Get Paid More and Promoted Faster

21 Great Ways to Get Ahead in Your Career

Brian Tracy

• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
• Year: 2001
• ISBN:
  9781609943493
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business generale
• Index: Business

Bestselling author Brian Tracy reveals how, no matter what your current job, you can apply the secrets and strategies used by the highest paid people in our society to make yourself more valuable, maximize your strengths, and become virtually indispensable to your company. Get Paid More and Promoted Faster is not a book on office politics. It doesn't offer short cuts and work-arounds. It will help you develop the discipline and determination you need to get more done, earn the respect of co-workers and bosses, and move upward to greater and greater levels of success. It teaches the methods and behaviors that every manager wishes every employee to know. This book can serve not only as a guide to individual advancement but as the content of a career development plan for everyone in an organization. The easy-to-apply ideas and techniques in Get Paid More and Promoted Faster will help you move rapidly up the career ladder and achieve more than you ever thought possible. Not only will you make more money, but you will also experience greater personal satisfaction and fulfillment, and make your life and career into something truly extraordinary.

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1
Decide Exactly
What You Want

The world has a habit of making room for the man whose words and actions show that he knows where he is going.

—NAPOLEON HILL

This is the “giant step” in personal success and achievement. Decide what you really want from your career. Take the time to analyze your personal talents and abilities. Look deep into yourself to determine what you really enjoy doing. Identify the tasks and activities that most interest you and hold your attention. Think back over your past jobs. What have been your most satisfying experiences and your most enjoyable moments?

You are nature’s greatest miracle. You are the end result of millions of years of evolution. There never has been, nor ever will be, anyone exactly like you. In your genetic code, you have been programmed with remarkable potential abilities that you can develop to perform certain tasks extraordinarily well.

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You have been engineered for success from birth. You have within you deep reservoirs of talent and potential skill that you have not yet tapped into. You have the capacity to be, do, and have virtually anything that you put your mind to. But you must first accept the responsibility of deciding exactly what you really want and then dedicate yourself wholeheartedly to becoming everything you are capable of becoming.

In deciding what you really want, practice the process of idealization in your career. Project yourself forward five years and imagine that you were doing the ideal job, with the ideal people, at the ideal salary, and under the ideal conditions. What would it look like? Define your ideal clearly and then determine what you would have to do, starting today, to make it a reality.

Imagine for a moment that you could have any job at all. Imagine that all jobs and positions are open to you. Imagine that there is a job that you would really enjoy doing, hour after hour and day after day.

One of the greatest of all success secrets is for you to decide what you really enjoy doing and then find a way to make a good living doing just that. And this is up to you. No one else can do it for you. You are responsible.

You will almost always be paid more and promoted faster when you are doing something that you enjoy, something that you find interesting and challenging and that stimulates and motivates you. The fact is that unless you really enjoy your work, you will never be able to develop the commitment, enthusiasm, and dedication necessary to rise above and push through the difficulties, challenges, and setbacks that every job or career contains.

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To clarify your thinking, practice zero-based thinking regularly in your career and in your personal life. This method of analysis is a key thinking skill that comes from zero-based accounting and is one of the most powerful thinking techniques that you can learn and practice.

The way it works is simple. In zero-based accounting, you look at every expense and ask, “If we were not now engaged in this expenditure, knowing what we now know, would we begin it again today?”

Zero-based thinking is similar. Consider all of your previous decisions and ask yourself this question: “Is there anything in my life that I am doing today that, knowing what I now know, I wouldn’t get into again today if I had to do it over?”

This is one of the most helpful questions you can ever ask and answer. Is there anything in your life that you are doing today that, knowing what you now know, you wouldn’t get into again today if you had to do it over?

The fact is that in times of turbulence and rapid change such as today, and probably for the rest of your career, you will always be able to say yes to that question regarding some area of your life or work.

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Apply zero-based thinking to your current job. Knowing what you now know, would you take this job again on the same terms and conditions that you are now working under? Would you take this job working for this particular boss? Would you go to work for this company? In this industry? At this salary? Or in this position? Yes or no?

If the answer is no, your next question is, “How do I change this situation, and how fast can I do it?” You are responsible.

You may have to invest a lot of effort and make a lot of false starts before your ideal career. But it all begins with your sitting down and deciding what you really want in a job, as well as what you don’t want, and then taking action to achieve that goal.

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TAKE ACTION NOW!

Make up a “dream list” for your ideal job or position. Begin by imagining that you have no limitations on what you could do. Imagine that all possibilities are open to you. Imagine that you have all the education, all the knowledge, all the experience, all the contacts, and all the time and money you need. What job would you choose if you could have any job at all?

Think in terms of specific actions that you could take immediately. What could you do right now to begin preparing yourself and moving toward the exact job or position you really want? Whatever your answer, do something, do anything, but get started. You are responsible.

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2
Select the
Right Company

The choice is yours. You hold the tiller. You can steer the course you choose in the direction of where you want to be—today, tomorrow, or in a distant time to come.

—W. CLEMENT STONE

In these times of continuous and accelerating change, some industries are growing and expanding and absorbing many thousands of people. These industries are offering incredible opportunities for men and women who want to get ahead faster than the average person.

In the meantime, many other industries have leveled off or are actually declining in economic importance and employment. These industries continue to hire people to replace the workers who quit or retire, but as a result of automation, new technology, changing consumer preferences, and competition, these industries are not likely to grow much in the years ahead. Your first job in the pursuit of great career success is to separate the high-growth industries from the low-growth industries.

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You can make more progress toward getting paid more and promoted faster in a high-growth industry in a couple of years than you might in five or ten years in a slow-growth industry. Many people change their entire lives by simply walking across the street and taking a different job in a different company in a faster growing sector of the economy.

Look upon your special combination of talents and abilities as a precious resource, like money, and view the job market as a place where you are going to invest yourself to get the very highest return. Treat your mental, emotional, and physical energies as your “human capital,” to be allocated in such a way as to give you the maximum payoff. Be perfectly selfish when it comes to committing your life and your work to a particular company or a particular industry.

When you find the right job in the right company, you should then throw your whole heart into doing that job in an excellent fashion. Continually look for ways to increase your value. This strategy will put you in a perfect position to be paid more and promoted faster in the months and years ahead.

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TAKE ACTION NOW!

Look around you in the marketplace of jobs and careers today. Identify the companies and industries that are getting the most attention in the news because of their new products, processes, and growth rates. Decide if any company or industry out there interests you, attracts you, draws you toward it.

Do your research. Check newspapers, magazines, and libraries. Surf the Internet. The power is on the side of the person with the best information. Then, start talking to people who work with or in the type of companies you are attracted to. Apply for a position and ask what skills or competencies a person would need to succeed in that business. This research process could change your whole life.

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3
Choose the
Right Boss

The greatest power that a person possesses is the power to choose

—J. MARTIN KOHE

Your choice of the right boss can help your career and assure that you get paid more and promoted faster more than almost anything else you can do.

Taking a job is similar to entering into a business marriage, with your boss as your “business spouse.” He or she is going to have an enormous impact on how much you get paid, how much you enjoy your work, how rapidly you get promoted, and every other part of your work life.

When you are looking for a job, you should ask your potential boss a lot of questions. Make sure that this is the kind of person that you would enjoy working with and for. Be sure that this is someone whom you could like, respect, and look up to. You should be convinced that this is someone who is friendly and supportive and a person you can rely on to help you move ahead as rapidly as possible in your career.

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The very best bosses seem to have certain common qualities, no matter what the business or industry. First of all, good bosses have high integrity. When they make a promise, they keep it. When they say they will do something, they do it exactly as they said they would. If they promise you a salary review or an increase, they follow through, right on schedule.

The best bosses are very clear when they describe a task to you. They take the time to make sure you understand exactly what you are expected to do and to what standard and by what deadline. They ask for your ideas and your input and are always open to new and better ways to get the job done.

The best bosses are considerate and caring about their employees. This means that they are interested in you as a person as well as an employee. They take an interest in your personal life and your family. They want to know about the things that concern you and that affect the way you think and feel at work.

This doesn’t mean that a good boss is a father or mother confessor or a nursemaid. But a good boss sees you as a whole person with a life apart from your work life.

You can always tell the quality of your relationship with your boss by measuring how free you feel to speak honestly, openly, and directly to him or her about matters that concern you. When you see your boss coming, you should feel confident and happy rather than nervous or insecure.

Perhaps the best measure of all is that when you are working with the right boss, at the right job, you feel happy and relaxed. You laugh a lot at work. You enjoy yourself and you feel valuable and important as an employee and as a person.

Working for a great boss is a good way to get paid more and promoted faster. And there are lots of great bosses out there.

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TAKE ACTION NOW!

Imagine your perfect boss today. Think about the best bosses or teachers you have had in the past. Identify the qualities and behaviors they had in common. How does your picture of an ideal boss compare with your current boss?

Take the initiative to improve your relationship with your boss if you feel it is necessary. Go to your boss and tell him or her honestly and directly what he or she could do, or stop doing, to enable you to be more effective. Tell your boss what...