Workplace Challenges
Good friends, mentors and partners should act as your sounding board when setting your goalsMake a plan -- and stick to itWelcome to the 2008 workplace! |
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 [ 2008-01-14 ] |
Perhaps it's the same as it was last year, but that doesn't mean you can't plan for workplace changes -- something everyone should do even if the changes you have in mind are far-fetched or so last minute you don't think there's any point in formal planning.
PROPER PLAN
One thing that I've learned from talking with dozens of people directly or indirectly involved in the small business sector is that without a plan, nothing gets properly started and nothing gets properly completed.
A plan is key to achieving personal and business goals -- such things as achieving a new position or a raise in salary or increasing your bottom line and bringing in new business.
On the personal side, the first thing you have to do is go through a goal-setting exercise.
I suggest you sit down with a good friend, mentor or your partner when going through this exercise. Certainly, your partner should be consulted if you're planning workplace changes, because your decision could affect their workplace situation and their life in general.
Good friends, mentors and partners will act as your sounding board. They will be your reality check and will help guide you to the right changes you need to make -- and they can even be integral to the changing process.
Have a brainstorming session with them. Pick somewhere informal, perhaps a coffee shop or a pub, where you can talk freely in an enjoyable setting.
Make sure you bring a pen and paper or something to record your session because some of the best ideas and plans are lost if they're not recorded immediately.
After brainstorming, take some time -- a day or a week -- to think about the most important changes you want to make and then meet again with your "sounding board" and start paring back your goals.
Set a timeline. This will help you manage your goals. Initially the timeline should be "set in stone," but you do this knowing that flexibility will be needed later when life gets in the way of making change. It's inevitable, so don't sweat it, but rather, roll with it.
Keep your eye on the prize. If your goal is to achieve a salary raise, motivate yourself every day. Perhaps the very first entry into your daily planner should be "GET A RAISE!" This will be your daily reminder of what your goal is, and your timeline will set out how and when you will achieve this goal.
At least every week you should put extra work toward achieving that goal. Maybe it's taking on extra shifts at work. Maybe it's volunteering for something that you wouldn't have volunteered for the previous year. Maybe it's asking your supervisor or boss to lunch with you so that you can go over your workplace progress with her or him.
DON'T GIVE UP
Stick with it. Even if you don't succeed the first time you actually ask for the raise or if you don't achieve any other goal on time, don't let it get you down.
In the case of a raise, ask for a meeting with your boss or supervisor to find out what you need to do to achieve a raise. You might be surprised at how close you were and that if you improve or achieve just a little bit more, your goal will have been met.
If it's another goal, build in some more time to re-work some of your steps and go back at it. Bounce everything off of your sounding boards and let them be your cheerleaders.
The very worst thing that can happen is you have to carry the goal forward to 2009, which gives you an entire new year to work towards it.
As they say, life is a journey, not a destination. So, too, is the workplace. Keep working towards those goals and you'll find 2008 to be at the very least a more personally fulfilling year than 2007 and that, in my books, is a good thing.
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