How to be Successful at work

Anyone working on Earth regardless his profession is striving and doing his best to become successful at his work. Nonetheless, because of the high unemployment rates all over the globe and the challenging working conditions; competition between employees within the same place is becoming very tough, which means being successful at your work is not a choice, its’ a Must!

Sometimes, being successful at work requires some interpersonal skills in addition to the technical skills required by each job. Richard Templar was one of the best authors who wrote about the rules of success at work, and here are some of the tips he did mentioned in his books “The Rules of Work”:

• Under Promise and Over Deliver: if you can submit the report on Tuesday, say you can submit it on Thursday. You can make your own boss delightful; by giving him/her more than he/she expects.

• Learn to ask “Why”: make sure that you are seeing the big picture, not just your own part. “Why” will give you more deep insights in what you are doing, as well as the opportunity to grow and develop and make a bigger contribution.

• Learn From others’ mistakes: if one of your colleagues made a mistake, try to carefully find three main things; what happened, how it happened, and why it happened? Then, ask yourself whether you could have made the same mistake or not. If yes, then be proactive and learn from his /her mistake.

• Enjoy your Work: if you don’t enjoy your job, then what are you waiting for? You will never be able to success at your work unless you are enjoying it, and if you are enjoying it there is no shame to say: “I enjoy my work”. Therefore, choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.

• Manage your Energy: make sure you are managing your three energy levels, which are;

1. Physical Energy: make sure you are staying fit and healthy by avoiding the following: staying up late, overeating, or skipping breakfast. These things will make you more active, energetic, and productive at your work.
2. Mental Energy: try to control the environment where you are working in even by making your office organized to keep yourself relaxed, less stressed, and focused.
3. Emotional Energy: keep your home life at home; try to keep your personal life in the background, and focus on your job.

• Speak Well: remember that you are the only responsible person to get your message and information delivered clearly and effectively. Avoid those Four things to ensure clear and effective communication:

1. Mumbling: speak in a clear voice not too loud nor too low to make sure that people are hearing you.
2. Speaking too slow or too fast: Speaking low will make people bored and sleepy, while too fast speaking will make audience feel uncomfortable and the probability to miss some points is very high.
3. Using Jargons: avoid using terminologies and expressions to people outside your department or your field of expertise, as this could be understood as a kind of showing off.
4. Any sort of speaking that identifies you with a particular group or social class: like for examples some expressions that reflect your personal political or religious, or points of view, and if you are young at age, avoid slang language.

• Develop you own style, Get noticed: be known of putting on specific perfume brand, carrying elegant briefcases, or wearing a specific color all the time. In other words, develop a trademark you choose for yourself and stick to it or in other words; brand yourself.

• Compliment People Professionally: when you are complimenting people, be careful that you are keeping it professional and work related especially when dealing with different gender. Additionally, compliments should be real, honest, and meaningful.

• Be a good Listener: being a good listener will make you explore more facts, get better understanding and seen as intelligent and alert. Here are some tips to let people know that you are a good listener;

• Using appropriate body language and facial expressions.
• Repeating back some of the important points to ensure that you had received them.
• Ask questions which will reflect your interest and concerns toward the topic you are listening to.
• Taking notes; especially when dealing with managers or customers, this will make them feel more comfortable and confident.

• Make your Boss look good: if your boss looks good, your department will look good too and that will definitely reflect on you.

In meetings, whether your boss is present or not, gives him/her credit and draw attention to his/her strengths and efforts. This will reflect your loyalty to your boss, which means your loyalty    to your organization.

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Mr.Sherif Rashwan