What does being a professional actually mean; well, “a person competent or skilled in a particular activity” says dictionaries. In a world of multi-tasking, just being skilled in a particular activity is no more lustrous in a career. There are certain important aspects, essential to attain professional success; those are:
- Cultivate good work ethics
- Get things done in time
- Block out distractions
- Be emotionally intelligent
- Focus on single tasking
Let us take a deep dive into these 5 key steps to professional success.
Cultivate good work ethics
Cultivating very good work ethics and work habits will ensure growth in any professional environment. People who deliver quality work with adept ethical attitude grow in their professional career. On the contrary, a complaining attitude about everything from the work, the manager, and eventually the organization seldom see growth; it would be great if they move on as they have a great concern with the current employer. Staying and complaining would only spoil the environment and it is not right for a professional to sport such attitude at the workplace. Further, the primary and most essential quality for a manager to emerge as a leader is to cultivate great work ethics; a wonderful positive attitude towards your role, your project, your team and your organization at large. Develop a deep sense of gratitude towards the role you play, do it with great passion and commitment, and that is indispensable for you to grow.
Get things done in time
What is the point in delivering a world-class product or a project after the deadline?
Today, we are in a fast changing world; we have moved into just-in-time manufacturing, on-the-spot delivery, day-one billability etc. In such a scenario, if you want to become a best performing professional, it is imperative to learn getting things done in time. Being time conscious and being very punctual, keep to your delivery promises at work, be on time when you accept a meeting; learn to respect your own time, others’ time and the organization’s time as well. It is good to stay reminded of the fact that time is equated to money, the more there is a delay in delivery, it will be a huge cost for the organization.
Block out distractions
Block out all your distractions!
In this social media surrounded world, various studies point to a falling global productivity index from 45-40% especially in IT based companies it is observed that people are all the time distracted. Even if it is the not the computers connected to Internet that distracts, smartphones are other sources of distraction. Smartphones on their part keep winking at you with notifications and tempting you to pick them and check every then. A research presents a data that it takes 15-20 minutes for an individual to go from a zero-state to a highly focusing moment, when doing a deep work. Then if there is any form of distraction from around disturbing the peak focus, the data states that it takes 10-12 minutes regain the focus on the work one does. Today, being in a world of distractions, it demands professionals to be proactive in blocking out all that distracts and be mindful, if the goal is to become a high performing professional.
Be emotionally intelligent
If your focus is to build a very powerful, conducive inter-personal relationship in your workplace, it is important that you are emotionally intelligent. Understand yourself and the colleagues around you properly and deeply; all great leaders, all great managers are emotionally intelligent. They always exhibit sensitivity towards people around in terms of understanding their feelings and emotions. Importantly, great leaders listen to their teammates properly.
Focus on single-tasking
While we talk about focusing on the tasks in hand, we should also understand that only electronic machines, with processors are cut out for multi-tasking and not human beings. Machines can switch between tasks, process data and get back again to carrying out what they were primarily instructed. On the contrary, human mind is not designed to perform multiple-tasks in the same time, same moment. People may tell that you can drive a car and listen to music as well; that is not actually multi-tasking as it doesn’t involve you into focusing completely into both and process information at the same time. Moreover, attempting to focus on every task in hand at the same time will only make you call the day incomplete at work. For being highly productive at work, pick one task at a time, focus, finish it, and move on.
All the best to every professional inclined to grow with values.
About the Author
Sivakumar Palaniappan is a Leadership Mindset Strategist, Keynote Speaker, Author, Storyteller, Expert Consultant and Coach on Mindset Strategies.