I just read a great Forbes Article on "5 Things Super Successful People Do Before 8 AM." I can tell you without a trace of irony that I LOVE stuff like this. Considering the number of high-performer, type-A executives in our business, I'm sure I'm not alone. So I thought I'd pick up on the thread and offer up "5 Things Super Successful Digital People Do All the Time."
We Pay Attention to Hard Trends. It's too easy to get caught up the 24-hour hype cycle and lose sight of what's real. Super Successful Digital People measure everything against the hard trends of business and consumer behavior and stick with the practices, technologies and innovations that serve growing markets, logical behaviors. It's what helps us keep it real.
This week's Drift is proudly underwritten by PubMatic. With PubMatic's platform, publishers have the ability to offer their inventory to over 400 global Demand Partners - ad networks, demand side platforms, ad exchanges, and agency trading desks - and have on demand access to all the software, tools and services they need to realize the full potential of their digital assets.
We Start the Day Proactively. If you woke up to the alarm on your iPhone or Android and immediately began reading and responding to emails, then you missed the chance to take control of your day. Most of us start the day in full reaction mode and then never really recover. SSDPs center themselves first thing with some exercise, non-electronic reading, a bit of fresh air, the creation of a list or even just five quiet minutes of reflection.
We Humanely (and Human-ly) Use email. Let's face it: in less than a generation email has gone from productivity miracle to soul-deadening time-suck. Effective emails are always short, always personal and always well-considered. Cover-your-ass CC's, mindless "me-too" responses, "your name here" sales pitches and messages that are longer than the viewing window are all non-starters. So let's stop sending them. And then let's start using emails to say things like "Just thinking of you and realizing how long it's been since we spoke" and "Please answer this one short question...."
We are Present When Speaking to Fellow Humans. It's a sad commentary that paying attention has gone from expected to polite to exceptional in just a few years. So leave the phone in your bag; look into the eyes of the person speaking; ask clarifying questions; care. A minute or two of an interaction like this is worth more than a day spent in partial engagement and permanent distraction.
We Improve Everything. Or at least we try to. SSDPs don't accept the status quo very well. But our improvements are not limited to website redesigns or software upgrades. We aim to improve day-to-day processes, the quality of meetings, the little things we do to make our customers and employees feel special. If you're not getting better, then you're getting worse. There is no "neutral."
As you finish reading this you might notice how closely all this "Super Successful Digital" behavior resembles really high quality "Human" behavior.
Exactly.
