What Below-average employees do

Below-average employees do the bare minimum they can get by. - "I am definitely delivering as much as I am getting paid."

Average employees are driven by competition with their peers. - "I better not be the worst performer on the team."

Above-average employees are driven by their own growth. - "I want to grow as fast as possible."

Extraordinary employees are driven by curiosity to find ways to be a better version of themselves. - "I wonder how can I do this better than how we did this last time."

But this is not the same as a company rating. An extraordinary employee may be rated average because they were just promoted to the next level.

There is nothing wrong in consciously choosing to be any one of these. Work is just a part of life. A below-average employee may be an extraordinary parent.

Extraordinary employees have really found work that deeply matters to them. What looks like hard work for others is play to them.

Finding work that deeply matters is super hard because each of us is different. But it makes everything else easier.