Five Success Rules Reinvented - 4. Be more than your job

BE MORE THAN YOUR JOB: Honestly, it is a bit boring to go to office every single day and 'just do your job'. One of the biggest reasons for work frustration and exhaustion is - just doing your job! I know this might surprise you because a lot of us are proud of doing our jobs. Nothing wrong with it, but it's a sure way to stagnate sooner than later. You see, a job description is merely a guiding document. Our real success and value is when we go beyond the obvious responsibilities of our work, and do the unexpected, the unasked, and the unthinkable.

Some might consider this overstepping the line, or treading on other people's toes. Well, we can all use our common sense and differentiate between being inventive and interfering. In fact, I speak from personal experience on this - no organization in its right mind will stop you from being creative, passionate, and unique about what you do. And when we enter that zone of heightened awareness around our basic role, we go much beyond our job and become a supremely valuable part of our team, of our organization, and our customers.

Here are five tips to go beyond your job, I hope will help you:

1. Scan your work/ team environment for new opportunities. At times, you will be surprised that just asking for work you are passionate about might take you to the next level. Many of us don't ask for the fear of being refused. Ask this time.

2. Make a document with three sub-heads. Your biggest strengths, your core competence, and a new responsibility you want to take up. Ponder on this document, talk to someone you trust, until a spark ignites about how you can go beyond your job.

3. Take your focus away from the traditional - I am here to do my job - and shift it to the new - I am here to add value to my team and my customers, I am part of the future of this organization. You will be amazed at how you will begin looking at your work differently.

4. Ask for guidance and help. At times, all we need is a nudge in the right direction. Prepare some good questions and have a discussion with your boss or mentor at work about how you can use your potential better at work.

5. It helps to remember that we are leaders at work. Don't wait for a designation or announcement to make you feel like one. You lead your life either to your aspirations or your frustrations. You are in-charge of your value at work. Get valuable.

When I went beyond my job: Many years ago, I stumbled on this bit of wisdom by accident. I had co-founded a training agency in 2000, and went looking for clients. As I had meetings with my potential customers, I offered value-added services like a newsletter, free follow-up training sessions, and customization of programs for each client. This also meant more ground work for me, but this spirit of going beyond my job is what made my business a success, and got me respect as a trainer. That was one of my biggest learnings. So, I suggest, let's be more than our job, before we expect to get more than our salary.

Step 9 - Becoming Super Leaders - Develop Wisdom

STEP 9: Develop wisdom not just about work, but your organization

Many of us can be very smart about how to run our team, but if asked about the position of the organization as a whole, we might be clueless.

The Challenge: Tunnel vision is an occupational hazard in the corporate world. What we do becomes our world, why we do it takes a backseat most times.

The Key: Keep your ear to the ground. Maybe, we need to listen more, speak less. When we have thinking time is when we develop wisdom.

3 Practical Ideas:
Listen: When I trained freshers in professional skills, I often quoted my own example as a brand new employee. I listened a lot and tried speaking less when I knew I did not know enough. It helped me enormously, first in understanding my team, my boss, and eventually where my organization was positioned in the larger scheme of things. This knowledge was very useful during my career with the organization.

Share: Talking to those you are comfortable sharing information with creates a healthy exchange. Insights can strike when two heads put together what seems like disjointed organizational information. Speak with others, engage in meaningful conversations. Ask some intelligent questions about the business. What you figure out and understand will undoubtedly help in elevating the quality of your own work and output.

Keep your ear to the ground: I've observed that progress in an organization is directly proportional to having access to useful information. Keep your ear to the ground literally means listening for clues to gauge the health of the organization. Read the press releases, but more importantly understand the background and the ground reality of what's behind the information you read. Those who are wise about their organization are also the pioneers of new initiatives and focused efforts.

I began this series with wisdom about our self, but along the way it has become more evident to me how we need to be more clued in to what ever it is we choose to pursue.

Coming up next: The last one - Step 10: Make every team member benefit from success