The 12 Simple Self-Management Strategies Overview
Why are some knowledge workers lucky while others aren’t? How does that front line worker or new graduate move up the ladder quickly, leaving others in their dust. Successful people don’t wait to be managed; they are “self-managing” units. They take initiative and know how to promote their results. How did they become self managing? What are they proactive about?

In today’s work environment, where job security can no longer be taken for granted, you must to deliver outstanding results to get noticed and get ahead. It’s not enough to work hard, grueling over your day-to-day, hoping to get noticed. You have to work smarter on the right things. While this list isn’t exhaustive, here are 12 simple self-management strategies to help you become a self-managing professional:

1. Create your own luck.
2. What haunts you in your job?
3. Leave emotion at home, compartmentalize
4. Throw it out or store it.
5. Get into the “flow.”
6. What things do you like about your job?
7. Master your work tools in your toolkit.
8. What are your hidden skills? Unhide them.
9. What are your strategies for success? Share them.
10. Don’t make rushed decisions.
11. Know your competition like the back of your hand.
12. Measure yourself to promote yourself.

Over the next six days, I’ll post two self-management strategies per day.

Simple Self-Management Strategy #1 - Create Your Own Luck
Are you lucky? Do you have a knack for creating events? It’s a fine line between planned events and luck. If you think back, you’ll probably find that your action set in motion events that created luck. Are you a natural networker? If so, then you naturally collect people and enjoy connecting people together. Perhaps you’ve become an expert in a niche so people seek you out for jobs? Has networking benefited you? For example, one of your friends is friends with someone who may have a possible job for you. Did you get the job through that referral? Are former coworkers remembering you, so when they know of a job, they find you?

For example, one of my friends told me. “Sometimes I don’t know what personal brand is.” I looked at her, asking more questions. She said things like, “I’m lucky. I connect with people. I make key contacts through my network. I just feel lucky about it.” The first thing I said to her was, “Clearly you are a connector. Part of your personal brand, or what you stand for, is creating serendipitous events. It’s not luck. You created them through you natural abilities and by naturally connecting with people.”

Make a list of your “lucky moments” to determine what role you played and what role external factors like friends or contact in your network contribute to your luck. Identify where your strengths were in creating those lucky moments. You greased the wheels to you own success, and your network was the vehicle to the “luck.” Your hard work and natural abilities have drawn these events to you. Rarely are lucky events random. You have to know someone to get your next job most of the time. Your hard work in creating extraordinary skills for niche is the result of your commitment to excellence, often leading to opportunities that make you marketable. Build upon these strengths and do more so you can continue to create your own luck.

To view “The 12 Simple Self-Managment Series,” click here.

Similar Posts:

• The 12 Simple Self-Management Strategies: Simple Self-Management Strategy #9 – What are your Strategies for Success?
• The 12 Simple Self-Management Strategies: Simple Self-Management Strategy #10 – Don’t Make Rushed Decisions.
• The 12 Simple Self-Management Strategies: Simple Self-Management Strategy #7 – Master the Tools in Your Toolkit
• The 12 Simple Self-Management Strategies: Simple Self-Management Strategy #4 – Throw It Out or Store It
• The 12 Simple Self-Management Strategies: Simple Self-Management Strategy #11 – Know Your Competition