Top 10 Tips for Getting Ahead at Work

Between getting ready for work, driving to work, working, driving home, and worrying about work, most of us spend at least 60 hours each week on work. Work takes up so much of your life that you might as well make the best of it. There are many things you can do to supercharge your career.

Get ahead with these tips:

• Work from a prioritized to-do list. You might have observed that many of your colleagues are highly experienced at staying busy, but accomplishing little. Before you even arrive at the job site, have a to-do list that you have narrowed down to the most important 2-3 tasks. Fight like heck to get those highly important tasks completed.
  
• Be on time with everything you do. If work starts at 8:00, be there at 7:45. If your report is due by Friday, get it done by Wednesday. If you are constantly late, your supervisor and colleagues will not trust you. Intending to be early with your projects also allows more opportunities to do a tremendous job as opposed to waiting for the last minute.
• Avoid gossip. Everyone knows who the gossipers are, including your supervisor. Nothing positive comes from idle chit-chat at work. You will get yourself into drama sooner or later. You have your to-do list to keep you busy anyway.
• Be positive. Your supervisor loves it when you have a positive demeanor. It helps everyone around you to feel better and to do a good job. You will feel better as well.
• Lead. It is rare that anyone wants to volunteer for additional responsibility. Get things accomplished by taking the bull by the horns. Avoid overstepping your boundaries, but try being a little more assertive than your colleagues. Most of your coworkers would rather be led than have to take the lead themselves.
• Be supportive of the final decision. Whether it is your supervisor or the executives in the main office, there will be decisions that are unpopular. But after the final decision has been made, it is your place to get behind it and support it to the best of your ability. Being a roadblock will only work against you.
• Expand your skills. Given enough time, everyone’s expertise is eventually obsolete. Stay ahead of the game and broaden your skill-set. Look to the future and position yourself appropriately. What are the new positions that are opening up in your company? What are the most popular job openings on employment websites?
• Support your boss. You were hired to make your supervisor look good. She/he was given a job to do, and you were hired to help her get it done. Become the supervisor you would like to have.
• Support your co-workers. Help your colleagues to look good, too. One of them is likely to be in a position to help you one day. They might even end up being your boss.
• Dress for success. Have you ever noticed that the worst-dressed person in a group never seems to get ahead? A great rule of thumb is to dress like your supervisor. You would be shocked to see how much consideration you get for looking the part.

It is easy to thrive at work by taking the extra step. Let everyone else show up 5 minutes late, complain, and mindlessly shuffle papers around their desk. Be on time. Stay positive. Get things accomplished and look good while you are doing it. A few small changes are all that are needed to get ahead at work.