by Rick Baker
On Aug 21, 2012
"A whopping 85 percent of us have had bosses who have tried but failed to get us to change in order to improve our performance."1
If you want to develop better work habits then you need to:
- Plan some baby-step changes...then take them
- Shake it off when you make mistakes or stumble...and count on it - you will stumble...that's OK, in fact it is a necessary part of the learning and improving processes
- Spend a bit of time thinking about your mistakes with the view to understanding the lessons embedded in your stumbles...and getting to truly understand yourself: think about how you handle work-pressure/stress & strain; think about how you handle interpersonal differences; think about how you handle surprises; think about how you handle change [both good change and bad change].
- Pay attention to situations around you...think about how situations cause you to succeed or stumble...make sure you plan for them, or plan around them if that's the best route: avoid situations that enable/encourage/align with your bad work habits when that's possible; prepare strategies and tactics that help you manage situations that you struggle with but cannot avoid.
Footnotes:
- Joseph Grenny, David Maxfield, Ron McMillan, & Al Switzler 'Change Any-Thing', (2011)
- You have some bad work habits. All of us do. And we all have choices. For work habits, we can: wait for a rainy day to make change, or tackle them now...like a work leader must do. deny they exist, try to ignore them,hope they go away,
- If you do not want to develop better work habits...think about what that means to you, to your co-workers, to your family...etc.