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Notes on How to Be a Star at Work by Robert E. Kelley

• Star performers do their work very differently than the solid, average-performing pack.

1. Initiative
   1. Includes
      1. Seek out responsibility above and beyond the expected job description
      2. Undertake extra efforts for the benefit of coworkers or the larger group
      3. Stick tenaciously to an idea or project and follow it through to successful implmentation
      4. Willingly assume some personal risk in taking on new responsibilities
   2. Steps
      1. Do your current work well
      2. Follow the initiative value trail: Who benefits?
      3. Stay close to the critical path
      4. Choose higher-level initiatives
      5. Determine the probability of success and the cost of failuer
2. Knowing Who Knows - proactively developing dependable pathways to knowledge experts who can help complete critical path tasks; share knowledge; minimize knowledge deficit
   1. Supporting Factors
      1. Knowledge itself
      2. Organizational support
      3. Technical/physical environment
   2. Eight Network Nodes
      1. Mental models of networking: understand different ideas of how the network is supposed to work
      2. Weed and seed: choose trading partners, identifying knowledge givers
      3. Proactive one-way trading: get network in place before you need it
      4. Networking etiquette on the critical path: small courtesies and considerations are critical
      5. Do your homework
         1. do a quick self-study on as much of the general subject area as possible
         2. summarize attempts to solve the problem or find elusive information
         3. spend time forming the right question
         4. link the problem to a discipline or an area of interest that intrigues the expert
      6. Credit lavishly: follow up with a note of thanks & make sure public credit is given for contributions
      7. Benefits of newness: new employees trying to break into an established network for the first time are given much consideration
      8. Be a good network citizen: the network is also about giving
3. Managing Your Whole Life at Work - develop a portfolio of talents and work experiences so that value to the company increases; know your strengths and weaknesses
   1. Lessons
      1. Know yourself well.
      2. Know the kind of work you do best and that you want to do.
      3. Take control of your own career path by developing a plan to connect yourself to the work you enjoy most and to connect that work to the company's critical path.
   2. Adopt a system that helps you:
      1. plan the entire project
      2. schedule your time
      3. keep track of your progress
      4. store and retrieve important information
      5. tip you off to potential crises
      6. provide for a backup plan if problems arise
      7. communicate your progress and results to important others -- customers, bosses, coworkers
   3. Core self-management skills
      1. find out what the critical path is for the organization and get on it by learning how to add value
      2. choose work that can leverage themselves, their talents, get into flow, and experience job satisfaction
      3. regularly review their personal productivity and devise ways to increase personal effectiveness and efficiency
      4. borrow shamelessly--techniques and methods for better self-management; careful observers
      5. don't fear experimentation; try new approaches
      6. make compelling case to management for changing job description and regulations that limit productivity
      7. adopt behaviors that allow minimization of interruptions with separating from the group
      8. work to avoid time-killer crises by planning for problems--building mistake-recovery time into the projects; write up personal damage-control plan
      9. develop procrastination-busting work habits--to-do lists, priority plans, building enjoyable assignments around drudge tasks
      10. learn to accept occasional unproductive days, even weeks of slump
      11. know personal productivity patterns
4. Getting the Big Picture - see in a larger context and through the eyes of the critical others
5. Followership - be actively engaged in helping the organization succeed while exercising independent, critical judgment of goals, tasks, and methods; work cooperatively even through differences
6. Small-L Leadership in a Big-L World - employs expertise and influence to convince a group of people to come together and accomplish a task; help create vision, create trust, find resources, shepherd completion
7. Teamwork - taking joint "ownership" of goal setting, activities, and accomplishments; help build team, deal with conflict, and solve problems
8. Organizational Savvy - navigate competing interests to promote cooperation, address conflicts, and get things done; communicate with individuals and groups; avoid conflicts; make allies out of enemies
9. Show-and-Tell - selecting information to pass along, developing effective format for persuading a specific audience; selecting the right message for an audience or vice versa

• Become a Star Performer

1. Core
   1. Initiative
   2. Cognitive Ability
   3. Technical Competence
2. 2nd Layer
   1. Self-Management
   2. Networking
3. 3rd Layer
   1. Followership
   2. Leadership
   3. Teamwork
   4. Perspective
4. 4th Layer
   1. Organizational Savvy
   2. Show-and-Tell

See Also:

• Learn to be a Top Performer