Securing a job for the long run requires more than just what your resume lists down about your professional background. An outstanding professional should be able to live up to the background that he has presented during interviews and to show the fruits of all the details written on his resume. These actions create a positive professional image that the people he works with will see and admire.
But how exactly do you build a good work image? How do you present yourself as a good professional?
This article will give you five tips to help you build your work image into something impressive and admirable.
Tip 1: Dress to Impress
A lot of people undermine the importance of a good uniform and the value of a good fashion sense in the workplace. Clothes, after all, are one of the first things that people notice when making an impression of a person and the workplace is no different. No matter how you look at it, a good set of work clothes sets the impression that you come to work prepared and determined. This is especially important for offices that do not require a uniform. How you dress will always be attached to your personality. Thus, if people make a negative impression due to your fashion sense, it may lead to a negative opinion of your work image.
Dressing well is also important even in a work-from-home setting as oftentimes, work would require virtual meetings. While dressing up for these virtual meetings is not necessary, it can be argued that it is still important regardless of whether or not these meetings require you to open your camera. Good business attire can help you get into a better “work mindset” and reinforces that mindset as you make wearing good attire a habit.
Tip 2: Speak with Respect
Language and communication are essential building blocks of a workplace. As such, the awareness of one’s language is a good thing to practice when presenting yourself as a professional. Furthermore, a respectable way of communicating allows a person to be amicable. Whether you are speaking to a senior colleague or a junior colleague, it is good to show respect through proper communication, regardless if you are socializing and collaborating.
You do not have to be close friends with all your officemates. However, it is good to know just enough about them to respect them and their work. If you do this, there is a certainty that people will reflect this behavior towards you and approach you more professionally.
Tip 3: Be Mindful of Time
Over the years, time has become an increasingly valuable resource. You, as a professional, should recognize this fact. Thus, being aware of deadlines, productivity time, and all that is in between is a must for you to build a good work image. If you are aware of these types of intricacies in the workplace, you will be able to conduct your work in an efficient, productive, and excellent fashion. This allows your colleagues to know that you are reliable and view you as an individual who works properly and with consistent outputs.
You may use several different tools to achieve excellence at work, including a well-marked calendar, a consistently updated clock, a journal, and even a set of post-it notes to keep track of tasks. However, keep in mind that being mindful of time does not mean that you have to be active all the time, rather it means being aware of the balance between work and recreation to create a healthy professional life.
Another mode to pay recognition to the importance of time in the workplace is through finding ways to quicken the work. To this end, technology and digital tools like document management tools (online storage, e-signatures, online document editors), personal organization tools (scheduling apps, online post-it notes, note-taking apps), and communication tools (e-mail, social media, text-chat apps) will be able to help you greatly. This is because you can have all of these tools at a more ready medium and usually, on a singular device like a phone or a desktop. The ease of access that you have to these digital tools allows you to perform better at the workplace by hastening some processes like scheduling, file organizing, and document signing.
Tip 4: Remember: Blind Obedience is Not Obedience
While obedience is an excellent trait for an employee, you should properly and thoroughly understand the orders you receive. You should be inquisitive about the work, pay attention to learning, and acquire all the information that you need to perform your task efficiently and effectively.
This is how you earn the respect of your co-workers. Your seniors may view it as you investing yourself in the work and might even become a great source of connection between you and them. On the other hand, your juniors may view it as your dedication to the job and can become an example for them to follow on their work.
This eagerness towards work will also help you to work more proficiently than people who just follow blindly, who— due to only following what is given— can only produce generic results without any expression of their skill as a professional. This is because when you understand a task fully, you will be able to go into it with confidence and produce results of a higher caliber and reflect your skills as a professional.
Tip 5: Have a Good Business Presence
Demeanor, along with speech and attitude, is another thing of subtle importance in the workplace. This is particularly referring to a person’s decorum while working and their approach to work. This means that your presence as a worker often creates a specific impression on people. Whether a person who takes work seriously or a laid-back person, the people around you will always have an image of you as a co-worker and employee. Note that this presence in the workplace will not only affect your reputation as a professional but also the company or employer whose name and brand you carry. A good professional will, with respect, do their best to maintain the desired reputation of the company he works at. This will also create a good reputation for the brand.
Conclusion
Being a good professional is not simply about having an excellent resume or CV, it is also about having the capabilities to justify the things you say you can do in your resume. Having the proper decorum in the workplace will inevitably attract positive attention from your colleagues and bosses and make you a good example.