Welcome to the letter this week.

Something on my mind over the years has been to document the principles that I have seen contribute to people’s success at work (and life). Being in the employment industry, I have been fortunate to get exposure to a broad spectrum of success and failure in the workplace.

On the successful end, I’ve had employees go further above and beyond than I thought possible in their jobs. Seeing how these people work has helped me raise my own standard of excellence. On the other end, I’ve had to parts ways with employees for things as extreme as fraudulently attempting to send someone to work in their place (true story).

For each case of a successful employee, I’ve tried to observe their traits, characteristics and behaviors. For each case of a failed employee, the negative behaviors are often glaring.

Based on this experience so far, I wanted to build a list of skills to succeed in any career. That title may be limiting as I believe these traits will bring a person success in all areas of life. But I have seen these ideas tested most often in the workplace, so for now I am providing my ideas in that context.

While I have much more experience to be gained, I believe we all have lessons we have learned and problems we have solved that are worth documenting and passing on.

I am not an expert in anything, but I enjoy the process of documenting what I am learning and I hope it provides value to some of you reading.

Successful actions

Take ownership

It was the book Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink that impressed the value of ownership on me. The book’s title couldn’t be more accurate. The premise is: everything that happens in your world is your responsibility.

All the actions necessary to accomplish your goals and all the failures keeping you from them fall on one person: you.

It is rare to find a person who will consistently take ownership of their part to play and the outcomes they produce. More often, people are quick to blame issues on their team, their boss, traffic, their internet connection, and their car breaking down for not finishing a task.

There are things outside your control, of course. But what I love about this concept is that ownership empowers you. If the issues in your work are always the responsibility of others, you are powerless to improve things. But when you claim responsibility for taking action, it brings the ball back in your court. It means you are capable of change and growth. You aren’t stuck, because you own the decisions that can make things better.

And in the words of Paulo Coelho in the Alchemist:

As you take ownership of your life and responsibilities, life around you will evolve for the better.

Do what you say you will do

This is a simple formula. Each time you deliver on a commitment, you build trust with your team, customers, and even friends and family. It shows that you honor your word, so people can trust what you say.

In sales, my customers are regularly being approached by competitors. One of the “tricks” to winning in sales is simply doing what you say you will. I am shocked at how many people get an opportunity with a client, only to fail to follow through on something simple.

When you understand this, you can intentionally use it in your favor. When you want to build trust with someone, think of something small you can commit to doing as a first step. With a new customer, I often tell them I will send them some basic information. Within the day, I send it and include a phrase like, “As I mentioned earlier, I am sending…” It reminds them of the initial commitment and shows that you followed through.

Prioritize & execute

This is another ode to Jocko Willink and his book Extreme Ownership. For me, it has become an antidote for overwhelm due to competing priorities. It is the cure for those days when I “worked” for 8 hours but couldn’t tell you what I accomplished.

Defining each of your tasks is the first step. For me, it helps to do it in writing. It takes my vague ideas of work for the day and turns them into concrete tasks.

From there, work on one task at a time. Most people can only work well on one task at a time anyway. All you have to do is start with the most important task and check it off the list when complete.

If you struggle to define your most important task, an idea from Tim Ferriss has helped me for years. Tim says, “What we fear doing most is usually the thing we most need to do.”

Think of the thing you are least want to do. Make that uncomfortable call or create the first draft of that presentation. The rest of your tasks will feel easier for the day and you will attack them with momentum knowing the most uncomfortable part of your work is over.

Be on time

Being on time falls into the building trust category. By agreeing to a meeting, you are telling the other person you will be there on time. When you are late, you don’t uphold that commitment. When you are on time, it builds trust because you are again following through.

Also, it’s easy to focus our attention on being on time for meetings with new clients, for big presentations, etc. However, when we get comfortable with people, it can become easy to accept being a few minutes late.

No matter how comfortable you are with the audience, it honors them and upholds your reputation to be on time. You can constantly reinforce your reputation by showing up on time.

Prepare for your meetings

When calendars get busy, which is almost always, it becomes easy to jump from meeting to meeting without looking ahead.

Whether it’s presentation, customer meeting, or team meeting, aim to spend 25% of the meeting time preparing beforehand. So if you have a one-hour meeting, spend fifteen minutes preparing. This will make you look sharp. You can appear smarter just by preparing. And you will provide more value in the meeting.

I don’t think there are many legitimate '“hacks” out there, but this is one.

Next week

Part 2 will be all about communication, which needs its own letter. Thanks for reading this week and see you next week.