Most people want to do well at work, to stand out from the crowd, to be recognised as a top performer and get better development opportunities, without work dominating their life. So how do you do this? How can you put your best foot forward and still maintain a good work-life balance?
After all, many people are already working as hard as they can to stay on top of heavy workloads, and no one should have to start putting in crazy amounts of overtime to get ahead, that’s when you burnout, and then your performance suffers even more!
This is why we recommend that instead of working harder, you simply work differently, incorporating some new techniques into your working life that are designed to boost productivity, improve engagement and reduce stress.
1. Set short term goals broken down into clear objectives
If you’re not doing this already, make the switch from annual objectives to short term goals. Having objectives for the entire year isn’t the way to stay productive, many people will forget them, loose motivation, or their priorities will shift making them no longer valid.
Setting goals that can be completed within a few weeks means you are much more likely to stay focused, have a clearer idea of what you are working towards, and as a result feel more engaged with your work.
Once goals are set they can then be broken down into clear objectives; for example a sales person’s goal might look like this:
Goal – Bring in 2 new clients
Time frame – 1 month
Objectives
- Update my presentation slides
- Speak to marketing about resources I could be using
- Arrange 8 prospect meetings
- Spend a day networking on social media
2. Have regular talks with your manager in which you address blockers and concerns
Put some regular one to one time in with your line manager to talk through your work load and any blockers / concerns you might have. These don’t need to be long meetings, but if you don’t have a dedicated time slot to talk to your manager one to one you might end up suffering in silence, which can lead to burn out.
We all need some support sometimes, and there is nothing wrong with raising concerns and asking for help. These meetings are also a great way to show your manager your achievements and ensure they are aware of all your progress.
3. Record all of your progress
Make a record of all of your accomplishments and struggles as you go along. This could be simply marking off your objectives and goals as complete once finished, or making a note about something you achieved, or a blocker you worked around.
This will help you when it comes to showing evidence of your performance throughout the year, but also to show yourself how far you’ve come and where you want to improve moving forward.
This is key for great personal development, sometimes it’s hard to see the progress we’ve made to get to where we are, so this allows you to see how far you’ve come, and recognise your own growth.
4. Ask for more feedback
If you are working on a project with someone, ask them to give you feedback, preferably in written form, once the project is done. By doing this you can get a clearer sense of what you are doing well, and what you could be improving on.
It’s important to really take this feedback onboard, allow yourself to take pride in good feedback, but also be open minded to suggestions from others, try not to go on the defence if someone suggests how you can improve, most of the time they are simply trying to help you develop and grow.
Make sure you keep a record of all feedback, so you can reflect on it later, and use it for progression purposes if needed.
5. Give more feedback
You can also make a point of giving your colleagues feedback too. This could be a shout out for a job well done, or a constructive pointer on where they might need to improve, just make sure this is done in the right way, as a helpful tip on what could be done better, and not as a means of criticising their work.
Giving feedback is a great way to connect with your co-workers, and build your skills with giving constructive feedback for if you ever hope to become a team leader or manager. If you don’t have a feedback culture at your organisation, maybe ask someone if they’d be happy to get some feedback from you before you give it, if they are not used to receiving feedback they might not be sure how to take it.
To make all of these things a breeze your organisation can implement a performance management platform, like Advanced Clear Review! Clear Review is a simple to use platform that allows everyone at an organisation to set up check-ins with their managers, set short term goals with clear objectives, give and receive feedback, and stores all of the information these actions generate to be viewed when needed.
Clear Review has been designed not just to help organisations boost productivity, but also to make employees’ working lives better, we believe that everyone can benefit from good performance management.
To find out more book your free demo with our team today, and start saying yes to boosting careers and reducing burnout.