8 skills to achieve success

Whether you’re starting out, supercharging or completely changing course, the rules are the same

- Phil Slade

Building a career is not easy, and nor should it be. Work and career give us the chance to make a meaningful mark on the world, and nothing meaningful ever comes easily.

This is especially important in modern times when people can have multiple careers in their lifetime, often going from a reasonably respected and lofty level in a previous career to the bottom of the pack in a new one.

Whether you’re early in your career and wanting to get ahead, or mid-career and trying to supercharge your rise to the top, or at the top of your game looking at how to better consolidate or pivot into new opportunities, the rules and traits needed to build a successful career remain the same.

Here are eight key traits that we observe to be common among successful people.

1. Be purpose driven (have a clear “why”)

If you know why you are doing something, then what you are doing becomes less important. This is critical because career paths are rarely predictable, with no two journeys ever the same.

If you are locked into a particular role or draw too much identity from a particular expertise, then you will be less open to opportunities that may end up being critical to your development.

If you are more locked into the impact you want to have, or an outcome you wish to influence, then the particular role in any company becomes less relevant, and you become more open to working for purpose-aligned companies, and stepping into opportunities that are slightly outside your expertise.

2. Be an audacious goal-setter