Stop complaining - start changing

It is easy to complain about a situation but it is much harder to actually do something to change that situation. For example: You might think that you are overdue for a promotion because you have a huge knowledge in your area of expertise, you actually work well with the decision makers in your area, you might even pursue some additional certifications, academic degrees or otherwise trying to improve your skills. Even though you do all these things you don't get the promotion you are looking for. In this case it is easy to complain for all the right reason BUT it doesn't change anything. Do you want to feel well for 10 minutes by getting someone to agree that this is an unfair situation or do you actually want to change the situation? If you really want to change than find out what is going wrong. Analyze your  situation. Which person is responsible for promoting you? What do they value? Are you delivering what they are looking for? Do you communicate well to let them know what you do? Face these uneasy questions openly and ask your friends for honest feedback to learn what you can do to change a situation.

Get it done attitude needed

Have you ever been with a start up company or did you have your own company? If yes, you understand why I say we need more entrepeneurial minds to achieve real and lasting change. We need people that identify issues,  have great ideas how to fix them and then an iron determination to get it done. Are you that someone?
Do you allow yourself to own issues and act on them or do you still wait for someone to tell you what to do?
You don't have to wait until somebody assigns you a task, you don't have to wait until somebody asks you to start working on something. If you have an idea how something (e.g. process, system, sales tactic) can be done better, own it and make sure that your team benefits from your ideas and work. Stop focusing on all the internal company workings (e.g. politics, power games) they will just distract you from achieving your goals. Instead of waiting for other people to lead, lead yourself.

Dare to be yourself at work!

Do you dare to be yourself at work? I see many people that struggle with that. Why is that? If we are not ourselves who are we? Are we just a summary of the good ideas and intentions we picked up from books, magazines, discussions with colleagues etc.? Or are we slaves to the opinions of our management chain?
If you are 100% dedicated to make your company successful because you are truly passionate about your work and your colleagues I don't see any reason why you shouldn't be yourself at work. In fact I consider it critically important that you are yourself at work how otherwise could you be really emotionally attached to the work you do?

In person meetings are important!

Face-to-face meetings are still critical in establishing successful business relationships. Today with all the distributed teams, available online tools and tight budgets that is not an easily justified point-of-view but I consider it still true. In person meetings are very different from communicating via SMS, phone, email, video conference, instant messenger etc. because it is more personal. When we sit opposite from each other and can see the whole person acting and reacting that allows us to see the other person much closer as if someone can hide behind technique. There are still enough opportunities to have misunderstandings but it's a little bit harder to hide something. Ask for face-to-face meetings when appropriate (e.g. at the beginning of a project, when you start working with new teams, before big decisions etc.).

You get what you reward

What do you want to achieve and how do you want to achieve that goal? In a Project were you need team members to work together closely you should strive to increase team work. You can do that by rewarding team work either with monetary or non-monetary rewards. Check this link to get some ideas.
Be very careful what rewards you use (single contributor or team rewards)  because if you use the wrong rewards in a situation you can create quite a mess.  For example if you hand out a MVP reward in the project mentioned above you will actively discourage team work and instead encourage single contributors to go after the reward. Your team might not share information or in the worst case share incorrect information in order to get the reward.  One very important thing to keep in mind is really mean it when you reward single contributors or teams. Don't hand out "fake" rewards just because it is in the HR playbook. Employee's are not stupid and very much appreciate a honest reward.

Goal Setting

Are you setting goals to feel good or do you actually try to achieve them? The feel good goals are something like a new year's resolution to eat healthier. For an organization it might be something like finally getting to work on a project that you know should have been done a long time ago but you never had the resources and time to do it.
You know you should do that or you know you want to do that but then again it is really hard to make the necessary permanent changes. Do you like Broccoli, carrots, salad and apples? Are you sure you can eat that every day and enjoy it? Are you committed to spend a considerable amount of time to find, try and shop for different recipes to make these dishes actually delicious? Or do you just like to talk about it with friends and colleagues how difficult it is to actually reach that goal? Maybe you already have an excuse in the back of your mind because you are not really committed to achieve what you say you want to achieve.
Talking and complaining about it doesn't get anything done and doesn't make you feel better (long term).
If you set a goal for yourself or your organization think hard (not necessarily long) about what is really important to you! Forget the feel good goals, because they will in most cases just waste your time, and focus on the goals that you are committed to achieve. Think not just about the goal itself but also about the time you spend to achieve that goal because you will spend a good amount of time to reach that goal.

Opportunities

Which of your business ideas presents the least risk and the most opportunity? This is something you should be watching out for on a regular basis. Listen when you communicate with others, really listen. See what data they are sharing, what they are talking about etc. If you get this feedback from a variety of stakeholders this will give you a good feeling for the biggest needs. Once you have the biggest needs (= opportunities) you know where to start. There are many opportunities for improvements in every field. What is it in your field? Where can you make a real, measurable impact? Watch out for it and make an impact!

Meeting the customer need

Are your projects focused on your customer needs or are they centered around internal process and system challenges or some other non-customer centric issues? Have you verified with the correct stakeholders that their perceived business problems are the correct problems to focus on?
Everything you do in a business environment should keep the customer benefit in mind. The customer should  be the North Star of every business. There are many other goals that are important but they won't matter that much when you have no customers.
Schedule your time with that in mind and always remember how you can communicate effectively with the customer to show them what you do for them.

The difference between Failure and Success

In many cases the difference between failure and success is just one more try. If a situation looks hopeless and you give up you have to decide if this is one of these situations or if it is the right thing to give up. It's not easy to say and only you know the right answer. When you try to reach an objective and fail you should change the approach though. Trying the same thing over and over and expecting different results is, according to Einstein, stupid. In any case not every objective is worth this kind of effort so think before you decide to reach an objective. Once you've decided that this objective is worth it and that you want to achieve it there should only be very few things (out of your control) that can stop you!