On-The-Job Resolutions For 2009
If you’re anything like me, your biggest job-related resolution is that THIS will be the year you’ll stop needing one. If you’re a normal person, you might want to simply focus on ways to make your current job more rewarding, or just more enjoyable. Here are a few ideas you might consider…
Plan some ambitious goals for yourself:
Look at increasing your personal sales by x%, bringing in more clients than you did last year, launching some new products or services, or coming up with a new marketing plan for existing ones – something that relates to what you do. Then plan out how you’re going to do this, and get started!
Upgrade your skills:
If you’re lucky enough to work for a company that offers skills training, take advantage of it. If not, think of something you could learn that would increase your ‘marketability’ at work, and find someone who teaches it. There are all sorts of training programs out there, you’ll find them in the Yellow Pages or online under Continuing Education, Adult Ed…, etc.
Ask for a promotion, or an expansion of your current role:
If you think you can offer more than your current position allows you to, work up a detailed ‘presentation’ (of course it can be delivered verbally) of the how’s and why’s and lay it out for your boss. You can’t count on him or her ‘just knowing’ what you can really do.
Just don’t shoot yourself in the foot by taking on 20 people’s tasks. Also, if you feel you deserve one, it probably can’t hurt to ask for a raise to go along with this.
Energize your workspace:
This can be very simple or more elaborate, depending on what your workspace is and how much you’re allowed to change. The idea is to not be stuck in the same environment you have been for years, and feeling depressed or bored about it.
If you have your own office and the plants in the corner have been dead for 3 years, replace them. Think about hanging something on a wall or changing to a new paint colour if you can. Get new furniture…anything to brighten things up.
If you’re in a cubicle your choices may be more limited, but you can still come up with something. Change the wife/husband/dog picture on your desk, add a small vase with something nice in it, or come up with a filing system in which you can actually find your files.
If you work in any kind of shop (machine, automotive etc), change the supermodel calendar that’s been hanging there since 1994. Your customers will appreciate it too, especially if they’ve been coming in since then.
Energize your colleagues:
Brightening up the moods of the people you work with can make your work environment brighter as well. So greet them with a ‘good morning’, instead of a grunt. Express an interest in them and what they do. Offer to buy coffee once in a while. Even just talk! You never know what you might learn from the people around you, and most people will respond in kind.
You might be surprised by the difference this can make to how much you enjoy going to work.
