Be a Top 5% Performer: Here’s How

Have you heard the expression, “Everything he/she touches turns to gold?” Has it left you wondering: What is their secret sauce? The truth is, successful people choose to be different: Top 5% performers think differently, act differently, see themselves differently, and spend their time differently than those who don’t achieve at that high level.

The successful outcomes of these top performers require setting goals; establishing a plan to achieve those goals; and holding themselves accountable to execute these strategies. Every success, in every market and industry, reinforces this Goal-Plan-Execute formula—it’s so simple, so basic.

So, why do so many people fall short? It’s their mindset: They are not choosing to focus on the right things, and then to follow the essential next steps.

This mindset ideology is not new thinking—it tracks with a favorite book of mine: The Strangest Secret in the World by Earl Nightingale. The book was written in 1956, so it’s outdated in terms of its view of gender in the workplace and other modern-day cues—but all these years later, Nightingale’s guiding principle remains the same: You are what you think about. And so, he suggests, that thinking in a relaxed and confident manner is the essential first step to enjoying success.

How do you build on that premise? How do you take that positive-thinking prompt and then incorporate the essential
Goal-Plan-Execute into your routine? Here’s a few ideas:

1. Focus your mind. Align your thoughts with positive outcomes: Envision your customer happy. Imagine positive referrals. Focus on your employees realizing a new level of success. When you hit a roadblock or hurdle, find the positive in the situation.
2. Define your brand advantage. Start with why: Ask yourself why you do what you do… What is the biggest value you deliver to your clients? Maybe you save them time or money. Simplify their operations. Provide essential expertise. Make them happy. Incorporate these into your brand messaging to confidently position yourself to succeed.
3. Make yourself indispensable: Elite industry experts understand and include the latest products/tools/trends in the solutions they provide customers. Never stop learning, never stop evolving.
4. Be unwavering: Set specific, attainable goals—write them down! Next, develop an actionable plan that spells out how you will achieve these goals.
5. Be deliberate in how you spend your time: Execute your plan with systems in place that hold yourself accountable.

Your success will largely be determined by how you choose to spend your time. If you allow yourself to get swallowed up with small tasks, such as constantly checking email, you are choosing not to focus your time on the big, higher impact tasks and projects that will help you achieve your goals. Write down the five most important things you need to accomplish this week or month, and do those things first!

Do you have any other ideas about ways to drive and maintain top performance? I’m always looking for feedback.

Bob DeGarmo, President

“One, you will become what you think about. Two, remember the word imagination. Let your mind soar. Three, courage. Concentrate on your goal every day. Four, save 10 percent of what you earn and action. Ideas are worthless unless we act on them.”  –Earl Nightingale, The Strangest Secret in the World