Never do it. Heard of the story of a boy who had tried to emulate all types of boys who had girls interested in them? Here was a boy trying to copy all the “winning behaviours” and became nice, wild, polite, conservative outspoken and what not. But girls falling for a nice guy would lose interest in him for his wildness. Girls attracted by his politeness would leave him when they discovered his one-upmanship and thus the boy finally ended up with none.
I have come across guys, who at work, try to be all things to all people and end with satisfying none. These are the guys who think they are working hard all the time and yet the end result is loss of credibility and labeled as irrelevant to the most.
Instead of casting a wide net, the strategy of targeting a niche area or a specific area of expertise works better. Focus is the key word here. Focus all your attention to it, so that you make a distinct impression of yourself in others’ mind for what you are very good at. This is the area of work, where you will be seen as 100% relevant and an expert.
Differentiate yourself from the crowd. Unique identity comes from improving your credibility in the chosen area by consistently delivering at “higher than expected” levels. This will certainly enhance your chances of “being noticed”, of building a strong image and for creating a path for your career progression.
I have come across guys, who at work, try to be all things to all people and end with satisfying none. These are the guys who think they are working hard all the time and yet the end result is loss of credibility and labeled as irrelevant to the most.
Instead of casting a wide net, the strategy of targeting a niche area or a specific area of expertise works better. Focus is the key word here. Focus all your attention to it, so that you make a distinct impression of yourself in others’ mind for what you are very good at. This is the area of work, where you will be seen as 100% relevant and an expert.
Differentiate yourself from the crowd. Unique identity comes from improving your credibility in the chosen area by consistently delivering at “higher than expected” levels. This will certainly enhance your chances of “being noticed”, of building a strong image and for creating a path for your career progression.
3 comments:
It is good to focus on a niche area. But note that your niche area need not be what is assigned by your boss. Your job and niche area need not be same. This niche area is your own PASSION.
But pleasing all is not something wrong. Few have the quality of being acceptable to all. All others love to work with such a person as he takes the responsibility and take the load. But the person must understand and should not encourage others to escape by off loading all the works. We learn by doing but at the same time we should not do others job in the name of helping others.
Differentiation & focus / niche area is all accepted, but I disagree with you Subendhu. Even a fool can work and excel in his favourite area. Intelligence lies in aligning your interests with that of the work and excelleing in the your area of work consistently and create value through your contribution.
Can a fool excel in his favourite area ? Please think again.
Back to the main discussion. While discussing I found that people are not happy with their present job, I know they are not handling a quality job now but that is not the issue. Even before also they were not happy with the previous job.
Despite being so popular and trying to help others why they are always unhappy with their present job ? Note that others are very happy to work with him.
They don’t have any particular interest or passion. So how they can align it with their present job? Even given an opportunity they pickup wrong jobs.
They can only carry out instructions, or can follow a proven path. They are good managers but They are not leaders. They don’t have any originality, they just can move with the wind.
So you must develop a passion – interest – own thinking and keep improving it. Others will follow.
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