Amp up your career
Eight tips to help you take your career to the next level from The Royal Group’s Adam Shafer
Ready to move to the next level in your career? Not sure how to get there? Adam Shafer, Director of Business Development & Innovation for The Royal Group’s Retail Division, has ideas for you! Shafer, who has spent years developing his own leadership skills, is passionate about helping others grow their own talents and careers. He recently offered eight tips that he hopes will help others — maybe even you! — “show their stuff” and advance to the next level.
1. Listen more than you talk.
“Great leaders spend 80% of their time listening and 20% of their time talking,” said Adam, who recommends making listening part of how you operate every day. “When you spend most of your time listening, you’ll uncover opportunities that can benefit yourself and those around you,” he said. The more you listen, the more your colleagues will respect your decisions, because they’ll know you took the time to gather their insights and opinions.
2. Ask questions that get people thinking.
“Questions spark the mind,” Adam said. “They empower people to tap into their powers of critical thinking and take ownership of their answers.” This helps people take ownership of problems and solutions — and inspires critical thinking on your team.
3. Don’t take yourself too seriously.
“This is my favorite thing to come out of Australian leadership guru Annalie Killian’s Catalyst for Magic training,” Adam said. Not taking yourself too seriously has a lot to do with being humble, a quality that’s important at every stage of your career. “Great leaders surround themselves with people who have the expertise and draw from that expertise to make good decisions,” Adam said. Nobody’s an expert in every area and every process. “So, instead of coming in and saying, ‘I know everything,’ listen and learn from the people around you,” Adam advised. Humble people build a collaborative environment that’s good for everyone.
4. Focus forward.
We’ve all faced situations where something goes wrong, and we’re left to deal with the mistakes that caused the problem. “How you deal with those situations says a lot about who you are,” Adam said. “Do you focus on what went wrong and assign blame? Or do you reflect on the error, then quickly move on to planning and action steps to close gaps and make sure it doesn’t happen again?” Focusing forward — looking at how to create a positive outcome the next time — shows you want to learn and find solutions. It’s a way to demonstrate your commitment to success.
5. Avoid multitasking.
“There’s no such thing as multitasking,” Adam said. “It’s a proven biological fact that the brain can only concentrate on one thing at a time. When someone says they’re multitasking, their brain is simply moving from one subject to another at a rapid pace, which can lead to low-quality results.” To achieve your goals, you need to focus. “When you use the full power of your brain to solve the issue at hand before moving to the next one, you increase the quality of your work,” Adam added. “You also improve relationships and feel more satisfied with your results.”
6. Take ownership of your work.
Ownership is all about being accountable for the quality and results of your work, Adam said. “When you take ownership, you know why you do what you do and make sure you’re doing the right thing. You feel fully in charge, and you don’t give excuses or blame others.” You also seek to understand and learn, and you challenge the status quo rather than mindlessly following instructions. “Individual ownership leads to visible leadership,” Adam explained. “When people see you take ownership of your work, thinking things through and driving your work to completion, you demonstrate your leadership skills and create a path for others to follow.”
7. Be a servant-leader.
“When people say, ‘I’d run through a wall for that person,’ they’re usually talking about a servant-leader,” Adam said. “Servant-leaders care because they invest in people. Putting others first comes naturally to them. Helping others succeed makes those leaders more successful, too.” You don’t have to be an executive to be a servant-leader. You just have to focus on the well-being of people around you. Instead of striving to accumulate power, servant-leaders share power by putting the needs of others first. “The greatest leaders I’ve ever worked with practice servant leadership in everything they do,” Adam said. When you serve others, you help create an environment of transparency and trust.
8. Practice creative disobedience.
Creative disobedience is about stepping out of an old way of thinking and making room for something new. Yet, by definition, creativity requires breaking rules and defying the status quo. “When I hear someone say, ‘That’s the way we’ve always done it,’ especially when things go wrong, my first question is always ‘Why?’” Adam said. “When you ask why, you peel back the layers so you can discover where the process came from — and why it’s no longer effective.” This frees you up to create a new solution and amplify the value of your idea. “You need space to figure out whether or not your idea works — to understand it, and then to follow through on it and prove it out,” Adam said. The secret is to own your idea — and to give yourself time to let it grow.
Need advice? Want to learn more about leadership? Reach out to Adam at AShafer@teamtrg.com.
