巴菲特、布蘭森及世界級教練的6個職業建議

It’s that time of year when your boss will judge whether you’re likely to hit or miss your annual goals, and undoubtedly you’re being pushed to commit to even more ambitious plans for next year. Before you dive in, consider these questions from Warren Buffett, Richard Branson and the world’s top executive coaches that could make all the difference in your career.

are you here?

Before you bury yourself in all the minutiae of planning for the business year ahead, ask an existential question about why you’re doing this. Just three years after arriving at eBay, Devin Wenig has been promoted to CEO to lead a historic new chapter for that company.

His advice for those facing big transformations this year: “As you plunge into all the important issues of administration, capital and systems necessary to keep your business running, you have to stay grounded in the only major reason you and your company exist: To deliver better experiences for your customers than your competitors!”

Wenig smiled and leaned on the conference table in his scrappy Silicon Valley office. “You have to start and finish every day focused on how you’re creating greater engagement in a world where people have endless choices and distractions.”

are you passionate about?

It’s common for aspiring managers to seek Warren Buffett’s advice as a career coach rather than an investment guru whenever I’ve met with him during our trips to Omaha from Stanford University.

The CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, famous for his claim that he “tap dances to work,” told us that the difference between becoming a good leader and a great one is a matter of finding your mojo. Everyone around you can tell if you’re “happy where you’re working,” Buffett smirked.

“I always worry about people who say, ‘I’m going to do this for 10 years and I don’t like it very well.’” How does that make everyone around you feel? The legendary investor thinks that your sour attitude is not only bad for the culture, it undermines your creative energy and enthusiasm. Putting off your passions is “a little like saving up sex for your old age. Not a good idea!”

can you add more value?

Tony Robbins and his wife, Sage, strolled the beach at sunset past their West Palm Beach home, where over a dozen sea turtles were nesting a few yards from their patio and pool.

“It’s hard, unglamorous work digging day and night, watching for predators and other risks, and managing your nest egg every day,” Robbins observed metaphorically. “But that’s exactly the kind of grit every one of the world’s greatest investors has demonstrated to get where they are today.” Robbins was referring to his newly released book, Money: Master the Game, which Steve Forbes called “a goldmine of moneymaking information.” Robbins said that if you want to build your wealth overall, or just get paid more in the coming year, “you have to learn what other people value before expecting to be valued by them.” At age 17, he realized “the secret to success is to do more for others than anyone else does,” Robbins boomed in this trademark baritone, then whispered as a turtle scurried past. “Author Jim Rohn taught me that life’s biggest secret is to add more value than anyone else no matter what it takes.”

you have the right team?

The irrepressible SirRichard Branson has enjoyed many successes with more than 300 companies in the Virgin Group, but he recently endured his most painful setback. Following the explosion of SpaceShipTwo, Branson’s first instinct was to show support for Virgin Galactic and his partners, drawing his team closer to each other to “get to the bottom of the disaster, and to keep everyone constructively engaged in the long-term mission,” he said. “You have to surround yourself with people who really care about own the vision as much as you do.” When the going gets tough, do you have the right team?

will you stop doing?

Companies spend “too much time helping leaders learn what to do and not enough time helping them learn what to stop,” according to executive coach Marshall Goldsmith. During my interview with the “world’s best coaches” for the American Management Association, Goldsmith insisted that it’s typical for successful executives to be excessively competitive even when it doesn’t serve their best interests.

“If something is important, you want to win. If it’s meaningful, you want to win. If it’s trivial and unimportant, you still want to win anyway!” Goldsmith slapped his hand on the marble countertop in his stylish Hell’s Kitchen Manhattan apartment. “Winners love winning for its own sake,” he laughed. “It’s incredibly difficult for smart successful people to go through life not winning.”

He suggests that you pick fewer battles in the new year. “Here’s a classic case in point: You have a hard day at work. You go home to your husband, wife or partner who says, ‘I had such a hard day;’ and we reply, ‘You had a hard day? Do you have any idea what I had to put up with today?’ We are so competitive we have to prove that we are more miserable than the people we live with,” he guffawed.

Goldsmith shared that example in his class at Dartmouth’s Tuck School and “a young man in back raised his hand and said, ‘I did that last week.’ I asked him, ‘What happened?’ He said his wife replied, ‘Honey you just think you had a hard day. It’s not over!’ The next time you try to win, take a deep breath and ask yourself: What am I trying to win and what’s the point?”

it worth it?

Stuart Crainer & Des Dearlove conduct the highly regarded Thinkers50survey every other year to identify and celebrate the latest global influencers of our day. Crainer once escorted Peter Drucker, the father of management science, after an interview in London, where Drucker shared an ethos that has echoed among thought leaders at the T50 conference ever since:

“The book you should want to write” during your career, he said, is “How to Make a Million and Still Go to Heaven,” Drucker told him.

You should ask yourself, is what you’re doing worth it over the long haul? Are you climbing the career ladder with a conscience? Ultimately, life isn’t about “competing with anyone else; the only person you are competing with is yourself.”又到每年老闆開始評估你是否能達到年度目標的時候了，毫無疑問迫於壓力你不得不承諾更宏偉的來年計劃。在你投入其中前，不妨思考一下沃倫•巴菲特（Warren Buffett）、理查德•布蘭森（Richard Branson）及其他世界頂級高管教練提出的問題，可能爲你的事業帶來重大轉變。

1、爲什麼要做這些？

在你忙於來年商業計劃的細枝末節前，問自己一個現實的問題：爲什麼你要做這些？在易趣（eBay）工作僅僅三年，德文·維尼格（Devin Wenig）已經被提升爲首席執行官，正帶領員工爲該公司譜寫歷史性新篇章。

他對那些今年面臨重大轉變的職場人士建議道：“當你投身於諸如行政管理、資金、保持商業運營的必要體系這些重要崗位時，你必須清醒地認識到你和你的公司存在的最主要理由是：比起你的競爭對手，你能否爲客戶提供更好的用戶體驗！”

維尼格微笑了一下，靠在他硅谷辦公室雜亂的會議桌上說：“這是一個面臨無數選擇和容易分心的世界，每一天你都必須時時刻刻專注於如何更多地抓住人們的注意力。”

2、你的工作熱情是什麼？

不論何時我從斯坦福大學去往奧馬哈（Omaha）途中遇到巴菲特，常能遇到雄心勃勃的管理人將他作爲一位事業教練而非投資大師來尋求建議。

這位以宣稱“跳着踢踏舞去上班”而成名的伯克希爾·哈撒韋（Berkshire Hathaway）公司首席執行官告訴我們：“成爲一個好的領導人和成爲一位傑出的領導人區別在於，是否能發現你自身的魔力。你周圍的每一個人都可以看出你是否爲你所做的工作感到快樂。”

巴菲特得意地笑道，“我常爲抱怨說‘我要在這份工作上幹10年，我一點也不喜歡它。’的人感到憂慮。這會讓你周圍的人怎麼想呢？這位傳奇投資人認爲，消極態度不僅對企業文化不利，它還會削弱你的創造力和熱情。打消你的熱情‘有點像爲你的老年而節制性行爲一樣。’這可不是個好做法！”

3、怎樣才能創造更大的價值？

夕陽西下，住在西棕櫚灘（West Palm Beach）的託尼·羅賓斯（Tony Robbins）和妻子塞奇（Sage）在家門前的沙灘上漫步。這裏離他們家露臺和游泳池有幾碼遠，數十隻海龜正在這兒築巢。

“夜以繼日地工作，同時要警惕天敵和其他危險、照顧好巢裏的蛋，這些事很艱辛也很乏味，”羅賓斯意味深長地說道。“但是世界上每一個最偉大的投資者都宣稱，他們能達到今天的高度，靠的正是這樣的勇氣。”羅賓斯指着他最新出版的《金錢：掌控遊戲》（Money: Master the Game）一書說。史蒂夫·福布斯（Steve Forbes）稱這本書爲“一座淘金寶藏”。

羅賓斯說，如果你想在來年全面積累財富或者僅僅是得到更多報酬，“在期望被他人重視前，你必須瞭解他人重視什麼。”在17歲時，他意識到“成功的祕訣是比起其他人，你得爲別人做更多事，”羅賓斯用它獨具特色的男中音有力地說道。當一隻海龜快速爬過時，他低語道，“作家吉米·羅恩（Jim Rohn）教會我，生活最大的祕訣是無論需要付出何種代價，都要比其他人創造更大的價值。”

4、你有“對的團隊”嗎？

成就頗豐的維珍集團（Virgin Group）創始人理查德·布蘭森精力旺盛，他旗下擁有300多家公司。但他最近經受了人生最痛苦的打擊。“太空飛船2號”（SpaceShipTwo）爆炸後，布蘭森的第一反應就是表現出對維珍銀河公司（Virgin Galactic）和他的合夥人的支持，同時增強團隊凝聚力，“弄清這次災難的原因，保證每個人積極參與這項長期性任務，”他說。“你必須保證你周圍的人是那些真正在乎他人的人……那些和你一樣有遠見的人。”當遇到困難時，你有“對的團隊”嗎？

5、你會停止做什麼？

公司花了“太多時間幫助領導人學習要做什麼，但沒有花足夠時間幫助他們學習停止做什麼。”高管教練馬歇爾·戈德史密斯（Marshall Goldsmith）說。他被美國管理協會（American Management Association）評爲“世界最優教練”，他在接受採訪時強調說，成功的高管們往往過度競爭，連不符合他們最佳利益的事也不放過，這是很常見的現象。

“如果某事很重要，你會想獲勝。如果某事很有意義，你會想獲勝。如果某事很微不足道、很無足輕重，不論如何你仍想獲勝！”戈德史密斯一手拍向他公寓的大理石桌面說道。這座公寓位於曼哈頓地獄廚房地區（Hell’s Kitchen），非常時尚。“贏家爲贏而贏，”他笑道，“對於那些既聰明又成功的人來說，不以贏爲生是很困難的。”

他建議說，在新的一年裏少些較量。“舉兩個典型的經典案例：這一天你工作很不順。回到家，你的丈夫、妻子或者同居者說，‘我今天工作真是糟透了。’我們迴應道，‘你還糟透了？你知道我今天過得有多糟糕嗎？’我們生性好鬥，一定要證明自己比一同生活的人過得更不順。”他大笑着說。

戈德史密斯在達克茅斯商學院課堂上舉這個例子時，“一個坐在後排的年輕人舉手說，‘我上週就是那麼做的。’我問他，‘然後怎樣了？’他說他妻子回答道：‘寶貝，你只是覺得你今天過得很糟糕。但現在也甭想好過哦！’下次你試圖爭強好勝時，深吸一口氣，問問你自己：我想贏得什麼？這有什麼意義？”

6、這麼做值得嗎？

斯圖爾特·克雷納（Stuart Craine）和戴斯·狄洛夫（Des Dearlove）每隔一年發佈一份受到高度認可的調查報告，評選最具影響力的50位商業思想家（Thinkers50），以此選出並祝賀當今最新的全球影響人物。在倫敦的一次採訪結束後，克雷納曾護過送管理學之父皮特·德魯克（Peter Drucker）。德魯克在採訪時分享了一個理念，這個理念自此在出席“最具影響力的50位商業思想家”會議的思想領袖中間得到熱烈反響：

在你的事業中“你想要寫的書”，他說，應該是“《如何賺一百且還能進天堂》（How to Make a Million and Still Go to Heaven），”德魯克告訴他說。

你應該問問你自己，從長遠來看你這麼做值得嗎？你是在不昧良心的前提下攀登事業的階梯嗎？歸根結底，生活不是“和別人競爭；你唯一的競爭者是你自己。”