On average, people spend around 10.3 years at work in a lifetime. Doubtless, the work environment plays a great role in people’s comprehensive development. If you climb the career ladder and try to achieve the work success, you tend to be a happier person. Thus, developing at work is important.
Reasons for developing at work:
- To increase productivity. The more productive you are, the less time you need to accomplish tasks, so working effectively is a key to work-life balance.
- To keep focused on tasks. If you pay attention to self-development, it’s more likely you will concentrate on work as you might be a determined person. Moreover, it improves an average attention span.
- To get a better job position. The business environment is competitive, and keeping on developing your skills is essential if you want to get promoted at work.
Continuing professional development is important as it gives a possibility to be an ambitious person who can handle various tasks and enjoy life itself. If you want to stay motivated for self-development at work, pay attention to the list below.
Here comes the list of 11 ways for staff to keep on developing at work:
Table of Contents
Good Work Environment
There should be something that can boost employees’ inspiration daily to improve work performance. While bonuses and occasional rewards help to motivate staff from time to time, workers should have motivation on a daily basis. The best way to drive inspiration is to organize a perfect work environment.
A good work environment includes:
- a well-organized workplace
- proper working conditions
- friendly staff
If employees love the process of working in the office, their work performance will improve. What is more, it will affect their desire to keep on learning something new about their professional niche.
Bonus System
No matter how much you love your job, all people go to work to make money. Money doesn’t guarantee happiness, but the way you earn and spend it can bring you joy. Appreciated workers make great employees, and a bonus system is a good way to prove employees’ investing in company development.
While most workers try to do their job responsibilities well, it’s proven that people will try to do their best if they know that some additional bonus is available. It’s in humans’ nature to compete, and having a bonus system at work is a kind of competition for colleagues to get this ‘extra’ recognition. Thus, people are inspired to learn more in order to stand out from the crowd. However, to inspire employees, the bonus system should be effective and fair.
Feel Valued at Work
Money is not the only reason for employees to work hard on their self-development. Most workers want to feel valued at work, and they need to know that their boss values their work. All in all, employees crave for getting support from a boss.
Employers are interested in improving their employees work performance without investing much money or time, and different reward and recognition programs help a lot. Once an employee has reached a business goal, it’s high time to greet him on it in public and, therefore, prove his contribution to the company development.
However, there is one important point: a boss should improve leadership qualities to motivate employees.
Find a Mentor at Work
Have you ever had a mentor? If so, you know the importance of communication with a person who can inspire and lead you. Having a mentor at work means being able to turn to a professional assistance once you’ve got stuck. This person consults you, gives advice, and encourages to keep on doing even the hardest work.
Plus, having a mentor at work is a way to draw inspiration and learn something new from an experienced person. Actually, any person at work can be your mentor if his or her skills are better than yours. However, you need to listen to this person and take into account tips and pieces of advice.
Professional Skills Improvement
Although self-development is a great way to achieve career success, it’s good if a company can offer some courses or master classes for its employees to help them develop professional skills.
If a person is interested in getting a better job position, he or she will never miss an opportunity to gain professional knowledge and experience, especially if a company encourages it. For example, a company can offer free entries to professional conferences, meetings, webinars, lectures, courses, etc. A company can grow revenue if its workers keep on developing their professional skills.
Strong Motivating Team
Working with determined people is the biggest motivation. It goes without saying that being a part of a strong team requires a lot of effort, knowledge, and expertise. If you don’t want to let your team down, you have to go hand in a hand with their development, so every member of a strong team moves toward to achieving success.
Once someone of your team achieves success, it’s a big inspiration boost for you, so you roll up the sleeves to repeat this story of success. After all, it’s better to work with people who are better than you. At least, if you want to have a visual example of success.
Work on Challenging Tasks
Challenge work can motivate staff to work harder. People tend to be more involved in the work process when they need to overcome some level of difficulty. Taking challenging tasks is a way to develop higher skills at work as any difficult task teaches you something new, including problem-solving, complex decision making, and creativity-boosting. Challenging work boosts engagement, and it leads to a better work performance.
No matter what your level of knowledge is, there is a chance to gain more if you work on difficult tasks. If an employee wants to reach his potential, it’s highly important to take challenge work.
Set Small Goals
Although people work in different fields, everyone faces goal setting during the work process. Smart goal setting shows the direction where to move and what to achieve, but if you want to succeed in accomplishing goals, you need to set small ones.
In fact, setting small goals is a way to do more things as you don’t procrastinate on them. Another reason is that people feel happier once they have achieved something, and when you reach many small goals in a row, you motivate yourself to move further. Thus, it boosts inspiration.
Celebrate Achievements
Working day in, day out is hard, but when you know what you have achieved, it helps to keep on the right track. Thus, every employee should celebrate personal achievements. Although it may seem like boasting, celebrating achievements is a way to fix them in your mind and, therefore, set yourself up for the future success. If you have an image of success in your head, it’s easier to move toward it. Plus, many people try to take a step back once they have difficulty in accomplishing some tasks, and celebrating even small wins is proof that you’re moving in the right direction. All in all, it’s a kind of motivation for personal development.
Be in Love with Your Work
You can achieve tremendous success if you love what you do.
Although many people put high wages first when it comes to choosing a future profession, it’s better to rely on your preferences and likes. If you love what you do, you’re interested in developing in this field which means climbing the career ladder with ease.
Trying to develop professional skills, it’s hard to imagine spending extra time outside of work in order to gain knowledge if you don’t like your work. Thus, remember that it’s never late to quit your job if it doesn’t bring you joy. As Marc Anthony once said, “If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.”
Get Enough Relax
Even if you’re in love with your work and your demanding job responsibilities, you need to have enough relax on a regular basis. Having a hectic schedule, you may lose the balance between work and life, and it can affect your well-being negatively. If you work hard without good rest, it affects mental conditioning and increases the chances of facing stress at work.
To have a good relax, you need to separate the work process and life itself. Thus, don’t worry about your work and clients after the end of the workday. It’s important to keep your work duties away from your average life as your worries can harm your communication with dearest and nearest. Once you have got enough relax, you boost energy, so you’re ready for the further development at work.
Wrapping it Up
The process of developing professional skills requires a considerable amount of time, money, and effort. But it’s a worthwhile investment for the company and employees. If you keep on developing at work, you become a happier person as you feel valued and know your strengths that allow you to get a better job position.
What helps you keep on growing at work?
Lale Byquist is a media communication student who wants to grow as a person daily. She runs PresentationSkills.me website to teach people how to overcome the fear of speaking in public. Plus, Lale wants to achieve business success, so she reads a lot about the business environment. If you have any questions, drop her a line at [email protected].