Identifying Areas of Improvement at Work: 5 Ways to Enhance Work Performance
Published: | Last Updated:
Improving yourself at work can provide profound benefits to you and the organization you work for. As an individual, improving how you work can teach you valuable skills that translate into your personal life. On a larger scale, self-improvement at work can increase your job performance and make you a more valuable team member.
Identifying areas of improvement at work can be difficult, especially when you’re past the training period of your career. That being said, there are plenty of ways you can improve yourself at work to grow both professionally and personally.
Growing in Your Career: 5 Things to Improve on at Work
There are several skills that you can improve to enhance your work performance and your personal life. These skills are essential to learn regardless of your industry, job role, or where you’re at in your career path. Five of the most common things to improve on at work include:
- Time management
- Communication
- Teamwork
- Critical thinking
- Organization
Let’s take a look at these skills in detail to determine how they can benefit you and your career.
Time Management—Improving Efficiency
Improving your time management will help you meet deadlines, complete tasks quickly, and even overcome procrastination. Poor time management can cause you to be inundated with tasks, leading to increased stress and decreased job performance.
Managing your time effectively can also improve your work-life balance. When you spend your time at work efficiently, you can spend less time at work and more time on relaxation, hobbies, and family.
REDC’s time management course can teach you how to make optimal use of your time.
Communication—Improving Interpersonal Skills
Improving your communication skills will enhance your relationships, promote collaboration, and reduce misunderstandings. When communication skills suffer, it can decrease team performance and workplace morale.
Communicating effectively not only includes how well you express yourself, but also how well you listen to others. Communication is a two-way street, and an important part of improving your communication skills involves improving your active listening and emotional intelligence.
REDC’s communication strategies course can teach you how to communicate effectively at work and in your personal life.
Teamwork—Improving Team Performance
Improving your teamwork can help you delegate tasks, increase your support, and enhance goal alignment. Poor teamwork can negatively impact a team’s efficiency, communication, and morale.
Overall, teamwork allows an organization to work together to complete difficult and complex tasks. When one member of a team suffers, it can impact the performance of the rest of the team. An efficient team will communicate frequently and balance workload evenly.
REDC’s teamwork and team building course can teach you how to achieve peak team performance as a team leader and team member.
Critical Thinking—Improving Problem Solving
Improving your critical thinking will help you make better decisions, develop effective strategies, and accomplish your goals. Without critical thinking, you and your team will have issues with completing difficult tasks and identifying effective solutions.
Critical thinking allows you to come up with creative solutions to difficult problems. It can also make you more adaptable to unexpected challenges. By improving your creative thinking, you can enhance your current capabilities and prepare yourself for greater responsibilities in the future.
REDC’s critical thinking course can teach you how to utilize logic and reasoning to solve problems in your career and beyond.
Organization—Improving Workflow
Improving your organization can reduce stress, enhance your focus, and maintain consistency. A lack of organization often leads to frequent errors and inefficient use of your time and energy. Organization helps you mitigate roadblocks that can disrupt your workflow.
Some of these roadblocks are physical, such as having a cluttered workspace or missing the necessary resources to get the job done. Other roadblocks are conceptual, and they can be poor planning or inefficient processes.
REDC’s organizational skills course can teach you the skills needed to boost productivity and remove workflow roadblocks.
How to Find Opportunities for Improvement at Work
One way to identify areas of improvement at work is to perform a self-assessment. To do this, you can ask yourself specific questions that can help you identify your strengths and weaknesses. Some of the questions to ask yourself include:
- Which aspects of my work lead to stress and frustration?
- Which aspects of my work do I excel at?
- What can I improve to enhance my productivity and efficiency?
- How can I help my team and coworkers?
- What does an ideal employee look like?
Discussing your work performance with your supervisor or team leader is another way to find opportunities for improvement. They can help you identify the skills that are most beneficial to you and your professional development.
Read our related article to discover what professional development is and how it helps you grow your career.
Putting it into Practice—How to Improve Work Performance
Once you have identified which areas of improvement you want to work on, it’s time to take action. While you’re working on addressing your areas of improvement, you need to hold yourself accountable and keep track of your progress.
Seek Advice from Others
To start, you can ask your coworkers and friends how they navigate the challenges you’re facing. Seeking advice from others can provide you with valuable insights and a fresh perspective. You can also ask someone to help you monitor your progress and hold you accountable for achieving your goals.
Improve Your Skills With Formal Education
Taking professional and personal development courses can drastically accelerate your self-improvement. These classes provide you with an extensive education that can’t be learned elsewhere. If you want proven methods for addressing your areas of improvement at work, development courses are your best option.
Curious about the benefits of online certificates? Check out our article on the benefits of online certificates.
REDC Helps You Improve at Work
At REDC, we have the courses and resources that can help you improve at work and grow your career. Our courses are online and self-paced, meaning you can get the education you need on your own time. If you are looking for a convenient and affordable way to develop your professional skills, REDC is here for you.
Check out our online course catalog to view the many different courses that can enhance your career skills.