I thought it would be useful to write about the behaviours and skills I think are important in the workplace. My motivation is to share those things I wish I knew when I was at the beginning of my career. I hope it will be useful to people either starting or in the early stages of their career and to those frustrated souls who have not made the progress they envisaged doing. If you feel this blog states the obvious then apply it!
Who am I to do this, you may ask? I can only answer by saying I spent several years managing, appraising and recruiting people in large organisations. I spent time pondering why some people succeed and others struggle to progress their careers, to try and guide people towards their goals. My observations are based on experience gained managing people and projects. I firmly believe there are certain behaviours and skills that play a great part in distinguishing achievers from the rest.
Attitude
The first area to look at is attitude or rather what your attitude is towards the company that employs you. Here are some questions for you to consider.
Do you know what are your company's goals are?
Does this vision excite you?
Do you find out what your colleagues and other departments or teams do?
Consider this. If you are answering no to these questions, then you are probably working for the wrong company or you need a change in your attitude to work.
Knowing your companies goals is important in the sense that you know which direction you and everyone else should be going. To know the goals means having a map, showing where you are, where you are going to and how to get there. Many organisations have mission statements, which are then broken down in to more specific goals. Be aware of these and how your department and your specific role is supposed to help achieve these.
People who feel an affinity with their company and can share in its goals are generally happier with their work. They understand why tasks need doing, where they fit in and what they contribute. Think of the difference between someone who knows they are mowing a large area of grass and someone who knows they are mowing the pitch before the FA cup final.
Employees who know what their colleagues do and what the other teams that interact with their own team do are in a position to help the company develop. Your interest and knowledge can allow you to suggest improvements in how teams and individuals hand over tasks to each other. This will help make your part of the company more productive and mark you out as a strategic thinker. You will be demonstrating that you care enough to help the company become more productive and have a wider perspective than your own particular role.
If you are reading this and thinking, well that's great but nobody has bothered to tell me what our goals are, where we heading and how I fit in, so what should I do? The answer should be to go and ask your manager, they really ought to know. It would suggest that there is also room for managers who have better instincts on how to lead their people.
