There's no gainsaying Ghanaians are being sensitised increasingly to the need of improving their lifestyles, their health, their whole outlook on life every year. While it is habitual to take stock of the year and see what one can do better every year-end, I notice a positive trend expressed through radio shows which advocate healthier life-styles and healthier living. I was thoroughly pleased to hear stations like CITI97.3fm doing this the very first day of the year. There's a lot of it in the papers as well, and it can only be encouraging.
Bitten by the bug of self-improvement, I've resolved to adopt a more minimalist look and feel to my life of clutter. While there's still the proverbial room for improvement, I am finding peace and a degree of sanity in reading up on making oneself indispensable. There are a number of great sites out there, but one of those which outlined the simple points best can be found here:
Even though the
Great Recession is
behind us and the
economic recovery
is (by most accounts) well underway, good jobs are hard to come by. So
how can you be sure to keep yours once you’ve found it? Simple. By
making yourself indispensable.
An example of indispensability
I was recently talking to a friend (let’s call him Steve) who related
a story about one of his most valuable employees (let’s call him Mark).
Times were tough, and Steve wasn’t actually hiring, but Mark showed up
one day and got his foot in the door by offering to volunteer in return
for the work experience. Steve checked out his resume and gave him a
chance.
Over the next few months, Mark proved his worth – and then some.
According to Steve, he made himself completely indispensable.
Ultimately, Steve couldn’t help but hire him. And what a great decision
that was. Mark has now become the “go to” guy for a number of things
around the workplace, and Steve can hardly imagine how they got by
without him. Do you think Mark has job security? You bet he does.
And… The exact opposite
At the same time, I’ve recently had the exact opposite experience
with an employee. While I’ve generally been good at judging talent and
character, I seriously mis-judged this guy. After a few decent months,
his work ethic started to slip and we had all sort of problems. He was
regularly late to work, he lacked initiative, and he had questionable
judgment when he actually bothered to get things done.
In short, we just couldn’t rely on him to get the job done, so people
end up working around him. He became little more than an obstacle – and
an expensive one at that. We did what we could to get him back on
track, but nothing worked. So… Do you think he has job security? Nope.
In fact, he’s already gone.
Sure, he might have been having problems outside the workplace, but guess that’s no excuse.
Everyone
is dealing with a ton of stuff in the outside world. You’re not
special, and your burdens aren’t any greater than those of the people
around you. Life is hard, but you still need to show up and do your job.
If you don’t, you might just find yourself
living on unemployment.
Becoming a better employee
Let’s start with the basics.
Don’t be late. Ever. Don’t fake sick
days. Don’t make excuses when things go awry. Take responsibility for
your actions. And don’t do busy work just to appear busy. Your boss
isn’t stupid, so don’t try to pull the wool over their eyes. You’re just
setting yourself up for failure if you do.
Now that you’ve covered the basics…
Spend the time and effort to do your job to the best of your
abilities. You have to be at work all day, so why not make the most of
it? Take initiative. Identify problems and solve them. Ask questions.
Work quickly and efficiently. Help others when they need help – but
don’t do their jobs for them.
Become a resource. Make yourself the “go
to” guy (or gal) at your workplace.
In short,
make yourself indispensable.
If you do this, you’ll greatly increase your job security. I promise. And who knows… You might even
get yourself a raise or – gasp! – a promotion along the way.
