Shama Hyder:

These things are very indicative of whether someone’s going to be successful or not. These three things make the difference between someone who is going to be okay in their career and someone who is going to be wildly successful. But I’ve spoken at so many universities around the world, and often I meet students who express interest and they say, “Oh my God, I’d love to keep in touch. Is that cool?” And I say, “Yes.” I rarely ever said no to anyone who wants to keep in touch, but I’m always amazed at how many students actually follow through. When we are hiring we look for smart people all the time on [inaudible 00:00:32] and media apply. Well, this young lady actually did. She applied. She got the internship. I thought what was really interesting was how many of her colleagues and peers said, “Oh my God, I didn’t know. I wish I would have gotten that internship.” But the difference was that they didn’t follow up.

Shama Hyder:

Hey guys, this is Shama Hyder here. So, I wanted to talk about something that I often notice, especially when I have new hires, young graduates, so forth. And I found that these three things are very indicative of whether someone’s going to be successful or not. In fact, these three things make the difference between someone who was going to be okay in their career and someone who was going to be wildly successful. And here are those three things, that over my last 12 years in hiring people and mentoring young people and coaching and whatnot, that I really discovered. So, here are the three things. The first is the ability to follow up. And it’s not even the ability. It’s just, do they follow up?

Shama Hyder:

And what I mean by this is, when I speak around the world and I’ve done a ton of keynotes. Of course, right now with COVID I’m doing a lot of virtual keynotes and so forth. But I’ve spoken in so many universities around the world. And often I meet students who express interest and they say, “Oh my God, I’d love to keep in touch. Is that cool?” And I say, yes. I rarely ever said no to anyone who wants to keep in touch. But I’m always amazed at how many students actually follow through. In fact, I’ll give you one example of someone who did it right. We recently hired an intern who had two internships that fell through in her local city and was looking for a remote internship with everything going on. And funnily enough, she had chosen me to do a report in her college digital marketing class, and she did a report on me and Zen Media.

Shama Hyder:

And the professor had shared it on LinkedIn. So I noticed it. I thought it was really cool. I connected with the professor. I sent some books to the students. It was a lot of fun. I thought it was neat. And then of course the class ended, and I let the professor know that if any of her students were looking for an internship, we were hiring. We look for smart people all the time, tell them to go check out Zen Media, apply. Well, this young lady actually did. She applied. She got the internship. And I thought what was really interesting was how many of her colleagues and peers said, “Oh my God, I didn’t know. I wish I would have gotten that internship.” But the difference was that they didn’t follow up. The opportunity was available to everyone, right? The opportunity was available to everyone in the class. The opportunity is available in general.

Shama Hyder:

And so, a lot of times, just the difference between people who follow up, who do what they say they’re going to do, it makes a world of difference. In fact, one way that I look at, even when people apply for jobs or do an interview is, do they respond? Do they send an email just to say thank you? It doesn’t even have to be handwritten note. Just do the follow-up and say thank you for your time. These little things make a huge difference between who’s going to be doing well in their career and who’s going to be massively successful. The second, and in fact all three of these start with an F. So, the second one is feedback. How good are they at taking feedback? Sometimes people can be very closed off. They don’t like criticism. They see feedback as criticism. And so, if you give them feedback, they shut down, they close up. They don’t want to hear anything that they might perceive as negative or feel like it is an attack.

Shama Hyder:

So, people who are really successful, I find are able to take feedback, are able to listen, not just hear it, but really listen and incorporate that into their lives, into their work. And it makes such a difference when someone can actually hear the feedback. Now, if you really, really want to top this and get suit to be super successful, you can also learn to give good feedback. I think this is an art that you develop over time and everyone’s different. You guys have probably heard of the sandwich method, which means, compliment, criticism and compliments. So your sandwich should be the criticism between two compliments. I don’t think while that’s necessary, is important to give feedback in a way that lets people know that that’s not factual, but it is one person’s opinion. And feedback is also best when it’s directly related to something that someone’s doing.

Shama Hyder:

So, it’s task oriented, it’s performance oriented, it’s not so much about who someone is, right? But the specific task at hand. So, those are the two of things so far that I find really differentiate people and help them be successful. One is, can they take feedback? Right? Can they take feedback? Can they give good feedback? Because that is the hallmark of a great leader. Being able to give good feedback, try saying that three times fast. And following up, do they follow up? Do they follow through? Following in any sense. Right? As simple as, this is what I find fascinating too, which many people don’t realize. But when they apply for jobs, I know many HR directors who will go look at their LinkedIn profiles to say, “Does this person follow us?”

Shama Hyder:

If their cover letter says, “Oh my God, I love this company. I want to work for you guys. I think it’s awesome. I’ve been following you.” It’s very easy to check, are you actually following? Do you follow that person on Twitter? Do you follow the company on LinkedIn? I know one person who didn’t get a position because they were actually following a competing company on LinkedIn, but not the company that they’d applied for. So, these little social signals that we send out they speak volumes, they really do. And I think people who are very successful know how to capitalize on it. But lastly, the third characteristic that I find to be particularly true for people who are abundantly successful is what I call, they know how to fly a kite. I don’t actually mean a literal flying of kite, although that might be an interesting characteristic.

Shama Hyder:

What I really mean by that is, they’re fine with telling people to go fly a kite. Which is, they’re not daunted by what they feel people think about them. They’re not stuck in other people’s judgments. So many times I know so many talented people who are so hung up on what their friends might think, what their parents might think, what their peers might think. They’re so scared of looking foolish or feeling, because it’s not the truth, just feeling like a failure in the eyes of people that they care about, that they don’t follow their dreams. And I think these days, especially, it’s such a shame because the truth is you get judged no matter what. I think people judge you for staying home with your kids these days. They judge you for going out to work these days.

Shama Hyder:

There is so much judgment all around. But there is a lot to be said about someone who can ignore that judgment and say, “Go fly a kite.” And still follow up, still listen to that feedback, still be able to take market feedback and respond, right? The companies that are the most successful are the ones they can pivot. They can take that feedback. And this idea of flying a kite is a sense of fearlessness. Every time I put out one of these videos, is there a part of me that thinks, Oh, what if someone hates this content? What if someone doesn’t like it? What if? Well, of course. What if? But it’s not for those people that I create the content, it’s for viewers like you. People who want to engage, want to learn, what to grow. I get so many messages from viewers, from all of you across the world. And I love it when I feel like maybe my story has inspired someone.

Shama Hyder:

Maybe you’ve felt like it helped you in some small way. Right? And there are so many platforms. And if I didn’t do that because I was scared, or because I gave in to that fear, right? Which would be more accurate, then what a shame it would be. So, those are the three things I find to be very special unique characteristics of what makes someone spectacularly successful. And these are early signs. You’ll notice I said nothing about IQ. You’ll notice I said nothing about what industry they’re in, or do they come from money or not? None of those things matter. The things that I find to be great indicators of whether someone’s going to be a smashing success, is one, do they follow up? Do they keep their word? Do they do what they said they were going to do?

Shama Hyder:

Very simply, do they follow? Right? Do they track? Do they give good feedback? Do they take good feedback? Is feedback a part of their life where they’re constantly learning to improve? And at the same time, do they have the fly a kite factor? Which is, they can ignore the naysayers and keep marching on and do what they do best. I hope you guys are enjoying these videos. Definitely subscribe, watch more videos. I’ve got tons of content. Hopefully you find it helpful. Leave me a comment. I look forward to hearing from you and I love it. I love your messages. Thanks for watching..