Often people make personal resolutions around the New Year. The New Year has become synonymous with a fresh start. However, your personal life does not have to be the only part of your life that benefits from resolutions; your career can also benefit from your attention to setting some resolutions and starting fresh.
How? Here are 7 resolutions to benefit your career all year:
Always Be Prepared
Organization is critical to your career success. If you’re unorganized it is bound to reflect in your performance. Therefore, organization helps you keep track of deadlines, ensure you’re prepared for meetings, and accomplishing your task on time and effectively. Unfortunately, when things are haywire, it shows. You always want to show your best effort and taking the time to keep yourself organized will have lasting positive results.
Ask for Feedback
When you’re working on a major project, take the time to ask your supervisor and your colleagues for feedback. Through this, your motivation to always do your best work in the most effective way will shine. Additionally, you do not want to wait until a performance evaluation to ensure you’re meeting the expectations of your supervisor. Be proactive.
Hone Your Skills
The best way to set yourself apart as an asset to any organization is to keep up to date with the latest skills and technology in your field. Your knowledge and expertise will prove useful when your supervisors and colleagues turn to you to figure out the new developments. Not being up to date could end up being incredibly costly to your career.
Make Connections
Make connections with the people with whom you work. Find commonalities and use those to build relationships. Fostering relationships with those you work closely with not only builds your network, but creates a positive working environment. This will not only benefit your career but your personal mindset when going to work every day. A positive work environment builds your confidence and heightens your attitude about your career.
Additionally, make an effort to grow your professional network.
Listen
A common misconception is that you need to constantly share your ideas to demonstrate your value. However, listening to other’s ideas and building up members of your team, shows your values and your ability to work well with a team. When you listen and praise the ideas and hard work of others, it becomes clear to those around you that it’s not all about you and you genuinely care about the success of the other members of your team.
Sharing your ideas and elaborating on the ideas of others to find the most effective solution to a problem is always beneficial, but be sure to find a balance between talking and listening.
Make Goals
Take the time to make explicit long- and short-term career goals. Write them down, create a plan to achieve them, and consistently check your progress towards your goals. When you’re working towards specific goals it eases the complexity of making career-related decisions. In fact, it becomes fairly simple: Either it helps you achieve your goals or it doesn’t. If it doesn’t help you accomplish your goals or isn’t aligned to your personal values, you do not have to make it a priority.
Take Time for Yourself
Taking the time to engage in activities that you enjoy and that reenergize you is not only important and necessary for your personal well-being, but also has a positive impact on your career. When you’re feeling your best, you’re more likely to have the energy and ability to make an impact on your team.
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