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In order to become successful in the
workplace, you must think of yourself as someone fully deserving of and
capable of handling success. You must think large, envisioning yourself
as ready to step into the CEO slot on a moment's notice.
At the same time, when addressing your work tasks, you must think small.
No matter how grand the task or crucial the outcome, you must approach
it methodically in bite size chunks. In fact, one executive primer, when
advising how to approach an overwhelming task asks: "How do you eat an
elephant?" Answer: "One bite at a time."
The same book goes on to state: " You can't solve all your problems
at once. You have to make them line up for you."
So, the key, when you find yourself with a lot on your plate, is not
to lose valuable time agonizing or worrying or spinning out doomsday scenarios
in your head. Just lay out a logical plan of attack in an orderly sequence,
gather all the support you can and start to work.
Gail Evans, executive vice president of CNN, relates in her book,Play
Like A Man, Win Like A Woman, an anecdote which helped her cope with
the feeling of being overwhelmed:
"1950s English track star Sir Roger Bannister was trying to run the
first four minute mile.
"Bannister's coach knew Bannister could run a quarter mile in one minute,
sometimes even a little less. So he devised a clever psychological trick:
he taught Bannister to stop focusing on the event as one mile long and
instead to think of it as four quarter-mile sprints, and to run each one
in a minute or less."
With that "breaking down the task into smaller segments" advice, re-envisioning
the challenge before him, Bannister was able to break the record, make
history and eventually become knighted for his achievement.
And so, for most of us, if we are able to envision large projects as
made up of small, manageable pieces, we realize we can readily achieve
them.
Somewhat the opposite is true of our career goals, however, and we need
to adjust our thinking accordingly. Most people don't get to be CEO of
a corporation by taking small baby steps along the way. To get to that
position, you generally have to radiate power, be a rainmaker, or in a
revenue producing line job and somewhat of a star.
It is true that some entrepreneurs make it by feverishly attacking every
task in a business, working long and grueling hours.
Ruth Fertel, founder of Ruth's Chris Steak House, launched an $300 million
restaurant chain throughout the U.S. Mexico, Puerto Rico and Taiwan by
realizing she needed more money to send her kids to school and taking
a flyer on a restaurant listed for sale in her local newspaper. She worked
sixteen hours a day, learned to butcher, cook, do the books, mix drinks
and seat people. No doubt she had an abundance of stamina, perseverance
and charisma to carry her on to success.
But there are differences between how she and other entrepreneurs achieved
success and how it is most often achieved in corporate America. When you
are an entrepreneur, launching a small business, the distance from the
bottom to the top is not so great, and you are not only proving yourself
but calling the shots as well. You are the CEO, as well as the chief bottle
washer, from Day 1, so that is how you envision yourself and how others
accept you.
In corporate America, it's harder to envision oneself as CEO, because
you don't see many women in the CEO slot. It's easier to think of yourself
as reaching a pinnacle as executive vice president, or possibly chief
financial officer. But you should never sell yourself short. Low expectations
can be a self fulfilling prophecy.
By setting your own goals, it is possible, in corporate America, to
replicate the kind of training Ruth Fertel and other entrepreneur have,
gaining experience in every part of the corporation - marketing, sales
and operations - "by remaining open to cross-training and working with
cross-functional teams". When a women diversifies her work experience,
she prepares herself to handle any task she's assigned, an invaluable
professional asset.
"According to Sandra Woods, vice president and chief environmental,
health and safety office at Coors Brewing Company, the best way for women
to promote themselves" is to accept challenges enthusiastically and not
have a limited view of what they can do. They need to build a really broad
base within the corporation" Woods advises. "Business today is saying
Get out of your silos. See the way you interconnect."
And remember the importance of being able to think big and small at
the same time: Big ambitions, goals and capabilities - small, methodical
steps to accomplish each goal, however large.
