Excellence is an attribute everyone wants to exhibit at work. On my own part, when I first started working at my first job at a beverage company, I wanted to be the best.
I wanted to give all my best to being the best worker they've ever employed. I even had lots of great stuff I planned to start doing at the company from my first day on the job.
But on getting there, things weren't what they seemed.
Apart from finding out that I wasn't going to get the full benefits of being an employee because my employer misclassified me, I also was bullied in the department I was placed in.
So it became hard for me to be the best and do some of those cool things I wanted to do at the company. Though it was hard, I still persevered to a large extent until positive results started to spring out.
You too can make that choice today. You can become the change your work space has been looking for. Here are a few tips to becoming that change:
1. Show Unwavering Belief in Your Organization.
There is nothing more important than the belief employees have about their organizations. A belief in something is what keeps it going. Some of us get into our jobs with the deeply rooted belief of getting our first house or buying our first car while on the job, and that drives our performance to do more to earn more. Every business is founded on a specific vision. When employees believe in something tied to the company, it naturally starts to grow.
Yahoo CEO Marissa T. Mayer showed she supported Google's vision by putting in 130-hours work weeks while at Google.
Support your employer's vision and you'll surely grow as the company grows.
2. Willingness to 'go the extra mile'.
Employees who are willing to go the extra mile are exemplary figures. It is very easy for employees to get used to a job and become too relaxed. Some employees even feel very disgusted when they are given additional tasks. It seems only a few are willing to go beyond the requirements of the job. Be among the few.
3. Hunger to Make Things Better.
How often have you walked up to your boss to suggest ways the task related activities should be restructured to improve the output of the organization? How often do you carry out research about your organization and recommend strategies to your boss that will enhance the organizational productivity and competitive advantage? These are what committed employees bring to the table.
They're not satisfied with riding on the status quo; rather they look for ways to make things better.
Charles Phillips runs Infor, one of the biggest startups in the world with 13,000 workers and 90,000 customers in 194 countries. When asked how they were able to get to such a tremendous height in few years, he laid emphasis on feedback - everybody was free to approach any top ranking person to report any mistake they caught or suggest new strategies. This freedom helped them catch loopholes in products, reports and strategies that might have cost them millions.
4. Keeping up-to-date with developments in the field.
A speaker in a conference I attended last year rightly said that what any employee does after their official working hours goes a long way to enhance their capacity in their workplace. Uncommon employees are always interested in participating in seminars, symposia, conferences and professional programmes that will enhance their capacity to deliver quality service to their organization.
5. Carrying out Organization's tasks even at personal cost.
One thing common about employees is their reluctance to incur personal cost to carry out organizational assignments. Employees are supposed to be positive about their jobs and organization and make some sacrifices just to ensure that the units and departments of their organizations are working smoothly.
They incur personal costs sometimes to ensure that the interrelated tasks of the organization are effectively coordinated towards the attainment of the organization's goals.
6. Understanding the 'bigger picture' of your Organization.
Every organization has visions which is a picture of what it wants to achieve and where it wants to be in the foreseeable future. It is not uncommon to see employees who do not care about their organization's long term goals. Rather, they are concerned with how to meet the daily target and get remunerated.
Passionate employees go out of their way to strongly identify with their organization's vision.
7. Help colleagues perform more effectively.
It is mostly the responsibility of the CEO, manager, or supervisor to motivate and inspire his/her subordinates to perform more effectively.
Some employees are highly respected by their colleagues thus giving them the opportunity to influence their work performances.
An employee who is accorded such respect can easily influence his/her colleague's work ethics. Every boss would see and reward such attribute.
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8. Mentoring both new and old Employees.
Businesses are striving hard to develop and retain a highly performing work force, but not without a some financial obligation. Hence mentoring has been identified as a cost effective measure to adequately train and develop employees to further skills acquisition, knowledge and career development.
Employees who can selflessly and willingly mentor new and old colleagues can be seen by his/her organization as indispensable assets. Especially when such kind gestures save the company huge costs associated with staff training and development programs. Everyone should strive to be among this pack of outstanding employees.