10 Ways To Become Better At Your Job Today

With a still-shaky recovery, tepid hiring and continued stagnation in many workplaces, employees have a tough time feeling inspired to extend any extra effort . But if you can improve your job performance, you will put yourself in a good position to climb up the ladder should an opportunity materialize, or to move to a totally new job, in case you hear of an opening at another company.

What’s the best way to become better at your job? We’ve run a number of stories with advice about improving job performance. After looking over those pieces and brainstorming with Forbes Leadership Editor Fred Allen, I’ve put together ten tips that should help you get ahead in your current role.

First, get organized. 

With the onslaught of email, texting, tweeting and everything else, it can be challenging to stay on top of your workload. We ran this story about conquering your email inbox, which recommends a system of prioritizing urgent items, dealing with short requests quickly, deleting junk and putting less pressing matters on a to-do list. One more tip: Consider imposing some discipline on email interruptions. Check your inbox once a half hour or once an hour, to give yourself time to complete tasks that require concentration.

Second, stop trying to multi-task. 

In 2009, a group of Stanford researchers released a study that showed how people who do heavy multitasking, keeping up several email conversations at once while texting, jumping from one website to the next and trying to work at the same time, do not pay attention as well as those who maintain a more streamlined work flow.

Third, put yourself in the mindset of your boss. 

We’ve run several stories about dealing with difficult supervisors. The most effective strategy: Empathize, and discover your boss’s style, so that you can imagine what he or she is looking for in an employee. We ran this piece about dealing with a younger supervisor, this story about a series of questions you can ask your boss, which will help you get to know her (what was her previous job? what are her career aspirations?), this story about dealing with a lousy manager (set an agenda, don’t yell back), and this piece about managing up a difficult boss (treat him like a difficult client). The overarching lesson: figure out your boss’s style and orientation and try to stay one step ahead.

Fourth, forge strong relationships with colleagues outside your immediate area of responsibility. 

In his best-selling book Getting More: How To Negotiate to Achieve Your Goals in the Real World, Wharton Business School professor Stuart Diamond notes that “companies, even small ones, can be very political places.” Diamond recommends allying with people who can help you, including employees who have been there a long time and who may be overlooked by others, those who work in human resources, staffers in the information technology department, even security guards and cleaning staff who have probably absorbed much more about your firm than you realize. Diamond calls it “building your own coalition.”

Fifth, focus on listening. 

Listen to your boss of course, but also pay close attention to your colleagues and subordinates. At work we often feel like we have to perform by doing verbal gymnastics, but listening closely to what others say can be even more useful and can garner more appreciation from co-workers.

Sixth, try getting in early. 

Even 15 minutes can make a difference. If you can swing an early arrival, you will get a step ahead of the day’s tasks. You can even reward yourself later with a longer lunch break or a departure for home that comes earlier than usual.

Seventh, make sure you give yourself genuine down time. 

We ran a piece on the importance of vacation. That means time away from the office when you don’t check work email or let yourself think about the next project. It can give you a sense of control, of purpose, it can shake up your perception of time, offer the space to expand cultural horizons and allow the kind of relaxed break everyone needs to refuel.

Eighth, once you’ve refueled, aim for clarity and precision in everything you do at work.

If an email won’t convey the subtlety of your decision to push for a colleague’s ouster, then pick up the phone or visit in person.

Ninth, do plenty of research and preparation before you undertake any task.

Don’t take up your boss’s time before you’ve performed plenty of legwork. Prior to a meeting, rehearse your strategies and objectives.

Tenth, try some humility.

Most career advice seems to encourage relentless self-promotion. But Orville Pierson, author of The Unwritten Rules of the Highly Effective Job Search, says it’s better to avoid strings of hyped-up adjectives and instead to describe your accomplishments simply, without embellishment.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2013/11/11/10-ways-to-become-better-at-your-job-today-2/

Effective Leaders Build Success-Driven Teams: Lead With Three C's

Recently, I asked myself a serious question about my career: "Is it professionally healthy to remain a boss, or is it time to stand up and be leader?"

After a deep discussion with some coworkers, a colleague gave me a chart which described the traits of a boss versus a leader. It was a brief diagram, and yet its impact on me was strong. It led me to the conclusion that personally, I had experienced my fair share of good bosses; however, my interactions with great leaders were far and few between. Therefore, I decided it was time for me to stand up and position myself as a leader.

Leaders noticeably emit an attitude which allows them to build success-driven teams. They coach, demonstrate, develop and give credit. Most importantly, they lead with the understanding that there is no "I" in "team." As a result, professional women climbing the ladder of success must distinctly decide to strive with guidance in mind in order to gain the best results.

Under the governance of the few true leaders I worked with, I had a greater opportunity to flourish professionally. So, to start your journey on ditching the "boss" mentally and adopting a leadership attitude, apply the "Three C's" to build success driven teams:Collaborate, Cooperate and Coordinate.

Collaborate -- Don't Dictate
Leaders, personally and professionally, gain more by the applying the method of collaboration. Leaders coach and develop success-driven teams by creating a space where individuals can collaborate collectively to share ideas. Collaboration fosters engagement. It is important to allow others to feel they are an integral part of a process. When they do, a greater sense of value within the organization achieved. Essentially, everyone has the ability to add value to an organization, but the strategy rests in the hands of the "leader" to foster collaboration that builds success-driven teams.

Cooperate -- Don't Rely on Authority
Leaders must understand success is not gained with an "I" attitude. Instead, true success is multiplied when a "we" is engaged. When the team is collaborating in idea sharing, cooperate, and don't let your position go to your head. Again, your team is a reflection of you. Everyone has a voice and regardless of title, everyone deserves to be heard.

Coordinate - Don't Confuse
As a leader, it is important to share your vision clearly. Communicate your ideas with direction openly and at all levels to ensure full comprehension. Additionally, confirm your message is consistent and clarify the "gray areas" that may throw your team off track. Your team cannot garner success if they are confused.

In Level Three Leadership: Getting Below the Surface, author J.G. Clawson indicated effective leaders understand the necessity of connecting with individuals at all levels within an organization. Therefore, ask yourself...

• Am I commanding outcomes without gaining results?
• Do I take credit for all achievements?
• Do I exert leadership qualities with authority?

If you answered "yes" or raised an eyebrow and sighed "maybe," then take some time to reexamine some of your results and consider restocking your methods with more leadership directives.

So, all this is to say, as professional women climbing the ladder of success, make sure you stand out in comparison to the rest. It is acceptable to be a boss, but admirable to be a leader. For some, we already are in the leadership role in which this may prove beneficial for continued success.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/shanna-b-van-ness/effective-leaders-build-success-driven-teams_b_3606374.html

Start Building A Healthy Self-Esteem Today

Building a healthy self esteem can do wonders for your life. The way you deal with people on a personal and professional level are all affected by how you perceive yourself. Having a low level of self confidence may greatly affect your life; you end up having a harder time performing at work, maintaining healthy relationships, and enjoying life.

Your perception of yourself will dictate how you live life as a whole. You may feel unable to confidently face problems and make sound decisions. You may also begin to notice that the people around you are also losing confidence in you and your skills; the way you perceive yourself will dictate how people will see you and interact with you. Yes, your self esteem means so much more than you realise.

Having a healthy concept of yourself must come from within you and not from what others say about you or your physical appearance. Self-confidence is learning how to appreciate and accept yourself as you are. If your self esteem is only dependent on how people see you and what they think about you, then your confidence will be short-lived. You will have self doubts the moment people start saying negative things about you. You need to learn how to be happy and proud of yourself, your achievements, and experiences even if others are not there to cheer you on. Once you learn to do this, then you will have a healthy self esteem no matter what the situation is.

You never know what life will throw at you, but you need to start building your self-confidence to face life's toughest challenges. You need the self-assurance to make sound decisions and navigate through life on your way to success.

Here are a few simple tips to help build your self-esteem:

• Recognise your strengths, talents, and abilities and empower yourself with them. Learn to accept your weaknesses without allowing them to pull you down into a spiral of depression. Instead, work on developing and improving yourself.
• Conquer self-defeating thoughts. Stay positive and fill your mind with good things about yourself, people, and the situation you are in. Even if things seem really bad right now, focus on how things could be better and the small steps you need to take to make that happen.
• Be honest to yourself and others. Don't try to put up an image of yourself that's not real; don't project someone you're not. Allow people to accept you for who you are and not someone you just created to please others. No one is perfect, even if sometimes they appear to be. Perceptions of people can be deceiving as you only ever see a fragment of the whole person.
• Take responsibility for your actions and decisions. Empower yourself to make important decisions about life and your future. Stop allowing others to dictate the course of your life. Think about what it is that you really want to achieve. Even if that means you need to do something that would normally make you feel a little selfish. Remember that it's your life, not theirs. Who will suffer if things go wrong because you let others run your life? In all likelihood, you will suffer the most. The people who keep trying to control your life won't be directly affected by what happens to you.

Building self confidence isn't something that can be done over night. You need to work on it every day and the best way to do that is one step at a time, the smaller steps the better.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/paul-bailey/self-esteem-building_b_2971836.html

5 Tips To Enjoy The Personal Development Journey

Ah, the path of self-inquiry and personal development. It is a brave and beautiful thing to investigate the depths and dimensions of your inner world but it’s very easy to get caught up wanting change to happen NOW and soon you find you are just trying tooooo hard. 

Here are 5 ideas from me that may help make your personal development journey a more peaceful and enjoyable one. 



1. Be mindful of the ego, which is essentially a function of the mind.
Yes even personal development is an environment that the ego can thrive in and as you begin to investigate your inner world it can play up and make you anxious about your progress. It is the ego that compares us to others and it is the ego that pushes us to transform now!. Through awareness we can learn to ignore the ego and find the ease within our efforts towards learning and transformation.

2. Be your own best friend.
Let go of the ego’s idea that this is corny and begin to treat yourself in the same way you would your nearest and dearest. Whether you are striving to become a more loving, understanding, tolerant or open-minded person (or all of the above), you will certainly enjoy more success if you can be more patient and supportive of yourself and your efforts.

3. Lighten up!
Don’t take yourself so seriously. Great that you want to become a better person, but have fun doing it. There may be times that you fall off the proverbial horse, but learning to laugh at yourself will help you get back up and enjoy the rest of the ride.

4. Surround yourself with like-minded people (who share similar goals and values).
If your aim is to become a better version of yourself you will find you have more success when you spend time with other people who are also driven in the same way. The yoga world for example, is filled with people who are committed to growing and learning themselves as well as being very willing to support others on their path.

5. Be relaxed with yourself.
There’s no need to transform overnight! Allow yourself time to enjoy the process of learning and developing and remember those wise words written by Ralph Waldo Emmerson: “Life is a journey not a destination”.


http://bubblesandbackbends.com/1/post/2013/06/5-tips-how-to-enjoy-the-personal-development-journey.html

Ten Top Personal Development Tips

Personal development is a very broad topic and can encompass anything that involves your growth as a person. It means following a course of continual growth and striving to reach your full potential. When you become a little better in some way than you were the day prior, your life and your circumstances will continuously improve. Personal development is typically achieved by first looking within oneself, altering your thinking, and ultimately changing your behavior as a result.

Since each of us is a unique individual our paths will vary. That having been said, below you will find 10 of the most helpful suggestions for improving one's self. Enjoy the journey!

1. Don't Let Anything Stop You
Never quit, never give up. Throughout your journey, there will be ups and downs. It is a given that there will be slow points and setbacks. These things will occur. In those moments of doubt or despair, DO NOT GIVE UP. Know in your heart that no matter how difficult things may become, no matter how low you may feel, ultimately there is nothing that will stop you. Life can throw whatever it wants at you and you will not quit, you will not falter until you win.

Keep in mind that personal development is a lifelong journey. There is no ending. It's all about the experiences and lessons learned.

So since there really is no finish line, make sure you enjoy the ride!

2. Follow Your Passion
Do what makes you happy. This is something that we have very, very backwards. Most of us chase money. While money is certainly not a bad thing, money by itself does not bring joy. Money can buy stuff. Stuff can provide temporary fun. But stuff doesn't bring true joy.

Follow your heart. Do what you love. The amazing thing about this is that when you do something that you're passionate about, you'll be successful at it. You'll put it tons of hard work and many, many extra hours and it will never feel like "work" because you're having fun. And as a result, the money will follow.


3. Challenge Yourself

Your goals should be just out of reach. Always challenge yourself. Growth comes as a result of adversity. If everything were easy, we would never change or grow. Your goals should not be impossible, but they should be challenging. Push yourself beyond what you perceive to be your current limitations. Explore new territory. Try out different things that you've never done before. Do something that you're afraid of.

Greatness comes as a result of having to dig deep and discover something that you didn't realize you already had inside of you.


4. Conquer Yourself

The only true obstacles in life are self-imposed. We will always have unforeseen things occur. Roadblocks will come up from time to time. You'll be right on the verge of accomplishing something only to have the rug yanked out from under you at the last moment. Murphy's Law strikes again.

While we cannot always control what happens to us, the one thing we can control is how we react to it. The only true obstacles we have in life are self-imposed. Our true obstacles lie within. If you can conquer yourself, nothing can stop you. As the saying goes, whether you think you can or you can't--you're right


5. Visualize Your Goals
Picture yourself where you want to be. As author Rhonda Byrne taught us in the best selling book "The Secret", what you intend will come to be.

Discover your true intention and make certain your goals are in alignment. Picture yourself achieving this goal. Close your eyes and imagine how it feels to accomplish this goal. Truly allow yourself to experience the emotions associated with the experience. Feel as though it has already happened.

Go through this visualization process daily until your goal has been achieved. Many successful people believe in the power of visualization and have used it throughout their lives to achieve great things.


6. Personal Responsibility
Avoid the blame game. This may seem counter-intuitive, but accept fault for everything that goes wrong in your life. No, that's not a typo. As hard as this may be to face, the reality is YOU are responsible for where you currently are in life. You have created your circumstances. Your choices and actions have gotten you to where you are today.

There is a great freedom that comes as a result of accepting personal responsibility. As soon as you stop blaming others, you are no longer a victim. You're free to change things in your life for the better. Once you come to the realization that you are where you are as a result of your decisions, this puts you in the driver's seat for the future.


7. Be a Student of Change
Embrace change. 

Our world is constantly evolving and today at a much more rapid pace than in the past. Change is difficult. It's easier to find a comfort zone and stay there. The problem with this, however, is that the world is going to keep moving forward without you.

Things are changing, regardless of how you feel about it. By becoming a student of change, you'll be able to adapt and stay ahead of the curve. Besides, change is good. If it weren't for change, I'd be sitting in a cave right now. So learn to welcome change. In today's fast paced world, it's the only constant.


8. Read, Read, Read
Learn from others. You know the best way to become successful? Do what successful people do. While making mistakes is not something to be avoided (this is how we learn), you can certainly speed up your self development process by reading about the mistakes others have made and learn the lessons therein.

Make it your personal goal to read at least a book per month. I recommend reading anything written by Seth Godin or Robert Kiyosaki. For a list of further recommended reading books to help open your mind, click here:


9. Make It Manageable
Break big tasks down into small steps. Sometimes large goals or projects can seem unattainable. For example, "repair my credit" may seem like a daunting task. Where would you even begin?

Take large items on your to do list and break them down into small, manageable steps. Using the example above, on Monday take out your credit report and highlight all errors that need to be addressed. On Tuesday contact each creditor and ask that the item be fixed/removed. On Wednesday set up automated payments for your bills so that you develop prompt payment history. And the list goes on.

Take it one step at a time and suddenly that giant mountain doesn't seem so imposing.


10. Sense of Urgency - Avoid Procrastination at All Costs!

Start TODAY! There is no such thing as the perfect time. The amazing thing is that 100% of people that begin something NOW all get started. Those that wait until tomorrow? Not so much.

For whatever reason, the longer we wait the less likely we will take action. It's just human nature. As time passes, things tend to lose importance in our minds. Sense of urgency will help you get things accomplished, and get them accomplished in a timely fashion.

If it's important, do it now. While the first step is always the most difficult, every step afterwards becomes progressively easier.

http://www.squidoo.com/personal-and-professional-development