Get Ahead Of The Competition




Everyone is looking for that little extra that will propel them ahead of their competition. Individuals and businesses alike want to be the best. Businesses are just an accumulation of a group of living, breathing unique individuals, so the same principles apply to businesses as individuals. Work with the individual and you affect the business.

What is it that makes individuals or businesses want to excel? Well it’s all for the same reason really it’s just that we don’t recognize it. It’s not because you get more money, it’s not that the shareholders will be happy, it’s not to be able to move into the big corner office, it’s not to be able to buy the big car, house or trip overseas. No I can say with absolute strong belief and conviction that none of these reasons is why any of us want to enjoy advanced success over another. The key is…… you want to feel good.

It’s the feeling the promotion gives you, it’s the feeling being number one gives you, it’s the feeling that you get stepping into your new favorite car for the first time gives you, it’s the feeling of sitting in first class on your way to your dream holiday gives you. Businesses are no different because it is the feeling experienced by the individuals that make up the entity called “the business” that determines its direction and evolution. Individual human beings will drive the business so we need to look at what drives the drivers. It is not the actual achievement itself it is the feeling it gives you that drives you to want to be the best in what you do.

I want you to stop reading now and consider what I have said. Imagine you have achieved your greatest desire. Imagine sitting behind the wheel of that car for the first time, imagine the day you walk into the office and some tells you just got the biggest contract of your career. Imagine the feeling that comes over you when you have what you really want right in the palm of your hand. Name it, feel it. Is it joy, excitement, relief, contentment, elation, do you want to tell the world, or the one you love, or are you happy to sit with it and savor it all through your body? Being able to feel what it is like when you achieve your goal will fast track that goal toward you.

So what do you think the most successful people in the world do? They chase that feeling. Sure they can look at being better time managers, better public speakers, better at balancing the books, but what they do best is keep focusing on that feeling of being successful and what it means to them. Focusing on the right things will allow you to be open to finding ways to achieve that thing. The feeling of achievement, the feeling of mastery, the feeling of satisfaction, all these positive feelings can be achieved in endless ways. It’s the feelings that we all chase not the “things”. Yes we have preferences of things but that’s because we believe that it is one thing over another that will bring us the best feeling.

So if we are all really chasing feelings how then can we make this work to achieve what we want? The answer is simpler than you would think. Chase the good feeling things every day in every aspect of your day. The newest terminology for this approach is called playing to your strengths rather than your weaknesses. Discover what empowers you. What are the things that you love to do? What are the things you look forward to doing? These are the things that strengthen you. To reach levels of advanced success you need to find ways to do more of what excites and uplifts you.

So if you are not playing to your strengths most of the day (73% of 198,000 workers polled by the Gallop organization, don’t use their strengths most of the time) think of the improvement that is possible. That’s over 7 out of 10 people at your company who are not working to their potential. If your business has room for improvement look at what you have to tap into. If you would like greater profitability look at the potential. With over 7 out of 10 people not playing to their strengths everyday, no wonder there were 1.6 million people according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics who started a new job in the 2006-2007 financial year.

One of the main reasons a person leaves their job is because of lack of job satisfaction. People will even accept lower pay if they have high job satisfaction. If you can increase the amount of time that people do tasks that strengthen them they are more likely to be more productive as they are efficient at what they are doing, they can perform the task well many times because they are good at it and they enjoy it. You are more likely to hold on to valuable company members and therefore reduce the need for training and retain valuable company knowledge. Absenteeism is likely to be reduced due to increased job satisfaction. The list goes on and on.

Focusing on people’s weaknesses will further drain already dissatisfied employees, reduce their productivity and cause highly valued employees to look for more satisfying work elsewhere. Certainly there may be a case for neutralizing some weaknesses that people possess, but exponential growth will not come from minor increases of people’s weaknesses. Don’t forget, our aim here is to achieve large, decisive, exponential growth, not small improvements. So if people aren’t playing to their strengths what are they doing? They are trying to “fix” their weaknesses. A weakness is something that depletes you that you hate to do, that you avoid at all costs. Spending the majority of your time doing these tasks means your performance is most likely to be negatively affected. All the opposites of what we have talked about with strengths are more likely to occur.

As we all know, a great way to get ahead of your competition is by reducing costs and increasing productivity and encouraging people to play to their strengths instead of labouring over their weaknesses is certainly a way to achieve these goals. It has many far-reaching positive effects and can be used to the advantage of all.

Gaynor Parke
Advanced Success Life Coaching


2008© Gaynor Parke Advanced Success Life Coaching
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