I know of three people who are pro­fessional athletes and extremely good friends with each other, but when they go on the field they are the best competitors with one an­other as well.

Each of the three wants to beat the others by being the best.

Well, it is true that competition is prevalent not just in sports but in any and every aspect of life.

In fact, in today’s world of business the greatest challenge for business leaders and subsequently for all the managers and team leaders heading organisational functions is the suc­cessfully battling tough and grueling competition from the rival compa­nies.

Marketing strategies, pricing policies, product development and design, innovation and quality en­hancement are some of those param­eters on which an organisation can outperform its competitors.

Having said this, in today’s column I am going to be focusing upon the ways in which an employee can and must outperform his colleagues and become the best.

You may be a part of a large team of sales executives or probably an in­tegral part of any department of an organisation.

One important fact that you must remember is that while you are working with your team mates or col­leagues you are also competing with them to become the best and hence you must always try and outperform them.

Having said this you must never do this by putting them down but more importantly by elevating your own skills and competencies above the others.

In other words, rather than pull­ing the others down, you must push yourself up and higher than the oth­ers towards achieving higher suc­cess.

Let us focus upon the seven super ways to help you outperform the oth­ers without pulling them down.

Positive behavioral transformation

The first thing that you must do is to change your attitude towards life, especially the professional sphere of your life. Remember always.

It is not aptitude but your attitude that determines your altitude.

What kind of attitude can make you positively different from your team mates and colleagues?

I would begin the answer to this question by requesting you to be­come adaptable to change.

Always accept change even though it could be tough and extremely chal­lenging.

When the going gets tough, the tough get going.

Remember these words and start practicing them.

Rather than getting reluctant and shy to take up new challenges you must look at these as excellent ‘op­portunities to grow in your career.

Your attitude to positively look at new developments, however tough they may be, will differentiate you from the rest of the team.

Another aspect of your attitude is the way you will deal with your boss or your superiors.

Many times I have seen people get­ting affected negatively by the way the boss treats them.

They get so demotivated that it even affects their work-performance.

I hence urge you to become more mentally tough and learn to take crit­icism from your superiors strongly and positively.

Your boss may present his or her criticism rudely or politely, but you should develop the attitude to extract the ‘positives’ from that criticism.

The one who has this attitude of be­ing resilient and courageous to criti­cisms will always rise steadily above the others.

Out of the box thinker

Don’t be complacent with your pre­vailing achievements.

You will be surprised to know that there are many like you who have also acquired similar milestones in their areas of work.

If you really want to be better and rise higher than the others then please start becoming creative.

From right now, try to think out of the box.

Your aim must be to become the per­son of ideas while everyone else is thinking same and similar, you must be the one who thinks differently and comes up with amazingly construc­tive and beneficial ideas for your de­partment or for your organisation.

The best way to become creative or innovative is to pleasantly push your own mind to think about the same challenge or the same situation dif­ferently.

Every week, I must try my best to develop a new idea that I can then share with my boss or with my other team members.

It is this thought that will elevate you to a higher point of success.

Quick learner and deep knowledge developer

Learning is a continuous process and yet how many of us are making the sincere efforts to read and learn about new things that are related to our work?

I have come across a lot of manag­ers or heads of department who have simply stagnated in their work and thereby remained at the same profes­sional position for years together.

The main reason for this has been their reluctance and the lack of mo­tivation to gain more and deeper knowledge about their respective ar­eas of work.

It is here that I wish to highlight the importance of developing new knowledge.

If you want to outperform the oth­ers then please go on the internet right now and start searching for more and new knowledge regarding your areas of work.

If you are working in the manufac­turing and production department then look at the new techniques or technologies of manufacturing or producing the same kind of products produced in your organisation.

If your work is to do with sales or marketing or probably to do with quality assurance then develop your knowledge about the new and more effective ways of conducting and implementing sales and marketing techniques and strategies and as­pects related to quality assurance.

Having said this you must also be­come a quick learner.

Apart from the internet and books you must learn from intelligent con­versations with people who are more experienced than you.

Talk to them and extract as much knowledge as possible.

The quicker you are at extracting new and relevant knowledge the fast­er you will grow.

In my next column I shall be shar­ing the remaining four ways to out­perform your colleagues and reach­ing higher success.

Feedback: maraia.vula@fijisun.com.fj