Monthly Archives: September 2021

own your job

Own Your Job to Increase Your Market Value

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Taking ownership of your job is a way to increase your value to your employer and in the marketplace.


Here is what you need to do to own your job.

  1. Choose a job that suits what you are good at and what you enjoy doing
  2. Make sure you are clear on your responsibilities and can deliver as expected or better
  3. Develop a be your own boss attitude
  4. Know-yourself and your strengths and challenges
  5. Keep improving through on-going learning and personal development initiatives

Choose A Job That Suits What You Are Good at and What You Enjoy Doing


Most people can do a lot of different things and have held a variety of positions. But there are some skills that you are probably best at and come more naturally. Know what those are and hopefully they are aligned with what you enjoy doing.


As well, choose the right company to work for where you can fit with the culture and that has values you share.


Make Sure You Are Clear on Your Responsibilities and Can Deliver as Expected


Tasks and responsibilities are what you are hired to perform, and they are not always clear. How can you meet performance expectations if what you need to do and how well is not spelled out?


If you are owning your job and things are not clear, then you need to sit down with you boss and align yourself with his/her expectations.


Make sure that your level of authority for decision making is discussed and reviewed every 6 months or annually.


Develop A Be Your Own Boss Attitude


You are like a business! I call that the YOU Inc way of thinking. Your talents and abilities make up your assets and you market those assets to your employer (customer) in exchange for money and benefits.


The more you increase your talents and abilities, the more you will be in demand and can negotiate better pay and benefits. So, invest in yourself!


Know-Yourself and Your Strengths and Challenges


Knowing yourself and your strengths and weaknesses helps you to choose the right career and to find ways to get better. This ties in with point number one.


Knowing yourself goes deeper and self-knowledge is often said to be the key to success and happiness in all aspects of life.


Here is a free online personality test to help you understand your personality.


Keep Improving Through On-Going Learning and Personal Development Initiatives


We can increase our talents and abilities that make up our assets. Once you realize you are a business and that you can increase your value by developing your talents and abilities, why wouldn’t you?


Develop a habit of continuous improvement and you will find yourself enjoying opportunities to solve problems and face new challenges. This will potentially give your more money but also increase your appetite for change and success.


Here is an article and video on the YOU Inc. exercise to help you get started on personal improvement.


feeling peace

Celebrate Feeling Peace in Your Life

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Today is the International Day of Peace and there are people dedicated to peace who are sharing wonderful resources for promoting peace.


Peace One Day has activities all day from presentations to films about peace.


When I speak about peace, I am referring to individual peace. When I can experience peace inside myself, I am feeling connected to who I really am.


We often seek peace and contentment through outer experiences. But true peace is within us and all we need to do is find the way to re-connect with ourselves and that feeling of peace that already exists.


Today and everyday, I invite you to discover and celebrate the peace you already have and encourage others to do the same.


Change the world one person at a time beginning with yourself.


Peace Education Program

https://peaceoneday.org/Main/

Events – Peace One Day

https://www.premrawat.com/

responsibilities of employees

The Four Key Areas of Responsibilities of Employees

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There are four key areas of responsibilities that every employee needs to assume to perform at their best. Employees need to understand this, and it needs to be communicated by management.


It is the manager’s responsibility to make sure employees understand these responsibilities and are properly trained to assume them.


The four areas are

  1. Performing tasks to define standards
  2. Teamwork
  3. Initiative
  4. Communication with management

Performing tasks to standards

Employees need to know what tasks they are expected to perform and to what standards. This means the quantities, the due dates, and the levels of quality. This is especially important for the top 20% of tasks that the employee needs to do.


The manager is responsible to make sure this is clear and to provide feedback on a regular basis. The employee needs to clarify their understanding and if unclear, approach the manager to discuss and come to agreement.


Teamwork

Today especially teamwork is an essential responsibility of each employee. This means developing the skills to collaborate with others to get the job done and achieve departmental goals.


The manager’s responsibility is to train and coach team members on working within a team. The manager must be familiar with the skills needed for teamwork and how to coach employees on developing those skills.


Each team member needs to be aware of the skills required of them for teamwork and look for ways to develop those skills whether it’s within the resources provided by the employer or from outside.


Initiative

Taking initiative is an important aspect of performance. People who take initiative regularly come up with ways to improve the way their work is done and find solutions to problems that impede productivity.


The manager needs to communicate that initiative is an important responsibility of each team member and coach team members according to their skill level and style of work. Some people are more prone to taking initiative as there is an element of risk involved, while others may not enjoy change and taking risk. But everyone can learn to improve themselves in taking initiative to make improvements.


Communicating with management

Team members need to be able to communicate their ideas to management concisely. The more people take initiative and have ideas for improvement, the better they need to be to state their case as often these ideas or improvements need management approval. 


Writing out a proposal on one page is a good way for management to understand what’s involved and the benefits so they can take a good decision to support the recommendation. To summarize, employees need to understand that their responsibilities for performance go beyond just doing the tasks. And managers need to understand that their role is to make sure employees know this and to train and coach them on those responsibilities.


daily record form

Tracking and Measuring a Habit or Goal Using a Daily Record Form

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Tracking and measuring your new habit towards achieving a goal is essential. In my last article and video I talked about my new habit to improve personal productivity. It is based on what I learned from the book Atomic Habits by James Clear.


I must say that my first week using his system has gone extremely well and I have accomplished more in the first few days than I had in the last two or three months. That is because I am doing what needs to be done without distractions. I am also very motivated because I have set up a reward for myself once I complete my work.


To track my new habit, I am using a daily record form where each day I check off if I have done the work. This way I can see if I am being consistent as consistency is essential for habit formation. The days that I don’t plan to do the morning work, such as on weekends, I simply put an X on those days.


You can download this form here.

 

You can also measure the quality of the work by scoring yourself on a scale of 1-10. Rather than just checking off the square for that day you put your score in the square.


Tracking and measuring an activity needs to be simple so it is easy to do. I printed this form and keep it on my desk. I do get satisfaction when I finish my scheduled time and check off the day on the form. I see my progress accelerating and that feels great.


Some goals like to lose weight are difficult as it requires important habit change and a new way of looking at oneself. The weight loss might not show because it needs to happen over time so weighing oneself daily along with tracking activities is important to see the change and stay motivated to do the work.


I realize more now that to achieve a goal I need to examine my habits and work on modifying an existing habit or removing a bad old habit. Whichever strategy works tracking and measuring needs to be included in the process. You can download the daily record tracking form through this link.


daily record form