Change Anything – tips for success

Mary Campbell-Cree, 19 January 2012

Top-performing employees do three things well & consistently that set them apart, that can be emulated by anyone else who wants to succeed in their careers, according to a recently published book, Change Anything: The New Science of Personal Success. Willpower - often held to be central to whatever changes we seek to make in our lives & careers - is not part of the equation.

Top employees put effort into the technical aspects of their jobs, contribute to work that is critical to their company's success and are known for being helpful. But what keeps it from being quite that simple are the outside influences that can reinforce bad habits at work and home.

You have to step back, acknowledge that willpower isn't going to do it, look for the influences that are in power today in your life. The strategies they present are based on psychological & medical research as well as a 5,000+ person study.

The first step is to figure out the "crucial moments" where you fall into bad habits. Those could involve certain times, places, people or when you're feeling stressed or tired. The next step is to establish rules to follow when such moments arise.

Then it's important to use what the authors call "six sources of influence" in your favour rather than let them work against you. Those are: personal motivation, personal ability, social motivation & ability (use social networks for encouragement), structural motivation (bear in mind the costs of not advancing in your career - less income, lower morale) and structural ability (make changes in your env. to make it easier to keep at better work habits).

The book emphasises that we’ve a lot less control over our behaviour than we think we do. We're overly optimistic in relying on willpower. The book is meant to give you the influence back, what is pulling against you, bring over to your side so it can work for you.

Read more MCC Live! articles