than the bediocre.

Three Core Work Habits of High Performers

If you have not been asked to get more with fewer resources, sometime in the last 2 years, you are most likely on another planet. There have been very few times in the past, if ever when we have seen deeper cuts in the employee count. Most every organization is finding out, just exactly what their performance capacity is.

The answer is, fortunately, good news. They are finding that they can get far more done than they ever imagined. As a result, profits per employee are skyrocketing. Many are asking, Why are we able to get so much done from so many fewer resources than before?

The answer is also pretty straight forward, because those people you retained were thought to be the better people and your thoughts proved to be right.

That's right the people you retained through the greatest economic downturn of our time turned out to be what you thought they were-superior performers.

What makes one person perform at a much higher level than others? Organizations wonder but we believe that we have the answer. It is because some people have work habits that are mysterious to others. Some people know how to apply their talents in an efficient and effective way, while other do not.

At the core of superior performance are 3 core skills: most all high-performers will have a high level of awareness in these three skills:

• Initiative
• Networking
• Emotional Intelligence

Initiative

They will be self-starters, qualified risk takers, and compelled to push the envelope, every day. You will find these people anywhere in the organization. Some will be overtly practicing their skills, others may need encouragement, but once they have seen the power of their skill and focus they will be self-initiators from them on. Look for more like these.

Networkers

Some have it others don't and never will. It is very likely that, among those who survived the '08, '09, and '10 cuts, you will find many highly skilled networkers.

By networkers, I am not talking about skilled communicators or "BNI Babes". I am talking about those professionals who are smart enough to know what they don't know and skilled enough to go out and find some who does know what they do not before they need help.

Many people on the street, looking for jobs today, don't know what they don't know or if they do are too thoughtless to build a relationship before they actually need it. That is the difference between mediocre and great.

Emotional intelligence

EI is one of those must have skills if you are in a knowledge-based job. You can have all the cognitive knowledge necessary but still fall way short of superior performance without it.

The four pillars of EI are: Self-awareness, Self-management, Scial awareness, and Social management. Mastering these "four horsemen" is like Charleton Heston and the white Arabian team in the movie Ben Hur. They were a spectacular team and with the right guidance, make the driver unbeatable.

In summary, organizations are more efficient because they have relieved themselves of the unengaged and disengaged. Those that would pull others down to keep up are gone and those who want to excel can do so without the burden of the many want only to do enough to "get by."

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  2.1 Growth performance IV: Economic Report on Africa 2007
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  Pay for Performance - in this Economy?

Article Tags: core work, emotional intelligence, highperformance, initiative, superior performers



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