Self-Management During Work
Why self management is key to success?
Self-management is about figuring out a technique that will help you refine your approach to success in the workplace.
At work, it is of immense importance to complete all tasks effectively. However, it is equally important to give your personal life after office hours. Do you wonder how can you bring this balance to yourself? Let’s find out ahead.
Why is self-management?
self-managed is the capacity to manage your tasks and productivity in the workplace. It helps to effectively control and manage emotions, thoughts, and behavior in a dynamic environment.
It is a way of taking responsibility and being accountable for managing different situations. It also includes fulfilling duties while producing efficient results.
Peter F. Drucker, the father of modern management has beautifully quoted in his book, “Managing Oneself” that: “Successful careers are not planned. They develop when people are prepared for opportunities because they know their strengths, their method of work, and their values.”
Indeed, One can have a successful career when one works on their strengths. This is because self-managed people are aware of themselves and their surroundings. This enhances them to grab the opportunities at the right time.
Self-regulation and self-awareness support self-management. These two-skills support people in achieving their personal and work goals.
EXAMPLES OF SELF MANAGEMENT
Time management:
How well you incorporate time management techniques will decide how productive you are in meeting deadlines.
Time management helps you to accomplish work quickly and avoid procrastination. You prioritise things, stay focused, and operate in an organized manner when you know to efficiently manage time.
Stress Management:
Stress not only affects you physically but mentally too. One loses focus and it hampers logical thinking because they are always distracted.
Additionally, one should take a break at equal intervals of time. A tracker can help set deadlines and will help maintain productivity. Practicing meditation, maintaining a healthy diet, and meeting joyful people helps with stress management.
Emotional Management:
Managing emotions at workplace plays an important role to develop self-management. Sometimes our work gets affected because of the things which are going on in our personal lives. Things at the workplace can also affect us emotionally.
But while working in a team or leading a team one should have their spirits high so that someone else’s work is not hampered. People with such a skill of managing emotions are said to have high emotional intelligence.
Self-Discipline:
Self-discipline is the ability to keep moving forward, staying positive, and taking decisions in the right direction.
Indeed, a self-disciplined person sets his goals, makes a plan considering the contingencies and finds their motivation. They replace old habits, monitors progress, and create a self-rewarding system.
Accountability:
Accountability means taking ownership of your actions and behavior. This skill helps build trust in the workplace; that is, no one plays the “blame game” for their actions.
Accountable employees are more dedicated to their jobs, which helps with their ability to self-management. Moreover, they are more trusted amongst their superiors and produce excellent results.
Adaptability:
In an organisation, a person works in a dynamic environment. Sometimes people work with bosses whom they don’t like or are given assignments that are not their area of expertise. Being able to adjust to new working conditions is the ability to adapt to new situations. Adaptability makes a person more flexible and accepting while working with a new team, new project, in a new country, or accepting technological changes. One should accept changes with an open mind.
HOW SELF MANAGEMENT HELPS WHILE WORKING IN AN ORGANIZATION?
An organization can work properly when its resources are motivated and self-disciplined. If people work in an environment where it is difficult to strategize tasks, it affects the overall growth of the company. A company must have people who have the ability to self-manage and take up critical tasks independently. It leads to the smooth functioning of the company.
In the post covid era, it became extremely important for people to develop self-management skills as people were now working from home. Such skills are crucial because they enable one to stay focused and provide the desired results, without blaming external factors. It makes people more self-aware. One learns how to channel their energy, emotions, and thoughts to achieve the targets. Supervisors think such people to be more reliable than others and ultimately one can achieve great heights, both personally and professionally.
Furthermore, Having self-management skills makes one an effective decision-maker, which leads to innovative ideas. A self-managed individual is more empowered and has the self-confidence to take decisions independently. People become good decision-makers and managers, who know what would be the right path to achieve the team and organizational goals.
WAYS TO IMPROVE SELF-MANAGEMENT SKILLS
We all have had those moments where we know we have a task pending but we either go out for lunch or see another episode of our favorite Netflix show. We try to run away from the work and keep procrastinating. We either do the work at the very end and compromise the quality of work or miss the deadline. This shows how important self-management is in our lives. Below are a few ways how to start improving your self-management skills:
Clarity about the Role:
It is to know what is our responsibilities, expectations from us, and clear understanding of the tasks at the workplace. An employee should have a good sense of whom they are supposed to report and to whom they can delegate tasks. Clarity of where an employee fits in the organization makes communication clear in the chain of hierarchy. Also, keeping promises, therefore, becomes important because it builds up trust. Further one should say no if they are not sure of how to fulfill the responsibility and should be open to taking others' help. It's always good to take up new tasks and projects and extend your key responsibility areas, but it is never good to have a lot on your plate, as it hampers productivity and concentration.
Goal alignment
For an employee, it becomes extremely important to know the long-term and short-term goals of the team and the organisation. Self-managed individuals understand the ultimate goals and take actions that will help in achieving the goals. Such individual set their own short-term and long-term goals in light of the organisational goals. They set the priority straight and strategically manage the work.
So, implementing the two-minute rule can help an individual in self-management. The rule says “if it takes less than two minutes to complete a task, do it now”. This way one stays clear about the goals makes efficient use of the time and doesn’t get distracted with non-essential tasks.
Self-awareness:
Self-awareness means knowing about the traits and behaviours oneself. It is an ability to focus on oneself and to know about the actions, thoughts, and emotions in various situations. Self-awareness involves the process of introspection and self-reflection. It is very important to know your strength and weakness for better self-management. While one should always work on their weaknesses, they should always use their strengths to excel in a situation.
Self-care:
Before one starts taking care of others and the ongoing situation, one should take care of themselves. Well, it is rightly said that charity begins at home. Practicing self-care is immensely necessary for becoming self-managed. It also leads to self-awareness. One should maintain a healthy diet, sleep well, take breaks, and exercise. All this will increase your productivity and help maintain clarity in your mind.
SELF-MANAGEMENT IS ALWAYS A WORK-IN-PROGRESS
Well, it has already been proven how important self-management is in the workplace. While the journey to self-management can be tough but it is not impossible. It is a continuous journey of taking action, seeing results, and improving again.
It is time for you to take charge of your life and take responsibility for your actions and stop blaming external forces. Get rid of the things you can't control and start evaluating what you can do, getting to know yourself.
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