Improve Performance at Work: 5 Surprising Ways to Boost It

Introduction

 Our work is an integral part of our lives. While everybody strives hard to get the desired results at work, most of us often experience lag in reaching those goals. Many intrapersonal, interpersonal and environmental factors influence our overall performance.

Improve Performance at Work

The profession we pursue defines who we are. It provides us with an identity. In a way, all the education and experiences we gathered in our primary years was a path that led us to the chair we are seated in today. Our work is not just our destination but also an experience that evolves us throughout life. Hence, to be able to deliver our best performance is rather imperative to our journey and existence. 

5 ways to improve performance at work:

1. Self- care: to be able to deliver our best, we need to feel our best. Taking care of our diet, exercise and dedicating time to our calming and nurturing activities does not only keep us physically fit but is also healthy for mental wellbeing. Recent studies have shown that physical and mental health are connected, and that physical health affects our mental health positively (Mahindru et al, 2023). A study by Lu et al in 2022 also indicates that mental health positively impacts job performance (Lu et al, 2022).
2. Organization: organized space often allows us to function effortlessly. For instance, we often end up spending a lot of time trying to locate the objects required to perform our tasks. Many times, we misplace trivial things like pen or paper, which in the end play a significant role in the commencement of a task. Having the space organized and decluttered therefore adds to our efficiency. A study by Oyebamiji & Akintayo in 2011 also suggests that if workers are deeply involved in activities of organizational program to create rooms for their participation in the planning and implementation of decision process, the job satisfaction and performance among them will enhance (Oyebamiji, M. A., & Akintayo, D. I., 2011)
3. Continuous learning: learning is a process. It has no start or end. Being able to learn new ways to perform our tasks allows us to work more efficiently, makes us more flexible and also upgrades our skills which adds to our abilities. In today’s time, embracing technology and learning to operate different programs on different devices often makes us more dependable and capable to produce better results.
4. Seek feedback: since life is a course of learning, room for improvement always exists. Seeking feedback on the work performed and applying those suggestions to the activity generates novel results which can be of higher value.
5. Set boundaries: ‘all work and no play make Jack a dull boy’ is true for everybody. Study indicates that job satisfaction and psychological distress are related to subjective monotony (Melamed et al, 1995). In other words, experience of repeatedly doing same tasks is related to stress and can take away the charm once experienced while performing the same job. Hence, setting appropriate boundaries between personal and professional aspects of life can increase performance at work.

Challenges That Affect Improvement Performance At Work:

Improving performance is not easy. It is vulnerable to many factors such as: 

• Limited resources: we often fall short in achieving their goals because of the limited resources available to us. One such resource is time. Organizing the resources available is integral to complete the task efficiently.
• Resistance to change: many times, we are set in ways which makes us rather comfortable. For example, few years ago, people would compute all the arithmetic computations manually. Even after the introduction of artificial intelligence, people chose to stick to their known ways, which were not just primitive but also time- consuming and often victims of human error.
• Interpersonal conflicts: difference in opinion and clash among team members in an inevitable part of job profile. However, often these conflicts merge with our sense of identity or ego, which does not just impact our attitude to learn but also affect our performance at work. 
• Poor communication: lack of communication, which may arise due to interpersonal differences and conflicts is another crucial factor. On many instances, people also refuse to ask for help to maintain their sense of self which in turn leads to the output not meeting the expectation.

Overcome Challenges To Improve Performance At Work

Some ways to overcome these challenges include:

• Define the problem at hand as precisely as possible. 
• Ask as many questions, about the job to be done, as possible so that no room for doubt is left. 
• Be aware of the resources available and learn to able to use them efficiently. 
• Set realistic timelines. Many times, we overestimate the time required to complete a task. Think the task through, analyze the time and resources that would be required for its completion and adhere to the boundaries. 
• Establish boundaries. All people are subject to interpersonal conflicts. Maintaining professional boundaries allows us to work coherently while maintaining a safe distance of harmony.

Conclusion

Overall, since our work is an integral part of our lives, it is important to give it our best. Some ways to improve performance are taking care of our mental and physical health by performing physical exercises and consuming fresh fruit and vegetables, staying organized and decluttering our workspace and setting and adhering to our boundaries to avoid interpersonal and intrapersonal conflicts.

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