I recently finished reading Take Yourself To The Top – Success from the Inside Out – by Laura Berman Fortgang.
Below are key excerpts from the book that I found particularly insightful:
1- “If you are feeling stuck, you’ve got only yourself to thank. It means you missed signs that a change was due. You ignored the signs that were loudly screaming, “No, try something else!”not necessarily a new job, but a new strategy, tack, or latent skill. If you feel stuck, somewhere along the way you decided to put up with a lot—for whatever reason—and you have started sinking deeper and deeper into the Unconscious Zone.”
2- “Being a workaholic and deriving your value from how much you can rush through in a day and how many problems you can solve go hand in hand. If you can come to define yourself by who you are and not what you do, you’ll be able to master your addictions to adrenaline and problems, and you’ll be able to step off the treadmill for good. You’U establish a higher quality of life, and you’ll have the room to be the kind of leader you want to be…The next step in shedding your constant overwhelming and workaholic-on-a-treadmill tendencies will be valuing other people and including them in your success.”
3- “Increasing your leadership role in an organization should not mean taking on more than you can bear. It means increasing your scope and vision until you can effect the greatest change.”
4- “Get What You Want and Want What You Have: 1. Recognize and give up external expectations. 2. Start living by your internal wishes (what you really want). 3. Identify your values. 4. Reorient your life and work around your values. 5. Create a crossover plan if you need to. 6. Schedule a weekly time to review and strategize the implementation of your plan. 7. Get a lot of support. 8. Celebrate your new life!”
6- “Go from Being Jammed to Being a Rainmaker: 1. Think BIG. 2. Create your new fish tank. 3. Map it in a 1-3-5-year plan. 4. Choose your ideal client. 5. Play a bigger game (tighten up the infrastructure accordingly). 6. Ask for what you’re worth or more. 7. Go out and play in the rain!”
7- “Go from Hobby to Critical Mass: 1. Make sure you are really an entrepreneur. If you’re mot. shore up the weak areas or find a partner who is s strong in those areas. 2. Make sure you have enough money for six to t\twelve months of expenses. 3. Be profit driven rather than revenue driven. 4. Be able to answer “What do you do?” in one sentence. Develop your point of recognition. 5. Network your way to a great reputation. Develop centers of influence. 6. Add value to your product or service (and to yourself). 7. Get the most out of your business, so it doesn’t get you. This is good time management. 8. Enjoy the American Dream.”
8- “What are you listening for when you speak to a prospect or customer? You’re probably listening for the need or the sale, but I want you to listen/or the person. Listen for who the person is. Remember what I said: You want to listen even for what the) don’t say, and that comes from focusing your attention on then and on anything you can learn about them as people.”
9- “Service: 1) Become the expert…2) Develop a reputation for being the best…3) Share what you learn…4) Provide client extras…5) Say thank you.”
10- “Who You Have to Be: 1) Raise your standards…2) Invest in yourself…3) Decide what you want to be known for.”
11- “Have a plan. You have to build your own career and resume; no one will do it for you. If it seems that a situation is not allowing you to shine, you are not allowing yourself to shine. Get in touch with why you are where you are in the first place. If it’s not the right place, find another. If you feel it’s the right place to be, do all you can to be the kind of person who doesn’t need to manipulate and scheme to be seen. Have an impact on others through the actions you take and the way you take them. Others will notice; you won’t have to point it out.”
12- “Go from Managing to Being the Manager-as-Coach: 1. Be a model. 2. Take the charge out of your voice. 3. Stick to your new job description (mapping, teaching problem solving, endorsing and correcting behavior). 4. Fine-tune your people skills. 5. Listen for clues as to what hinders others’ performance. 6. Welcome aboard, Coach!”
13- “It’s All in How You See It: 1. Realize that what keeps you stuck may be an identity issue. 2. Determine which external image or expectation got you stuck. 3. Get at your real motivation for taking on what you have. 4. Choose differently if it will set you free to make a change.”
14- “Stop Wishing, and Start Turning Around Your Life and Business: 1. Tell the truth to yourself and to everyone else. 2. Get to the source or every symptom. 3. Get plenty of support. 4. Simplify! Downsize! 5. Become profitable immediately (cut expenses, liquidate, moonlight, add products or services). 6. Restore integrity. 7. Put money in the bank. 8. Congratulations; you saved yourself!”
15- “Develop Self-Discipline: 1. Make sure you’re off adrenaline. 2. Adjust your mind-set; know you deserve the result you want. 3. Make yourself your number one priority. 4. Create your daily framework (a structure to achieve discipline). 5. Get at who you want to be, not just what you want to do. 6. Accept that you may need to find creative solutions to help you. 7. Enjoy knowing you can count on yourself You’ve got discipline!”
16- “Ensure Quality Relationships That Can Rocket You to the Top: 1. Identify what kind of relationships you keep now (energy-draining, energy-dependent, or energy exchange). 2. Refocus all your relationships to the energy-exchange level. 3. Develop your inside ten. 4. Develop and nurture your frontline twenty. 5. Deal with people by being of service. 6. If you are a partner, be a good partner. 7. Refocus envy into a positive emotion. 8. Let your relationships rocket you to the top!”
Regards,
Omar Halabieh
Take Yourself to the Top
The Timesheet Chronicles 