Achieving 10As at the Workplace
EXCELLENCE is defined as the conditions of excelling or surpassing some standard of expectation.
It is the dream of human resource practitioners for staff to achieve excellence in the workplace. However, the results of excellence come from practice rather than preaching.
There are four key areas of excellence an organisation can strive to achieve. They are process excellence, product (includes service as well) excellence, policy excellence and people excellence. However, organisations can never have process, policy excellence or product excellence if they do not have people excellence.
To achieve people excellence, organisations need to focus on the growth and development of individuals. In this respect, there are a few critical areas of improvement which can be contributed to personal excellence.
PERSONAL EXCELLENCE 1: AWARENESS
One of the greatest values of the human resource as an asset is the ability of people to learn, improve and grow. To do this, people must be aware of the areas that need learning or improvement.
Individuals in organisation must take personal responsibility in increasing their awareness of the happenings around them.
They must be open to feedback on their performance. They must be aware of what they do well and those areas that they fall short on. To stay relevant, staff must take the initiative to get the latest information on their company, customers, competitors and the industry in general.
They must understand the changes in the industry and the impact on their companies. Likewise, they must cognisance of the changes implemented in the company that have impact on the way they work. They need to keep themselves updated on the policies, processes or products of the company.
PERSONAL EXCELLENCE 2: ATTITUDE
A patient went to see doctor. He told the doctor that there was something wrong with him. Wherever he touched, he felt pain.
The doctor indicated that this was serious and ran series of tests on the patient which included blood pressures, urine, blood, ECG and X-ray. The doctor asked him to come back in two weeks for the results
The patients waited anxiously and when the time was up he came to see the doctor. He asked the doctor what was wrong with him. The doctor replied, "According to the X-ray, you have a broken finger, so wherever you touched, it is painful." Likewise, if one has the wrong attitude, everything one does is wrong.
Attitude is important for two simple reasons. Firstly, without the proper attitude, one may not be aware of one's weaknesses or areas to improve. Secondly, awareness can be quite futile if one does not have the right attitude towards self-improvement.
Too often, we notice that intelligent and capable individuals are prevented from greater achievements because of their attitude. Because of this negative attitude, they argue that it is others who need to change and not them.
Developing positive attitude towards work, people and the organisation is a prerequisite for individuals to achieve excellence in the workplace. It is only with a positive attitude that people will take responsibility fro improvements in the workplace.
A person with a positive attitude will ask himself or herself what he or she can do to help improve things in the workplace. A person with a positive attitude will have more enthusiasm and energy to make things to happen. They will solve problems rather than complaint about them.
PERSONAL EXCELLENCE 3: AFFABILITY
Affability is a way of being pleasant and having a friendly disposition. The image of an organisation is often created by the affability of its staff.
Courteous staff who serve customer politely plays a big part in customer retention. Contrary to popular belief, the characteristics of affability are not born, but they can be cultivated by the individuals to achieve personal excellence as part of the personal development. Thus, as part of their development, individuals should not jus attend technical training, but also attend soft skills training such as interpersonal skills and customer service excellence.
PERSONAL EXCELLENCE 4: ABILITY
A fundamental way to achieve personal excellence is to develop one's ability to do one's tasks better each time around. This requires constant upgrading of one's knowledge and skills in various areas of work.
By being willing to take more responsibilities, one will not only develop more skills and gain more experience, but one's overall ability to perform better will also increase. The key to increasing one's ability is to keep an open mind and be willing to learn and grow.
One must not be afraid to make mistakes. The key is to keep learning and improving, including correcting mistakes and preventing similar mistakes.
One can also constantly do research on the latest information about specific topic one is interested in. By doing this consistently, one will quickly build up an area of expertise which will certainly make one stand out in the chosen field.
To increase one's ability to cut through problems in an organisation, one needs to continuously sharpen one's saw. The best way to do that is by embarking on a continuous learning process on the job, formal training and education and self-learning.
PERSONAL EXCELLENCE 5: AIM
A critical aspect of achieving personal excellence is having an aim. Having an aims requires setting clear goals and specific measurements to monitor progress.
People who achieve excellent results know the importance of planning and plotting the right strategies to achieve the desired results effectively. A person without an aim is like a ship without destination. In this respect, I know of many great performers in the corporate world who have clear "things to do" list every day. They list down things they are to accomplish and they schedule the completion according to priorities.
Each day they will start out with a "things to do" list and by the end of the day, they will strike out with a sense of satisfaction of the tasks that they have completed, For those task not completed, they will diligently bring forward the unaccomplished items to the next day's "things to" list along with the other tasks for the day and the process is repeated each day. The results achieved through this process are always magical ad this happens to those with an aim.
PERSONAL EXCELLENCE 6: ADAPTABILITY
Excellence is a moving target. Thus, there can be no personal excellence if one does not possess the sense of adaptability.
In fact, in the animal kingdom, the survival of species is determined by the degree of adaptability to their environment. Those who cannot adapt to the change sin the environment become extinct. Likewise, achieve personal excellence requires one to continuously anticipate, prepare and respond to changes in the work environment. Thus, individuals have to adapt new management style once a new leader replaces an old one.
When a company is taken over or merged, staff will need to adapt to the new corporate culture in order to survive. With introduction of new information technology system, staff will have to adapt and learn to use the new system to run their daily operations. With increasing competition and customer sophistication, individuals in organizations will need to develop new knowledge, skills and experience to meet up with increasing expectations from various stakeholders.
PERSONAL EXCELLENCE 7: ACTION
There can be no excellence without action. To achieve personal excellence often requires one to personally take those required actions. As an illustration, there is no point for an obese person to constantly talk about wanting to lose weight. The value lies in taking the appropriate action such as dieting and exercising. Likewise, if individuals in the workplace want to achieve personal excellence, they need to take necessary actions to achieve those desired results.
PERSONAL EXCELLENCE 8: ACTION COUNTABILITY
Here is an illustration of the importance of accountability. Once a upon a time there was a work unit with four members named Everybody, Somebody, Nobody And Anybody. There was an important project to be done, and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody's job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realised that Everybody wouldn't do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.
The real cause for non-performance in the corporate assignments or tasks which are to be completed is no clear ownership with regards to accountability. The common excuse is that "I thought someone was supposed to do that". Each individual who has been assigned specific tasks must hold himself or herself accountable for producing the desired results. It is all too easy to explain away non-performance or non-achievement. One can be blame the system, the policy, the technology or process for contributing to the condition of non-performance. However, it is only by holding ourselves accountable for the tasks assigned to us can we make a difference in the organization. An individual who holds himself accountable will do whatever it takes to eliminate the barriers or constraints in the workplace.
PERSONAL EXCELLENCE 9: ACHIEVEMENT
One of the greatest satisfactions that one can derive from the workplace is the sense of achievement. Achievement is a great hallmark of personal excellence. It is Henry Ford said, "One cannot build a reputation based on what one intends to do".
An individual can only build a reputation of personal excellence through the achievements that he or she has chalked up. In fact the best way to increase one's value is through the constant process of achieving set goals and targets. This is also good way to stay away from "company politics". An individual who continuously achieves and produces results does not have to worry about what other thinks of them. It is difficult to argue with clear and consistent achievements that are aligned with organisation goals. Stop indulging in unproductive "political manoeuvres" to try persuade others of one's value in an organization. Instead, embrace its aspect of personal excellence through one's achievement as it will certainly speak more convincingly and loudly than all the "political speeches" one makes in the workplaces.
PERSONAL EXCELLENCE 10: APPRECIATION
One great aspect of human character is the ability to appreciate others and things around us. Thus, one should appreciate the opportunity of working in an organization. And to show one's appreciation, one can focus on one's job and excel in it. Likewise, one should appreciate customers, for, without them a company has no revenue to pay the salaries of employees.
The writer, Victor S.L Tan is chief executive of KL Strategic Change Consulting Group. He can be contacted at e-mail: victorsltan@klscc.com.
It is the dream of human resource practitioners for staff to achieve excellence in the workplace. However, the results of excellence come from practice rather than preaching.
There are four key areas of excellence an organisation can strive to achieve. They are process excellence, product (includes service as well) excellence, policy excellence and people excellence. However, organisations can never have process, policy excellence or product excellence if they do not have people excellence.
To achieve people excellence, organisations need to focus on the growth and development of individuals. In this respect, there are a few critical areas of improvement which can be contributed to personal excellence.
PERSONAL EXCELLENCE 1: AWARENESS
One of the greatest values of the human resource as an asset is the ability of people to learn, improve and grow. To do this, people must be aware of the areas that need learning or improvement.
Individuals in organisation must take personal responsibility in increasing their awareness of the happenings around them.
They must be open to feedback on their performance. They must be aware of what they do well and those areas that they fall short on. To stay relevant, staff must take the initiative to get the latest information on their company, customers, competitors and the industry in general.
They must understand the changes in the industry and the impact on their companies. Likewise, they must cognisance of the changes implemented in the company that have impact on the way they work. They need to keep themselves updated on the policies, processes or products of the company.
PERSONAL EXCELLENCE 2: ATTITUDE
A patient went to see doctor. He told the doctor that there was something wrong with him. Wherever he touched, he felt pain.
The doctor indicated that this was serious and ran series of tests on the patient which included blood pressures, urine, blood, ECG and X-ray. The doctor asked him to come back in two weeks for the results
The patients waited anxiously and when the time was up he came to see the doctor. He asked the doctor what was wrong with him. The doctor replied, "According to the X-ray, you have a broken finger, so wherever you touched, it is painful." Likewise, if one has the wrong attitude, everything one does is wrong.
Attitude is important for two simple reasons. Firstly, without the proper attitude, one may not be aware of one's weaknesses or areas to improve. Secondly, awareness can be quite futile if one does not have the right attitude towards self-improvement.
Too often, we notice that intelligent and capable individuals are prevented from greater achievements because of their attitude. Because of this negative attitude, they argue that it is others who need to change and not them.
Developing positive attitude towards work, people and the organisation is a prerequisite for individuals to achieve excellence in the workplace. It is only with a positive attitude that people will take responsibility fro improvements in the workplace.
A person with a positive attitude will ask himself or herself what he or she can do to help improve things in the workplace. A person with a positive attitude will have more enthusiasm and energy to make things to happen. They will solve problems rather than complaint about them.
PERSONAL EXCELLENCE 3: AFFABILITY
Affability is a way of being pleasant and having a friendly disposition. The image of an organisation is often created by the affability of its staff.
Courteous staff who serve customer politely plays a big part in customer retention. Contrary to popular belief, the characteristics of affability are not born, but they can be cultivated by the individuals to achieve personal excellence as part of the personal development. Thus, as part of their development, individuals should not jus attend technical training, but also attend soft skills training such as interpersonal skills and customer service excellence.
PERSONAL EXCELLENCE 4: ABILITY
A fundamental way to achieve personal excellence is to develop one's ability to do one's tasks better each time around. This requires constant upgrading of one's knowledge and skills in various areas of work.
By being willing to take more responsibilities, one will not only develop more skills and gain more experience, but one's overall ability to perform better will also increase. The key to increasing one's ability is to keep an open mind and be willing to learn and grow.
One must not be afraid to make mistakes. The key is to keep learning and improving, including correcting mistakes and preventing similar mistakes.
One can also constantly do research on the latest information about specific topic one is interested in. By doing this consistently, one will quickly build up an area of expertise which will certainly make one stand out in the chosen field.
To increase one's ability to cut through problems in an organisation, one needs to continuously sharpen one's saw. The best way to do that is by embarking on a continuous learning process on the job, formal training and education and self-learning.
PERSONAL EXCELLENCE 5: AIM
A critical aspect of achieving personal excellence is having an aim. Having an aims requires setting clear goals and specific measurements to monitor progress.
People who achieve excellent results know the importance of planning and plotting the right strategies to achieve the desired results effectively. A person without an aim is like a ship without destination. In this respect, I know of many great performers in the corporate world who have clear "things to do" list every day. They list down things they are to accomplish and they schedule the completion according to priorities.
Each day they will start out with a "things to do" list and by the end of the day, they will strike out with a sense of satisfaction of the tasks that they have completed, For those task not completed, they will diligently bring forward the unaccomplished items to the next day's "things to" list along with the other tasks for the day and the process is repeated each day. The results achieved through this process are always magical ad this happens to those with an aim.
PERSONAL EXCELLENCE 6: ADAPTABILITY
Excellence is a moving target. Thus, there can be no personal excellence if one does not possess the sense of adaptability.
In fact, in the animal kingdom, the survival of species is determined by the degree of adaptability to their environment. Those who cannot adapt to the change sin the environment become extinct. Likewise, achieve personal excellence requires one to continuously anticipate, prepare and respond to changes in the work environment. Thus, individuals have to adapt new management style once a new leader replaces an old one.
When a company is taken over or merged, staff will need to adapt to the new corporate culture in order to survive. With introduction of new information technology system, staff will have to adapt and learn to use the new system to run their daily operations. With increasing competition and customer sophistication, individuals in organizations will need to develop new knowledge, skills and experience to meet up with increasing expectations from various stakeholders.
PERSONAL EXCELLENCE 7: ACTION
There can be no excellence without action. To achieve personal excellence often requires one to personally take those required actions. As an illustration, there is no point for an obese person to constantly talk about wanting to lose weight. The value lies in taking the appropriate action such as dieting and exercising. Likewise, if individuals in the workplace want to achieve personal excellence, they need to take necessary actions to achieve those desired results.
PERSONAL EXCELLENCE 8: ACTION COUNTABILITY
Here is an illustration of the importance of accountability. Once a upon a time there was a work unit with four members named Everybody, Somebody, Nobody And Anybody. There was an important project to be done, and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody's job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realised that Everybody wouldn't do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.
The real cause for non-performance in the corporate assignments or tasks which are to be completed is no clear ownership with regards to accountability. The common excuse is that "I thought someone was supposed to do that". Each individual who has been assigned specific tasks must hold himself or herself accountable for producing the desired results. It is all too easy to explain away non-performance or non-achievement. One can be blame the system, the policy, the technology or process for contributing to the condition of non-performance. However, it is only by holding ourselves accountable for the tasks assigned to us can we make a difference in the organization. An individual who holds himself accountable will do whatever it takes to eliminate the barriers or constraints in the workplace.
PERSONAL EXCELLENCE 9: ACHIEVEMENT
One of the greatest satisfactions that one can derive from the workplace is the sense of achievement. Achievement is a great hallmark of personal excellence. It is Henry Ford said, "One cannot build a reputation based on what one intends to do".
An individual can only build a reputation of personal excellence through the achievements that he or she has chalked up. In fact the best way to increase one's value is through the constant process of achieving set goals and targets. This is also good way to stay away from "company politics". An individual who continuously achieves and produces results does not have to worry about what other thinks of them. It is difficult to argue with clear and consistent achievements that are aligned with organisation goals. Stop indulging in unproductive "political manoeuvres" to try persuade others of one's value in an organization. Instead, embrace its aspect of personal excellence through one's achievement as it will certainly speak more convincingly and loudly than all the "political speeches" one makes in the workplaces.
PERSONAL EXCELLENCE 10: APPRECIATION
One great aspect of human character is the ability to appreciate others and things around us. Thus, one should appreciate the opportunity of working in an organization. And to show one's appreciation, one can focus on one's job and excel in it. Likewise, one should appreciate customers, for, without them a company has no revenue to pay the salaries of employees.
The writer, Victor S.L Tan is chief executive of KL Strategic Change Consulting Group. He can be contacted at e-mail: victorsltan@klscc.com.
posted by Blue Eternity at
10:03 AM
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