Archived Newsletter
Powerful New Year's Resolutions for Professionals
Author(s): Donna Ivey McIlveen is Vice President, Client Services at OI Partners-Venturion in San Antonio, TX
Looking ahead to the New Year frequently fills employees with either excitement or trepidation or a mixture of both. Questions may arise about how to make good work situations even better: "What will my opportunities be this year?", "What have my accomplishments been this year?", "How can I position myself for a promotion?", or "Will my boss recognize the great work that I do?". Concern may exist about how to change or manage tenuous or negative employment circumstances: "How can I improve my relationship with my supervisor?", "How can I help unify my dysfunctional work team?", or "What will I do if my job is eliminated?". Personal concerns about continuing success on the job can be serious distracters and may hinder performance. So consider making these resolutions for the New Year:
1. Resolve to increase your exposure. Typical employees go through their regular busy workdays assuming that everyone around them knows the value of their contributions to the organization. Remember that individual accomplishments are not always recognized by others. Now is the time to identify and highlight critical career accomplishments and develop a value proposition for use either inside the organization or externally. Also be sure to look around outside your company and determine appropriate industry or community organizations to join and volunteer as an active member. Develop networks that can help you broaden your exposure to the business world and increase your sphere of influence. If people don't know you exist, opportunities for career growth will be minimal.
2. Resolve to be consistently optimistic. Learn to live with the "half full" perspective. Employees who are more resilient and positive are typically more successful over time, regardless of their job level. Be prepared to look for the opportunities in thorny situations and develop plans to have affirmative outcomes. Continued survival in highly demanding business settings will require persistent optimism.
3. Resolve to be a better listener. Employees sometimes think that they have to do all of the talking to get noticed in the workplace. Now is a good time to remember how much you can learn about people and situations by listening carefully in conversations. Listen during discussions for problems you can help solve for the company or opportunities you can help maximize. Listening to expressions of different points of view by co-workers or external partners may also open your eyes to alternative ways of handling existing business challenges. Opportunities abound, so quiet down and be ready to take advantage of what you hear.
4. LIGHTEN UP! The cultural environment in many organizations today is deadly serious, with intense negative pressure that can lead to underproductive, less than happy employees. Aim to increase your positive human connectedness by introducing a bit of lightheartedness into your workplace. Whether it is sharing a funny personal story about yourself with the staff, or using light, positive words to convey information about a pending project, or introducing a new business plan with a humorous theme, be creative and let your natural cheerfulness or humor shine through. Appropriate use of levity can help mitigate the negative intensity felt by the team.
5. Resolve to take charge of your own destiny. No one cares more about you in the workplace than YOU! Rather than bobbing along in the stream, just taking whatever jobs or assignments happen to come your way, decide to be proactive and direct your career changes with INTENT. Determine your goals for work/life balance and what you want to achieve as a professional, then develop a detailed plan to make that vision a reality. Be confident and know that you can be the driver of powerful change in your own work and life if you have a viable plan. Get excited about the possibilities, then take that first step!
Donna Ivey McIlveen is Vice President, Client Services at OI Partners-Venturion in San Antonio. She is a Certified Career Management Practitioner (CMP), with over 20 years of experience in career management and human resources. Donna can be reached at 210.384.8044.
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