101 Ways to be Better, Effective and Successful at Work

You may wonder what you should do now that you have landed the job of your dreams. It could be your first job…or perhaps you got a new one. it is possible to excel in your work; there are people who have  come before you and have done it.

Or forget being new at your current job, you may have been a slacker for a while, there’s no turning back, you can come back, and come back with a bang.  There are comeback stories in every field, be it sports, music, acting.

Just believe in yourself, you can do it!

You will become a very valued employee when you follow the plans laid out to excel at your work. Here are some of the ways of excelling and your work and becoming an asset to your company.

When it comes to getting the best rating and increment your boss could give you or getting the promotion you have been long waiting for, these 101 tips could go a long way in your career.

1. Always improve your skills, even if you have the best skill in your team.
2. Be the change agent, leaders bring in change, managers just maintain status-quo. Be a leader, not manager.
3. Look out for inefficiencies in yourself, know your weaknesses and work to remove them or work around them.
4. Be helpful to  the management and your colleagues.
5. Maintain a daily to-do list. The list makes achieving targets easier.
6. Help the company to reduce costs by innovation. Re-engineer processes to cut cost.
7. Find more clients for the company, bring in more business if you’re in a customer facing job.
8. Be happy and productive at work.
9. Present any good and efficient ideas to your company
10. Know your strengths and weaknesses, and improve on your strengths
11. Prioritize tasks. Learn to identify important, urgent, not-so-important and not-so urgent tasks. Prioritize your work accordingly.
12. Be proactive when it comes to new ideas and technologies
13. Outsource services that are not regularly needed, e.g. accounts in a law firm
14. Run your responsibilities as if you own the business
15. Delegate some of your responsibilities and concentrate on other important things
16. Have work goals. Have a list (realistic one) of things that must be achieved at the end of each day. They could be one or two, but certainly not more than ten.
17. Seek out ways and means of improving on your areas of weaknesses
18. Support your employer causes, giving and charities. Organize and participate in charitable events.
19. Take constructive criticism and figure out how to work around them
20. Help your boss grow, you’ll grow in turn. learn what’s important for him/her organize your strategy accordingly.
21. When your boss is stuck, learn to come out and move. Learn the tricks of internal job switch for inorganic growth.
22. Learn more about the business, its competitors,  its core values etc
23. Be a problem solver at work, rather than pointing fingers and looking back. Even if it’s not your fault try to reach a solution that can fix the issue.
24. Get involved, don’t  play too safe, ask questions, question the status-quo.
25. Know people-broaden your contacts, improve your relationships by participation in decision-making. building relationship is key to get things done. Especially important for people in a large organization.
26. Discuss your short-term and long-term goals with your boss (career goals) and ask for their support
27. Set a realistic bar for yourself…not too high as to leave you discouraged and not too low as you leave you unmotivated
28. Work smart; not hard. well, sometime hard work is needed. During project launches I work more than 12 hours a day.
29. Be a team performer – always work for the benefit of the team, not bad to seek for personal glory, but not at the cost of others.
30. Never take things personally, it’s just a business you are in.
31. Watch your tongue, choose your words whenever you write emails and reports etc
32. Stay busy…lazing around during work hours presents a bad image of you.
33. Be sure of how your boss reacts to your actions…or lack of actions.
34. Every bad situation is an opportunity to grow, so see it as such and don’t get discouraged
35. You should be  your employer’s ally and help put out fires when they come up
36. Keep in mind that  you are setting a standard for your subordinates, so let them have something good to emulate
37. Be visible-for the right reasons
38. Look the part when you are in the office…invest in your dressing and looks.
39. Respect and courtesy is a must, whether you are dealing with junior employees or clients who are hard to be around.
40. Learn to say “no”, it is essential to effectively manage tasks at hand.
41. Always know how to pick your battles, get into one you are sure you can win…but don’t do it just for the sake of it. stand up for what is fair and just
42. Keep in mind that not everyone thinks “its just business”-some take it personally
43. You are representing your employer wherever you go. Ensure you look the part and behave accordingly
44. Find out ways of doing more with less effort, be efficient!
45. Making yourself an important asset to the company increases your leverage
46. Be the person who makes things happen,  build contacts, connect more.
47. Being in charge of other people means your attitude also affects them. High moral standards is a must
48. Have fun at work, being too uptight can work against you
49. When you are a leader make the work place fun and enjoying for your team. productivity will increase.
50. Work on branding yourself and representing values you believe in.
51. Always have a positive attitude, when you lose you can always say you will live to fight another day.
52. Always be on the lookout for opportunities that present themselves wherever you are working and in the field.
53. Don’t take unnecessary risks that may lose the company a lot-any risk should be well calculated and justified
54. Don’t be afraid to take up opportunities that will mean leaving your employment; remember, it’s just business
55. Having a lot of achievements means you will have job security, and your chances of getting better paying jobs are good.
56. Use your creativity and talents on the job, great people don’t do different things, they do things differently.
57. Set out to improve the competition in the company.
58. Pay your taxes on time and accurately, don’t put a blemish on your name.
59. Avoid job-hopping too frequently.
60. Ensure you accumulate enough exposure in a single job before moving
61. Be determined to push beyond your personal limits
62. Strive to excel at every opportunity that comes to you
63. Accept recognition accordingly
64. Do not take shortcuts, acquire knowledge and do the things in normal way.
65. Always upgrade your skills and knowledge
66. Be approachable even to your juniors.
67. Improve your communication skills, learn to speak fluently, if possible join your local toast master and improve your speaking skills.
68. Mutual respect for fellow employees is important
69. Tolerance for others is key to success
70. Resourcefulness-make every chance work for you
71. Be Practical-take jobs that will challenge you, forget about those that will not change anything
72. Have faith and believe in yourself and your team.
73. Motive matters more than money.
74. Be enthusiastic about your job, no matter how mundane it is
75. Put you best in your work, even if you fail you will learn something.
76. Attitude matters a lot more than the kind of job you are doing
77. You will be building the careers of your juniors as well, make sure you are a good example
78. Your career is a chance to build your character
79. Help management in their recruitment process, bring in best candidates for the company, with your company or division, you will also grow.
80. Give a word of affirmation to your juniors
81. Excel at everything you do.
82. Take pride in your work and your family. Feel good about your job.
83. Don’t stop at average, your work should be high quality
84. Always strive to learn more, especially from experiences of other people
85. Having a mentor will get you on the right path to what you want to achieve, choosing the right mentor is the key to  the speed of your growth. Contact people from top most level in your search for a mentor.
86. Do not use employer resources like internet, computer for personal business. Most employer keep track of it, even though they don’t let you know.
87. During meeting with senior management, be visible let them notice you. Ask question, give opinions.
88. Do not take unnecessary risk when you are new to the job. Play safe for few months, learn first.
89. Generally when top executives present company developments and plans, they answer general questions at the end, use this chance and ask question. You will be remembered by many.
90. Spend money on self improvement, dress right and smell good and look smart. No matter what others say i firmly believe at certain point in the ladder look does matter.
91. Know that your personal and professional self are not different
92. Don’t take a risk that you are not sure of
93. Maintain a good hygiene and a clean desk, a well decorated cubicle/office space catches attention.
94. Write effective emails that can set you aside from others.
95. Always stand up for your ideas
96. Don’t keep up appearances, be who you are
97. Always strive to build a network
98. Work as if you own the business, you’ll get the much-needed drive.
99. Always give constructive criticism, don’t unnecessarily criticize co-workers to gain advantage.
100. Separate work from non-work issues, leave the household problems behind. Learn to manage stress.
101. Take training, often free of cost offered by employers. Don’t missing a learning opportunity if the training can help you doing your job better. You can also take advantage of tuition reimbursement policy if you have to earn professional degrees.

At the end of it, if you decide to quit, quit gracefully and do not burn bridges. you may be coming back in the same rank or other.

You may not agree to some points. I listed what I value most. As long as you agree to majority of the ideas, you are on right track. All the best for your career, if you have some additional tips to share, don’t hesitate to leave comments.