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Business Transformation
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Butlers Catering: Performing better at work, takes work!
20 Jun 2016 by Johan / No Comments
There are only so many hours in a day, we often don’t get to half the tasks on our to-do list. The job-market is the most competitive than it’s ever been, which is those of us fortunate enough to have a job need to work towards excellence in every aspect of our various job specs.
- Multi-skilling is a myth: In order to be successful and sign off outstanding tasks, focus on one job at a time. Running around like a chicken without a head aiming for the impossible is counterproductive and will consume all your energy. You get more done when your attention is in one place, opposed to trying to focus on a million other items on your agenda simultaneously. Clifford Nass, a psychology professor at Stanford shared results from a recent study he conducted. He found that multitasking stunts creativity and actually wastes more time. An Easy Solution: Choose 3 important tasks to work on during the day and prioritize them in terms of importance and due dates as this will give you maximum focus driving high levels of productivity.
- Worst First: Start your day off by doing the tasks you least enjoy, and get them done quickly! In most instances, these are the tasks we drag out and they end up consuming most of our energy! Stop procrastinating and get the job done!
- Learn good habits and develop a routine. Start with getting your body used to sleeping and waking up at more or less the same time.
- Don’t deviate from the plan! Don’t allow yourself to be distracted by useless information that takes away your much needed attention, robbing you from getting the job done. Put your phone on silent and keep personal interactions to a minimum during your working hours. Check your emails systematically a few times a day between breaks rather than continuously as most of us do. Engage in the occasional office chat with a co-workers but don’t let this monopolize your time.
- Think about the future. Visualizing your success will direct you towards achieving your goals and help you perform better at work. Dorie Clark, a marketing strategist at Duke University says that in order to be the most effective at work you also need to change the way you behave in your personal life.
- Being active will make you more proactive: a 10 minute walk away from your desk will reboot your mind an increase your concentration.
- Ask for advice, no good comes from repeatedly hitting your head against a wall. If you don’t know the answer ask someone who does, but also don’t become too dependent on other people. Reading up on triggers and trending topics will also broaden your knowledge base, and is a resourceful way to find information you need whilst preparing for potential change in your industry.
- Be grateful that you have an opportunity to grow and learn. Think about all those people who would appreciate having a job to go to. New data shows that South Africa’s unemployment rate increased to 26.7% of the labour force in the first quarter of 2016, up 2.2 percentage points from 24.5%in the fourth quarter of 2015.
- Go Pro!: Be professional, dress the part, be respectful, be on time, do your job!
- Be in a positive mental attitude, but don’t be the office clown. You still have a job to do, and need to be taken seriously. Be very aware of the effects of a negative work environment as it will directly impact everyone’s productivity.
- Generate the habit of going the extra mile. Invest in an extra hour or 2 more at work, and experience how this will push your own limits whilst encouraging a good work ethic around the office.
- Know who you’re working for. To perform well in your job you need to understand what your superiors expect from you. You need to align yourself with your organization’s value and mission statement. If you don’t know how to act and have no idea of where you are going, you will never know if you are on the right track.
- Roll with the punches if they come from a good place. Use criticism and feedback to improve your skills and better your performance. Studies show that reflecting on mistakes leads to a 20% increase in job performance because it makes you accountable for your actions.
- Debrief yourself.
- At the end of each work day ask yourself a few questions:
- What did I learn today that I didn’t know before?
- What did I actually achieve today?
- What did I do differently today and what was the result?
- How can I prevent the negatives from happening tomorrow?
It’s up to you to improve your work performance and achieve those goals you have set.
Kind Regards,
The Butlers Catering Research & Development Team.
Please Find us on Facebook:
@AglGroupCeo
@ButlersCatering
Please Find our CEO, Johan Slabbert on LinkedIn here
- Multi-skilling is a myth: In order to be successful and sign off outstanding tasks, focus on one job at a time. Running around like a chicken without a head aiming for the impossible is counterproductive and will consume all your energy. You get more done when your attention is in one place, opposed to trying to focus on a million other items on your agenda simultaneously. Clifford Nass, a psychology professor at Stanford shared results from a recent study he conducted. He found that multitasking stunts creativity and actually wastes more time. An Easy Solution: Choose 3 important tasks to work on during the day and prioritize them in terms of importance and due dates as this will give you maximum focus driving high levels of productivity.
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