Self-Management Skills You Need To Succeed

Self-management skills are defined as one’s ability to control their actions, feelings, and thoughts in a calculated and constructive manner in order to follow through on their goals and responsibilities. (GlassDoor) With many professionals continuing their careers in a remote or hybrid role, the ability to work autonomously and self-manage is a fundamental part of improving job performance and productivity. People who are well-developed in self-awareness and self-regulation are “well-positioned to develop a set of self-management skills that support them on their work and personal journeys.” (BetterUp)

“Self-Management is all about becoming your own leader by training your mental, physical, social, and intellectual faculties in different ways.” – Dr. Prem Jagyasi. 

With supporting research from the career resource hub at GlassDoor, we compiled four critical components of effective self-management and reveal steps you can take to improve on each of them:

1. Stress Management

“In high-pressure situations, you remain calm and collected. Rather than losing your focus, you find a way to solve stressful problems.”

Learning to balance your physical and emotional capacities is critical to limiting your stress intake and mastering self-management. Where is the benefit of allowing yourself to focus on your job’s negative features and letting yourself get easily upset with co-workers and clients? Keep your happiness and productivity top of mind by prioritizing your stress management and mental health.

Put It Into Practice: 
– Get outside to release tension and recharge for a productive afternoon.
– Set up appointments with a life coach or therapist.
– Define what being ‘healthy’ looks like in your life.
– Set a sleep schedule.
– Reflect in a journal.
– Exercise regularly.
– Get organized.

2. Time Management

“You can prioritize your tasks and get things done on time. You have ways to stay motivated and avoid procrastination.”

The pandemic pushed us outside of our patterns and inside of our homes. With the high connectivity to our house and family, the importance of establishing boundaries is magnified when it comes to work-life balance and upkeeping productivity. From being consistent in your schedule (no matter what it may look like) to minimizing distractions such as social media, web-surfing, or household chores, effective time management is a source for stability and freedom in a hybrid or remote role.

Put It Into Practice: 
– Set your own deadlines.
– Stick to a consistent schedule.
– Learn to say ‘no.’
– Don’t pressure yourself to multitask. 
– Take breaks. Staying at your desk for 8+ hours allows stress to consume your workday.
– Identify your timewasters. 

3. Adaptability

“When things suddenly change, you can control your discomfort and roll with it. Figuring out ways to embrace new situations comes easily to you.”

Optimism and resilience are indications of an adaptable employee. The willingness and preparedness to embrace change is a vital component in measuring effectiveness. Within the unpredictability and frequent change brought by COVID-19, many workers’ flexibility and job performance were tested. As a result, this self-management skill was in high demand to see out success. In shifting to new trends and market trends, the ability to navigate change instills trust from management teams and allows them to focus on other areas desperately needing attention. 

Additionally, adaptability is a core value linked to a variety of essential leadership qualities: (Key Step Media)
– Improved ability to lead in challenging environments.
– More practical and rapid responses to unexpected changes & ability to ‘sell the change.’
– Effectiveness in multiple roles, functions, or different organizations.

Put It Into Practice: 
– Research: Be proactive in staying relevant/current – seeking new solutions and strategies to address new or recurring problems. 
– Push yourself to take risks by setting goals that are outside of your comfort zone.
– Get curious. Stay open-minded and encourage others to do the same (i.e., procedures, technology, delegating responsibilities, etc.)

4. Conscientiousness 

“You are always mindful of what you say and the way you treat others. Others would describe you as kind and thoughtful.”

Conscientious people are careful, disciplined, responsible, and thorough, and they tend to plan and think things through before acting. (NOBA Project) Becoming a more conscientious employee (or self-aware employee) grants greater access to our thoughts, feelings, and desires, thus providing a sense of control. Conscientiousness is achieved by taking a more scheduled, communicative, and diligent business approach in tune with high awareness and appreciation for others. Assertive communication is critical to understanding your purpose and maintaining motivation. Digital miscommunication results from the absence of non-verbal cues such as tone, body language, and facial expressions.

Put It Into Practice: 
– Refine your communication skills.
– Schedule ‘check-ins’ with your management team, clients, or co-workers. 
– Set reminders for your tasks and responsibilities. 
– Organize your desk, desktop, and email dashboard. 
– Set methods for improving punctuality (setting clocks back, buffer times, etc.)

“All management starts with self-management, defined as the intentions and actions to be taken and the quantifying of those actions.” -Julian Pencilliah.

Wrap Up

Having these self-management skills shows that you are a reliable and emotionally intelligent employee. Managing yourself properly allows you to be more successful in achieving your goals and opens doors to future exciting career opportunities. What’s next? Reflect on the areas you can improve your self-management. Acknowledging any need for improvements is the first step towards change.

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Improving Mindfulness For Career Growth

What is mindfulness? The American Psychological Association defines mindfulness as “a moment-to-moment awareness of one’s experience without judgment. It is a state and not a trait.” A mindful individual is fully present and aware of their surroundings and reactions to specific thoughts and situations. Mindfulness is not something people can be born with but instead attained through attentiveness and comprehension. By tending to your thoughts, emotions, and sensations, you can accurately identify your habits and prepare the necessary steps to improve job performance.

A lack of mindfulness presents a disconnected employee walking through their days on autopilot. In the absence of self-awareness, organization, and intentionality towards one’s mental health, employees are not only stunting growth potential but instituting a continuous cycle of detachment as well. Making a conscious effort to these three healthy habits will unify an increased sense of mindfulness and take your career to new heights!

The Quest For Self-Awareness

Being self-aware is a critical part of becoming more mindful, as it allows you to better understand how you fit into your environment. Stay alert of your surroundings; offering attention without personal bias enables you to see how your work affects others and how it makes you feel. As you improve your self-awareness, you will learn to properly assess your capabilities and know your limits. Self-awareness is not just about recognizing your weaknesses but knowing how to capitalize on your strengths as well. 

Self-awareness is a continuous practice that often includes scheduling times to measure your progress and nurture your mind. This can be achieved through daily journaling or speaking with a mentoring figure. But remember, your quest will require you to take on some tough criticism with an open mind and a level of comfortability to examine your perpetual obstacles. Additionally, completing aptitude tests online or seeking performance reviews from your superiors or peers is another great tactic to initiating self-awareness. 

Recognizing Organization as a Form of Self-Care

Are you putting your organizational skills into practice? Becoming more mindful is achieved by putting your self-care methods into practice, and one of the best strategies for your career is organization. Examples include maintaining a well-kept, uncluttered workspace and a structured calendar with blocks of time left open for mindfulness exercises such as journaling, walking, yoga, or meditation.

The Mindfulness and Wellness experts at Mindful.org proceed to expand on the connection between mindfulness and organization by detailing a self-care roadmap. The ‘activity list’ consists of various exercises and strategies written out to become more intentional in your self-care in your Workplace, Physical Fitness, Emotional Life, and Relationships. As you improve on your organization in these areas, you will find yourself to be more confident, energized, engaging, and patient in your career. 

“Self-care means asking yourself what you need and following through on the honest answer.” (Mindful.org)

Prioritizing Mental Health Through Kindness

While mindfulness is recognized as just one outlet for enhancing your mental health, its connectivity to your thoughts, emotions, and sensations makes it a large piece of the puzzle. Humans are naturally wired to be kind, and being kind to others starts with being kind to yourself. When you act on your instincts to be compassionate and mindful of others, you are strengthening yourself and society. Tying into your surroundings, you must make yourself approachable to others and look out for their mental well-being. Studies have shown that providing social support to others often has more benefits to your physical and mental health than receiving it. 

5 Ways To Improve Mindfulness

Via CERIC & Mindworks:

  • Concentrated attention exercises on different objects such as the breath, bodily sensations, or the five senses.
  • Concentrated attention exercises on body movements (e.g. mindful walking, mindful stretching, yoga)
  • Enjoy the silence. Meditations that develop compassion for the self and others. 
  • Eliminate distractions to help avoid multitasking. Focusing on one task or project for a specific period helps to take a weight off your shoulders and pinpoint your attention.
  • Pour yourself into your household chores wholeheartedly.

Final Thoughts

Remember that mindfulness is about showing yourself unconditional kindness during your highs and lows. Mindfulness techniques, such as meditation and relaxation, are proven to enhance moods and dramatically reduce daily stressors. These benefits offer a significant boost to career satisfaction and increased productivity. Erasing stress and worry is not the goal but rather a byproduct of your renewed confidence and elevated sense of purpose.

Stay Vigilant – Watch out for signs of a toxic work culture. Find your support group and keep looking to grow it! Don’t be afraid to allow people the chance to surprise you.

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Establishing Good Relationships in the Workplace

Employee engagement plays an influential role in a company’s culture and overall job performance. Gallup Analytics reveals that having close friends in the workplace transform the mentality and makes employees seven times more likely to be engaged in their job. For example, if you see your best friend start exercising three times a week, you are five times more likely to begin exercising as well.

Initially shared by our friends at Mind Tools, join us as we break down the importance of establishing meaningful relationships, what the connections should entail, and how to get started!

The Importance of Good Relationships

When your co-workers are also your friends, you remove the chance of toxicity running rampant in the office. Avoiding this all-too-common complication eliminates the potential of career burnout, high turnover, and obstructed creativity amongst employees. As a result, you cultivate a culture built upon creativity, teamwork, and opportunity through a preexisting measure of respect. Within this connectivity, companies will see an increase in their employee retention rate and notice a significant development in the quality of candidates they attract. 

Building quality relationships at work can take some time, but a strong bond between co-workers plays a tremendous impact on a company’s success and employees’ mental health. Emphasizing healthy work relationships leads to increased job satisfaction and moves you closer to reaching your full potential. With legitimate friendships in the office, you are more comfortable bouncing ideas off each other, challenging each other, and receiving the support necessary to take risks. The more in tune you are in your office relationships, the more your personal relationships will grow. Be wary as not to let the casualness of your friendships overrule the professionalism required during work hours. 

The Structure of Good Relationships

The foundation for healthy workplace relationships is made of several key elements:

Open Communication: Be honest and upfront when discussing job performance, future goals, the progress on those goals, and give praise for a job well done. The more intentional you are in communication, the more effective you will be in the workplace. 

Trust: The basis for any strong relationship is built on trust. When you have faith in your co-workers to keep their promises and put forth the effort, you can know time and energy are not being wasted. Shared trust builds a strong bond between employees and enables a platform for open communication.

Respect: Mutual respect between employees results in your team members feeling valued for their input and opinions and make solutions more attainable through collective wisdom and creativity. 

Mindfulness: Stay cognizant of the impact your words and actions can have on others. Take full responsibility when you mess up; don’t allow your negative emotions to shake up your work environment. 

Inclusion: Stepping outside your comfort zone or taking a new approach to a challenge can prove valuable in your decision-making. Pursue dynamic and diverse perspectives that may be outside your traditional lines of thinking. Hearing these varying opinions can provide great insight to arrive at a solution you were previously closed off to.

How To Build Good Relationships

Patience plays a huge role in cultivating healthy workplace relationships, but there are steps you can take to help expedite the process:

Develop Your People Skills: Having good people skills is essential to get your relationships off to a great start. It is your chance to earn trust through active listening, empathy, and conflict resolution. 

Grow Your Emotional Intelligence: Your EI is your ability to understand and manage your emotions and the emotions of those around you. Improving your EI can go a long way in establishing a strong bond between co-workers.

Be Intentional in Your Relationships: Make an emphasis to interact with your peers by inviting them to lunch/coffee, making yourself available in a time of need, or simply by engaging with them on social media. 

Show Appreciation: Give recognition where recognition is due. Everyone wants to feel valued and praised for their hard work. Being that source of affirmation for others is a great way to quickly develop a bond and earn favor in the eyes of your co-workers. 

Exude Positivity: Through your provided affirmations, expressed gratitude, and ‘glass half full’ outlook on life, you can set the standard for what you what your culture to become. Sharing a consistently positive outlook is contagious in the workplace and will likely draw others to you in the process. 

Avoid Gossip: Talking behind someone’s back is the quickest way to allow toxicity in the office and ruin any progress you’ve made. Rather than avoiding conflict, address the problem directly as not to intensify the issue.

Navigating Through Difficult Relationships

When you encounter a co-worker or manager that you can’t quite mesh with, it can be challenging to maintain consistent energy and passion levels in your job performance. Rather than getting bogged down and overstressed, pursue the individual timidly in hopes of understanding the reasoning behind your differences. From there, take a step back to evaluate and ensure that you are not the root of the problem. If you can make amends to an old conflict, do it now before the cycle of harmful attitudes and behaviors continue.

Focus on what you have in common and show empathy to the aspects of their life where you cannot relate. If you a positive history of working together on a project, reflect on that to re-establish a bond. Not every work relationship will be seamlessly productive and friendly, but extending a little effort can keep them fruitful in and harmony with the culture you’ve built.

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