How to Improve Professionalism in Workplace

Professionalism is defined as an individual’s conduct at work. Some people may wonder as long as we do our job well, who cares the professionalism?

Actually, your boss, customer and co-workers will notice if you lack this quality and it could have severe consequences for your career. To discount the importance of professionalism would be a big mistake. It can affect your chances for advancement or even the ability to keep your job.

How to show or improve professionalism? Just follow it.

#1 Make It a Priority to Be On Time

When you arrive late for work or meetings, it gives your boss and co-workers the impression you don’t care about your job. Pay attention to the clock, set alarms if you have to.

Show up at least a few minutes before you are supposed to start work and return from your breaks on time.

#2 Don’t Be a Grump

Leave your bad mood at the door when you come to work. Remember not to take it out on your boss, co-workers, and especially your customers.

If work is the thing that causing your bad mood, it may be time to think about quitting your job.

#3 Dress Appropriately

Whether you have to dress up for work or you can wear more casual clothes, your appearance should always be neat and clean.

Choose the type of clothing your employer requires. If there isn’t a dress code, pick attire that is the norm for your place of employment.

#4 Watch Your Mouth 

Swearing, cursing or cussing has no place in most workplaces. Here’s a good rule of thumb to follow: If you wouldn’t say it to your grandmother, don’t say at work.

#5 Offer Assistance to Your Colleagues

A true professional is willing to help their co-workers when they are overburdened or facing a challenge at work. They aren’t afraid to share knowledge, opinions, or simply an extra pair of hands.

#6 Don’t Gossip

Gossiping makes you look like a middle school student. If you know something you simply must share, tell someone who has nothing to do with your workplace.

#7 Try to Stay Positive

Negativity is contagious. If you complain incessantly about your workplace. It will bring others down. If you see something that should be fixed, give your boss feedback along with a plan for how to make improvements. Stop complaining for no reason.

#8 Don’t Hide From Your Mistakes 

Own your mistakes and then do your best to correct them. Make sure you don’t make the same one twice. Never blame others for your errors.

#9 Always Fight Fair

You will inevitably have occasional disagreements with your co-workers or even your boss. Don’t let yourself get angry. It doesn’t matter how upset you are or how strongly you believe you are right, screaming in the workplace isn’t allowed.

Calmly explain your opinion and be ready to work away if you cannot sway the other person or if they begin to lose control.

#10 Don’t Lie

Dishonestly always makes you look bad. A true professional is always upfront.

Don’t lie on resume if you’re unqualified for a job. Don’t lie about being sick, if you need a day off, just take a personal or vacation day.

#11 Don’t Air Your Dirty Laundry

While confiding in a close friend at work is usually okay, sharing too much information with the entire office is not.

Be judicious about whom you talk to, particularly when it comes to discussing problems you’re having with your spouse or family members.

8 Ways to Make Good Impression at work

Please never underestimate how important is to make a good impression at work. When your boss and colleagues realize they can rely on you to do a great job, then you’ll likely begin to receive greater responsibility.

#01 Use Proper Workplace Etiquette

Using proper office etiquette will help you make a good impression on your boss. It may sound simple until you realize that many people forget their manners.

As an example, you’re allowed to use a mobile phone at work, but make sure isn’t a distraction for you or anyone else. And there’s a big difference between personal and professional emails.

#02 Face Up to Your Mistakes 

If you haven’t already, you will make a mistake at work. It may even be a big one. It happens to everyone.

The first thing you should do is admit what happened. Don’t ignore your error or try to place the blame on anyone else. Take full responsibility and then come up with a way to fix your mistake. Your boss may be upset you made an error, but at least recognize that you did all the right things when responding to it.

#03 Call in Sick to Work When You Should 

Do you think coming to work when you’re sick instead of staying home will impress your boss? You’re wrong!! Reasonable bosses know that sick employees are not only unproductive, but they can also spread germs around the office.

If you have a fever or think your illness might be contagious, then take a day off. You can catch up on your workload when you return to work.

#04 Come Through in a Crisis

When an unexpected crisis happens at work, who will make a better impression on the boss? The employer who panics or the one who springs into action to fix the problem?

You should learn how to deal with workplace crises quickly and effectively.

#05 Avoid Controversial Topics

Bosses tend to like it when their workplaces are calm. When employees work together harmoniously, they can focus on their jobs.

Avoid starting conversations about topics that make people uncomfortable and could even lead to arguments.

#06 Dress Appropriately

Always follow your organization’s dress code. If you’re allowed to wear jeans and t-shirts, make sure they’re in good condition.

You usually can’t go wrong if you follow your boss’s lead when choosing your work attire.

#07 Respect Your Coworkers

When coworkers respect one another they usually get along better. No boss wants their employees to fight.

• Always avoid acting in an uncivil manner toward any of your coworkers.
• Be on time to work.
• Don’t ever take credit for another person’s work.
• Always share the workload.
• Apologize if you ever manage to offend your coworker

#08 Represent Your Company Well at Conferences and Meetings 

When you attend a conference or meeting on your employer’s behalf, it’s your job to make a good impression. It will reflect well on your organization, and your boss will appreciate your efforts.

• Dress appropriately and network with other attendees.
• Make sure to bring back information to share with your boss and coworkers.

7 Ways Improve Listening Skill

Good listening skills are imperative to succeeding at work. It allows you to successfully carry out your job duties, get along with boss and coworkers, and serve your customers and clients.

Follow these tips to learn how to be a great listener:

#1 Maintain Eye Contact 

Looking someone in the eye during a conversation forces you to pay attention and also signals to the speaker that you are focused on what they are saying.

#2 Avoid Interrupting

Save your questions and comments until the speaker finishes talking. Someone well-versed at verbal communication will pause at regular intervals to allow the listener to ask questions.

#3 Sit Still

Fidgeting makes you look bored.

#4 Nod Your Head

This indicates to the speaker that you’re hearing the information that he/she is conveying.

#5 Be Attentive to Non-Verbal Cues

Paying attention to what speaker doesn’t say is as important as being attentive to his/ her words. Look for non-verbal cues such as facial expressions and posture to fully understand everything.

#6 Lean Toward the Speaker

This’s the signal to other people that you’re engaged in the conversation.

#7 Repeat Instructions and Ask Appropriate Questions

Once the speaker has finished talking, repeat his/her instructions to confirm that you understand them. This also the time to ask any questions.

5 Rules Effective Leader Should Try To Live By

Leading a company is trial by fire, creating a few general rules can help guide you trough difficult decision.

Here are five rules that effective leader should try to live by:

#1 Avoid Hustle Porn

In the past decide, content which call “Hustle Porn” – motivational YouTube and Instagram videos has become mainstream. In the video advise young entrepreneurs to work 14 hours a day and hustle every minutes of every hour.

Constantly working long hours without break isn’t a recipe for success. When you’re in a leadership role, you have to give yourself time to relax and recharge. Focus on quality and thoughtfulness of your work, not just number of hours you put in at office.

#2 Treat Your Team Like You Want to be Treated

Leader have to cultivate a positive work environment, especially when the job is manual or difficult. A tough job always present its own issues for worker. Why would you compound those issues by spreading negativity and treating people poorly?

“Just because you’re the boss doesn’t mean you have to be a horse ass””You’re in charge, but you can still treat people how you’d like to be treated”.

#3 Choose Management Wisely

Being a great executive who treats everyone well won’t matter much if you don’t instill those values in your management team. Good or bad management often comes down to promoting effectively.

As people making decision, you have to be cognizant of that. A good way to observe who may or may not be great for management role is by giving little test. Let them run a project or take on more responsibility for a team and see how they do.

#4 Align Your Expectations With Reality

To be a good leader or manager, you also need to understand the work your team is doing. Of course, maybe you can’t understand everyone’s roles in depth, but at least know what your employees do everyday.

Good executive recognize the limit of their team’s work, what’s possible and what isn’t. Not everything can be done ASAP, so it’s important to have reasonable expectation.

#5 Open Channels for Cross-Company Communication

Far too many businesses fail at cross-company communication, and that can devastate efficiency and collaboration.

Whether it’s among one team or between groups, you have to provide people with channels for strong communication if you want your business to operate efficiently.

Being a leader have to turn your focus away from yourself and be able to empathize with the people who work for you.

9 Ways Leader Accidentally Ruin Good Employee

Being a good manager is difficult. Manage employees is difficult too, but some ways leader do will accidentally stop employees from being their most productive, innovative and positive selves.

#1 Holding Unnecessary Meetings

Meetings need to create value for employees, such as brainstorming ideas, reaching crucial decision or coordinating work. If it’s about anything else, skip it.

Give employees back their time by choosing your meetings strategically. Go in with a clear plan of what you want to cover during that time and hold everyone to it.

#2 Giving Unclear Communication 

“Let’s make sure to finish the project by quarter-end”, this sound a clear directive, but it’s not.

Give a specific details when communicating goals or other work objectives to employees and encourage them to tell you when you’re not precise.

#3 Giving Too Much Information

It’s essential to provide right amount of information to employees. “Drinking from the firehose”, as many people call it, is overwhelming and decreases productivity.

Deliver information in smaller chunks and through multiple channels to give them chance to assimilate the information better.

#4 Responding Too Little and Too Late

When employees ask a question or make a request, don’t ignore it until you have time to answer. Learn how to triage questions based on priority, so everyone gets their answer promptly.

If you can’t answer quickly, let them know you’ve seen the message and let them know when you’ll response.

#5 Trying to Control Everything

Micromanagers are the worse! Preventing employees from owning their work, domain and role stifles their productivity and abilities and reduces their appetite for innovation and work.

Let go and give your employees freedom to work. Offer guidance and suggestions, not mandates and orders.

#6 Leading with Emotions

Emotions have their place, even at work, but bring too many into workplace can harm a team. Team will avoid dealing with manager who get angry at slights or take offense to any question.

Use emotional and social intelligence to uncover why you react the way you do and how to deal with it. It’ll make you easier to deal with and your team will be happier and more productive.

#7 Being Indecisive

Analysis paralysis happens when you try to consider every options before making a decision. As a manager, your team looks to you for guidance and leadership, that means making a lot of decision everyday. So you can’t afford to be indecisive.

Your team need you to decide, so they can get on with their days. Is okay if you make a wrong one, you can always pivot and adjust the situation. Your team will forgive you and appreciate you acted swiftly to rectify it.

#8 Changing Things Too Often 

A manager who jumps on every new idea and changes their team’s priorities rapidly can be a problem too.

Employees will start to question your competency, vision and resource management. Not to mention, they’ll feel very insecure about their job and future of the company.

Once you implement something new, leave it alone. Once you make a decision, don’t change your mind.

#9 Criticizing Without Praising

Everyone make mistakes, and it’s easy to point them out. They aren’t meant to be used as a way to blame employees or to deflect negative outcomes from their performance.

Good leaders minimize damage by using them as a way to introduce solution to help, such as training, job shadowing, switching strategy and changing roles. Leaders should focus on solution, and work with employees to encourage those fixes.

9 Ways Lead Your Team to Future after COVID-19

We faced COVID-19 in this year, within this period many things change.
The radical change of these times demands emphatic leadership to keep teams engaged, cohesive and forward-focused. Leader must demonstrate a spirit of purpose and optimism to reinforce the idea that an uncertain future has the potential to be a better future.

Here we sharing 9 steps for leading your team into an unknowable future.

#1 Envision What Success Looks Like and Move Toward it

In its recovery guide for organization. Once you’ve clarified goals, reverse-engineer the next steps for quick and effective action. Envisioning what success entails frees up thinking about the present and can help teams identify quick wins.

As preparation for returning to work in normal, leader have an opportunity to review their organization’s operating models, expectations, standards, values and strenghts. So you can identify and decide what they need to start, stop or continue doing to achieve goals.

#2 Embrace Trust

“Trust is the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It’s the foundational principle that holds all relationship.”

Leader must enable your team to succeed by embracing trust. Like many business leaders, you’ve likely built a substantial reserve of trust from your team through your navigation of COVID-19 crisis’s early stages. Now is time to build on that foundation with acts that unite your team.

#3 Make Productivity Sustainable 

Establish clear boundaries to ensure sustainable working hours and productivity. Teams must discuss office hours, share tips on-time tracking and set clear expectations about responding to email.

One benefit to organization from pandemic is reduction of number of meetings. Going forward, meeting organizers should define purpose, the necessary attendees and amount of time every meeting requires.

#4 Document Your Recovery Playbook

Prioritize the health and well-being of team members, operating with additional demands or encouraging empathy, leader should initiate discussions in workplace around these critical areas.

As an example, Tesla’s leader designed a return to work playbook outlining the company’s plan to provide safe and healthy work environment for its employees.

#5 Prioritize Your People Over Yourself

Organization want their leaders to exhibit vulnerability and empathy. Leadership demand an emotional connection with your people. When leaders prioritize their people ahead of themselves, they elevate others and foster team well-being.

#6 Practice Empathy 

Expecting all employees to resume a so-called normal work list isn’t realistic. This crisis impacted everybody. Be mindful of the ongoing health concerns employees have, the challenges of juggling childcare or stress of navigating the crisis’s financial impact.

Empathy will serve you well as a leader and provide your team an extra measure of grace as they return to the office.

#7 Provide Access To Support For Emotional Wellness 

When employees do begin return to workplace, they’ll be dealing with various emotions. People may experience feelings of loss, sadness and grief – emotions will inevitably impact the way they work and how team perform.

Leader must help employees work through these emotions by provide access to support resources and help them navigate sensitive and mental health conversation in workplace.

#8 Re-open With a People-First Culture in Place 

As you re-open business, put your employee’s needs at the forefront. According to a Harvard Business Review article on returning to work, here’s what leaders should do:

• Define how many people can return over a staggered period
• Continue deliver honest, transparent communication will all people while highlighting organization’s vision, value and core focus
• Appreciate, recognize and celebrate inspiring people within the organization and how they make a difference
• Be mindful of people’s different circumstances and gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of individual needs

#9 Listen to Your Employees as You Reset 

Remote working has exposed costs and efficiencies of expanding a virtual working infrastructure. For many people, remote work eliminated commute time, allow them more quality time with family – many employees won’t want to give that up.

You may need to look for new workspace, renovate current space and shift your thinking about how teams collaborate in shared office. Listen to your people with the purpose of understanding will be crucial in resetting work environment.

15 Tips for New Manager

Being promoted as a manager is exciting and challenging. It takes smarts to move up the corporate ladder but transitioning into a new role means mastering a new skill set.

These 15 tips will help you navigate the managerial waters.

 

#1 Get Ready Before You Get Promoted 

This may sounds counter-intuitive, but if you’re keep moving and get ready for your new role including taking courses, learning from others and reading up on the topic. If you’re offered a promotion but you’re unprepared, you may want to kick yourself for not boning up beforehand.

#2 Recognize That It’s a New Job

Even though you’re most likely promoted in a same department, but you’re not longer the same role and position.

While you many not have mastered your new job, you do have a track record of success in that area, so focus on your ability to master a job.

#3 Learn Situational Leadership

This is must-have leadership skill for every manager. Situational leadership is a model for figuring how to manage each employee, depending on how much direction they needed.

#4 Get to Really Know Your Employees 

Spend more time with every employee in your department and get to know their jobs, career goals, strengths, weakness, likes and dislike. Once you know more about them and their life, you’ll build a solid foundation of trust.

#5 Learn and Practice Active Listening

If you want to know only one skill important to your success as a manager, that must be ” active listening”, which this is considered the most important skill to master as a leader.

#6 Learn to Let Go of the Details 

Focus on the big picture and what your employees are accomplishing on the daily basis and whether or not they’re meeting their goals.

Remember it, you’re not being paid to do your old job, so just leave it to your staff.

#7 You’re a Boss, Not a Friend

One of the most frequent mistakes for new manager make is they try to be friends with their employees. It’s especially hard when you’re get promoted over your peers.

You’re now in a position of power and authority, you can be friends outside of the office, but while in the office, keep the interaction professional.

#8 Don’t Be Surprised by Former Co-Workers’ Personal Issues

New manager often shocked to discover some of the performance and personal issues of previous boss was dealing with. What you need to do is pic up where your boss left off and deal with your way continuously.

#9 Learn to Deal With Performance Issues

Your previous boss may been sweeping poor performance issues under the rug. Your new job is learning a consistent and effective way to deal with employees who are not performing up to standard.

#10 Treat Every Employee with Respect

You may be in a superior position, but you are not superior to anyone. Everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. If you waiver from this, you’ll losing more than your own self-respect.

#11 Use Four Magic Words

“What Do You Think?” Asking your employees for their ideas is ultimate display of respect and empowers them to solve their own problems.

#12 Pay Attention to Your New Team

You may be team leader of your team, you’re now a member of a brand new team. Managing sideways is just as important as managing up and down, so put more attention to them.

#13 Be Available and Be Visible 

The more involved and engaged you are with your team, the more motivated they will be to do a good job. People need to know there’s a captain at the helm of the ship who will guide them along the way.

#14 Schedule Solo Meetings as Well as Team Meetings

You need to interface with people on private basis to see if there any problems you’re not aware of, and for bonding time.

You also need conduct team meeting to let all members in your team to interact with each other.

#15 Embrace Your Role as a Leader

Leading can be an extraordinary and rewarding responsibility. One should never take it lightly or take it for granted.

Benefits of Time Management in Workplace

Time is more valuable than money, you can earn more money but you can’t earn more time.

By improving your time management skill, you’re able to enhance your performance and achieve your goals. But what are the important benefit of time management in workplace? Here is it….

#1 Minimal Stress Level

All employees will feel stress to complete important deadlines, so you’re not alone. Managing your time effectively can directly reduce your stress level, you will experience:

• fewer tight deadlines
• less rushing around
• higher quality of work

#2 Become More Productive

Have you every spent extra time on a task yet failed to make some significant progress? Fatigue and tiredness cause you do breakdown over time.

Employees at work who take timely interval are far likely become more productive and get more volume of work done. By managing your time, you’ll know when to stop, rest and restart again.

#3 Much Less Procrastination

“I will do later.” Do you ever said this phrase before? I did.

Managing your time can reduce your urge to delay and procrastinate over important projects. Applying good time management enable work smarter rather than harder.

Just scheduled your task and label when it needs to be finished, so you can eliminate your procrastination in work-life.

#4 Experience Less Team Conflict 

How often you experience conflict with your team at work? Due to being more organized, you’ll be less stressed and more likely to communicate your message with clarity and respect.

Avoid creating problems with others by planning and preparing your day in advance. Try to use simple to-do list with realistic completion dates. Review your work at the end of the week too.

#5 Less Wasted Time

People who set clear deadlines and actually stick to the schedule will tend to waste less time and achieve their goal and objectives.

#6 Increase Opportunities

Why time management needed for successful career? Applying best practice of time management allow you to accomplish more in a shorter period of time. It leads to more free time, which let you take advantage of life or career opportunities.

#7 You will Develop Responsibility 

Good time management becomes good habit over time. Developing positive habits encourage you develop responsibility in all aspect too.

#8 You Build Respect and Trust 

Reliability is the foundation for trust and respect. Being recognized for having a reliable personality in workplace will help you gain respect from peers and managers.

#9 Feel More Self-Confident 

You’ll feel more confident and mentally strong comes when you plan your work in specific time-frame.

The truth is proper time management never takes your time in the long run, instead it provides your day with extra time.

#10 More Time for Hobbies

More free time in your daily allows you to do recreational activity that makes you happy. This can help us to reach work-life balance.

6 Tips for Work With a New Team

There was always some excitement working with new people, but work with a new team means you might face some issues also. When starting a new team usually have an adjustment period.

So how can work with a new team well? Here we provide you 6 tips.

#1 Keep an Open Mind

If you are accustomed to working with the same team for a long time, you probably have a comfort zone that will now be off limits. You will compare new team to old team and get frustrated.

Accept the fact that you’re participate in a new dynamic. Relax and just enjoy the newness.

#2 Spend a Little Time Getting Familiar 

You can have a “Get to Know You” session, just take 30 minutes and share some information about everyone at the table. Talk about likes and dislikes of teamwork and how you work best.

It might be spend some times of your project, but it really worth it.

#3 Prepare to be Flexible

Don’t go into the first meeting in a defiant mode ready to defend the process you’re used to. Be ready to try new way and approaches.

You might find out that your old team has been inefficient and unproductive in some area. So be ready to bend and learn.

#4 Give Permission to Speak Freely

Everyone in the team is probably unsure of other people’s boundaries, so they will afraid to offend. Just let people know early that it’s okay to give you direct feedback and you don’t mind healthy conflict.

You’ll gain immediate respect and learn very quick where you stand.

#5 Require that Honesty be the Priority

It’s good to give permission to teammate to speak their mind. But it doesn’t mean that they will do it. Let people know that not only is honest feedback appreciated, it is required for a healthy team.

#6 Have Some Fun!

Whenever you’re working with other people, no matter how serious is the situation, you should enjoy what you do. Find the way to lighten your mood appropriately and often.

A little smile or laugh will make you easily bond with new people.

Tips for Salary Negotiation for Employer

1. Do Advance Research

Before you open role, start a solid grasp of internal budget for salary. Look the salary range on job portal for similar role in your area.

By this research, you can ensure you calibrate job requirement properly. You’ll not surprised by job seeker’s salary expectation.

 

2. Clarify Job Level Early

Where there is a discrepancy between what salary a candidate is hoping for and what an employer is able to offer, it’s usually there’s misunderstanding in job level or skill requirement.

Be sure think carefully about job scope before posting your open role on job portal.

 

3. Specify a Salary Range Up Front

When post the role, be sure add a salary range on job post. Candidates normally want to know when evaluating job or employer detail on salary package.

By clarifying salary range, candidate will opt in or out early, it can minimizing the possibility of coming to salary stalemate later on.

 

4. Fully Evangelize Your Benefit

Whether your salary range are competitive in labor market or not. It’s important to be loud and proud with benefit your company offer.

The benefit can be like: health insurance, paid time off or other employee benefits.

 

5. Never Lead With Your Best Offer

You might be tempting to offer as much as you can when you find the prefect candidate. But most of the job seeker will assume that starting offer is negotiable and will ask for more — whether or not the offer was within their range.

So, left some negotiation budget for yourself when candidate is asking more from you.

 

6. Don’t Bail Based on Budget Alone

If there’s a discrepancy between candidate’s target income and your budget, you can start an honest dialogue about other benefit you can offer.

It might be the ability to work flexible schedule or extra vacation time.

 

7. Be on the Candidate’s Side

Without giving false hope, be sure to hear out candidate with an offer in hand — whether that offer is from your company or another company.

Take the time to truly hear candidate’s needs.

 

8. Close Your Negotiation on a High Note

Whether you found agreement on salary or your candidate declined your offer and moved on, do your best to end the interaction on a positive note.

If the candidate choose to walk away from an offer, wish your candidate the best of luck and encourage them to stay in touch.