Over time, a small percentage of improvement in a task by an individual or team will result in them overcoming any starting disadvantage.  Success is grinding.

Enhance Your Career

“You only need to know 1% more than other people in the room to become the expert.”

Unknown

I was told this many, many years ago and it is still true to this day.  Bluntly, it states that if you are in a meeting and you know even one fact that no one else knows about the subject, you immediately become the “expert” in the room. 

Of course this means you need to participate in the conversation and not be the office wallflower.  Just have something to say, even if it just demonstrates that you are familiar with the topic. You may not know anything else about the subject, but you will have changed the perception of your talents and abilities.

While this is not fair, nor true in all cases, in practice this works magic.  This does not mean that if others defer to you for information you should mischaracterize your knowledge. You are obligated to respond with something along the lines “I do not know about that particular area, but I can look into it further.”  In fact this is often a strength as it will show your self awareness and limitations.

Imagine two employees at a job, starting at the same time with the same qualifications.  Assuming each of you are improving at 2% over a given time frame, you will be promoted after let’s say 2 years.  However, if you put in a little extra effort, you can be promoted much more quickly.

If you improve yourself just a percentage more each day than others, you will quickly start accelerating your career. 

Impacts to Business Owners

The margin between good and great is narrower than it seems. What begins as a slight edge over the competition compounds with each additional contest.

James Clear

For business owners, it is vitally important to recognize those high performers as they will contribute more to your business than others will.  

Businesses will not realize the difficulty in replacing their high performing employees, until they have already left (tldr; it takes about 1.5-2x their annual salary to replace).  

The sad truth is that most high performing employees leave because they are unhappy with the compensation they receive.  This is another way of saying they see little chance of advancing within the company and are willing to look elsewhere.

This often happens in companies with a structured corporate ladder for climbing. But often, the only way up the ladders is to move into management.  Many of the top performers in an industry are not going to be good managers.  Don’t make them be managers, use them as consultants, advisors, but not day to day managers running budget numbers and managing staff.  This is a sure fire way of running some high performers out of your company.

Continuous Learning

The 1% rule is the only way to continue to be relevant in the workplace.  

How can I realistically keep learning things that are relevant to my work?  The best way to keep motivated is to start a routine.  At the beginning of the week, look at the calendar for meetings and subjects.  Pick one or two of them and decide to focus on them.  Set aside 5-10 minutes to research the topic and try to capture 2-3 facts for the subject.  Ideas and concepts on the fringe of a topic are some of the most interesting to explore.  Even if they do not come up in the meeting, it is one more thing you can use in the future.

As technology is continuing to advance, the river of knowledge is ever broadening and the only way to stay afloat is to keep learning.

Long Term Effects

This one tip can help you improve your standing within the organization and show that you have initiative.  You will immediately become more interesting and will be involved in more conversations.  This does not mean you need to be the center of all discussions, but you will be start being seen as having some insight, bringing fresh ideas, and adding value that others may not.

That is your 1%