New Year’s Corporate Resolutions

06Jun

Green KeyGeneral Interest, Green Key News, Leadership + Management, Worklife

Setting a New Year’s resolution is a common practice around the world. Millions of people set goals for themselves for the year, usually set around health, finances, or their career. If your resolution falls within the career category, but you’re not exactly sure what to focus on, we’ve got you covered.

We’ve put together a flexible list that highlights several different areas where you can challenge yourself professionally! Let 2023 be your year of healthy and efficient corporate practices.

Strengthen your communication skills

In the majority of industries, strong communication skills are crucial. If this is something you know you need to work on, consider how you talk to your colleagues and staff. Clarity is key, as are reminders and check-ins.

Adapt a healthy work-life balance

Whether you work in-office or remotely, having a healthy work-life balance is crucial. Many professionals find this balance difficult to achieve, due to deadlines and high demands. Burn out can happen fast, especially around quarter ends and holiday seasons. If this balance is something you’d like to improve, remind yourself that setting aside personal time is important for your mental health and productivity. Our article How to Beat Work from Home Fatigue has some awesome tips on how to create those boundaries.

If you’re a manager or owner, don’t forget that your employees have personal lives outside of work. Check out our article Employee Benefits for a Supportive Workplace for some ideas on how to support your staff and their work-life balance.

Stop micromanaging

In addition to providing a healthy work-life balance, managers should also consider how much they micromanage. Excessive practice of this can lead to lack of trust and decreased productivity in your employees. Simply Noted mentions, “Not only is micromanaging stressful for you, but it also stifles your employees and prevents them from making the impact they could. Give people the latitude to shine and more often than not, they’ll surprise you.”

Develop a mentorship relationship

Whether you’re in a entry-level or senior-level position, a mentorship opportunity is a great goal to set in 2023. At Green Key Resources, several of our recruiters have developed a mentorship relationship with more seasoned recruiters, which ultimately leads to strong collaboration, consistent success, and open communication.

For learn more about mentorship at Green Key, head to our article Green Key Unlocked: Mentorship in Agency Recruiting.

Delegate work when necessary

It’s not uncommon to forget that we have a whole team behind us. If you’re finding yourself flustered, don’t be afraid to ask your co-workers for help. You can’t do everything yourself, so setting a goal to delegate responsibilities once in a while can help relieve stress in the workplace.

Collaborate

In the same vein, remember that collaboration is key for a successful team. Managers can always set aside time for the team to get together and brainstorm ideas and concepts. No matter your position, setting a resolution to work together more, even across departments, can lead to new directions and fresh projects.

emails.width-500-e1617559676131 | Green Key Resources

Worklife

Jun 6, 2023

How to Get Your Co-Workers to Read What You Send

Worklife

Jun 6, 2023

How to Get Your Co-Workers to Read What You Send

The ugly truth about those memos you send and reports you write is that no one wants to read them.

Don’t take it personally, says Aaron Orendorff. Most of us are overwhelmed with the volume of words that come at us. One estimate is that the average office worker receives almost 100 emails a day. Add in the messages that come in by text, Slack and hard copy and it’s like standing in front of a fire hose.

What can you do to get attention for what you send?

Write less, suggests Orendorff in an article for The New York Times. It’s the most counterintuitive of the eight suggestions he makes, though there’s strong evidence you’ll get more notice if you write only rarely. “Scarcity in professional writing is so, well, scarce that its absence is easier to illustrate than its presence,” he insists.

Before sending off a message, ask yourself, he says, if it must be sent immediately. If not, then ask if it need be sent at all and does it need to be sent to everyone on the To: or CC: lines?

When you must email or message, Orendorff says use fewer words and cut to the chase. “We long for clarity, for other people to say what they mean in as few, short words as possible,” he points out, recommending several methods for getting your point across quickly:

Put action words in your subject line — Instead of “Budget Attached,” write, “APPROVAL FOR ITEMS 9-12: Budget Attached.”
Don’t tell, ask — Instead of describing in detail your analysis or view of an issue, ask questions; the more pointed and clear the better.
Lead with the need — Say what you need. get to the point at the beginning of your memo or email or message. “Rather than building to the request — and risk muddling the meaning — this inversion forces us to lead with the need. After that, you’ll often find much of the rest can be removed.”
Make it about “us” — “When seeking assistance or buy-in, we typically ask colleagues for their ‘opinion.’ Turns out, that’s a mistake. Asking for an opinion produces a critic,” Orendorff explains. You’ll get better results if you can make it about “we.”
Write a people-proof TL;DR — The snarky expression “TL;DR” meaning “too long; didn’t read” is used to summarize an overly long memo or note. Orendorff suggests hijacking it as your own summary of who is to do what by when. “If the TL;DR clearly summarizes everything, send only the TL;DR.”

Taking to heart every one of Orendorff’s suggestions is no guarantee everyone will want to read what you write. At the very least, he says we can “make it easy on our colleagues to read it, respond to it and take action.”

Image by Muhammad Ribkhan

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