The Biggest Mistake Ambitious People Make Early On In Their Career, According To A CEO
She insisted that while people may have good intentions, there's a common mistake that even the most dedicated of employees can make.
insta_photos | Shutterstock There are a plethora of components that create a well-rounded and successful employee. From being able to adapt to difficult challenges, having strong communication skills, and an unmatched work ethic, a hardworking and dedicated employee can really rise to the top and grow within a company by going above and beyond.
However, a career content creator and CEO named Sophie Hirst shared that even though many people have good intentions when they start in a role, there is one mistake they might be making in their careers that could become a huge setback later on.
A CEO shared the biggest mistake ambitious people make when starting their careers.
In a TikTok video, Hirst explained that when her marketing director at Google was asked to give young people career advice, she always insisted that they should first be good at their core job. The mistake is that people usually think they need to be doing all of these other things, whether that's working on personal branding, innovation, or another shiny new project, when in reality, it's the job they were hired to do that needs to be done.
The CEO explained that ambitious employees should focus on their core jobs before trying to take on more responsibility.
"Here are three extremely simple things that you can do to make sure you're smashing your core job," Hirst said. "One, always ask, what does success look like for this? There's actually research that shows that this is a habit that high-performing people have. What does success look like for this?"
Interestingly, a Task Management Trends Report, released on behalf of Reclaim.ai, surveyed over 2,000 professionals to analyze how managers and team members prioritize and defend their time for focused work across their increasingly busy workweeks. The report found that only 12.4% of workers can fully contribute more than six hours a day to their actual task work, and only 53.3% of time spent on tasks is actually spent on productive work.
Even managers are struggling, ranking their team's ability to minimize distractions and interruptions at only 5.3 on a 1-10 scale. Between constant meetings and seemingly never-ending tasks, employees are having a hard time staying productive, which is definitely impacting their ability to do their jobs and other tasks that might pop up.
filadendron | Canva Pro
The CEO insisted that employees should focus on the most important tasks of each workday.
"Two is focus. Start every day and every week by asking yourself, what's the most important thing I'm working on right now? Then make sure you're taking action on that thing first," Hirst continued.
She emphasized that the last point is for employees to get good at packaging and tying things up in a bow. She pointed out that even if something you do fails, if you package it up as part of the learning experience and say, "This is the thing that fails, but here's why it fails..." then it's still going to be seen as initiative, and will prove in the eyes of your manager and boss that you take your core job seriously.
It's seen as a good thing to be the kind of employee who's flexible about the tasks they are given and willing to raise their hands first to do something, even if it's not within their actual job description. At the same time, there's value in being able to do the job you were hired for well.
Considering the lack of productivity that many employees feel in their jobs, if you know that overextending yourself won't end in the best results, it's best to simply stick to what you know you can do.
Nia Tipton is a staff writer with a bachelor’s degree in creative writing and journalism who covers news and lifestyle topics that focus on psychology, relationships, and the human experience.