January, 12, 2004This "fruit for thought" article is for all human beings, who somehow find themselves in
role of breadwinner and striving to improve their living standards.
© This article may be re-published only in ezines, magazines, newspapers and web sites, as long as it remains unchanged, together with accompanying signatures and this copyright notice.
The heading of this article could just as well have been "How to position yourself for promotion" or "How to position yourself for career advancement" or "How to climb success ladder" or something similar.
The answer on how to cultivate good work ethics is simple. Make yourself one of linking pins in your organisation. A linking pin is someone to whom everybody turns to, to get information and advice from. It is also someone who can link persons, sections and departments for better co-operation. But most important of all, it is someone who can exert influence upwards, downwards and sideways in organisation structure. In other words you must be able to influence people around you to carry out wishes, policies and strategies of top management, by earning respect through your display of expertise and thoroughness. You must also be able to represent valid wishes and needs of lower levels to top management. You can become a linking pin by striving to attain following traits:
Cloak yourself with expert knowledge in your technical field of operation.
If you are an electrician, do not only be satisfied with your qualification. Try to gain more in depth expertise in this technical field of yours, to distinguish yourself from other electricians.
If you are an accountant, avail yourself of in depth knowledge about bookkeeping practices by studying or reading up on subjects pertinent for your field of technical expertise.
You can bluff your way during interviews, but once you have been appointed, people expect from you to perform. This is where cookie crumbles or you succeed. The point is you must not only perform at an average level, but you must display exceptional or above average expertise, so that others can start to rely on your opinions and advice.
Produce accurate work.
Cultivate a habit to carry out your work correctly with a minimum of mistakes. Sloppiness or tardiness must definitely not be present in your attitude, personal appearance or any of your work outputs, be it notes, memo’s, letters, spreadsheets, conversations or anything related to your work.
Imagine what will happen if debits and credits are being processed wrong way around in a financial department. It will have disastrous consequences. Strive for professionalism in what you do.
Be quicker than most.
This is one of best ways to demonstrate your superiority and efficiency. By executing duties and tasks speedily, you are being more productive and can entice more important tasks your way and thereby not only increase your merit ratings, but also your ultimate job rating. If you can perform your duties speedily, do not wait and stay idle, but present yourself to your superior for more work. Find a balance to be both quick and accurate.
Display awareness of productivity.
This must start with your own self-evaluation. Ask yourself constantly if you are giving more back to organisation in value, than what you are being paid every month. Although not easy to calculate, just thinking about it may have enough of an impact. Just imagine for a moment if your organisation were to be solely dependant for profit on output of human beings only. In other words nothing to sell or produce but labour output. If you can do more, it reflects directly on profit. Luckily a lot of organisations have machines that make up in productivity for what is lost by unproductive employees. But being more productive in what you do as a human being, can contribute significantly to profits of any organisation. As salaries are one of highest cost elements in any organisation, this is one of first cost elements that come under scrutiny during times of cost reduction efforts. You have to show your worth in order not to be included in downscaling of labour force. But more positively, you have to show your worth to be counted in for consideration for promotion.
Get rid of time wasters.
Arriving late for work, stretching of tea and lunch breaks and elongated private conversations on phone, are not only wasting your valuable time, but are a reflection of your poor awareness of productivity. Private conversations on telephone are one of most abused methods of stealth stealing from your employer. If you cannot be trusted on use of telephone, what else can you be trusted with? Are you a role model for getting rid of these time wasters or for abusing it? Are you earning respect for your ethical conduct in eradicating time wasters or are you just one of crowd? If you discipline yourself and others around you on economical use of time, you are on your way to earn a respected leadership role. Others must detect a sense of urgency in your execution of duties to begin to respect and follow your example. Do you want to be a follower or a leader? Do you want to stay obscured in crowd for rest of your life or do you want to be recognised? There is such a thing as telephone ethics, you know. If you are prepared to pay for your use of employer telephone, you are not abusing it. Do you really know what you are costing your employer for using phone? You are not supposed to use it for private purposes in first place. It is a privileged instrument entrusted to you to help you in your work and not to cause financial loss to you employer.
