Take your skills very seriously

Ways to Distinguish Yourself

Being part of the commodity crowd erodes your professional value. You are probably currently just another cog in the wheel, another disposable footsoldier in the army of suits. How do successful people pull off that promotion and avoid being made redundant? One reason is they are distinctive and stand out from the crowd. To do this, you need to think and be different. In other words, you need to distinguish yourself.

Below are some of the ways you can fairly easily do things that will make you stand out as an employee, client, team member and business partner.

• Care about your work, and be passionate about it
• Underpromise and overdeliver, setting high standards for yourself
• Ask for help and don't hoard information
• Dream big ideas and think long term
• Build strong relationships
• Plan your outcomes not your activities
• Embrace uncertainty, and get back on your feet fast when you have a setback
• Learn to lead in a volunteer project

Learn 25 ways to distinguish yourself in this excellent article (download as pdf or read on the web).

In fact outsiders, free from convention and expectations, often generate the most revolutionary of ideas. You must energize yourself and spark your creativity.

• Learn more here

Various tests that will focus your career

• Career Planning Help. This is a strong career testing engine. Disadvantage: it can take quite a while to do it (perhaps half an hour, depending on your decisiveness).
• SWOT Analysis in Your Career Planning
• Stress-O-Meter
• The Mental Muscle Diagram Indicator. Another nice career personality test.
• Do you hate when someone says: Take it easy?
• Behavioural Styles

It's never too late to take on further education to optimise your options. See our Courses and Education page with lots of relevant education offers.