How to get noticed at work

February 10, 2009 Goal Setting No Comments

While some employees would prefer to work in isolation and pretend others do not know they are there, the more ambitious, growth-oriented employees realize they must be recognized by supervisors to have a chance to move up. Growth and mobility within one’s organization is often a motivating factor that drives employees to perform. Part of human nature is a desire for learning, growth, and opportunity. The best employees understand they must be noticed to have opportunity.

The key to selling oneself in a work setting is that same as selling a product in a business setting. Effective sales involves clearly demonstrate the benefits or gain your product provides to the potential customer. If a prospect clearly sees your product offers the best value proposition (bang for the buck), there is no reason they would not buy from you. In the same vein, you can sell yourself as a valuable employee by demonstrating skills and traits sought by employers that separate you from the crowd.

A basic rule of growth-drive organizations is that in order for employees to find opportunities to move up, people must be developed to take over new roles and responsibilities. Thus, supervisors, who also typically want to grow, are looking for people they can trust and rely on to perform. The more responsibility you as an employee can handle, the more able the supervisor is to delegate routine tasks so that they can in turn focus on higher order needs. This is the nature of the organization.

What then, can you as an employee do, to separate yourself from the crowd? The answer varies a bit, with factors including organizational mission and goals, nature of the work, and more. However, there are usually some common traits and skills desired by all organizations, regardless of goals and position. Here are a few behaviors that will make you stand out from the crowd:

1) Self-motivation – One of the most time consuming aspects of a leader’s job is to motivate employees to perform. Supervisors love employees that have personal discipline and drive and that do not need constant supervision and encouragement.

2) Initiative – There are employees that never seem to have anything to do and those that never seem to have enough to do. A supervisor’s best friend is an employee who always looks for ways to help rather than meeting the “minimum standards”.

3) Positive attitude – Sounds simple, but people like to work with and around people that provide positive morale for the work environment. Positive and hard-working employees inspire those around them to do more.

Goal setting for career success

February 10, 2009 Goal Setting No Comments

Very rarely has a research study or case analysis been introduced that suggests that successful people are the ones that do not set goals or have a vision. Obviously, quite the opposite is true. Goal setting is generally ranked near the top of the list of skills or habits shared by the most successful and most accomplished people in any profession or walks of life.

What is it that makes goal setting effective? After all, goal setting does not force one to work smartly, create brilliantly, or service with care. It does, however provide the direction that helps people do all these things and more. People that take the time to write down and establish goals usually have a plan, and have ambition. There is a very common, but inspiring saying, “What the mind can conceive and believe the mind can achieve.”

Implementation is certainly required for goals to be realized. Most people agree this step is much harder than setting the goals. However, people that have no goals to begin with often find themselves floundering about, completing tasks or putting out fires as they come up. This usually leads to uncertainty of purpose, lack of motivation, and a loss of the esteem that builds from seeing goals come to fruition.

Goals are a precursor to confidence, if used effectively. There are two basic elements that make goals useful. The first is that goals must be achievable. Routinely setting goals that are virtually impossible is a setup for routine failure. Second, goals must be challenging. This means there should be a possibility that the goal will not be achieved without solid implementation and consistent effort.

A goal should force someone to work hard and take steps that lead to growth and success. Combined with the confidence that comes from goal realization, growth develops overtime through continued movement higher of the bar for accomplishment.