The Application of Skills is What Leads to Great Success

Key Takeaways:

• Look beyond your business plan.
• Maximize use of your personal skill sets.

One of the most valuable, and albeit most difficult, lessons to learn is that very often our greatest successes will often come from the most unlikely of sources.

If you are like most people, I would venture to say that despite having put much thought and effort into building road maps for both personal and professional success, if you take the time to really analyze your greatest successes, they were probably not the direct result of your plan. In most instances, you will find they were actually a byproduct of your approach in applying your skill and talents to help as many people as possible. 

This is not to say plans are not necessary. They are most certainly a very critical component of all success. Well thought-out plans provide us with clarity along with processes and procedures to follow. They provide metrics by which to measure our results and timetables and deadlines to help ensure progress is made within acceptable timelines. 

The issue at hand here, however, is that the greatest fruits of your labor generally do not come from where one might expect.  The old adage regarding the futility of the best-laid plans of mice and men is appropriate. Understanding this basic concept will help you to realize that always having the larger picture of what your long-term goals are in mind, and by working every possible avenue to reaching those goals, is what will ultimately be the key to success.

We are all blessed with certain skills and talents that fall within our personal wheelhouse. By that I mean those things that we do exceptionally well, that come easy and naturally to us. These skills are what (or should be) the reason why you do what you do for a living.

Let’s look at a sales example: If you are a top-notch sales person, you probably are very articulate, have the ability to quickly build rapport and can present your product offering in a way that really resonates with your customers. You are a master of time management, have learned how to spend the vast majority of your time in front of legitimate prospects and have a good close rate. Furthermore, you know your business well and have developed your list of priority opportunities where you will grow your business this year.

While you may in fact get your growth in the pre-identified target accounts, my experience as a manager has taught me that the really big successes will often come from outside of this sphere.

As much as we like to believe that we have control over where the results come from, the reality is we really don’t.  Yes, we should focus on priority accounts. Yes, we should do all in our power to execute our best-laid plans. But the real gold will come from applying our skill set to every possible opportunity available to us.

The sales person we’ve described in executing his plan has an account ask him a question about a product or service he does not carry. Even though this is not something the rep handles, he cares enough to make a couple of quick phone calls to associates and gets back to the account with some basic information that is helpful to them. Because of this simple and unexpected interaction, the rep ends up getting a call from the company they referred to customer to, and over time it leads to a very large piece of business from this other company. 

In my career, I have seen many examples of scenarios that have played out in this manner. The reps that consistently win the top awards year and in and year out have many such stories.

The essence of this parable is this:  By using your personal skill set, that which you do better than anyone else, to help as many people as you possibly can, more than anything else is what will lead to your great successes. You don’t have any real control over where your success will come from. You do, however, have complete control over how and where you utilize your greatest talents.

Share your expertise and knowledge to help as many people as possible and watch your successes expand immeasurably! You are hereby encouraged to share any such similar success stories you may have experienced!

Let us here at Lead Read Today know!