Go Further, Faster: Why Roadmap To Success Demands Ethos Of Continuous Growth

An Excerpt From Go Further, Faster

Be a ‘Lovecat’ 

When you were entering the world of work for the first time, you may have been advised to not feel bad about selling your soul to the big, bad corporate world of capitalism, a world where aggression, predatory behaviour, greed, rudeness, dishonesty and other bad actions may be commonplace. You may have been prepared to fight this with your own brand of defence, thinking that this was just par for the course, and you had to also learn to be this way as you grew in the organisation. 

What I want to tell you is that things are changing rapidly. As Tim Sanders (a former senior executive at Yahoo) had introduced to the world in 2002, love can be a powerful force in business, and by becoming a ‘lovecat’ you can stand out, create positive relationships and propel your growth.

People who don’t embrace love and kindness in today’s workplace will lose out. There are two primary reasons for this. The first reason is that we have an abundance of choices in every area. Pertaining to careers, we don’t have to work for companies with toxic cultures. We also have a choice to walk away from bosses with toxic behaviours. If you lead a company that has a bad culture or you don’t have the traits of a good leader, you will lose people.

The second reason is that bad behaviours are easily exposed in an era of transparency, thanks to the popularity and ubiquity of social media platforms. Insensitive comments, gross misconduct, bullying – these behaviours can be your downfall. All it would take is one tweet or post to bring you down no matter how unfounded.

So can you take the personal definition of love defined by Milton Mayerly as ‘the selfless promotion of the other’ and turn it into a business definition of love, defined by Tim Sanders as ‘the act of intelligently and sensibly sharing knowledge, networks and compassion with your business partners’? 

If you fully embody three characteristics – knowledge, network and compassion – you can become a full-fledged lovecat whose potential for growth becomes limitless. If there’s only one advice I wish I had been given when I was entering the world of work, it would have been this one: to be more of a lovecat! Being a lovecat will make a positive difference to the way you are perceived and therefore your opportunities for growth. 

Let’s break each characteristic down.

Knowledge

Be the person who knows the most. Read voraciously. Not just magazines and blogs but in-depth books in the areas of your expertise and other general topics. The trick to reading and accumulating knowledge as I have discussed in other parts of the book is finding a way to digest it and use it so it’s retained in your brain. I learned a simple formula from Tim Sanders on this: EPA.

Encode: Spend the time and energy to truly understand the material deeply and not just at surface level. Read many times if you have to. Look up words. Keep a list of new words you are learning. My girls joke about this, but it has helped me expand my vocabulary manyfold over the years.

Process: Underline, highlight and write notes. Do whatever it takes to process what you are reading in a form that is relevant to you. Find a way to organise the insights so you can access them later. For physical books, I write notes on the sides, underline and mark key points and summarise the core at the end of each chapter and at the end of the book overall. When I read online, I put key points in a note in the Notes app on my phone.

Apply: This is where the spark is ignited. Without this step, it’s just information, not applied knowledge. Share it with someone. Say it out loud to a colleague. Use it in your writing. Practice the ritual. Anything that will take the knowledge off the page and into the real world so it can add value for you.

The most important aspect of creating value with knowledge is sharing with your network. Practice generosity in its truest sense. You are not giving away your edge by sharing knowledge with others. Paradoxically, you create an edge when you share your expertise.

Network

This is another topic I have discussed in the book. In the context of being a lovecat, the guidance is to build as large and as deep a network as you can. And to keep the nodes warm by sharing your knowledge generously with your network. Pay attention to everyone, not only the most important or the most senior of the closest members of your network. In fact, research has shown that very often you get the best opportunities from weaker links in your network. Treat each person as potentially the MVP in your network. Practice kindness and generosity with them no matter what their place in the world is today. 

Compassion

While you may have heard of the importance of gathering knowledge and building a network, it is unlikely that you have been asked to be loving and kind in the workplace. This third characteristic can make the difference in the way people perceive you. Be genuinely interested in people’s lives. Listen to their spoken and unspoken needs. Find ways to truly empathise and hone in on how you can be compassionate towards them and make them feel good. This can truly be a game changer in your relationship. In a world where everyone is self-centred, your focus on the other person will stand out and be appreciated. Consider all tools, from the tone of your voice, the warmth of your handshake, the genuineness of your smile to the lightest of your touch. 

When you combine knowledge, network and compassion, you will develop into a charismatic and irresistible soul moulded in the archetype of the lovecat as Tim Sanders defined it. You will stand out from the pack. You will radiate love and positivity, which will attract the best people and opportunities. You will be liked and trusted more. All of this will advance you in the workplace. 

Be Kind, Always 

‘Showing generosity and forgiveness even to those who do not deserve it is not weak but extraordinarily powerful.’

I can never forget this potent sentence from Julia Baird’s Phosphorescence. Julia says that kindness should not just be an aspiration but a daily practice, a muscle that if exercised, can grow strong and become a habit or a way of life.

Excerpted from Go Further, Faster - written by Lulu Raghavan, published by Bloomsbury