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October 2, 2017By Paula Pant

#97: How to Be Awesome at Your Job, with Pete Mockaitis

Afford Anything How to be awesome at your job with Pete MockaitisHow can you be awesome at your job?

That’s the question that today’s guest, Pete Mockaitis, and I tackle on the latest Afford Anything podcast episode.

Pete hosts one of iTunes’ top 10 career podcasts, called — appropriately — How to Be Awesome at Your Job.

In typical nerd fashion, I launch our interview by asking him: “What is the metric by which ‘awesome’ is determined?”

Here are a few other questions that I hurl his way:

How to Get a Raise:
Imagine that you enjoy your job; you don’t want to quit. But they’re not paying you what you’re worth. You’ve asked for a raise, several times, and they’ve said no. What do you do?

Angle for a Promotion? Or Focus on a Side Hustle?
Let’s assume that you’re employed full-time, and your goal is to make more money. What’s more effective:
[Option 1] Focus on your full-time profession, putting in the extra hours to angle for a promotion? — OR –
[Option 2] Be an average employee and focus your excess time and energy on building a side hustle?

Tough it Out, Then Retire Early? Or Not?:
You feel ambivalent about your job, but it pays well. Should you pivot to an alternate career path, even if this causes an income drop? Or should you milk the big paycheck for 10 years, save and invest like crazy during that time, and escape into an early retirement?


What nuggets of wisdom does Pete share in today’s episode? Here are six takeaways:

#1: If you want to be awesome at your job, focus on these six areas:

  1. Be present.
  2. Be deliberate about how you direct your time, energy and attention.
  3. Be thoughtful.
  4. Communicate well.
  5. Build strong relationships.
  6. Manage your career.

(We dive deeper into these points — especially number two! — in this episode.)

#2: Apply the 80/20 rule to your decisions. Ask yourself:

  • What are the 80 percent of great results coming from 20 percent of my efforts?
  • What are the 80 percent of negative things that I don’t like? What focused 20 percent of efforts can get rid of 80 percent of the negative?

#3: “Wastefulness comes from inefficient methods in pursuing things.”

#4: Invent what people want. Not what you think they should want.

#5: Learn the 2 questions that improve every decision: What must be true for this to be a good decision? How can I test that?

#6: How can you find happiness at work? You’ll need to be satisfied with RED: rewards, experience and demands.

  • Rewards – Your compensation, security, advancement potential, and your pride in the organization and its activities.
  • Experience – Your day-to-day experience at work, appreciation from others, enriching and psychologically safe environment, compelling tasks, sense of purpose, learning and growth, and autonomy.
  • Demands – What are total hours needed and the flexibility of those hours?

Enjoy!

– Paula

Resources Mentioned

  • Afford Anything Podcast interview with Jenny Blake
  • Pete’s podcast, How to be Awesome at Your Job

Books:

  • Lean Startup – Eric Ries
  • Happier – Tal Ben-Shahar
  • Stumbling on Happiness – Daniel Gilbert

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#98: Ask Paula - The Side Hustle Episode
Next Newer Episode »
#96: Ask Paula - Should I Be an Out-of-State Airbnb Host?
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Posted in: Episodes, Self-Improvement, Psychology and MindsetTagged in: career development

6 Comments
Leave a Comment
  1. Diana

    # October 2, 2017 at 7:50 am

    Hi Paula-
    I’m so happy to have found your podcast! You ask very insightful questions of your guests and have really well thought out shows. I listen to A TON of podcasts, but I have already starred at least three of yours so that I can go back to relisten, take notes, and turn that into action. I’m already awesome at my job, im already indespensible, but some of the steps that Pete suggested will make it easier for me to prepare them for asking for tuition reimbursement (not currently offered) or a big raise. And I know that I’ll be ok to walk away too.

    Just wanted to drop a quick note of thanks. Now to spend approximately 24 minutes switching from this to my work. 😉😊

    Reply ↓
  2. Rewire behavior

    # October 4, 2017 at 7:59 pm

    I loved this episode. It is very timely for me personally.

    Thank you for all you do!

    Reply ↓
    • David @ VapeHabitat

      # August 29, 2018 at 1:34 pm

      Hey! What’s your best part?

      Reply ↓
  3. Aliza Deutsch

    # October 8, 2017 at 11:22 am

    There was so much to take away from this episode. I had to listen twice.

    As a preschool teacher, one of the first things that resonated with me the most was his story about creating crossbows out of bamboo skewers. Because that’s what I do–make time and space for unstructured play. And children make creative use of that kind of time, all the time! I feel like there must be something deeper there, I am just not sure what it is just yet.

    At first I thought there was not much for me in this episode. I am awesome at my job, and I am rich in the currency of happiness, but there is just a pretty firm limit on how that will translate into dollars. And that was fine for me for a long time. But as I get older, and my children are almost grown, I have some goals that require more money. Which is why I am working on the side hustle angle-and for that, there was lot to glean in terms of planning, testing, and making best use of my time and energy.

    Reply ↓

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