Switched On
Switched On: 10 Habits to Being Highly Effective in Your Job, and Loving it - the latest book by Sahar Hashemi.
Life is too short to come in for the paycheque
IF YOU FEEL LIKE YOU’RE COASTING ON AUTOPILOT, NOT BRINGING IN YOUR BEST SELF TO WORK, and so JUST TURNING UP FOR THE PAYCHEQUE – YOU NEED TO READ THIS BOOK.
It happens to the best of us. There’s something about cushiness of a ‘safe’ job -the daily grind - that switches us off.
But that whole idea that work was work and we left our personality at the door is outdated, gone. The job that allowed you to coast along on autopilot doesn’t exist any more. These preconceptions of working life haven’t moved with the times or technology.
But the good news is the future beckons for a new way of working. The future is all about being entrepreneurial in the employee context. You need to bring your whole personality – not just the ‘professional’ you - to work. Move outside your comfort zone, ignite your innate creativity and forget the ‘this is how we’ve always done things’ mentality. Don’t fear failure, fear complacency. You need to see having fun as an essential part of professional success. Living and making a living should be the same thing.
Sahar Hashemi, the UK’s leading entrepreneur and visionary, uses her experience to bring to life the tools you need to come alive at work, be the one to spot opportunities, have inspired ideas, make them happen and ultimately become indispensible. These tools - traditionally the preserve of the entrepreneur - are yours for the taking. Because with those tools comes buzz and energy- allowing you to perform at a much higher level than you thought possible.
You have it in you, you just need to switch it on. This book will show you how.
The book is divided into 8 habits:
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Habit 1 : Believing that anyone can do it
All the tools you need to be Switched On, you already have. You just need to get over the ‘this isn’t me’ or ‘my company won’t go with it’ imaginary hurdles which may be blocking you. Adopting ‘Switched On’ behaviour just needs a bit of practise, more use of your creative right brain rather than your methodical left brain and frequently pressing the delete button on your doubts.
Habit 2: Step into customers’ shoes
To regain perspective on the true purpose of what you do, remember that customers are real people, not market segments with behavioural patterns. To get inspired and creative, you need to make an emotional connection with your customers by looking at what you mean to customers, getting under their skin and reconnecting with the impact of what you do. This also gives meaning and purpose to what you do, brings your job to life and gets you off auto-pilot.
Habit Three: Get out
Opening yourself up to the world beyond company walls removes the blinkers. With a wider focus you receive so much stimulation it can’t help but boost your motivation and energy.
Habit Four: Become clueless
If you’re going to get out of the rut, away from the daily grind and turn off autopilot, you need to make a break with the past. Processes, systems, the ‘how we’ve always done it’ mentality will only hold you back.
Habit Five: Prototyping
If the four steps thus far have fired you up to great new ideas and creativity, it’s all for naught if you can’t bring them to life. Before they have a chance to fly away, grab those ideas and make them real.
Habit Six: Notch up on Nos
Overcome the endemic fear of failure in established organisations. Resistance is an integral part of trial and error, and trial and error are key parts of seizing opportunity.
Habit Seven: Bootstrapping
There’s nothing more frustrating than just dreaming of something and never actually doing it. Big companies are bad at implementation. This chapter helps us break the corporate barriers and turns you from a dreamer to a doer.
Habit Eight: Take 100% of Yourself to Work
Dispels the myth that you need to suppress part of yourself to be professional at work. The barriers between work and play are imaginary. You can’t afford to leave as part of yourself behind when you’re in ‘work’ mode. The new era demands you take your head as well a your heart to work.
Add quotes about the book
‘Not all of us can be great entrepreneurs but all of us can be innovative and enterprising in whatever role we perform. This book is a great guide and inspiration on how to achieve this. MILES TEMPLEMAN- Director General Institute of Directors
Having built Coffee Republic and written “Anyone can do it” Sahar Hashemi already has the street credibility that makes you want to read this book. In “Switched On” she is able through her powerfull blend of personal experience, case study examples and thinking from some of the worlds most impactfull writers to challenge the paradigms for how people operate in todays organisations. But more importantly she is able to inspire us to see that it is within our power to adopt different behaviours which alter our mindsets and bring an entrepreneurial and fullfilling approach to our working lives. This book is a must read for anyone thinking “there has to be more than this in my working life”
Ian Lawson
Leadership Programme The Work Foundation”
It’s a rare treat to find a book on entrepreneurial values written by someone who not only has been one but also has the self awareness to distill the habits that drove her success and bottle them up for the rest of us to use. Rich examples from contemporary business bring to life some powerful ideas like impersonating customers, becoming clueless and (my personal favorite) seeing every “no” as an affirmation that you have successfully left your comfort zone.
“Simon Havers Chairman, British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association”.
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