It's an ongoing mission to find the ideal working environment. Liggy Webb, as always, has some great tips for anyone wishing to improve their situation.
For many of us we spend the biggest proportion of our lives at work and in many cases, more time than we spend at home and with our friends and relatives.
Work is where we get to employ most of our talents. It's where we experience some of our greatest triumphs and failures. It's also the basis for our standard of living. All of this means that, when work is not working for us, we become unproductive and unfulfilled. It is really important, therefore, to make the most of what we do at work and seek to get the best out of it. Appreciating work and seeing it as a positive experience rather than a chore will certainly improve the quality of your life. A great deal of this will be down to your attitude and how you view your whole work experience.
Moreover, scientific evidence tells us that work is the best way to stay healthy, too, which is interesting. When an unemployed person with mental health problems does find work, that re-employment improves their health. And there is no evidence that people – even those who suffer from a severe mental illness – are made more ill by work. In other words, work is good for you. So whatever you do, make the most of it and enjoy it.
Here are some tips to help you to practise gratitude in the work place and experience greater job satisfaction:
- Take personal responsibility for your actions and everything that you do. If you make a mistake, own up to it sooner rather than later, and always do it completely. This gets it out of the way and creates greater success, because no one has given the problem time to fester and grow.
- Be accountable for the commitments you make and, when you make a promise, keep it. Not remaining faithful to your word erodes the trust necessary for a working relationship. Once you break your word, your teammates will have difficulty believing that you will be there for them the next time.
- Share in creating a positive and emotionally comfortable working environment. This is so important. Satisfaction cannot thrive in a negative environment. If you have developed a 'draining' work style, where no one tries to lift their co-workers out of the doldrums, it prevents everyone from finding emotional and even physical comfort and that will lower productivity.
- Make your working relationships meaningful and strive to create something meaningful and worthwhile. Everyone wants to be part of something greater than they are, whether it is contributing to the organisation, the community or the world.
- Keep what you do interesting and look at different ways of doing things rather than get stuck in a rut of routine that you do not enjoy. Variety is the spice of life.
- Greet people around you with enthusiasm and look pleased to see people, rather than just taking for granted that they are always there. This will help energise the environment and make it a friendlier place.
- Help each other grow and learn and actively encourage colleagues to take care of themselves by getting upskilled and working on new projects. People who are not growing do not feel good about themselves and this will cause them to feel less important and valued. When someone feels they aren't very useful, they are not able to contribute in a positive way.
- Recognise your co-workers for their commitment and effort. The number one motivator for people is recognition. Saying to someone that you recognise their efforts to make your working relationship great is the best motivator you could give to them. Letting someone know that they have added value and made an important contribution is a great compliment.
- Make sure you recognise and celebrate your own contributions, too.
- Balance work and home. It is so important to get the balance right. Both are equally important in life and making sure that they complement each other is key.
Understanding and appreciating the need for feeling satisfied and contributing to that necessity in your work life will make you happy. These tips will help you maintain a fulfilling relationship with your work and help you to appreciate what you do and get ultimate job satisfaction.
'The best preparation for good work tomorrow is to do good work today' - Elbert Hubbard
Liggy Webb is widely respected as a leading expert in the field of modern life skills and workplace wellness. She is the founding director of The Learning Architect a consortium of niche industry experts. For more info visit www.liggywebb.com and www.thelearningarchitect.com
