Working Smarter, Not Harder
What do you do when the deadlines at work start piling up? Do you “work harder” by cancelling your social activities, shirking your personal responsibilities and working long hours each week - throwing all of your own available resources into meeting those project timelines? A strong professional is usually not afraid to work hard to accomplish corporate goals and understands that personal sacrifice goes with the territory. However, sometimes we get enticed into playing “super-professional” and we forget to ask the question: Is what I’m being asked to do by others (or myself) reasonable for me to accomplish, on my own and in the time frame given? Sometimes the answer is “Yes, no problem!” Sometimes the answer is ‘No-it is not reasonable’. If this is the case, then it is time to discuss “working smarter”: project timeline amendments, additional resources, brainstorming for creative solutions or recognition of what is “good enough” or adequate. If we just put the “head-down and bum-up” in these instances - work harder - we may get the job done, but at too great of a personal cost to the professional, especially if a pattern or tendency forms.
From an organisational point of view, it pays to foster an environment in which an employee can openly and honestly discuss their workload, obtain more resources if necessary and spend time considering new approaches or methods to accomplish goals and/or meet deadlines. The organisation will not gain anything by over-working and burning-out employees. On the road to burn-out, not only will the quality of produced work suffer, but the employee may leave the organisation. Much worse, if the employee reaches the burn-out point, then he or she may become incapacitated.
When we “work smarter” we learn to know what is appropriate for a certain project or task. We are aware of our own propensities (or not) to be perfectionists or to produce a certain standard of work and we notice if our personal tendencies are affecting our judgement. As seasoned professionals we are good at driving ourselves to produce “signature” work – something we build our reputation on. This may mean that errors in a piece of work are intolerable. Or it may mean that a dynamic, creative solution always has to be presented and/or implemented. Or it may mean that the spreadsheet model must be at least 25 pages in order to simulate complexity properly. It is helpful to be aware of where pressure to perform is originating. Is it coming from the organisation or from within ourselves or from others? If we know the source of pressure, we can tailor our strategy for completing that piece of work accordingly.
As professionals, we are not bound to assembly-line manufacturing and therefore we can be spontaneous and experiment with our approach to work and the completion of tasks. The ability to be agile with the mind - “smart” - will serve well both the employee and the organisation. The employee will experience greater satisfaction in meeting corporate goals without excessive personal sacrifice and the organisation will be able to use the project work to its advantage and maintain healthy personnel – the greatest corporate asset – for future projects.
From an organisational point of view, it pays to foster an environment in which an employee can openly and honestly discuss their workload, obtain more resources if necessary and spend time considering new approaches or methods to accomplish goals and/or meet deadlines. The organisation will not gain anything by over-working and burning-out employees. On the road to burn-out, not only will the quality of produced work suffer, but the employee may leave the organisation. Much worse, if the employee reaches the burn-out point, then he or she may become incapacitated.
When we “work smarter” we learn to know what is appropriate for a certain project or task. We are aware of our own propensities (or not) to be perfectionists or to produce a certain standard of work and we notice if our personal tendencies are affecting our judgement. As seasoned professionals we are good at driving ourselves to produce “signature” work – something we build our reputation on. This may mean that errors in a piece of work are intolerable. Or it may mean that a dynamic, creative solution always has to be presented and/or implemented. Or it may mean that the spreadsheet model must be at least 25 pages in order to simulate complexity properly. It is helpful to be aware of where pressure to perform is originating. Is it coming from the organisation or from within ourselves or from others? If we know the source of pressure, we can tailor our strategy for completing that piece of work accordingly.
As professionals, we are not bound to assembly-line manufacturing and therefore we can be spontaneous and experiment with our approach to work and the completion of tasks. The ability to be agile with the mind - “smart” - will serve well both the employee and the organisation. The employee will experience greater satisfaction in meeting corporate goals without excessive personal sacrifice and the organisation will be able to use the project work to its advantage and maintain healthy personnel – the greatest corporate asset – for future projects.