Most techniques you need to survive in intelligence and counter espionnage will not help you to get a promotion or a pay rise when you have a white collar job.
But when we look closer at it, it turns out some of James Bond’s skills can help us to become better in our jobs no matter if we are Sales Directors or do accounts receivables.
Read on for the 10 most important lessons to learn from 007:
- Set yourself goals and always go for a close: At the beginning of each film, James Bond is given a clear mission from “M” and whatever will happen, he will reach his goal, stop the evil and end in the arms of a beautiful woman. Set yourself SMART goals (e.g. saving the world during the next 90 minutes screen time or doing your travel expenses before Friday noon) and don’t get distracted on the way there. If you have to extinguish villains or deactivate atom bombs to reach your goal, do so. But never compromise your values and let nothing and nobody hinder you from going where you want to go if you know you are right
- The world is not enough: James Bond always aims for the best. Whatever he does, it will be a superlative: you won’t see him chase a third class spy from an insignificant country but THE supervillain who is obsessed with world domination (often a self-made billionaire or mad scientist with German roots). His women are not good looking but stunning and when Bond goes to a Casino, he always wins. He wears a Rolex (Omega is dead wrong of course and we all know that) and drives an Aston Martin. Any questions?
- Be an expert: 007 knows everything about diamonds, heraldry, horses, cars, butterflies, women or poker. Expertise is great but in the real world, you need to focus. Peter Drucker, the ‘father of modern management’, says that effective executives can excel in one, maybe in two but never in more than two disciplines. He recommends that you ask yourself “Of those things that would make a difference, which are right for me? They don’t tackle things they aren’t good at.” Develop a meaningful core competence, be better than your peers in this one area and make sure senior management knows about it. This will help give you a competitive edge i