Career-Boosting Habits You Should Adopt | Fusion - WeRIndia

From entry-level to senior management, most workers have something more they’d like to achieve in their professional lives.

But advancing your career doesn’t just mean getting a promotion or switching to another company.

Every day, there are simple, little things you can do to improve your productivity, your job satisfaction and your overall standing with your colleagues.

Here are the habits you can start forming today to help your career:

Learn how to listen

There’s a big difference between truly listening to someone and simply waiting to talk.

Most people tend to do the latter when they’re pretending to do the former, but if you make the effort to hear, process and respond thoughtfully, your colleagues will take notice.

Listen to others as if you’d be quizzed on what they were saying. Listening keenly not only allows you to extract better information, it makes the other person feel heard, which is huge in terms of building relationships.

That type of skill, if nurtured and developed early, can be invaluable.

Double-check and confirm

Accountability and communication are key when it comes to improving your career.

In any role, you should confirm the goal and requirements, manage expectations and keep people informed.

This will help you manage to the result you’re looking to achieve.

By proactively keeping people up to speed, they’ll be aware of what you’re working on and see that you are invested in achieving the goal.

Say “thank you”

Work is a team sport and there are no solo victories. While most of us expect recognition and gratitude from our boss, give as much recognition to others as you’d like to receive.

Be the person who recognizes the wins and actions of others. Gratitude is a very simple but often overlooked tool for building strong relationships, especially in the workplace.

Everyone wants to feel appreciated, and making a regular habit of thanking others for their efforts can go a long way.

Stick to a schedule

Some people go through their work day as if they’re treading water. They deal with issues as they arise because they haven’t planned and they may feel like they’re struggling just to keep up.

Setting a specific schedule and blocking out time to deal with specific tasks such as answering emails — and really adhering to that schedule — can help you manage your day better.

Don’t be reactive; be very intentional and proactive. Instead of grazing through emails all day long, identify specific times to check and process email. Turn off the chime that announces each incoming email.

Focus on one thing at a time and avoid the minute-to-minute distraction of random emails.

Set goals and monitor your progress

Goals are a prerequisite to success. They’re how you define what you’re striving for, what success looks like and how your impact is measured.

Before you begin your workday, take a moment to write down and review your short- and long-term goals, and any progress you’ve made on them.

Make it a habit to set and check your goals every day. When you can describe what, you achieved, why it mattered and how much it’s worth in real-time, your career and résumé will grow by leaps and bounds.

Be honest with yourself

Taking stock of your strengths and weaknesses — and being realistic and honest with yourself about them — can help you to do your very best in your current and future roles. This is especially true of your weaknesses.

The best thing you can do for your career is to understand your strengths and weaknesses and admit they’re real.

If you’re creative, but disorganized, you will need to find a way to compensate for the fact that organization does not come naturally to you.

That may involve several different solutions, but the key is that you should never try to be something you’re not. No one can fake it forever.

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