HOW TO BECOME

In my 12 years of experience as an executive coach, I have met hundreds of “A” players. They are professional knowledge workers at all levels, from management trainees to chief executives. They are great at their work and have good people skills. I notice that most of them have the following qualities in common:

AN “A” PLAYER.

In any appointment or meeting, they are the early birds. This demonstrates the accountability of the true professional. Showing up on time not enough. They usually come earlier: to prepare, to rehearse, to plan for contingencies, and most importantly to meet the other participants prior to the formal event.

1. THEY RESPECT THE TIME OF OTHERS.

They research their boss’s needs, motivation, styles and values. They learn what media their boss consumes and what people are in the boss’s inner circle. Then, they can anticipate their boss’s next move and prepare their work accordingly.

2. THEY THINK ONE STEP AHEAD OF THEIR BOSSES.

They identify their core strengths and use them beyond the immediate requirements of their job responsibility. For example, if one of your strengths is analyzing competitive trends and you’re responsible for preparing a monthly report on the competition outlook, you and weekly competitive monitoring without having to be asked. Every quarter, you prepare a quarterly competitive analysis with additional interesting material that will make every stakeholder say ”Wow” The more you use your strength proactively, the more others will be able to spot your potential

3. THEY MAXIMIZE THEIR STRENGTHS.

Nobody is perfect, we all have some blind spots. Most ”A” players learn about their blind spots by listening to others’ feedback. Then they modify their behavior appropriately.

4. THEY POSSESS A HEALTHY EGO, CONFIDENT IN THEIR SKILLS BUT SUFFICIENTLY SELF-AWARE OF THE NEED FOR CONSTRUCTIVE FEEDBACK.

They learn as much as they can about their weaknesses their bosses during daily interaction and through formal performance evaluation. They work around their weaknesses early on in their careers, in particular soft skills such as listening skills or emotional quotient (EQ). If they learn that they possess too many weakness in the role, they recognize that they’re in the wrong place. They move on to another role that better fits their strengths.

5. THEY MANAGE THEIR WEAKNESS.

“A” players realize that the danger of gossip lies in surrounding themselves with people who have negative attitudes. It only leads them to be seen as negative.

6. THEY AVOID GOSSIP.

“A” players are ambitious-but not for power. They’re ambitious for the great good. To achieve individual targets is not enough if the whole team doesn’t achieve.

7. THEY’RE TEAM PLAYERS.

They understand that change is inevitable. Instead of doubting the need for an organizational change, they are the ones who volunteer for the working team to help carry out the change. Once they’re on the team, there are several benefits. For example, they will learn more about the future of the organization.

8. “A” PLAYERS AREN’T AFRAID OF CHANGE, THEY EMBRACE IT.

“A” players are curious, eager to learn. They know that to succeed as knowledge workers, they need to upgrade their brainpower all the time, because knowledge can quickly become obsolete.

9. THEY ARE LIFELONG LEARNERS.

When they were young, they tried to be in the place that was full of smart people. The majority of “A” players are the youngest in the meeting room. They serve smart people and learn from them.

10. THEY SURROUND THEMSELVES WITH OTHER “A” PLAYERS.

Usually, “A” players are great at recruiting other “A” players to work with them. Then, they provide coaching and mentoring to nurture them. They also enjoy coaching and mentoring people outside their direct responsibility.

11.THEY PASS ON THEIR KNOWLEDGE, EXPERIENCE AND WISDOM TO OTHERS.

KRIENGSAK NIRATPATTANASAI : PROVIDESExecutive coaching in leadership And diversity management under the brand Thecoach. He can br reached at coachkriengsak@yahoo.com. Daily insprirational quotations can be found on his Facebook fan page: //www.facebook.com/Thecoachinth. Previous articles are archived at http://thecoach.in.th