Being great at work is about more than just talent and effort – it’s about working smarter. After crunching the numbers of a massive survey, the author Morten T. Hansen found some common habits and techniques that can help anyone get better results at work. These include being obsessively focused on one task at a time, being both passionate and purposeful, having a diversified team, and knowing the right time to collaborate.
What you can do:
Learn to say no.
It’s not easy to focus on one task at a time if your boss is burying you under an avalanche of work. But this is why it’s important to learn how to say “no.” If you already have a full plate of work, and your boss asks you to help with a sales pitch, be polite and say that you’d love to help out, but you’re already giving 100 percent to the merger case that was assigned to you yesterday.