I bet your first reaction when you saw the title of this post was…

Huh? What do you mean? What does Uber have to do with Thriving at Work?

Okay, let me clarify…I’m not talking about Uber, the multinational ride-sharing company, but about you ‘being uber-’

Like being uber-efficient, uber-productive, uber-resourceful

Also known as ‘super’, ‘outstanding’ or ‘excellent’.

I know I could have just said “how to be super at work” but I want to have some fun here.

So how do you become uber- at work? Here are two things you must do.

1. Practice, practice, practice

The aim with practicing should be to practice until you cannot get it wrong. It is about being able to try and fail multiple times until you get really good and cannot get it wrong anymore. Professional sports people, professional dancers and musicians are great at this type of practice.

Another way to think about practice is the idea that it takes 10,000 hours to master a skill. This translates to roughly spending 20 hours a week for 10 years on a specific task to master it. Hmm…if you’re like me, you want to get there faster.

So, to become uber-, I prefer to embrace the concept of ‘deliberate practice’. This is the skill of focusing on a specific thing, task or skill that you want to master and consistently practicing that thing with purpose. It’s a cycle of consistently trying, making mistakes, learning, tweaking then trying again until you get it right each time. This is very different from the often-observed scattered effort or mindless action.

2. Get coached

A coach is especially impactful if you find yourself stuck at a certain level in your quest to becoming uber- and just can’t figure out where to go next or what to do next.

CEOs have executive coaches to help clarify their thinking and decision making. Sports people work with coaches to achieve peak performance, so why not you?

Another reason to get coached is that we all have blind spots. Even the most self-aware person may stumble on their journey to becoming uber- at work due to behaviours they are either just not conscious of, or are conscious of but have no idea how to get rid of, or are resisting to make a change and it is holding them back.

In your quest to become uber-, enlist the help of a coach. Try it out. Why? Because it often takes an outside perspective, someone who is committed to your success, to point out behaviours that are holding you back, to develop strategies to overcome those blind spots and to hold you accountable for making the shift to get you to uber-.

BONUS…If you want to go even faster, add the following to the two above:

• Ask quality questions – it is said that the quality of your life depends on the quality of the questions you ask
• Model success – look at successful people and do what they are consistently doing to get results
• Stretch yourself – get out of your comfort zone or expand your comfort zone
• Invite feedback – as the saying goes…feedback is the breakfast of champions

AND, if you’re uber-determined, get the free How to be uber- at Work Guide

Here’s to you becoming uber- at work!