Post on 08-Feb-2017
HOW TO BE EFFECTIVE AT WORK PLACE
The dictionary defines effective as producing the result that is wanted or
intended; producing a successful result. So, it won’t be wrong to say that being
effective has to do with living up to the standard or expectation.
Effectiveness at work place cannot in any way be compromise because it is a
place meant for business transaction. We are always expected to be at our
best in everywhere we find ourselves irrespective of the environmental,
social, political, religious, or family constraint.
There has never been a reason why anyone should not be effective because it
is demanded from every one of us.
The work place should be a centre for progressive, aspiring, result driven,
high achievers and not for non-challancy. No employer of labor will be proud
to keep paying a staff that is non-productive or effective because of the
negative resultant effect that staff puts on the company finances. Looking at a
football team on the field of play, each player is expected to bring into the
team his dexterity in order for the team to succeed. The opponent can only
win a match, when they discover a loophole and then decide to make use of it.
Being effective at work or in anything that we find ourselves doing, solely
depends on the individual and he/she does not need to be talked into it.
Effectiveness cannot be hidden because it radiates so much like the sun that
we all fell. It is the bedrock of every successful innovation or invention that
man sees on the planet earth.
Even though we are born into this world with our five senses, it still takes
time for us to fully develop the ability to master the role and functions of each
of the five senses. So being effective is a continuous exercise that we cannot
achieve in a day but we master each of the acts when we live by it daily.
The work place is meant for serious minded people that are able to turn every
opportunity at their disposal into profit making venture and above all creating
a healthy environment for everyone to live in.
Effectiveness at workplace comes from the employee and the employers:
FOR THE EMPLOYEES, the following details should be taken into
consideration:
1. Start with you:
You might be wondering why I said so? There is nothing that has ever
happen to a man with his fore-knowledge. In most cases, we are always
ignorant of our environment, thereby loosing out on the details of life.
You are the key to the greatness, success and retrogress that will ever
come your way.
For there to be success or effectiveness at work place, your mind must
be in participation. Like I said earlier, no matter the motivation, you
have the final decision to make when it comes to being effective at
workplace.
It is the you in you that makes you the you, you are. We are all unique in
our various ways and so for that reason, being effective at work place
can only be achieved when the you factor has been addressed properly.
Your character, perspective, level of information and most importantly
your mind determines what comes out of you. No human being is
quantifiable, you are priceless and for that reason cannot be deterred by
the circumstance around.
2. Early to bed:
“Early to bed they say is early to rise.” God has made it that no matter
how busy your 24- hour might be, there must be a time for rest or sleep.
Have you heard or seen a man on this planet earth that has been able to
cheat on nature or even sleep. You can avoid not sleeping at night due to
some engagement but that those mean that you’ve mastered the act of
not sleeping at night.
Having a good night rest is one of the ways in which one can be effective
at the place of work. Sleeping between four to five hours every night will
definitely boost our activity for each day.
I want to use myself as a case. During my university days, there is a day
of the week that I get so stressed up because lectures for that day start
from 8 am until about 6pm. What makes it so complicated for me is that,
I go to school from home and for that reason, I have to wake up early in
order to meet up with lectures and before the end of the day, I get
exhausted. Guess what I did? I decided to shun the first lecture of that
day in order to have enough rest before coming to school. Surprisingly,
I noticed that with that approach of mine, I feel so strong throughout
that day.
Whenever you sleep properly, the whole body system is at alert and the
blood flows properly, thereby giving room for effectiveness. But I must
say that I am not advocating for excessive sleep, which is the bedrock
for laziness.
3. Have a clear conscience:
“Clear conscience they say fears no accusation” while awake and ready
to face the day’s activities, you’re expected to clear your mind of every
burden that you slept with and even the ones that crops into the
morning. A troubled mind will definitely not produce an effective day at
work. This step is not easy but one has to learn the process in order to
remain focus and active for the day’s activity. How can there be an
increase in capital or finances when the mind is not at ease?
4. Eat right:
“You are what you eat.” How true is that statement? The importance of
food for growth cannot be denied because every living creature
including animals need food to survive. In other to be effective at work
place, you need the right food. When making the decision on what to eat
for breakfast it is advisable to take light food rather than heavy food.
The choice of your meal goes along way to determine how smart you’ll
be at work place.
It is also advisable not to go on an empty stomach during the breakfast
season but should rather have a cup of tea and some slice of bread. But
if you belong the school of thought that believe that breakfast makes
them dull, then go by what you believe. In case when your health
deteriorates, remember to visit the doctor.
If you want to be effective at work place, then eat right.
5. Dress smart and sharp:
Fashion is that accessory that compliment what you are wearing and it
communicate a lot about you. The world is evolving, so is fashion. If
your knowledge about fashion is poor, then get informed.
If your job requires that you put on a uniform, then; that should not be a
reason why you should dress shabbily. Always put on a dress that is
stress free, that gives you an opportunity to walk and run around the
office. Your fashion should compliment and above all give you the
opportunity to increase your productivity and capital. So, when going to
work, select that dress that gives you flexibility at work.
6. Put up a smile:
A smile doesn’t cost anything, it is not harmful, and it takes nothing
away from you. It does not need a special training to put it into practice.
Putting up a smile always brings out the real depth of your personality.
It attracts people towards you and keeps you healthy.
When your smiles finally attract people toward you, then wisdom is
needed to separate those that will be needful for the day’s journey. In
this wise, nobody has the power to make you feel bad, except when you
create an open door for that. If this step must be practice, then be ready
to mingle at work. With this, you’ll have several kinds of friends but do
accept the offer, don’t get close or intimate.
It takes relationship at work place to get the needed capital but you
must choose your friend. You can get friendly by making sure that both
parties get the desired productivity that will enhance the capital needed
at work. You can be friendly but do not get close.
7. Follow up on every assignment:
Before you get set for work, make sure that every inventory of the past
and present are put into cognizance. The work place is not meant for
indolent minds but for individuals that are ready to make good use of
the opportunity given to you. So, when you plan to put all your
assignment on a scale of preference, your productivity will
tremendously increase.
8. Be aware of your own speech:
Science has made us to understand that we hear with our inner ear, so
with this fact, it is possible for us to actually hear what we are saying
before any other person does. If we truly learn to practice this, we will
find it difficult to hurt people with our words and we’ll have a better
working relationship with our boss and colleague at work. I want you to
relax and take inventory of all your daily activities including your
speech, it will be amazing to know that before any words comes out
from our mouth, we are already of the know of how we our
conversation. We all speak from the thought and imaginations of our
heart, so with these facts we can not deny our very words.
9. Always ask questions:
There has never been a man on this planet earth that is a monopoly of
knowledge. It is not a crime to ask question when you are not been
clarified over a situation. If one must be effective and communicate well
at workplace, he or she must learn the act of asking questions when the
need arise. The man that asks a question and the person answering are
invariable learning if we look at the process very well. If you must
develop the habit of learning at the workplace, learn to ask questions so
that you won’t waste your time and energy over a thing.
10. Learn to manage your time:
Proper time management has been the habit of every successful man
and woman out there. If one must be relevant in the workplace, he
must learn to prioritize his time very well. Every boss and staff will
always want to hang around someone in the workplace that is a
master of time. The world that we operate in is being governed by
time, so no one can successfully live in this planet and ignores time.
Time is of essence and make sure that you make good use of it at all
time in the workplace.
11. Communicate with confidence:
Confidence doesn’t come from your physique or the outfit that you
are wearing but majorly comes from your speech. Confidence is
embedded in every one of us, so activate yours now. No boss will
ever want to retain or work with a staff that is not confident with
himself or herself. Every word that comes out from your mouth
should portray boldness and with this boldness you will enjoy each
of your working day. The way you communicate in public gives a first
impression about your personality.
12. Be a person of trust:
Trust is a factor to ones effectiveness at workplace. Our friends,
colleagues and boss should know us as a person that they can entrust
anything to all time. Trust in the workplace breeds confidence, so
you cannot afford to live without it.
13. Be a person of humor:
A good communicator without a sense of humor will definitely pull
people away no matter you looks. A little humor will always make
one to be stress free and invariably pass it on to people around.
Now the EMPLOYER also must be aware of these facts too to have an effective
workplace communication
14. Be a good listener:
Communication is a two-way thing and can only be beneficial if an
employee learns to listen. Being the boss does not mean that you
must speak at all time but it affords you the opportunity to be quiet
once in a while so that you can fetch from the well of knowledge of
your employee. Everyone wants to be heard but nobody wants to
listen. Do you know that a good psychologist is the one that listens
to his client’s challenges and then uses the complains to provide a
solution. If only we all learn to live like a psychologist, workplace
will be fun.
15. Be open to non-verbal signal:
Once a boss has learned to listen, he should also look out for those
non-verbal communications from his staffs because not everybody
will want to communicate their thought to you at all time.
This non-verbal communication could be in their facial
expression, body movement to mention a few and we must always
look out for it to boost workplace effectiveness. These non-verbal
signals are being practice by all at all times, so watch out for it.
16. There should be a goal and value:
As an employer of labor, the goal and value of your organization
must be made known to all your staffs at all time, so that they can
easily communicate it within themselves and to anyone that
comes around the organization.
17. Create room for feedback:
An atmosphere of freedom will only produce creative mind when
everyone is given an opportunity to contribute his thought to the
organization that they represent. Once this is encouraged, the
employee will have information that he can use positively to
express his own thought to his staffs.
18. Try to know the state of your employee on a regular:
An act of care will breed an atmosphere of happiness and love.
When an employer makes it a duty to always look into the welfare
of his employee daily, they (employee) will be ready to do
anything and communicate well at anytime of the day.
19. Have an open door policy:
Anywhere there is justice; it means that rules and regulations are
being adhered to. We should create a policy that will be favorable
to us and to the people around us, if we want effectiveness and
communication to thrive.
20. Celebrate achievement:
Everybody wants to be celebrated. It won’t be crime if you
people’s achievement to an organization is being celebrated.
When an employee takes this as one of his work ethics, he will be
able to communicate very well with his employer.
21. Use visuals to communicate important information:
The things we hear and see stays with us longer than when it is
just only audio. Visuals could come in the form of pictures or
videos and it will be a better way to communicate some vital
information to your employee.
22. Encourage one on one communication:
We all do not have the same energy level and temperament that is
why there are extrovert, introvert and the ambivert. So, one can
possibly have these three set of people in an organization and
learn how to manage each one of them. As an employee, it will be
nice if you notice an introvert in your organization and then
create the time to speak with that person one on one to boost
workplace effectiveness.
23. Create time for retreat:
A retreat should be encourage once in awhile because it is one of
the best way that employee’s and employer can easily bond
together and also share thoughts for productivity. If you have not
being engaging in this, it will be nice if you will give it a trial.
24. Build a bond between employer and employee:
Bond building is a process and not something one stumbles upon.
An employee should at all time be able to communicate his
thought to his boss in fear of nothing. Hierarchy does exist in the
place of work and can be respected even when an employer is
trying to build a bond between his employees.
25. Embrace social media:
Social media is changing the face of so many businesses and if you
are not connected to one, you are missing out from the cyber
space. There are several social media platform that one can
benefit from and it will be nice if an organization taps into the
“whatsapp application” to make communication easy within and
outside the workplace. So, check out for the social media platform
that will be of benefit to your organization and use it to boost your
communication.
26. Make use of e-mail effectively:
E-mail has been in existence for so long and it is still very effective
in workplace communication. You can decide to give out large
data of information to your staffs that are working out of office or
who are still in the office environment through e-mails.
27. Re-structure your office:
Re-structuring of your office is not all about changing of the colors
or the chairs in your office. You can increase communication at
workplace if you decide to pull down walls partition between two
offices, thereby making both staffs visible to each other.
28. Attend events together:
A family that stays together lives together. So it is with an
organization. If the boss makes it compulsory that everybody goes
to an event like seminar or conference together, the tendency to
build team work and better communication outlet will be
achieved.
29. Make a schedule of daily activities:
Schools have made it easy for us to understand that one cannot
operate successfully without a time-table. Daily schedule should
be given out to all employees through the foray in which you want
to convey your message.
30. Arrange for meetings at least once a week:
To foster effectiveness at workplace, meetings of all the staffs at
least once a week is of essence because it will help everyone
communicate and no each other better.
31. Create a relaxation room:
This idea might not be accepted by everybody but it won’t be a
bad idea to give it a try. One might get exhausted during long
hours of work and would want to rest. But when an organization
create a room where staffs can easily go into to rest and resume
later for the days activity after re-energizing, could be better. A
little sleep won’t cause any harm to workplace effectiveness if it is
being structured properly.
32. Discourage one way communication:
Since communication is a two way thing, one should discourage
any form that is not going in that direction. Every employee
should be given an opportunity to speak his or her mind at the
place of work to increase creativity.
33. Create room for recreational activities:
Recreational activities should be encouraged in the place of work
because it will help every staffs to communicate with each other
properly. There are different in-door games that can be
introduced into the company to help foster stronger bonds. This
can be done once in a while.
34. Encourage attire day:
Being fashionable at workplace is a must and it will also be good if
an organization will give her employer the opportunity to dress
casually to work once in a while.
35. Encourage video conferencing:
Video conferencing is a good way to communicate with your
staffs, most especially for those that are working outside the office
to get necessary update on the happenings around the company.
So if you have any information that is necessary to this update do not hesitate
to let me know.