It’s quite disappointing working in the same place but without getting any better, no new skills, no new lessons, no improvements, and even worse with no morale to learn to get better. Learning something starts with the urge to know or discover your weaknesses and challenges, and taking the step to seek means on how to invest time, skills, wisdom into yourself. It can be with the help of others, emulating them, or even reading.

Being an employee myself, I have come to notice that one vice that hinders people to learn more or be better at their job, is unhealthy competition. There is something about this that makes one believes that they’re better than others, once that feeling or lie clicks in your mind, you close doors to knowing more. People who believe or think know better than others, don’t take the initiative to equip themselves with more wisdom, or better ideas and in the end, even new employees or interns become better than them.

It’s no news that some employers notice weak or unproductive employees and either demote or ask them to try somewhere else, for fear of collapsing their firms, especially if given several warnings.

If you don’t push yourself to grow and assist the company to produce better results, then say goodbye to job opportunities, appreciations, promotions, and much more. I have seen people reap from their hard work and the fruits are worth enjoying.

Although most of us if not all of us wait fervently for the paycheck at the end of the month, it doesn’t mean that we should just provide fair services to the companies we work for, but rather, it’s our obligation to offer the best of our knowledge, abilities for the betterment of these firms. Money is also fun enjoying if you sweat for it.

I have no doubt that to be a better or great employee starts with acting professionally, for example, people you work with and your boss need to take you seriously. But it all starts from how you react to company rules, or policies, if you can’t respect them, then that’s already a red flag. Every company looks forward to working with people who are assets to the team, respect the company’s culture, treat others with respect, yet with a professional attitude.

Beating procrastination is another way to be a better worker. Truthfully, even though you’re serious and know what to do, once you fail to stop procrastination, there are higher chances of missing out on deadlines or doing tasks and projects at the last minute. It’s quite obvious that anything done in a rush or late, isn’t given the quality time, enough research and it’s even possible to make slight mistakes.

Look towards being an expert. In whatever position, even if it’s the highest, get yourself to learn something new, it can be a skill, language, tool, or programs that can help you to do better.  Attend workshops and educational seminars that can equip you with more knowledge about your job, if your workplace doesn’t pay for such trainings, invest some money in yourself and learn them, because such skills won’t only assist the company, but you as well.

 Aim at being a unique employee, by making sure you give unique ideas in the meetings. Also, be willing to add value to the company so that even your employer or manager sees no one to replace you with-how about learning a skill no one knows about. Unique employees offer exceptional efforts, proficiency, and results.

Accept your mistakes when you make any. No one is perfect and mistakes are made by humans, instead of pointing fingers at others or making excuses to prove you’re not wrong, it’s actually human and professional to own your mistakes, learn from them, fix them and do better.

Apart from only learning from others, you can actually be willing to assist others with any support they may need to grow. Learning from others and assisting others to learn from you crafts professional connections and makes work a fun place to be.