Whatever industry and occupation you work in, the skill set that you bring to bear is going to be integral to your professional success. Cultivating the qualities that you need to excel in your job role can help you do better work and motivate your team to do better work. Here are a few examples of qualities that you should strive to bring into the workplace.
Resilience
To do great work, you have to feel good about what you’re doing. While a little pressure can drive performance in a healthy way, too much pressure is likely to feel stifling. When things get tough, don’t get overwhelmed or discouraged. Build yourself up to be unphasable. Whether you’ve got a ton of work or you’ve got to fix a big mistake, remember that you’ve got this.
Think about what you need to do to surmount a setback, make a plan, and execute it. Persistence is key to overcoming obstacles, so you’ve got to be ready to continue putting forth your best effort to accomplish your objectives no matter what happens along the way.
Mindfulness
When you work in a fast-paced environment, keeping your focus can be challenging. The people who you’re working with may be pulling you in a bunch of different directions or your customers might throw you some unexpected curveballs, but you’ve got to stay on track.
Mindfulness practices could help you concentrate on what you’re doing. When you’re making an effort to be more mindful, you’re more immersed in the present instead of replaying past events or worrying about what might happen in the future. You can take on each task you do with a greater sense of clarity.
Tidiness
Keeping your workspace clean and tidy is about more than just making a good impression on your coworkers. Clutter in the workplace may exacerbate work-related stress, and it could make you more susceptible to distraction. Also, having a huge pile of stuff on your desk is probably going to make it harder for you to find things.
An orderly workspace spares you from having to sift through a bunch of stuff you don’t need to find the materials that you need to finish the next task on your agenda. Make it a point to declutter your desk periodically before things get out of control. It’s far less time-consuming to do a little periodic organizational maintenance than having to take on a massive session purging and putting away the materials that are crowding your workspace. Create an organizational system that makes staying tidy almost effortless. When you’ve got a place for everything to go, it will be easy for you to maintain an orderly workstation.
Communication Skills
Even if you perform most of your job functions independently, you’re probably still going to have to be able to exercise good communication skills at work. Active listening and expressing yourself with confidence will enable you to forge stronger connections with colleagues and customers.
Curiosity
Being interested in what you’re doing makes your work more engaging. Ideally, you should want to know all there is to know about your industry, your company, and what’s next for both. Being a life-long learner keeps you mentally sharp, and it could also give you great ideas about how you can improve the quality of your work.
By asking questions and deepening your understanding of different work processes, you can stay on the cutting edge of what you do. Curiosity is the precursor to innovation, so it could help you shape new ideas and insights that have the potential to be extremely valuable.
Exhibiting qualities that equip you to excel at your work sets an example for everyone who you work with. It can also boost your professional reputation and contribute to your continued success in your career.
