Corporate Survivor with Mei Phing : Career Growth In The Corporate World - Ep46: How to become a top performer at work.

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to the Corporate Survivor Podcast, where we talk about how to grow your career confidence, build your skills and value, increase your salary, and the many lessons we learn in the corporate world. For more career support, click on over to www.mayping.com. This is Mayping, your corporate leader turned career coach. I hope you enjoy, like and subscribe. In today's podcast, I want to talk about how to become a top performer at work. So if you have been following me for some time now and you have been exposed to my work, I'm sure you are aware that I have worked at global companies and consistently ranked as top performer regardless of the role that I've taken over

Starting point is 00:00:54 the years in my corporate career. So now that I'm a coach and even when I was in corporate, one of the very common questions I get asked is, so how do you become a top performer? Is this a natural talent or is this something that someone can choose to work towards it, right? Are there any specific skills that can be picked up so that you can also become a top performer? And nowadays, in my work as a coach, I work with people from all across the spectrum, from junior all the way to very senior people in the corporate world. I've also worked with people who are facing a lot of challenges, just going through the day-to-day tasks and actually meeting deliverables, all the way to the other end of people who are very highly educated, top performers at work, but extremely ambitious and still want to

Starting point is 00:01:52 achieve more. So in terms of like understanding personally and also looking out there, having that kind of interaction with people in my day-to-day course of work, I've made some very good observations and in today's podcast, I want to share with you. I would say all in all, to become a top performer, it is something that can definitely be learned. So it's not about who has the most talent and who is most highly educated. At the end of the day, it's the vision that you see for yourself. Do you see yourself as average, mediocre, or do you see yourself as a person that has more potential and can always give more, can always learn more, do more, and contribute more? So a lot of it really comes down to the self-image that we have of ourselves that really drives the behaviors we have, not just in life, right?

Starting point is 00:02:49 In work and even if you have a business, it's very, very similar. So I'd say that one of the first really good characteristics or habits is passion. I know passion sounds a bit woo-woo nowadays, but I think passion and belief in whatever that you're doing is really contributing to a bigger purpose. So people who really understand and a lot of top performers really make an effort to understand how is the work that they're doing contributing to the bigger picture, right? How is it actually helping the team, right, their manager, their company to really move forward by this little

Starting point is 00:03:30 effort that they're putting in in their work. So having that kind of like high level view adds to the enthusiasm and adds to the real interest to want to contribute. And that's something that a lot of people don't quite understand. So even in my course of work, when I was so, so passionate and have very, very strong belief that we need to be able to deliver something for the team and for whatever not, just understand that this is not a piece that most people get it. Most people honestly just want to do their job and then go home. And that's the reality of it.

Starting point is 00:04:04 So to become a top performer is really having that kind of different mindset and really wanting to contribute and being a main contributor, even if 99% of your colleagues say, oh yeah, you know what, don't care, just go home. Why do you even care so much? Why are you driving yourself crazy? Why are you so obsessed? But that's just a characteristic of a top performer.

Starting point is 00:04:23 And if you have it in you, you will understand exactly what I'm saying. But if you don't have it in you, and you want to be that kind of person, then dig deep, dig deep. Because otherwise, whatever effort that you're going to put in, it's not going to last because you can only wait. I mean, there can only be that kind of motivation that someone can give you, but a lot of it, to be honest, really comes from within. So what are some of the other characteristics? The one that's very common is like going the extra mile, right? So doing a little bit extra without being actually asked, but not doing the extra for the sake of it. But then again, it goes back to the objective how is this

Starting point is 00:05:05 extra little bit of effort extra bit of help is going to help the team as a whole is going to move the team forward so that could translate in like helping a team member who um who doesn't quite get the deliverable right getting giving a little bit of guidance because it all kind of goes back to contribution as a team and really demonstrates their very strong work ethic because as a top performer, right, you will want to try your best and not just deliver for yourself and making sure that the entire ecosystem works, that we all achieve the same objective. So very closely related to that is the habit of like always taking initiative, right? Always being proactive, being self-directed. They don't really need a lot of motivation. If they say that they're going to do something, they're actually going to

Starting point is 00:05:57 do it. So, you know, when I run a lot of workshops, one of the common questions I get asked is how do I develop leadership skills? And I completely understand this question because it is a lot of people's career goals to aim towards like a higher position, right? Either become a manager or a director or even in senior leadership. But the same tip that I give all my workshop participants or all those people who attended my talks is the same thing. Learn how to manage yourself. Because if you don't do what you say you're going to do, then you essentially don't have self-leadership. Then how can you actually lead someone else?

Starting point is 00:06:41 So a lot of it, like a top performer, most of the times they are very self-directed, they are very clear on what they say that they're going to do and they make sure they are responsible, accountable and actually get the thing done. So this is really, really important to remember. Taking initiative, being proactive in a certain piece of work and also in their longer-term career goals, right? Three, five, ten years, what is the direction that they see their career moving in? If you speak to most top performers, most of them have an idea of where they want to go. But if you speak to an average performer, most of the time they have not even thought about it. They're just caught up in the chaos of the day-to-day firefighting at work, right? So take that extra initiatives, think about a bit of a

Starting point is 00:07:27 career strategy. What's your career path? Think a little bit further because that will give you the inherent motivation to want to do well at work because you can see how all these skills, experiences that you are gaining right now can help you in the future. And most top performers are very clear on that. So that's why if you look at them, they always are so enthusiastic, right? They always want to be very efficient and effective because they know where they want to be or they have a much clearer idea than most people

Starting point is 00:07:55 on where they want to be in the future. All right. So what other kind of characteristics that we normally see in top performers? I'd say the other thing is like being open to feedback and constantly asking for advice. So I've worked with many people over the years and I've also met some very egoistical people who think that they know it all. But eventually they still don't become top performer or it's a bit of a hit and miss they become top performer one year and then they are like down in the dumps the next year

Starting point is 00:08:29 it's because they they are not open to getting feedback they are not open to ask for advice because they think they know it all so a person who knows it all may do well but it may not last for very long because i mean to honest, we all don't know everything. So we need to be open for, you know, to get advice from people who have, you know, been there, done that, and really seen some things that we have not. So working with a lot of top performers, I find that they do have this habit of like seeking feedback and advice. So some of the clients I work with are also very top performers. Some of them are senior directors, directors, even senior managers, and also identify as high potentials in their multinational companies. And I find it very interesting that they are really,

Starting point is 00:09:18 really open to go for coaching. They know that there's more that they can do and there's a lot of skills that they still have yet to master. So I find that this growth mindset is a very positive thing. This is not really something that you see from average performers because if you're an average performer, then you're just comfortable being where you are. So there is really no need, no drive, no purpose to aim for more. So if you happen to work with a lot of top performers, you'll notice that having a growth mindset and continuous learning is something that's very, very prevalent. So the other kind of characteristics, of course, you know, being dependable, reliable, and all these are really, you know, back to self-leadership. So do you say what you're

Starting point is 00:10:04 going to do? If you say, if you do you say what you're going to do if you say if you do what you say you're going to do then automatically you're reliable your team will say that you're dependable and those are very very good qualities in the workplace because we all don't want to work with a person that is very flaky so most top performers they are very very clear clarity is key when working with them so you're expected to be a bit more direct and really get clear on how they can help you. And maybe they'll be a little bit more honest as well. So I would say that the last thing for a top, to become a top performer, actually stay a top performer is the ability to be detail oriented. So this is a bit of an

Starting point is 00:10:43 unpopular opinion because everybody wants to develop big picture. Everybody just wants to wing it nowadays or they just hope that personal branding will give them, you know, the best chance possible. All those are great, but I would highly encourage being focused on like

Starting point is 00:11:00 learning how to be detail-oriented. Detail-oriented. So the ability to zoom in and zoom out is just really, really important qualities if you really want to rise up to the top. And the best managing directors I've worked with have that detail-oriented mindset that really allows them to catch the nuances,

Starting point is 00:11:20 the discrepancies that even some of the junior executives are unable to catch. So this is really, you know, sounds really simple, but it's really a core skill set, right? Attention to detail is something that you want to pick up on. So, in conclusion, it really depends on like where you see yourself in your career, whether you want to aim towards becoming a top performer or you just want to be a very normal employee. But just recognize that the difference between the two is really very, very vast and it does affect your career down the road, right? The next 10, 20, even 30 years.

Starting point is 00:11:58 So my final word of advice, if you are interested to become a top performer or you want to stay a top performer, continue mastering those skills, right? Big picture thinking, communication, people skills, and all those things that I shared in the podcast today, and you will be well on your way towards career success. So as you know, I do work with a lot of ambitious professionals, and if you feel that I can help you to grow your career online or offline, please feel free to connect with me and let's see how I can help you. And in the meantime, good luck, all the best and keep moving forward. Cheers.

Corporate Survivor with Mei Phing : Career Growth In The Corporate World - Ep46: How to become a top performer at work.

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