{"id":11686,"date":"2019-09-19T21:49:25","date_gmt":"2019-09-19T21:49:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comparably.com\/blog\/?p=11686"},"modified":"2020-03-23T17:29:36","modified_gmt":"2020-03-24T00:29:36","slug":"10-ways-to-improve-your-work-self-for-national-self-improvement-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comparably.com\/blog\/10-ways-to-improve-your-work-self-for-national-self-improvement-month\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Ways to Improve Your Work Self for National Self-Improvement Month"},"content":{"rendered":"

All of September is Self-Improvement Month, and we thought it was a good time to visit some ways in which we could all improve ourselves at work<\/a>. This goes for underachievers and superstars alike. We all have unlimited capacity for simply being better, knowing more, and being even more productive and understanding. Here are ten easy ways to hone yourself in the here and now.<\/p>\n

1) Learn some new skills<\/strong>\u2013 No matter how old you may be, the fact is you can still expand your horizons and add more features to your metaphorical Swiss Army Knife. Polymaths know a little something about everything, and you can strive to be a mini-polymath at work: don\u2019t let any areas of your office or your company fall completely outside of your mental purview, as you never know when you might be the only one around with the answer to a particular question while working late some night. Even the best employees can strive to know more about more things that go on at their office.<\/p>\n

2)\u00a0<\/strong>Humility<\/strong>\u2013 So often at work, we are focused on self-promotion, and we lose sight of the importance of the communal nature of all human groups. But no matter how big of a hotshot you may be feeling like this week due to this particular sale or that particular meeting, it\u2019s important to silence the inner pep squad cheering you on (at least for a moment) and remember that very little that we accomplish is truly accomplished on our own. Remember that everyone else at work is there for a similar reason, and they all have their share of good weeks and bad. Instead of just braying about your latest achievement, take a moment to remember a work defeat that humbled you – \u00a0not to depress yourself, but to remind yourself of a moment when you needed to rely on your team.<\/p>\n

3) Research and prepare<\/strong>\u2013 No matter what the task you have to deal with is, there\u2019s always a little more research you can do to prepare for meeting it head-on. There may be a few cases where one can be too\u00a0<\/u>prepared (jazz musicians, improv comedians), but most of us could always use a little brush-up. So anyone looking to improve their work performance has an easy solution if they have access to the voluminous amounts of information recorded by humanity on just about every conceivable subject.<\/p>\n

Survey; 50% Say they Negotiated their Salaries.<\/a><\/p>\n

4) Organize<\/strong>\u2013 As with research and prep, you can never be too organized. Life and work can come at us pretty fast, and nobody can be blamed for having lingering stacks of assorted things teetering on their desk next to their overstuffed inbox. And the truth is, despite those blessed weekend moments where everything holds still, life and work are gonna keep on shoveling new stuff in your door. So figure out a system of consistent organization, and make sure you set aside just a little time every day to hold the new stuff at bay and put\u00a0all the stuff you already have to deal with in order.<\/p>\n

5) Make sure you take genuine breaks<\/strong>\u2013 Despite how you may feel when you\u2019ve really hit a productive groove at work, you are not a machine. There is a point where you will push yourself too much and burn out \u2013 for the day, the week, or even the whole career. Your physical body and your psyche need to be tended to often for your work garden to grow, so make sure you take truly meaningful breaks. This means both little ones, where you walk around the block a few times, and big ones, where you take a week off and hike down into the Grand Canyon with just a sleeping bag and some beef jerky. As much as you need to focus on work to succeed, you also need to find time to focus on anything but work \u2013 it\u2019s all about a sense of balance.<\/p>\n

6) Empathy for the boss<\/strong>\u2013 Not all of us are as skilled at empathy as we should be, and it\u2019s so much easier to dismiss a difficult boss with a few well-chosen expletives than to attempt a real understanding. But here\u2019s the thing: if you can figure out what your boss\u2019 position is, how they feel, where they stand, and what they need from their employees, it will get you that much closer to giving them those things (and getting them off of your back.) Just put yourself is his or her shoes and backwards engineer some understanding of your boss\u2019 position. A lot comes along with human understanding.<\/p>\n

7) Listen better<\/strong>\u2013 Here\u2019s something else we can always improve, no matter how conscientious we are at work. Listening, of course, isn\u2019t the same thing are hearing. It requires your emotional intelligence be fully engaged, as people don\u2019t always say what they mean, and often talk in a kind of emotional code \u2013 even at work. So striving to understand the words you hear from your coworkers, and listening for those prompts between the words, can only make you a better communicator and a more informed employee.<\/p>\n

8) Come in earlier<\/strong>\u2013 Fifteen minutes hardly ever amounts to much in the grand scheme of things. Fifteen minutes extra sleep never really sealed the deal for anyone looking to catch up on rest. But coming in to work fifteen minutes early can jumpstart your day in terms of productivity, allowing you to pick up an early headwind that can maintain your positive sense of momentum throughout the entire workday.<\/p>\n

9) If you\u2019re going to naysay, make sure you\u2019re also a problem solver<\/strong>\u2013 We all have an easier time criticizing each other than ourselves, and this is doubly true at work where the political structure has an inherent element of Machiavellian power plays, not to mention schadenfreude. But if you\u2019re going to say something negative about someone else\u2019s idea, make sure you follow it up with your own fixer for the issue. If you\u2019re going to put someone else\u2019s idea to question, constructively is the only way to go.<\/p>\n

10) Be adaptable <\/strong>\u2013 Here\u2019s a big one, and maybe the most important one. The Chinese philosopher and politician Confucius said, \u201cThe green reed which bends in the wind is stronger than the mighty oak which breaks in a storm.\u201d Rigidity may be impressive in the moment, but the ability to keep a semblance of momentum while rolling with the punches is more valuable in the long haul \u2013 especially at work, where new ideas are necessary and encouraged.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All of September is Self-Improvement Month, and we thought it was a good time to visit some ways in which we could all improve ourselves at work. This goes for underachievers and superstars alike. We all have unlimited capacity for simply being better, knowing more, and being even more productive and understanding. Here are ten … Read full-story <\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":11690,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[11,21,1244,1245],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comparably.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11686"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comparably.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comparably.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comparably.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comparably.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11686"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.comparably.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11691,"href":"https:\/\/www.comparably.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11686\/revisions\/11691"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comparably.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comparably.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comparably.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comparably.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}