To add value and deliver results, one must be appropriately educated and skilled in one’s chosen field. Continuing to add value throughout one’s career requires the adoption of a lifelong learning and continuous improvement mindset. Resting on one’s laurels and previous accomplishments is never a good idea. While it’s easy to grouse and complain that we live in a “what have you done for me lately world,” the better path is to adopt the mindset that success comes from continuous learning and improvement in outcomes and results. If failure occurs, learn and move forward.

You see, developing a robust professional network takes time, energy, and skill. Contrary to the common perceptions noted above, everyone can build an impactful professional network. Doing so requires a host of human skills (a.k.a., soft skills) such as communication, influence, critical thinking, emotional intelligence, self-awareness, active listening, persistence, drive, courage, intention, and many others.

In today’s Muse, I’m going to focus on the topic of meetings. Love them or hate them, meetings are a meaningful part of corporate life and represent a significant opportunity for improvement—meaning making meetings more effective—as part of any organization’s continuous improvement practice.

Being able to think in the moment about whether your contributions to a conversation are valuable to the other party or potentially damaging is an incredibly valuable skill. It’s impossible to always be tuned in to how a message is being interpreted, but being more aware of what you’re saying and how you’re saying it can lead to more productive conversations and reduce the likelihood of stepping in a proverbial relationship mud puddle.

When purpose and vision are not clear, the status quo becomes a warm, comfortable blanket to snuggle up in. It takes discipline to get to where you want to go. When you take a look around at the “successful” people in your life, I’d put all the money in my pocket on the bet that they all share the skill of discipline. 

You might be asking, what does this have to do with business? The answer is that organizational health relies heavily on the net giver status of the employee population. If everyone is operating as a net taker, then team dynamics will suffer, fiefdoms will be built, and everyone will be looking over their shoulder for the next jab in the back. Trust cannot flourish in a net taker environment. In contrast, if you foster a culture of net giving, then alignment around goals becomes easier, teamwork and collaboration become the norm, and the success of the organization becomes a shared mindset.