Advanced techniques for working efficiently
Nowadays, various organizations, including government agencies, state enterprises, and private entities, realize the necessity of changing processes or methods to obtain maximum efficiency and effectiveness. That means these organizations agree that to become excellent, an important factor is quality operator who can achieve the maximum efficiency. The term ‘efficiency’ means skilfulness in avoiding wasted time and effort meanwhile achieving ultimate benefit and satisfaction (Nanthana Thammabut. 1997: 25). Whether the say, ‘To be effective at work, you need to be humble like a Thai, punctual like a westerner, diligent like a Chinese, working as a team like Japanese,’ is right or wrong, you have to prove. In an organization, there definitely are employees with different levels of efficiency, depending on a variety of factors. If you want to be an employee who is happy in workplace and works efficiently, you should apply the following techniques:
1.Setting up a goal: Before beginning to do any task, you should establish practical short-term, medium-term, and long-term goals that you want to achieve. A plan should be developed to guide your direction and correspond to your goals as well as the organization’s objectives. Having a deliberately developed plan will help minimize mistakes.
2.Time management: Employees may have different competency and skills from each other, but all of them have the same amount of time. Absolutely, time is of the essence. The result will be worth your time or not will depend on your time management ability. Many employees spend too much time on some tasks and forget other tasks. As a result, they end up having too many tasks to finish in a limited time and fail to complete the tasks on time. Good time management will improve orderliness. A deadline should be clearly determined for each task. You should remind yourself of the progress of your assignment. Planning and time management will certainly enable you to complete the tasks efficiently and meet the organization’s goal.
3.Self-confidence: Many employees do not have self-confidence and think that they are not good enough or cannot be compared to their fellow employees. As a result, they do not dare to show their competency or even insult themselves. Some are too afraid to do anything because they fear that they will be blamed. Finally, their performance will get even worse. Everybody has different competency. You need to identify your strengths, look back at your past successes, discover your pride, and try to improve your knowledge and skills, such as by listening, reading, and doing. Don’t blame yourself, but try to think positively. Dare to think and do. Moreover, you may change your appearance, such as the way you dress or your hair styles. Furthermore, you may increase your braveness and self-confidence by participating in competitions or activities. When you are confident and proud of yourself, it will be much easier for you to become successful.
4.Team work or individual work: Many employees often receive an advice that they have to work as a team in order to complete a task. However, the first thing they have to do is to analyze whether such task has to be done by a team or an individual employee. For a task that has to be completed by a team, teamwork is the key to success or failure of such task. If the task is divided into multiple sub-tasks each of which is assigned to each of the team members, all team members must communicate with each other in order to complete the sub-tasks in a way that will complement each other. The team has to figure out whether it is necessary to appoint a team leader. The task must be clearly analyzed. Benefits of the task must be clearly communicated to all team members through open communication channels. All team members should create an environment that enables them to work well together.
5.Ethics: All employees must comply with rules, regulations, and codes of conduct of the organization. They must not damage the organization with improper behavior. There shall be no discrimination against the employees. All employees must do their jobs in responsible, honest, fair, and accountable manner.
6.Action speaks louder than words: Effective employees will take action rather than just speaking. Even when they speak, they will speak creatively and positively. Employers will notice those employees who take action because they usually have outstanding performance.
7.Motivating yourself: You should try to remind yourself that you have to work hard for yourself and your family. Be motivated to work all the time for more effective and efficient performance. Have faith in your job and your organization. Look for and create opportunities to move forward and grow together with the organization because the workplace is the second home of the employees. Some employees spend more time in the workplace than their own houses.
8.Adjusting your attitude and value: Having a good attitude towards the organization and colleagues will make you become happier at work. If you love what you do, your performance will be good. Don’t adopt wrong value, such as taking a shortcut to success, such as flattering, dishonesty, or corruption. These things will lead to you a negative outcome someday.
9.Human relationship: Human relationship is one of the greatest arts that all employees should have to ensure smooth work and minimum obstacles. Good human relationship can begin from you. The very first thing that contributes to human relationship is a sincere smile. It is right to say that when you need something from someone, you have to give it to them first, such as helping each other in workplace, greeting your colleagues, or forgiving.
10.As an efficient employee, you should be competent in managing yourself, you colleagues, and the tasks for which you are responsible. When you are aware of your problems or weaknesses, you need to make required improvements. You should also learn to evaluate yourself and try to keep learning new things. To manage your colleagues is to understand their nature and needs in order to identify the ways to motivate them and have good relations with them. Then, it will be easier for you to work with them. To manage your task are to understand what your task is, develop a plan to complete the task, analyze the problems that may arise, figure out how to prevent or solve such problems, and prepare an alternative plan.
All of these techniques are only a part of how to work effectively and efficiently. There are many factors that affect your success, such as the organization, employees, colleagues, body of knowledge, and experiences. If you love your job and the organization, you will want to grow with the organization and be ready to improve yourself and turn into an effective and efficient employee. Whether the techniques recommended will be successful or not will depend on your situations. In the world today, work is an important part of everyone and you need to keep improving yourself.