Elite status. It's great.

When you hear the words “elite status,” what comes to mind? Is it something shiny? It is something you think few have or possess. Do you think limited access? Or maybe you think it’s something you can’t achieve.

Well, the reality is that the word elite typically refers to something or someone who is above the above. Yes, above the above. The 1% of the 1%. Elon Musk might come to mind.

However, I have some great news. You can be elite without owning Telsa, or X, or basically the world. Sounds too good to be true. I get it.

The reality is that we live every day in a series of programs or patterns. There are many articles out there that support successful people who can ID the patterns of the market, industry, etc., and know when to get involved and when to hide.

Successful people also tend to recognize patterns for when they are most effective and when they are not. The key is that they don’t do “work” during those ineffective times. It doesn’t make sense.

Produce bad results when you are ineffective.

I will also submit a confession to you. I was part of the 99% who struggled to recognize patterns effectively. It took me a long time (over 20 years), and I’m still learning to develop my effectiveness at all levels, but I have shifted toward the group of the 1% in my personal development and professional life.

It's not a brag or a boost, but it's a real journey.

I want this article to be the difference maker where you finally agree to yourself that you will shift to become elite.

Sound fair?

Tip #1: You are too smart. Trust me.

Woah. Way to start right? Oftentimes I say this line because it has a deeper meaning than most know. I say this because most people do not want to be “dumb,” but there is a problem with that. You will often overcomplicate what doesn’t need to be. Let that one sit for a moment.

I was working with a leader who was head of the division and during our time together, they wanted to focus on market segmentation. “We need to be out there expanding and niching down getting to our customers.”

My response: Great! How are you planning to do this?

“Well, sdfkljdsghiutipewurwiekhfklhdsfhlupewiurpoewqj.” This was their 45-minute explanation.

Why was this a problem? It was too complicated. If I (their business coach) couldn’t understand it as someone outside the company, many others outside the company wouldn’t understand it either. Let alone their leaders being able to explain repeatedly through the chain of command.

So, my point here is that I want you to embrace your smarts by understanding that effective people are simple people. They do what others don’t think about… just doing the simple things. This doesn't make you dumb in the way you may think but rather in the fact that dumb means a lack of understanding.

Tip #2: There is always a gap.

Effective people are productive because they can be okay with “gaps” in their lives. This means both personally and professionally.

What’s a gap? I am glad you asked.

The “gap” is the aspect of whatever you are doing that you cannot explain in under 15 seconds.

Example: “Why do you want to lead your team deeper into market segmentation?”

Again, I received a 45-minute answer, which told me that this leader was unsure how to lead the leader after the mission. Therefore, there was a gap.

When someone deemed elite comes across a gap, they are slow to emotions and quick to solve. Meaning that most humans are sensitive to inefficiencies. It’s okay- not picking on anyone, but we must be truthful. It sucks when we feel like we are missing something.

The elite person will not allow their emotions to dictate their next step, but rather, they quickly shift their perspective to find why this gap exists and then work to use as many resources as possible to acquire the knowledge.

Be okay with your gaps. Be quicker to shift resources to solve them.

Tip #3: Time is equal. 86,400.

I often hear that time management is a struggle for most individuals because they tend to dabble or squirrel into something else. We live in a world of dabbling. Think about it for a second.

Why is short-form content so popular in the social media realm? Because we want a few seconds of pleasure, then move on to the next video.

In business, it's no different. Many leaders/owners dabble to seek short-term pleasure and continue the process, and they never reach long-term gains. The key is understanding that we all have 86,400 seconds daily until our time comes. The billionaire we look up to or complain about has the exact same seconds as the average person.

The same is true for the person who can control their work instead of their work controlling them. They both have 86,400 seconds. The difference is the quality of the seconds. Be intentional. See tip #4.

Tip #4: Organization is the difference maker.

The king of Post-it notes is writing this article… or at least that was my old title. I had post-it notes everywhere, all over my offices, no matter how many I threw away in a day. There would be another one there in its place by the next morning. Why was this not successful for me?

The more post notes I had in my office, the more boxes I had open in my brain. Now, for some people, they can open many boxes at once, but for most of us… don’t try.

It wasn’t until I started paying attention to the specific tasks/actions that brought the greatest ROI. It was more about strategic planning than executing. The more time I put into planning with intentional focus, the better execution. It takes dedication and a mind shift to be able to learn what you need to stop doing and recognize that it’s truly not beneficial to you. If a leader/owner operates this way, then oftentimes, their teams do the same.

What the leader does is what the teams will reflect (not always) but most times.

Find the best way to organize yourself. I help my clients do this by time mapping and measuring their ROI. Each individual will commit to mapping their time for a 5-day period during their work hours. I ask them to be 100% truthful and stick to their normal routine as closely as possible, no matter how bad it may be.

After we map their time and see their ROI on Friday, it’s evident that even the best time management people still walk away with small gaps where there was a missed opportunity. No one will be perfect, but you can shore up much-wasted productivity by doing this exercise. The exercise will allow you to organize yourself to avoid repeating those misses. Continuous improvement.

Tip #5: It’s okay to ask for help.

This is probably the most impactful suggestion out of the six. Asking for help is still an opportunity for our world, especially in leadership/employee landscapes. We have been brainwashed that asking for help is a sign of weakness or might even stimulate a form of harassment/embarrassment.

Effective elite people become elite because they begin asking questions and never stop, no matter the response. They were more concerned with where and how they could access the information they sought, and the useless responses became a quick afterthought.

The worst question to ask is the one you never ask. The key to becoming more productive in life and business is asking questions, which is a form of help. The next step is to ask the best questions to receive more valued responses. Don’t ask the first question that comes to mind- try to problem first, and then when problem-solving is done, the best questions will form.

A mentor of mine had a saying around this…

“Don’t ask a question you already know the answer to. If you know the answer, then stick behind that answer which you already know.”

Tip #6: The more you do anything, the better you become. So make it the right “anything”.

I was listening to an Ed Mylett podcast, and he talked about dabblers and how we live in a world of dabblers. He gave a stat that was researched and studied by a group of productivity researchers, and the stat was this.

If you spend at least 3 hours a week for 52 weeks straight, which is one year, on a specific skill, then by the end of the year, you will be in the top 5% of that skill in terms of knowledge and execution. Now, pay attention to this.

This means that the majority of those who begin something give up, or they dabble for only a short period to move on to something new. They never finished committing themselves to becoming better.

So, in business and leadership, you can become the top 5% in what you do because you give full attention to increasing your knowledge of specific skills.

Let’s say you give presentations often in your workplace, but you feel like they are painful to get through, or you know in your head that your speaking could improve. Well, put this stat into play.

If you spent (3) hours every week for a year researching, studying, and practicing crafting your presentations and working on your delivery, then you will become a top 5% presenter. This is why there are so few true professional speakers. A true professional speaker will craft, script, practice, and focus on their presentation far past 3 hours when most give it a total of 3 hours.

So, what skill or area in your life (professional/personal) do you want to improve on? What area do you feel that if it increased, then you would become elite? Figure that out and begin to hold yourself accountable to dedicating (3) hours to becoming the top 5% of that skill.