• Digital Media – This is an industry that has seen exponential growth, for obvious reasons. With most people hunkered down at home, digital media platforms and particularly online streaming platforms have been booming. Companies like Netflix and Showmax have been able to give the people what they need – a way to keep yourself entertained and keep yourself from going insane while you’re stuck at home. It’s not as if this industry was going away anytime soon, but it looks like a particularly stable industry to be in right now as they’ve essentially future-proofed their business. These companies are always on the lookout for new talent, especially Developers, Content Creators and Business Analysts.

• Online Education  – In a previous post (which is particularly useful right now by the way! You can check it out here http://apmc.co.za/articles/learning-a-new-skill-from-home/) we’ve told you about all of the great online resources you can use to sharpen your skills during lockdown. These platforms have become very popular recently, and many start-ups have popped up offering great ways to teach yourself a useful skill from the comfort of your couch. This is another great industry to be in right now, especially for Content Writers, Teachers, Developers, UX Designers, Business Analysts and many other professions.

• Medical Professionals and Health Services (the real heroes) – It’s an obvious one but COVID-19 collectively made the entire world realise how we have taken medical professionals for granted. Not only Doctors and Nurses, but support staff working in hospitals have up until recently been generally undervalued, and they’re obviously in great demand right now. Many people have also taken their own health for granted and are now looking for good preventative care and health services in general, making the health services industry a great place to be now and for a long time to come.

• Agriculture – The average person rarely gives a second thought where their food actually comes from. Here’s a hint – it’s not grown in the supermarket. All over the world the agriculture industry kept going at either full capacity or slightly diminished capacity, because as it turns out everyone needs food to survive. Who would have thought? The reduction in non-essential consumables actually had a positive impact on the folks who grow our vegetables, farm our livestock and generally keep us going. It’s not an invincible industry and it’s certainly vulnerable to certain natural factors, but it’s still a great place to be.

• Information Technology – South Africa’s National Lockdown was practically declared and put in place overnight, forcing us to get our workforce geared to work from home very, very quickly. Along with this, we’ve been forced to start future-proofing our businesses, implementing remote software, setting up VPNs, automating our backups, securing laptops and many other things. While working from home we’ve also needed people who know what they’re doing to check out what’s happening with our servers and infrastructure remotely, and not every company has a dedicated IT Department. Outsourced IT service providers have always been valuable, but now they are more valued than ever as companies have been forced to stay functional in order to be able to compete in a volatile economy.

• Delivery Services – What seemed like a great idea logically even before COVID-19 turned out to be a genius idea once it hit. You could always have pizza delivered, why not groceries? Why not medical supplies? Why not absolutely anything? Recently almost every retailer or fast food outlet you can think of suddenly has an app with a cheap and efficient delivery service, and this industry is absolutely booming. It’s a great time, especially for Developers, to look at applying to their local food delivery super app (such as Mr D Food in South Africa or Deliveroo in many other parts of the world) but many other companies are also looking to develop or expand their eCommerce function, which also includes payment services professionals. This is one of the best industries to be in right now.

It’s important for all of us to start thinking long term, and if you’re a job seeker you should think about getting yourself into an industry which will remain secure during the next inevitable pandemic. Think about securing a long term career in a stable industry instead of just getting a job!

Many of these free online resources will also look good on your CV. Training does not always have to be a formal certification with an exam – 90% of what recruiters are looking for is that you are willing to put in effort. If you can show that you’ve taken free courses, and put in your own time to improve yourself and your career, you are far ahead of many job seekers out there.

Let’s talk about a few free, easy ways to sharpen your skills and even teach yourself an entirely new skill altogether.

• Google Digital Garage. (https://learndigital.withgoogle.com/digitalgarage)

“Learn at your own pace, with flexible and personalised training courses designed to build your confidence and help you thrive.” Google Digital Garage offers a great free online platform to learn today’s most in-demand skills in digital marketing, data and technology. The majority of the courses are free, and approved by industry experts, top entrepreneurs and some of the world’s leading employers; and the interface is as easy as you can expect from anything offered by Google.

• Khan Academy. (https://www.khanacademy.org/)

Khan Academy is a nonprofit with the mission to provide a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere. A multitude of online courses are offered, and Khan Academy’s resources to learn programming have become especially popular over the last few years. If you have kids, many subjects are offered all the way from 1^st grade to Matric, which means your kids can stay sharp while they’re preparing to return to classes.

• Openclassrooms. (https://openclassrooms.com/en/)

This website allows you to earn a diploma online with hands-on projects and weekly one-on-one mentorship sessions with a dedicated professional in your field. You can learn anything from building webpages and learning Python or JavaScript to speaking in public and improving your presentation skills. Courses can be selected based on varying lengths of time to complete them and their level of difficulty, and there’s something for everyone.

• Duolingo. (https://www.duolingo.com/)

Duolingo offers a fun and engaging way to learn an additional language. Their engaging, free, bite-size lessons feel more like a game than a textbook, but it is based on a methodology proven to foster long-term retention, and a curriculum aligned to an international standard. Duolingo offers both in-browser learning and a free mobile application. The Duolingo mascot, an owl, can be notoriously mean when you miss a lesson, so make sure you don’t, or you’ll be in for a serious guilt trip. Looks like you forgot your Spanish lessons again. You know what happens now!

• MIT Open Courseware. (https://ocw.mit.edu/)

MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) is a web-based publication of virtually all MIT course content – it is open and available to the world and is a permanent MIT activity. It’s great because it allows free access to course content by one of the most prestigious universities in the world, and you can find course content on practically any topic you can imagine.

• Wikiversity. (https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Wikiversity:Main_Page)

Wikiversity is a Wikimedia Foundation project devoted to learning resources, learning projects, and research for use in all levels, types, and styles of education from pre-school to university, including professional training and informal learning. 

• eBooks and Academic Journals.

There are several free resources online that give you access to millions of eBooks and Academic Journals that can aid you in learning basically any skill you can think of. A few examples are Project Gutenberg, Planet eBook, Google Books, The Free Library, Wikibooks and Scribd (which offers a 30 day free trial) but there are many, many others for you to explore.

These are just a few ways to put your time to good use and sharpen your skills, but there are hundreds of thousands of websites offering free resources. If you’re willing to put in the time and be patient, you can teach yourself practically anything online. Why not?

• Be attentive and understanding. Everyone has dealt with the pandemic and resulting lockdown in our own way, and sometimes the stress and uncertainty has been hard to deal with. As a leader, you need to take point and let your team know that you are there to help where you can, to assist them in their tasks and simply to listen when they need to get something off their chest. Simply lending an ear can go a long way in bringing positivity into the remote workplace and eliminating anxiety.

• Check in with your team daily. Having a virtual meeting with your team every morning is a great way for everyone to check in on what needs to be done, but it’s also a great way to maintain the team’s general sense of wellbeing and normality. Ask how everyone’s doing, whether anyone needs anything, and how you can lend a hand. Individual calls during the day are also great – you want to make sure everyone’s working, but also that everyone is coping with the stress and anxiety that comes with long periods of isolation.

• Encourage learning and development. At times, you may find that your business is not running at the same pace, which is to be expected. During these times, encourage your team to check out online resources for learning and development. This could be a great time to learn a new skill that your employees may find useful later, and there are tons of free learning and development resources online covering any topic you can think of, from Excel to customer interaction, and from programming to digital marketing.

• Promote flexibility and stress relief.  From time to time you may notice the added stress, anxiety or loneliness getting to someone in your team. It’s important to encourage a healthy and productive work environment, and part of this is taking a break or spending time with family from time to time. Encourage your team to take regular breaks, adopt healthy habits and spend time with family! When we adopt new routines we often have difficulty adopting a healthy work life balance or forget to look after ourselves, and this is important to find. A healthy, happy employee is a productive employee.

• Get your team involved in the bigger picture. Our sense of normal business operations has changed drastically and we’ve had to adopt new ways of working overnight. You may not have all the answers straight away, but getting your team involved is a great way to brainstorm new ideas going forward to keep the business profitable. You never know who presents the next great idea to drive the business forward in the “lockdown era”, and your employees will appreciate the feeling of being a part of something bigger.

• Provide resources to support mental health. A recent survey suggests close to 70% of adults claim that this is the most stressful time of their entire career. Mental health issues in the workplace cannot be avoided, and doing so can have disastrous effects. Encourage your team to communicate and seek help, and provide any resources you can to support their mental health. Useful resources are available online and can be found here http://www.health.gov.za/index.php/outbreaks/145-corona-virus-outbreak/465-corona-virus-outbreak

How you support your team during this time will have a lasting effect on your workplace culture so be sure your team knows they are supported, and that you have their health and happiness close to heart. It will make a huge difference to not only the wellbeing of the team but the general mindset in your organisation.

if something CAN go wrong, eventually it WILL go wrong.

We can’t predict what is going to go wrong and when, and usually we’re caught with our pants around our ankles, having to reinstall software or buy a new laptop reactively. However, there are things we can do proactively to better equip ourselves to remain online, connected and productive when the gremlins inevitably creep into the system. Let’s take a look at a few basic things we can do:

• Proactively install all the popular video conferencing apps – There are a few options available for video conferencing – the popular ones are Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Line, Skype and Google Duo. Not everyone uses the same platform, so be sure to have at least a basic or trial version of each aforementioned platform installed, to save time later. Taking the time to do this now will save time later when you have to join an urgent meeting with for instance, a Zoom user, if you only have Skype. Test them out to make sure they work as some platforms require specific accounts beforehand.

• Always install a secondary/backup app for important software – Most popular applications and tools are usually quite reliable, but every now and then you won’t be able to connect to a video call with your client or your boss, or access a particular application, and for no apparent reason. You’re not going to have time to look up troubleshooting steps or update the app, so make sure you have at least two and preferably three applications installed, just in case. This way if one doesn’t work, you can switch to another application and get the job done first, and fix the issue later. An example of this would be TeamViewer – if you can’t connect via TeamViewer for whatever reason, it’s good to have a backup app such as AnyDesk in place.

• Restart your devices daily – Some people tend to leave their computers on indefinitely without shutting down or restarting.In theory there’s no problem with that, but eventually your computer’s memory will need to be refreshed or you might start noticing strange issues. Think of it as a person – we need to sleep in order to function properly, and restarting your computer is as good as it taking a nap. People don’t think of it this way, but your phone is a computer as well. Most people rarely restart their phones, but if you notice your apps are starting to lag and basic tasks become buggy, give it a restart! You’d be surprised.

• Sort out unstable connections – Most of us have experienced poor connectivity during the lockdown at one point or another. More people are connected to home networks at any given time, which puts strain on our ISPs and in some cases the network infrastructure itself. If you are experiencing Wi-Fi issues, try restarting your router. Try running a speed test on your device to make sure you are getting the speeds you are paying for, and get in touch with your ISP if your connection is lower than it should be. If your internet is down, you may also be able to use your phone as a temporary router, depending on the device. Just be warned that you will be using mobile data this way. Another tip – if you are on a mobile data connection with poor connectivity, try switching on Airplane Mode and switching it off again. This forces your device to look for the most suitable tower near you.

• Make sure your device is up to scratch – If you are still using a ten year old laptop, you’d be lucky not to experience at least some performance issues. If you’re using your computer for basic office tasks like the rest of us (Excel, Word, Outlook, a CRM platform or the occasional video call) you don’t need superior performance, but make sure you meet at least a few basic requirements to keep you going without applications hanging. Head over to Computer, right click and hit Properties. Make sure your processor is at least in the 2.3 to 2.6 GHz or above range, and that you have at least 4GB of RAM. Anything less than that and it might be time to invest in a new laptop. You can get a computer with these basic specifications for as little as R4000.

• Keep your hard drive relatively clean – If you notice your computer’s performance starting to drop for no reason, it might be worth checking out your hard drive space. Many of us keep unnecessary data, such as all six seasons of the television show Lost, knowing very well we’re never really going to rewatch it.  Go to your hard drive and view its properties to make sure you have at least 20% of free hard drive space. If you see the bar is red, it’s time to start clearing up some space or the performance will be affected.

• Get your team on board with task tracking – A quick internet search will reveal many task tracking apps that are available for free (or at least the basic versions.) These are great for tracking the entire team’s tasks and productivity in real time, showing you who is slacking and which tasks need to be prioritised. Examples of these tools are Trello, Asana, ProofHub, JIRA and Wrike. It all depends on the nature of your business, but you might be able to make good use of one of these apps at little to no cost.

• Create training videos and presentations – There are also many tools out there to allow you to create instructional and training videos and even presentations, eliminating the need for training or presenting things in person.  Check out apps such as Loom, Screencastify, FlashBack, Snagit, Recordit or CloudApp.

• Share files with your team on the cloud – Tools such as Google Drive, OneDrive and Slack can be very useful if you need to quickly share documents with your team, or if you need to work on documents at the same time. It’s easy to set up and most tools have a free trial version with limited cloud storage space. If you want to get really fancy you can even set up special permissions for team members and do a ton of other things.

• Use headphones with a microphone for video calls – This might seem obvious, but video calling someone in a noisy environment without the use of a headphone and microphone combo can be problematic to say the least. You don’t need to invest in a fancy new headset, the earphones that came with your cell phone will do just fine, and you can (usually) just plug it right into the audio jack of your computer.

• Use a second monitor if possible – If you have access to a standalone computer monitor along with your laptop computer, get a second display going! Set up in the correct manner, you would not believe how much easier you can make your job. As an example, many teams need to stay in constant communication, let’s say on Whatsapp for instance. Switching between your phone and laptop becomes annoying very quickly, so just open up Whatsapp Web on your second monitor, sign in, and you can read and respond to messages without leaving your keyboard – all while carrying on with the task at hand on your primary display.

There are many more basic tech tips that we will share in time, to make sure you get the most out of your day and avoid smashing your computer in frustration. For now, follow these tips, stay calm, be prepared and make technology work for you while you’re working from home.

• A Neat Workspace: As it turns out, working from home full time can be quite difficult and eventually takes a bit of a toll on our mental health, for many reasons. There are a few ways we can turn our workspace or home office into a positive, stress free and healthy place, though – this starts with an organised, clean and simple space. Try to keep your workspace as simple and clean as possible by getting rid of clutter and putting away whatever isn’t essential. Put some time into creating a space which is yours and looks the way you like it.

• Setting Boundaries: It’s time to have that talk with the spouse, the kids, or whoever is intruding in your workspace. Sit down with your loved ones and explain that your work time is your time; time that you will not be unnecessarily interrupted. If you are lucky enough to be enclosed in your own space with a door that closes, that’s the way to go. Also explain that work time is quiet time! If everyone plays their part, family and relaxation time can be spent in comfort later.

• Making Time to Chill: Working from home doesn’t mean you don’t need to take a break every now and then. Get outside (while sticking to social distancing guidelines) and stretch your legs, get some fresh air and take in some sunshine for a few minutes to clear your head. It’s been proven that human beings are most productive when working in sprints – work for 50-55 minutes and then take a 5-10 minute break, and repeat. It’s been proven your brain works best with this work/rest ratio, give it a shot.

• Sit Near a Window: Humans are more comfortable with our backs to the wall , and with a view of a window or a door somewhere around us. If you can find a room with a view of any kind of nature then this has the ability to reduce blood pressure and the circulation of stress hormones, and it increases the capacity for directed attention.

• Communicate and Manage Expectations: If you need to step away from your work for a while, your boss will understand! Let them know you need to grab some lunch, take a walk, check on the kids, whatever it is you need to do. Everybody needs a breather, make sure that you communicate your needs and manage the expectations of those you work with.

• Remove Distractions: Often easier said than done, but identify the source of your distractions and get them out of the way. Set time aside to deal with things that otherwise become distracting and dedicate your time to those things at set intervals. A little bit of clever planning and time management can go a long way – try to set up and stick to a daily routine as much as possible. Also try to restrict media and social media coverage to prevent it from becoming too overwhelming.

• Look After Yourself: It may seem obvious but the simple things make a world of difference. This includes getting enough sleep, eating healthy, well balanced meals, getting enough exercise and even meditating when you can. At the bare minimum, just stop to stretch and take a few deep breaths. Take a shower (there’s bracing evidence to suggest that a cold shower can boost your mood and attention). Try dressing like you normally would too – more than just keeping up appearances, it helps to put your brain in work mode. Healthy habits go a long way in getting you into a positive state of mind. Also keep in mind you’re not getting as much sunlight as usual, why not take a Vitamin D supplement? Lastly, try to stay away from drinking too much coffee!

• Connect With Others: Put time aside to talk to people about your concerns and how you are feeling. If you don’t have someone to talk to at home, remember we are just a phone call away, even if you just want to vent or make small talk! Stay connected with loved ones by sending them a message to let them know you’re thinking of them.

• Try Something New! When you’re not working, it’s a great time to start a new project or try a new hobby you’ve never had time for. Start a home improvement project, try to cook a new recipe, listen to a podcast, read a book, learn a new language or watch a movie. The possibilities are endless, and you finally have some time to yourself – at least for the most part.

• And on the lighter side… stay away from the fridge! Easier said than done right?

Find more resources such as links, call centres and hotlines at https://www.gov.za/Coronavirus.

You use the options available to you, including LinkedIn, Facebook, your own network and recruitment platforms. In no time at all, you have your dream team shortlist. You’ve made a gut decision on these candidates because you have things to do and you don’t have the time to verify all the facts provided, but you’re confident. Within the hour you narrow it down to one candidate and extend an offer.  You don’t realise it yet, but you’ve made a bad hire. The truth is that even though it may seem more cost effective to have done this on your own, you realise that there are costs that you haven’t considered and you have made an expensive mistake.

Now more than ever it has become essential that those responsible for recruiting staff have to take on a more strategic role in helping to achieve concrete business objectives over the long term, which is something that requires dedicated focused time, knowledge and experience.

As management consultants who specialise in recruitment, we’ve often come across the question – Should I hire employees on my own  or should I use a professional to do it for me? Lets break it down – what went wrong?

• You didn’t give the process enough time and you made a rushed decision with limited information.

Hiring someone can be thought of as making an expensive investment. As with any investment, you need to do extensive research and really put the time in to make sure you are making the right decision. Not many people realise how important this process is.

• Because you don’t have enough experience in probing, you trusted each answer at face value.

When it comes to applying for a new job, people are dishonest more often than you may realise. Management Consultants know that everything needs to be verified. We dig deep to make sure the information we receive is correct and that we’re not being lied to.

• You went with your gut

It is good to trust your gut instinct, but it is important to remember that most companies doing their own recruitment don’t follow the required processes. Hiring someone is a huge step and due diligence is key, and new hires are no different. Before a decision like this you need to know the person’s track record, attitude towards others, attendance, strengths, weaknesses and personality.

• You didn’t do your checks

There can simply not be any shortcuts when it comes to doing checks on a prospective employee! You didn’t have a recruitment professional by your side and you certainly did not have the time and resources to do thorough reference and background checks, so you made a gut decision. Various different checks are recommended, including, reference, qualification and criminal checks, as well as confirmation of ID, salary earned, position held and other information

• You missed important facts

Speaking of financial implications, it can stretch far past a salary being paid to an incompetent employee or costs incurred because of on boarding and training. Because of your lack of background research, you’ve also missed the fact that the new hire actually contributed to the loss of several important clients earlier in their career because of irresponsible decisions and a lack of urgency. Unfortunately for you, past behaviour predicts future behaviour, and you’ve just lost your first client, costing you not only a significant sum of money, but also points to your reputation.

• You created expectations with the new hire

Once an offer is made and a contract is signed, the deal is sealed. The person you offered a position to has already resigned from their previous job and the process cannot be reversed – you have created expectations and need to adhere to legal requirements.

So what will happen now?

• Expect Hidden Costs

Think ofall the hidden costs of recruiting and training this person in the first place. You’re already trying to avoid thinking about all the time and money wasted finding and interviewing this person before you extended the offer, even before the training and on-boarding started… Your organisation takes pride in training people well – they should be capable of doing their job to the highest standard. This training takes time and costs money to do right, and may very well have simply gone to waste on the wrong person for the job.

Based on a study done in 2017, the average cost of just one bad hire at senior level can stretch upwards of R200,000. The study found that at minimum, the cost of hiring the wrong person is at least 30% of the employee’s first year earnings. On top of this, the study also found that 3 out of 4 people admit to hiring the wrong person at least once in their career and at least a third of employers said this was because of the candidate lying about their qualifications, experience, track record, achievements or performance.

• Expect even More Hidden Costs

The hidden costs of your decision can be far greater than you think. No, I’ll just fire the person, right? Not that simple. There may not be clear grounds for dismissal, and even if there were, the employee is rightfully entitled to performance management processes and coaching sessions, followed with verbal and written warnings, before an eventual dismissal may be considered. Employees have rights and need to be protected against unfair practices, but a bad hire could take advantage of this. In the long run, your decision may have easily cost the business hundreds of thousands of Rands.

• Bad Morale and Loss of Trust

Your problems don’t end there – the rest of your team has been impacted by your bad hire as well. When it becomes clear that a new hire isn’t up to the task, it creates frustration within the team as it may result in more work for team members, and even a loss of confidence in the company, resulting in a decrease in productivity, negativity and distraction. Perhaps employees have been complaining about your bad hire’s cultural impact on the rest of the team. Perhaps you would have known this if you had done your homework, but the new hire’s had quite the reputation in previous companies for saying inappropriate things and has actually had a grievance filed against them. Ultimately this can result in a loss of your top performers, one of your greatest assets – Top performers will be unsatisfied working with sub-par performers and will at some point stop subjecting themselves to it.

• Impact on the Brand

Remember that it’s not only customers who are talking about and reviewing companies on social media anymore – it’s also candidates and employees. Top talent will think twice about working for a company they’ve heard negative stories about. Top performers always do their research on a company and their internal work culture, and the moment they believe it’s not a good fit, they will likely not even bother applying.

Another effective tool in the management consultant’s arsenal is their ability to analyse the requirements of the position in order to provide the best possible candidate for the position. An internal recruiter will rarely have the experience or background to be able to understand what a position truly entails and where to look for the right person to perform in such a role.

Alright, so you made a costly mistake that you may regret for some time to come. At this point it’s time to reassess your priorities and the way you recruit. Hiring the wrong person can have a disastrous impact on your business, and hiring the right person requires the right experience and the necessary resources. You could spend an enormous amount of time and money building an effective recruitment process into your business, but why would you? Recruiters have been doing this for years – they know where to look, how to find the right person and the red flags to look out for, and they can verify exactly who the candidate claims he or she is long before a hiring decision is made.

Avoid bad hiring decisions and the massive expenses they lead to. Think of the hidden costs and the potential damage you last hire caused you, and consider it a lesson. A painful but necessary lesson. Like Mark Twain said: If you hold a cat by the tail, you learn things that cannot be learned in any other way.

• Sheep vs. Problem Solvers – Unfortunately, society has become rather lazy. It’s easy to just go to work, do what you get paid to do and go home. It requires minimal effort. This sheepish mentality won’t get you anywhere. The people who are chosen for promotions are the ones who choose not to turn a blind eye, the ones that actually turn their attention to solving the problem, and to get the job done.  The ones who ‘didn’t know’ just stay exactly where they are.

• No Action, No Growth – The ones who choose to expose themselves to this added responsibility are the ones who come out wiser and more skilled in the end. Why? Because you will never learn anything if you don’t expose yourself to the added pressure. The ones who choose to face these problems head-on know that they might fail or have to do more work, but they don’t care. They’re smart enough to face challenges that grow their skills.

• But I Won’t Get Paid More – Definitely not with that attitude, you won’t. Is it really up to your Manager to approach you and give you more work? Do you really expect an increase with every single extra task assigned to you? You really shouldn’t. Smart people know that action and hard work comes first, and reward comes later. Don’t pretend not to know about the extra work – just get it done! You’ll be surprised how well this can turn out for you.

• I Didn’t Know This Was Wrong – Have you ever been in trouble for something that you didn’t know was against the rules? Your first instinct would likely be to throw your hands up in the air and act as innocent as possible. This is an easy way to shift responsibility, when in fact, it was your responsibility to familiarise yourself with the rules in the first place. Were you given a manual or a list of policies and procedures? Read it! Not sure of something? Ask!

• It’s Not Even My Job – And it probably never will be. In fact, you’ll probably be stuck in the same job for a very, very long time if that’s the way you feel about it. People who do well in their career understand that it’s a team effort. They don’t do things because it’s in their job description, they do it because they know it needs to be done. They take accountability for not only their own tasks, but also the tasks avoided by everyone else.

The next time you feel like running away from a task or steering clear of responsibility, think about what that will mean for your career in the long run. Do you really want to stay in your comfort zone with no responsibility and never learn anything new, or do you want to take on a brand new challenge, something you never thought you’d accomplish? Always choose the latter – the rewards will surely follow.

Success can only be achieved with TALENT? Absolute rubbish. Stop worrying about talent and make success easy by winning with the Basics.

Do you think you need talent to succeed? Only if you’re planning on becoming a professional golfer or an opera singer, and even so, talent is developed over time. Some things do require some inherent talent if you’re going to succeed at it, but we often forget about the most basic necessities for success – the things that require absolutely zero talent and no training at all. Practice makes perfect, and winning with the basics gets you closer to that. Things that we can start doing right away. Things like:

1. Being on Time: Simply being there when you need to be there, and that’s it! This is one of the most simple characteristics of every successful person. This requires absolutely zero talent, and at the very least some basic time management. This makes your employer respect you and value you as an employee that they can rely on, no matter what. Who will be eligible for an increase or a promotion? The one who shows up on time, of course.

2. Having Integrity: Integrity and work ethic is something you can’t teach even if you tried, and it’s one of the most basic ingredients in the recipe to success. It means knowing that your hard work will be rewarded, and understanding that there can be no reward without hard work.

3. Effort: Which leads us to a very important little word called effort! The amount of effort you put into something has a direct effect on the rewards you will reap at the end of the day. If you’re not going to put effort into something, you might as well not do it. Thomas Edison said: “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”

4. Attitude: I like to think of attitude as fuel for your effort. If you approach something with a healthy attitude, you will put far more effort into it. Your attitude is the easiest thing to change if you really want to start seeing a difference. Keep it positive and remember that “attitude will define your altitude”.

5. Passion: Showing passion for what you do costs absolutely nothing. Being passionate about something means you’ll go further than what is expected of you. Remember that it doesn’t necessarily mean being passionate about what you do, but rather how you do it. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said: “If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. “

6. Being Coachable: Simply opening yourself up for some coaching or good advice can make the world’s difference. Often the best coaching can come from the most unlikely of sources, and it’s up to you to be open to that source of wisdom, whatever or whoever it is. Who wants to pour water into a glass that’s already full? Remain ‘empty’ and you may actually learn something new and doors will magically open for you.

7. Doing Extra: No successful person ever settled for doing the bare minimum. If you’re only doing your work to get it done as quickly as possible, you’ll never realise your potential. Push yourself to deliver that extra little bit of something special, and that’s what will set you apart. Author Malcolm Gladwell says that it takes roughly ten thousand hours of practice to achieve mastery in a field. How many hours have you put in?

8. Being Prepared: To be prepared is half the victory. Again, no talent or training needed, just some good old foresight. Take five minutes to evaluate and prepare, and you will be unstoppable no matter what the day throws at you.

9. Being Honest: Any job assigned to a person should be done with utmost honesty, without double-dealing or untruthfulness. It will make your life a lot easier and it’s much easier than being dishonest. Best of all, it won’t get you into a world of trouble.

10. Being Responsible: When you are made responsible for an area, your employer expects you to be trustworthy. One of the basics is taking responsibility not to break the trust being put in you. Being responsible is at the core of good work values, and is not to be taken lightly.

Stop worrying about talent and focus on winning at the basics. The world’s most intricate, beautiful buildings are often built on the most basic foundations of brick and stone, and they wouldn’t be able to stand tall without their foundations. Once your basic foundation has been laid, you can start building your masterpiece on top of it.

“The first and best victory is to conquer self.”

Easier said than done, Plato. You didn’t have the distractions that come with the 21^st century. Many of us have been born into a culture of not thinking for ourselves. Why would we? There’s always someone or something to lead us. We have been led since the first day of school and all through university. We’ve become so comfortable with being led that sometimes it’s hard to lead yourself.

This is Self Leadership. It means developing a sense of self, understanding your abilities, knowing where you want to get to and then having the discipline to do the things that will get you there. Most importantly, it means doing all of this without having someone tell us to. Imagine you cloned yourself, but your clone is more of a natural leader than you are. A more emotionally mature you, who makes better decisions and probably dresses better. What are the qualities that set regular old ‘You’ and the new and improved ‘You 2.0’ apart? These are some of the qualities:

• Setting Goals – Self Leadership requires clear goals first and foremost. Any good leader, especially a leader within yourself, needs some sense of direction. You need to be specific too. What do you want? When do you want it? What would it be like if you reached your goal?

• Experimenting – If you follow a path set by others, you might reach your goals, fair enough. But it just wouldn’t be the same if you didn’t try to figure things out for yourself. Form your own opinions, make your own decisions and never stop experimenting.

• Learning Discipline – If you’re going to lead yourself, you will need discipline. Sitting around and waiting for someone to tell you what to do is so much easier than leading yourself to what you want. Learn to influence your own words,  emotions and behaviour on the way to getting where you want to be.

• Toning Down the Pessimism – This is especially important with self leadership – it means having to do without a leader to motivate you. You don’t have to become one of those crazy optimistic people and annoy everyone – just tone down the pessimism and stop telling yourself how bad things are.

• Being Resilient – Whatever you want to do, it’s very likely you won’t get there with your first try. When your expected outcome isn’t the same as reality, you’ll feel stupid and maybe even hurt. This needs to change. Learn to deal with those emotions and try again. Only harder.

• Taking Responsibility – Every outcome is a result of our own actions. Self leadership means taking responsibility for our own actions and their outcomes.

Good self leadership can impact every area of your life in a great way. Try to make the qualities of the ‘You 2.0’ within you second nature. You’ll be amazed how good it feels to be in charge of your own success.