10 Tips to be a successful professional

Many smart people have written books on how to be a successful professional. Some of these books give us great insights, others can be used to fire up the stove. 

Based on my personal observations and literature study I would like to share my best tips with you :

1. When people nag all day about their job, they have 2 possibilities : Do something about it and take action, or stop nagging. Keeping on nagging about it and not taking any action, will not improve the situation !
2. Stop looking for excuses outside your own circle of influence. The greatest opportunities to improve your satisfaction are inside your circle of influence. (or with the words of Michael Jackson : "I'm starting with the man in the mirror to create change")
3. When things go wrong you can react in 2 different ways : You can start looking for someone to blame (= digging & living in the past) or you can use this situation to learn from it and avoid making the same mistake twice (= shaping a better future). I don't know what you prefer, but I definitely prefer to shape a future. I'm not an archeologist.
4. 99% of the people in organizations have good intentions. Perhaps they need better guidance to turn these intentions into results. The remaining 1% shouldn't have been hired.
5. If you are a manager, dare to take decisions. Employees hate it when managers don't dare to take decisions. Not daring to take decisions is like a yellow light ; should I brake or should I dare to speed up ? Employees don't like the uncertainty.
6. There is huge potential in your team. Delegate, coach, support and you'll discover talents you've never expected. 
7. Motivation starts within yourself. If you don't know how to motivate yourself, then don't expect anybody else to motivate you. Decide and discover what you want to do.
8. Put yourself constantly in your stretch zone. By doing so, you will force yourself to grow every day. Don't overstretch. You have plenty of time to grow and nobody will blame you if you are not a CEO of a multinational at the age of 27. 
9. Give constructive feedback to people and be open to receive feedback. Feedback is breakfast for champions. 
10. Surround yourself with people you can learn from. They will make you smarter as well. 

Maybe you don't agree on the above mentioned tips. I just want to share them with you and I can tell you they worked for me. 

But never forget : If it is to be, it is up to me !