by Fabianna Mueti | Nov 25, 2019 | Career Happiness, Happy Workplaces, Self discovery, Succeeding where you are
Picture this; John works in the Marketing department of a medium-sized Tech company. He is constantly behind on deadlines, is always making excuses as a result and incessantly points out that his supervisor is unfair to him, because of the several performance improvement plans (PIPs) he has had to undertake in the past few months.
Does this sound like a familiar case that you have encountered in your organization, as a peer or manager? Or even more self-introspectively; have you been this person anywhere you have worked? If you answered yes to this question, you’ve come to the right place. Let’s unpack this, shall we?
When in a situation where it feels like you’re being attacked, our natural instinct is to become defensive. Which is why, when your supervisor asks about a deadline you missed, you are inclined to look for an excuse instead of taking accountability and renegotiating a new deadline, or just being truthful about why the deadline was not met. It’s difficult to point a finger at yourself instead of always shifting blame to an external factor. However, in order for you to advance; in your career, personal life, and relationships, you need to learn to point the finger to yourself more often.
Personal accountability is a key driver for increasing individual and organization success. It is the deliberate choice to act diligently on all your roles and to accept responsibility for the outcomes of your actions. How can you practice personal accountability at work, you ask?
1. Setting SMART goals – Once you have a clear understanding of the expectations the organization has for you, ensure you set micro-goals for yourself, that you can use to work towards achieving your targets, or expected outcomes. Doing this ensures you don’t let things fall through the cracks, therefore not putting yourself in a precarious position of having to explain to your supervisor why certain things were not accomplished.
2. Taking ownership of your work – This is strongly tied to taking initiative. Essentially, taking ownership is telling your teammates, and supervisors that they can trust you to do the right thing; to deliver on time, to be reliable, and to keep your word. Ultimately, this creates a strong sense of trust in the team. Make sure you communicate your needs and ask for support as early as possible, to avoid a project from delaying, or from causing conflict as a result of your peers, or supervisor being affected. Also, ownership negates micromanagement, which we all know nobody likes.
3. Asking for feedback – One of the most effective ways to self-improve and become better at your work is through receiving feedback. This should not only be exclusive to your supervisor, but also to your peers. Don’t always wait for the bi-annual performance review. Take the initiative to non-formally ask for feedback, on a periodic basis; based on the personal career or learning goals you have for yourself. Here is an article to guide you on how you can ask for feedback that will help you
4. Learning from mistakes – Instead of obsessing over a mistake you made and seeing it as just that; use the opportunity to be a teachable moment. Most of the people you look up to, that are now experts in their field, got there by making mistakes and learning from them. In addition, use these opportunities to acknowledge any areas of improvement you need to work on; this may be in the form of on the job training or taking up an online course. Check out our post on 5 tips to accelerate your learning with online courses
5. Self-introspection – This is where self-awareness comes into play. The more present you are, and the more you hold a mirror to yourself; about your work, ability to be reliable, how you relate to others, communicate your needs, and/or frustrations and so forth, the more likely you are to hold yourself accountable for your actions and foster a sense of trust with your peers, and managers.
In conclusion; form a habit of self-evaluation at work, where you refrain from unjustifiably blaming external factors for things you are able to change yourself. Ultimately, these habits are also able to inform you of what next steps you should take in your career, and may just reveal that you need to shift in a different direction!
We leave you with this quote, for emphasis purposes;
“Take accountability… Blame is the water in which many dreams and relationships drown.” -Steve Maraboli
by Fabianna Mueti | Nov 18, 2019 | Career Happiness, Happy Workplaces, Self discovery, Succeeding where you are
Are you worried about paying hefty fees to increase your skills and knowledge in an area that will improve your abilities at work? Worry no more.
We are now entering the predicted most phenomenal era in workplaces. Predicted almost 20 years ago, the Future of Work is quickly revolutionizing everything we knew about the type of skills we need to thrive at work AND HOW to acquire them. Check out this list of skills you will need to stay relevant and adaptable in your profession.
As the year comes to an end, it’s always a good moment, to take a step back, evaluate the progress you have made in the year, and how you will continue learning and growing personally and professionally in the coming year.
One of the rapidly growing spaces in self-learning driven by technology, busy schedules and the need to learn more things faster, is online courses; which is slowly taking over universities, and with plenty of them being free, learning has become even more accessible.
Often, some of our career coachees have shared that they struggle to make effective use of these online courses. And today, we are happy to share with you a few tips to help you hack these new virtual universities.
The first step is to identify a gap you have; at work, in your personal life or even any interest, you have that you want to get good at, research what online courses you need to take, and then – intentionally set aside time to take up these courses.
Some of the sites we recommend and have tried are EDX, Udemy, Coursera, and Alison. Not all courses are free, but the cost is still cheaper in comparison to paying for a fully-fledged degree, or diploma.
Below are a few tips about how to succeed in taking online courses;
1. Set goals of what you want to learn– Write them down and adhere to them. Think about the value you want to gain after acquiring this new skill set or knowledge and how your work or life will turn around as a result. Visualizing what success will look like, keeps you on the disciplined track!
2. Allocate time for your online studying and STICK to it – By intentionally creating a time slot for taking your course(s), you’re able to plan your work and other commitments around it. Resolving to commit to your own goals is one of the hardest yet most powerful mind-sets you can develop. In addition, allocate time when your brain is most active and fresh, this ensures you are assimilating as much information as possible within short timeframes.
3. Create a space that will boost your concentration levels – Be it at the comfort of your living room, a café, at the park and so on. A learning space should be one that makes you focused, at ease and not fidgety and full of distractions.
4. Take note of what you’re learning – Have a notebook, or take notes on your laptop. This increases your retention levels and tracks the progress of what you’re learning.
5. Hold yourself accountable – Lastly, but not least; take charge of your own learning. Do periodic check-ins, get rid of ALL distractions, and look for an accountability partner who will hold you responsible. Do whatever it takes to take yourself forward!
Here is a list of more online course platforms that have been ranked the best on the World Wide Web. We hope you found these tips useful.
Let us know some of the other sites you have found useful and how you’ve organized yourself to succeed!
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by Martha Karimi | Oct 15, 2019 | Career Happiness, Happy Workplaces, Self discovery, Succeeding where you are
Hey there, how are you feeling about your work today?
Does achieving work satisfaction keep you awake at night? Start by figuring out what tasks give you energy and which ones drain you.
Your STAR Tasks
You love these tasks! You want more! You wish work was only these tasks for the rest of your life.
- Work feels effortless
- You approach every task with excitement
- You want to keep going on and on
- Quick results, high levels of productivity
- You are confident you can deliver with your eyes closed
- You are confident you can find solutions for challenges that arise
- Where did time go? Is your everyday slogan
- You learning fast,
- You love trying out new skills and approaches seemingly by auto-pilot.
Your JUST OK Tasks
You can handle these but just up to a certain amount. You don’t mind them too much.
- You are just comfortable, but not overly excited.
- Sometimes tasks are boring yes
- You feel ok to jump into these tasks but given a chance choice, you possibly wouldn’t
- You deliver just good enough work unless you put conscious effort into going the extra mile
- If you take on more of this work, you start feeling drained
- You are ok to learn new skills, in this area but would rather choose something else
- You often need a motivation boost, to get going
Your DRAINER Tasks
You dread them. You want to disappear or call for sick leave. You hack them or not, either way, you hate them. You wish there was a way out.
- In another life, you would be doing anything else but this
- You are always tired after this type of work
- You remain unenthusiastic about the tasks, and need to really psyche yourself for the task or find a higher purpose to get it done
- Tasks take forever to complete
- After 1 task, you need an hour break
- If someone takes these tasks from you, you jump around like a 5-year-old
- Work just feels like a punishment, you can’t relate how other people enjoy what they do
- Learning any new skill, makes you feel incapable
How is work feeling lately? Getting your JD 70% aligned to tasks that give you energy is a key ingredient for career satisfaction and happiness.
Our Career Happiness Diagnostics Tool coupled with our Right Job For You Assessment, does the magic in helping you figure your first steps for alignment.
Let’s start talking!
by Martha Karimi | Oct 15, 2019 | Career Happiness, Happy Workplaces, Self discovery, Succeeding where you are
Don’t know what you are really good at? Try this simple activity over the next few days. Probably one of the most powerful things, I have ever done.
- Make a list of 3-4 close friends from different circles. Spiritual, party/drinking buddies, workplace best buddy, former best boss/colleague, one hater who pretends to be a friend, and so on
- Send them these reflection questions, asking for genuine feedback. What am I really good at/what comes naturally to me? What is the one thing, if I did better or developed muscle for, I would be an even more awesome individual? What do you think is holding me back from my highest potential?
- Take them out for a coffee and just listen. Listen. Just Listen.
- Consolidate everything, let it marinate, watch it sink in. Then make a start, stop continue plan.
- Implement your plan and watch the magic happen
by Reynold Owuor | Oct 8, 2019 | Career Happiness, Empathy, Happy Workplaces, Succeeding where you are
According to AskSpoke.com empathy is the ability to understand someone else’s thoughts and feelings.
Empathy is one of the 5 key elements of emotional intelligence according to psychologist Daniel Goldman and is an essential leadership skill.
So why do you need to develop this skill?
Embracing empathy at work will allow you to be more productive and have higher satisfaction in the workplace. According to HBR’s Empathy index, Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, Netflix and Unilever are undisputed as the most empathetic companies and this not only has a positive impact on their employees but also their output making their teams more successful than companies without empathy.
It’s thus an essential tool that you need to learn if you want to be more successful at your work.
You will be able to work well with your workers coming from a place of understanding, which allows you to have an open mind towards different situations and reduce levels of conflict in the workplace.
So how do you become empathetic?
- Actively listen to your workmates: and try and understand their point of view if you are a leader then listen to your workmates. You don’t have to agree, but listen!
- Ask questions, this will show the other person that you’re interested in them. Asking how someone is doing can go along way and it will let someone know that you are a caring person.
- Avoid making assumptions about people: if someone looks off dont assume it’s because of you, the genuinely might just be having a bad day.
- Be genuine in your interactions with people: being open and honest about your achievements and shortcomings allows people to be able to relate with you.
- Accept people as they are: when people feel accepted, they are more likely to feel like themselves and they can feel free to give their best without feeling judged if they make a mistake.
Try it out and let us know if being more empathetic has had an impact on you and your workmates or team!
by Martha Karimi | Sep 30, 2019 | Career Happiness, Succeeding where you are
Taking a long break from work to; study, rest, raise a child, build a home, take care of someone, explore a passion? Keep these reflective questions in mind while you are away. By doing so, you will have solved half of your come back challenges.
