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Your career is a field to focus on if you want fulfilling professional and personal growth. How can excelling at your work help you lead a happier life? First of all, career growth goes hand in hand with budget growth. Secondly, moving forward on the career ladder opens new professional opportunities. Last but not least, excelling at work gives you internal fulfillment. How to excel at work and be proud of your achievements? Check tips from our experts in the article below.
#1: Be Nice
Fostering friendly relationships with your colleagues is a key to excelling at work. Most jobs require interpersonal skills. Even if you’re an artist, you’ll still have to cooperate with art dealers and gallerists. If you specialize in sales or hospitality, your interpersonal skills make the core of the skillset. Sure, you may search for an online cover letter writing service like Skillhub.com and ask a writer to add interpersonal skills to your resume. However, it will do you no good if you lack people skills in reality. Build your interpersonal skills before composing a cover letter.
How to improve your people skills?
- Make greeting people your new habit. Yeap, putting on a happy face in the morning sounds impossible. You don’t have to be all shiny and smiley – just don’t forget to greet your colleagues when you see them;
- Don’t blame others in the conflict. Yeap, people make mistakes from time to time. Moreover, we all feel the urge to find the scapegoat in the team and avoid taking the blame. If such a situation happens, don’t criticize others and don’t make them feel guilty. Instead, use a language that lacks pronouns and ‘blaming’ words. Stay as objective and reasonable as you can;
- Don’t gossip. The urge to form cliques and gossip about those who haven’t been invited to the clique comes from old school times. However, uniting people into a clique might lead to gossip, conflicts, and bullying. Yet we advise you to showcase strong work ethics and respect for others;
- Make friends at work. According to psychologists, employees who develop friendships at work are generally happier. All because a friend at work provides you with necessary support daily.
#2: Follow the Company’s Values
Each company functions as an ecosystem. Meanwhile, the company’s values determine the nature of the processes and interactions. The values build the organization’s culture yet are important to follow. How can you define the company’s values and follow them?
- Learn the mission and the company’s goals. For instance, your company specializes in solving environmental issues. What can you do to follow the company’s ethics? First of all, put the plastic items into recycling bins if the company has them on its territory. Secondly, learn more about global warming and other environmental problems;
- Be a pioneer in developing new values. Let’s say you work in the fashion industry. What kind of value can you offer at your next meeting? Think out of the box. Has the company been encouraging fast-fashion behaviors for decades? Suggest sustainability as a new value.
#3: Be a Team Player
Sure, a modern western company promotes individualism. But every company is an ecosystem, remember? To make this ecosystem work, the members should cooperate with high efficiency. One of the essential soft skills in your resume, team working, shows your ability to help others. Sometimes, you’ll have to sacrifice your interests for the sake of the team’s success.
How can one be a better team player?
- Be there for others when they need you. Even if this means working long hours after your shift;
- Be present at meetings and team-building activities. By visiting such events, you’ll learn more about your coworkers and make new friends;
- Be proactive. When a crisis strikes, make sure to offer your help and ideas on how to solve it.
#4: Do Your Job Well
Your job responsibilities go along with your hard skills. In other words, your work efficiency depends on your core skills. If your performance is lower than average, the business will suffer. Obviously, an HR manager might have a little talk with you. In case this happens, define the problem and discuss it with an HR specialist. Together, you’ll work out a strategy for dealing with the problem.
How can one improve their job performance?
- Improve your skills. Taking a course in writing is a good idea if you’ve just entered the copywriting field;
- Take workshops. If your company organizes workshops, use the opportunity! Invest in your education and upgrade your skillset;
- Improve your self-discipline and organization. How many times have you got distracted on social media today? Install software like scheduling and ad-blocking apps to eliminate the sources of distraction.
#5: Ask for Feedback
One of the most underestimated tips since everyone is afraid of being criticized. Well, don’t be scared. Honest feedback from a professional will help you become a better specialist because we all need feedback from time to time to find out whether we made any progress or not. That’s why HRs have created performance evaluations.
How to start feeling better about getting feedback?
- The company thrives on the efficiency of its workers. Hence, think of feedback as a natural part of your work assessment;
- Most of the feedback is impersonal. It’s not you being criticized but the work you do;
- Most of the time, your supervisor isn’t trying to hurt you. What they do is give honest feedback on how you can improve your performance.
Final Thoughts
Your career path determines your personal and professional harmony. If you want to excel at work, pay attention to both human and technical factors. Be nice to your colleagues, ask for feedback, and keep upgrading your skills. Follow the company’s values and take responsibility for your actions.
We hope the article was helpful to you. Good luck!