Why You Need To Learn That Comprehension And Patience Are Essential To Both Work And Life
The ability to connect with people is crucial to get what we want, both in our careers and in life.
However, especially in the top performer bracket, this isn’t easy. The more demanding the work you do is, the more strict the rules and regulations are and the higher the pressure becomes. However, it's imperative to make an effort to connect with people and create new connections, regardless of how demanding your bracket is.
Many people you meet have no value whatsoever. This is a harsh reality. Some people aim to create no value and even try and bring you down. Another tier is of people who present value. And finally, the third group is the tier of people who create value, understand your value, and are easy to deal with.
The most important group to learn to deal with is the second one: the people who do have value, who might help you and whom you might help, in order to form powerful alliances. Those who come from different worlds have different perspectives and you won’t be able to make connections with them unless you exert a concerted effort.
As they say, especially in the elite bracket, “It’s small at the top.”
When you specialize, be it in a certain area or activity, there is a limited number of people who can provide value to you and help you to boost your initiatives or career. Sure, there are many other people who might be of value because you have some points in common. However, most people won’t be able to resonate with you.
Therefore, it’s crucial for you, as a top performer, to have patience and comprehension. You need to make that bridge happen when the other side isn’t able to. You need to create a career or personal relationship when it wouldn’t exist in the first place.
The people who have mediocre careers are the ones who create average relationships. They find a group of people who can deliver value to them and they end up making up the peer group. There’s nothing wrong with that! However, they do not make an effort to connect with the people who might have different points of view or tangential commonalities. They reap the low-hanging fruit, but nothing more.
In your career, your network is a crucial part of your performance. Have a range of people in your Rolodex instead of a select few; the advantages are countless. Therefore, it’s crucial that as a top performer, you’ll be patient and understanding enough to create relations that average performers wouldn’t.
To clarify one detail, I do not advocate growing a business network “just because.” Your network should be a group of relatively close individuals that can truly provide benefits to you (and vice versa), that you can trust.
Relate to people you normally wouldn’t by developing your understanding and your comprehension of who they are. By having this extra patience and making this extra effort, you will be able to create bridges.
Find people who are more trustworthy and of higher quality to fill both your personal and business Rolodexes — you will glean all of the benefits that they will bring.
Photo via We Heart It
