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Welcome back to Warehouse and Operations as a Career, I’m Marty, and today I’ll have a few opinions, as well as a couple of answers to questions we’ve received over the last three weeks to share with you!
Can you believe we’re at 4 weeks to wrapping up 2020? I think we, as humans, kind of reflect on our accomplishments and hurdles each year about this time. I generally see more people going and speaking with their management teams about transfers, changing departments, maybe accepting more responsibilities etc…and this may be the time of year that our managers approach us regarding an offer to accept a lead or supervisor position too. Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve been asked about how to best bring up the conversation about a pay increase or raises to my boss, gosh, I bet 10 different times. Theres more wrong ways to do that than there are good ones! We’ll talk about that here in a few minutes.
So, I asked 17 individuals why they we’re wanting to change departments or move from a packer position into a puncher task or wanting to be a department lead or what made you think about becoming a supervisor. I was a bit shocked at the initial answers I was given. Every one of the 17 men and women I asked the word Why to what they had told me replied with something like, I need more of a challenge, or I’m ready for more responsibility, or I need to be doing it so it’ll be right! Not one single person initially brought up pay. I have to say I was impressed. By each of them. They were talking like professionals. Wanting to be their best.
Now of course the subject of money came up a bit later, but to be honest, money was not their motivation to step up. I got the impression that it was the responsibility and the challenge. Each was wanting more.
So, let’s talk about promotions for just a minute. Here at WAOC we’ve talked a lot about some of the struggles of now being the boss of our friends, how our family life may change due to new schedules and a lot of the challenges we’ll face. Today I’d like to talk about a few promotion tips, or thoughts that could help us realize those steps quicker.
So let’s say that you’ve been working in the same position for over a year and no one has said anything to you about a promotion or increase in pay. There could be many reasons for a company not giving you a promotion or a raise and some of them are valid, such as a downturn in the profits of the company or even your own job performance.
However, not all companies are suffering downturns. If your company is thriving but you still haven’t gotten a raise, there are many things you can do to get noticed – in a good way – by your company superiors and move the promotion process along.
These strategies can help you to move up the ladder:
Be vocal. Discussing your concerns with your boss is important and they will value your word, just as they value your work.
Offer realistic and effective solutions to your concerns.
Discuss your thoughts on things that you can do to bring value to the company.
Be on time. Being late could lead your boss to believe that you’re a slacker who doesn’t value your job, even if you have a valid excuse. Show up a bit early, instead, and use this time to get to know your coworkers better and prepare for the day’s tasks.
Be a team player. Employees are more likely to move up faster in a company if a supervisor can see that they work well as a team. If you’re an isolated worker, ensure that your boss sees that you are making an effort to communicate and work effectively with others.
Do your part for team projects to help make them successful. Offer to lend a hand to a coworker who may be struggling.
Be willing to share the victories with others. Helping the team look good also helps you to look good.
Continue learning. Employers value higher education. Sometimes you might deserve a raise, but your current level of education doesn’t assure the company that you are worth more pay. Continue your education with online learning or night school and show your company that you are willing to be worth the raise.
Along with additional knowledge, you can learn many new skills as well as hone the skills you already have.
Picking up additional degrees or certificates for skills that can help your company will impress your bosses and could be a turning point for your career.
Have a meeting with your boss to discuss your job performance. Find out where your boss thinks you can improve and make a concrete plan to ensure that it happens. Openly discuss the prospect of a raise.
Following these tips will help you to move forward – not only in your bank account – but also in your career. They will increase your worth as an employee and make you a valuable asset to your company.
Confident people tend to be more successful at work, are happier, and are not afraid to go for a promotion or face new challenges.
Would it not be helpful if you were able to boost your confidence in your skills and workplace abilities?
Cut out negative self-talk. A positive mentality will help you learn more easily and ultimately help boost your confidence. When you find yourself speaking negatively or criticizing yourself, immediately switch it to something positive, instead.
For example, instead of criticizing your lack of knowledge about something, tell yourself: It’s great that I can learn what I need quickly and easily so that tasks like these become a cinch to do!
Instead of saying, “I can’t,” ask yourself, “How can I?” This takes your focus off of the negative and puts it in the realm of the positive. In this mode, you may come up with the solution you need to enable you to do the thing that you thought you couldn’t.
Increase your knowledge. When you take the time to learn a new skill or piece of knowledge, you can be certain that what you’re doing is correct.
You may want to look at online courses, or perhaps attend a seminar, designed to enhance your skills.
Watch what others in your workplace do successfully and try to copy them.
Practice makes perfect. When you practice at a certain task, you will get better at it in time as you are able to correct any mistakes that you make.
Each time you complete a task, ask yourself whether there is anything you could do differently to improve the process the next time you do it.
Work on your strengths. A proven way to boost confidence in the workplace is by focusing your attention on excelling at the skills you are already good at.
Doing something excellently, rather than just adequately, can do wonders for your confidence!
Ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask questions if there is something you don’t know or understand. After all, the knowledge you seek could be the information you need to finish your task quickly and accurately.
Focus on your past successes. An easy way to boost your confidence is to think about past projects that you’ve completed successfully. Did you complete a task within the deadline? Perhaps received praise from your boss?
Focus on the positives rather than the negatives.
Act confidently. If you’re approaching a new task, or perhaps an entirely new job, then chances are you won’t know exactly what needs to be done. In these situations, it’s completely normal to feel under-confident. However, if you act confidently and put on a positive frame of mind, you may surprise yourself.
Not only will you gain the trust of your work colleagues, but your own self-confidence will increase too, with the knowledge that you are capable at your job with valuable skills to offer.
Have fun. Taking yourself too seriously in the workplace will leave your self-esteem in tatters when you encounter setbacks. Of course, you want to be good at your job, but this does not mean that you need to be serious 100% of the time.
You are allowed to have fun and doing so will allow you to laugh at yourself and any mistakes you make.
Take any criticism directed at you with good humor and you won’t suffer any knocks to your confidence.
A little extra confidence can go a long way toward helping you reach your career goals. Think of these tips the next time you’re feeling doubtful about your skills or abilities and you’ll be able to bring your confidence back up again in short order.
Well, that’s got to be a wrap for this week! I hope these thoughts and idea’s maybe lit a spark for you regarding what you’d like to do in 2021. Plan, Goal and Achieve. Be Safe everyone and I hope to see you again next week!