Áreas de mejora en el trabajo: De lo bueno a lo excelente

Regardless of how much you’ve grown in your career, there always seems to be a new critical skill that you need to have a good grasp on.

So, regardless of whether you’ve exhausted all ideas about improvement examples or you’re eagerly looking to start your career, this article will help you in your pursuit.

Here’s what you’ll learn about areas of improvement at work:

• New areas of improvement at work that you can focus on to outshine your peers;
• Practical ways to tackle and get better at the improvement examples;

What are areas of improvement at work?

Areas of improvement at work refer to the specific skills, behaviors, or processes that professionals can focus on developing to fulfill their professional development goals. These lead to better employee performance and company results.

Whether you’re aiming for a promotion or simply trying to refine your skills, focusing on the right areas of improvement can have a transformative impact on your work life.

Here are some of the benefits of improving certain areas at work:

• Open the gates towards new professional development opportunities that can come up with higher earnings potential, too.
• Finally, get that promotion you’ve been waiting for.
• Grow your self-confidence, as mastering new skills and abilities boosts your confidence and increases your assertion in the workplace.
• Expand your professional network by engaging in all kinds of professional activities. These activities help you connect with others in your field and create partnerships and mentorships.
• Reduce stress. The more you improve across all areas, the easier it is to tackle challenges and obstacles and enjoy more time for personal pursuits outside of work.
• Become a future-proof professional as in unpredictable market environments, individuals who actively work on their areas of improvement are better equipped to navigate shifts or redundancies in their industry.

Areas of improvement at work

1. Time management

There’s no other resource that can be more challenging to master than time, but also with such an impact on personal and professional growth. Time management is a foundational organizational skill needed to start increasing your productivity and being a fulfilled employee. Time management skills have a direct impact on your workplace performance, as they enable you to handle workloads efficiently and meet deadlines.

How to work on your time management skills:

1. Use time management tools: Tools like Timeular are seamless to use, as they track how you spend your time (while protecting your privacy) and reflect how you’re spending your time at work without any effort from your side. The best time management apps allow you to see your time-wasting habits or processes that consume too much of your time in an aesthetically pleasing report, as the one below:

2. Use time management techniques such as the Pomodoro technique to manage your focus in 25-minute bursts with 5-minute breaks. Another effective method is timeboxing, which implies focusing on a single task in a given timeframe that you set for yourself while avoiding distractions and context-switching.

We’ve built entire libraries about time management that might help you finesse your time management skills if you’re interested:

• Time management systems to boost productivity and reduce overwhelm
• 10 Proven time management strategies [with real-life examples]
• Por qué es importante la gestión del tiempo y cómo dominarla
• Consejos prácticos para una gestión eficaz del tiempo

3. Set priorities for your tasks to reduce the feeling of being overwhelmed and differentiate between urgent and important tasks. Apply the Eisenhower Matrix (time management matrix) or the ABCDE Method to prioritize urgent and important tasks while eliminating or delegating the less significant ones.

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2. Communication abilities

Whether you’re communicating with your team, clients, or C-level executives, clear and concise communication is a must. Interpersonal communication, either written or spoken, fosters collaboration and minimizes misunderstandings.

Here’s how to navigate interpersonal dynamics effectively:

1. Listen actively to your interlocutors in all calls, one-to-ones, and office conversations without focusing on responding but on understanding the speaker’s message. Active listening goes a long way in all types of relationships with a team member and sets the tone of your collaboration. An even higher emphasis on active listening skills is relevant for client relationships and understanding their needs, briefs, and expectations.
2. Try to be concise and clear, particularly in written communication. Make sure you transmit a clear message without any jargon to confuse the receivers. An example of such a message via Slack could be:

Hey team,

Just a quick update: the client report is due by Friday at 3 PM. Please ensure all sections are complete and reviewed by Thursday end of day so we have time for final adjustments. Let me know if you have any questions or need my support and I’ll be happy to help.

Thanks!

3. Use the appropriate channel to convey your message. Knowing when to use emails, Slack, Teams messaging, or face-to-face conversations is critical in delivering your message clearly and effectively. The channels also determine the urgency, complexity, or sensitivity of the message you’re trying to convey.

3. Organizational skills

Not being organized can cost you a great deal of productivity as you’re most probably slow in finding your folders, information, or just a pen on your desk. If you’re struggling with poor work quality, missed opportunities, or an unbalanced work-life relationship, it might be worth analyzing your digital and physical organizational habits.

Organizational skills refer to all your task management systems, digital calendars, or physical to-do lists. How to enhance your organization at work:

1. Use project management tools to keep track of your tasks and deadlines. You could use free digital planners or some of the best project management tools, adding a layer of structure to your virtual set-up. This way, you can visualize all your work, attached files, or the team members responsible for specific projects.

You might be interested in discovering how to use a planner effectively.

2. Declutter your workspace: If you’re like me, a good work session starts with a tidy desk and an “all-read” and “replied to” inbox. It can’t be integrated into the professional skills list, but clearing your physical space helps you clear your mind and makes it easy to find that pen to write something important down during a meeting.
3. Improve your time management skills: Use time-blocking templates to allocate specific periods for different tasks and understand your time-wasting habits with a time audit done with an automated time tracker as a starting base. Once you’ve understood your time-spending habits, start optimizing and improving your time-management skills.

4. Problem-solving abilities

In the ever-changing circumstances you’re working in, the odds are you’re facing countless challenges daily. A project needs to be delivered later to a customer; someone in your team is sick and has unique, crucial skills for project delivery, and so on.

The essential skill you need in such situations is being a problem solver. Here are some ways to nurture strong problem-solving skills:

1. Practice divergent thinking: Generate multiple solutions to a single problem. Instead of focusing on finding one “correct” solution, aim to produce as many different solutions as possible. In this way, you’ll break mental patterns and generate innovative ideas. For example, if you’re trying to increase office productivity, don’t stop at the first idea (like upgrading computers). Keep brainstorming: flexible work hours, redesigning the workspace, implementing new communication tools, etc.
2. Experiment with constraint-based problem-solving: Solve problems by creating artificial limitations. With this method, you’re intentionally adding restrictions to your problem to force creative solutions. These constraints push you to think outside the box and can lead to innovative ideas. For instance, if you’re creating a marketing campaign for a client, give yourself limitations like “the campaign must use only one social media platform” or “the entire campaign budget must be under $5,000.” You might also constrain yourself to “use no written words, only images” or “create a campaign that generates buzz without mentioning the product directly.” These constraints often lead to unexpected solutions to all the problems you might not have considered otherwise.

5. Mastering AI

Leveraging AI is no longer a matter of question, as AI adds more than just an advantage. It’s a necessity as it’s embedded in all processes at work, and it speeds you up to generate ideas, brainstorm, and even analyze data. Here are some ways to improve this area:

1. Experiment with AI tools: Dive into tools like ChatGPT or Claude.ai and experiment with different prompts to refine your results. Keep experimenting, iterating, and finessing your approach until the output meets your expectations. Try different angles and always be creative in how you interact with AI. Remember, it works as a computer. It generates characters that follow each other, so the more context you give it, the better the outputs and characters.
2. Embed AI in your processes: Look for ways to integrate AI into your daily workflows. Whether it’s automating repetitive tasks or making sense of some data, find practical applications of AI that complement your existing processes.
3. Learn from others: Explore how leading companies and innovators are leveraging AI in their operations, either by signing up for newsletters or checking YouTube videos. Stay curious, follow thought leaders, read case studies, and analyze how AI is being applied across industries to inspire new ways of utilizing it in your work. Course examples: Udemy and Coursera.

If you’re looking for AI tools, we have an entire library of articles with free and paid AI tools:

• AI tools for productivity
• Herramientas de IA para marketing
• AI tools for designers
• Ejemplos de IA en la empresa

6. Conflict resolution skills

It’s inevitable that conflicts will arise, but if you’re unable to reach a conflict resolution, you’re probably creating a lot of tension between you and your teammates. Knowing how to navigate these situations is pivotal, whether you have a clash of ideas during a project or a disagreement between team members.

Here are some ways to improve your conflict resolution abilities:

1. Try to listen to everyone’s perspective: Listen carefully to anyone’s perspective, and try to be more objective about your own ideas and perspective, too. This will help you pass the heat of the moment and de-escalate the tension.
2. Keep yourself composed. Anger or raising your tone will not help you overcome the conflict and defuse the tension; on the contrary, it will only make matters worse. Keep your emotional control and evaluate the disagreements as logically as possible.
3. Focus on solutions, not blame: Avoid dwelling on who’s at fault and personal attacks. Steer the conversation towards finding a mutually acceptable solution. There must be a compromise that meets everyone’s needs, expectations, and goals.

7. Experimentation mindset

By experimenting regularly, you open the door to discovering new ideas, processes, and solutions that can improve efficiency or bring about breakthroughs. This way, you’re opening yourself up to failure, which is a natural part of the process, and your relationship with failure gets in good shape.

To improve your ability to experiment and innovate, consider the following:

• Stay creative: To come up with new or unconventional solutions to everyday challenges, spend time thinking about how else you’d approach them, but in ways you haven’t solved the problems before. You can create work habits of spending 15 minutes ideating and opening up to new ideas each day.
• Test new ideas frequently: Don’t wait for the “perfect” plan; start small and adjust as you go. Take what works from each experiment, refine it, and apply it to your next attempt.
• Ask for feedback: Engage teammates or customers in the process to gather diverse perspectives on your new ideas, as there’s the risk of you spending too much time in your mind and idea loop.
• Push the boundaries responsibly: Take calculated risks before implementing your new projects or ideas. All these may be great ideas, but some risk assessments may prevent challenges.

8. Adaptability and agility

Embracing change, tackling challenges head-on, and pivoting when necessary sets you apart from your peers. That is why employers highly seek adaptability and agility. On top of that, if you’re adaptable and agile, you’re more at ease than someone who has difficulty accepting change.

So, how can you level up your adaptability and agility game? Here are a few key strategies to try:

• Embrace a growth mindset: Instead of shying away from new challenges or unfamiliar tasks, approach them as opportunities to learn and grow. Adopt a can-do attitude and step out of your comfort zone.
• Be proactive: When your boss assigns you a new project outside your usual scope, don’t panic or shy away from it. Instead, see it as an opportunity to expand your skill set and contribute to your team. Research best practices, collaborate with your colleagues, and bring your unique perspective. Your willingness to take on new challenges will showcase your adaptability and make you a go-to person for future projects.
• Practice flexibility in your day-to-day: Look for opportunities to mix things up in your daily routine, like trying a new approach to a regular task, collaborating with different team members, or taking on a project that stretches your current skill set.

9. Leadership skills

Leadership isn’t just for managers. Strong leadership skills are a must-have for anyone looking to outgrow their current role, take initiative, influence others positively, and drive projects forward. How to improve leadership skills:

• Take initiative: Don’t wait for opportunities to come to you, but build your own opportunities by volunteering for new projects and taking ownership of challenges.
• Build trust: Interpersonal skills, transparency, and being supportive of your team are the cornerstone of developing leadership skills as they build trust.
• Grow your decision-making skills: As a leader, you must make tough calls. Improve your decision-making by gathering data, evaluating risks, and consulting with your team to always make an impartial decision.

10. Creativity

When dealing with challenges and overwhelming projects at a fast pace, the easiest way is to tackle them in a regular and default way. But if you’re training your creativity systematically, you can think outside the box, question the status quo, and find new and better solutions to problems.

How to improve creativity:

• Challenge your default assumptions: If you’ve always followed standard procedures, in your next project, look for ways to do things differently and more efficiently. Ask AI what alternative pathway you could take, talk to a colleague, or ask your manager. There are plenty of ways.
• Book brainstorming sessions in your calendar: When facing a problem, write down all your ideas, no matter how wild or far-fetched they may seem. The goal is to generate as many options as possible without judging or censoring yourself. Then, trim them and identify the most creative, impactful, and feasible ones.
• Collaborate with others: Creativity rarely happens in a hermetic environment. Often, the best ideas come from bouncing thoughts off others and building on each other’s perspectives. Look for opportunities to collaborate with colleagues from different departments or backgrounds to benefit from diverse viewpoints.

11. Workload management

If you’re often feeling overwhelmed as you’re unable to balance your tasks effectively, workload management is your answer. Workload management implies finding the right balance without overloading yourself with tasks but not being underutilized.

Here are a few tips to try to improve your workload management:

• Set realistic deadlines: The first step in managing your work is setting ambitious but achievable deadlines without overcommitting. When taking on a new project or task, assess the scope of the work and estimate how long it will realistically take you to complete it. Consider factors like your current workload, any potential roadblocks or dependencies, and the complexity of the task itself. Then, add buffer time to account for unexpected issues or delays.
• Prioritize ruthlessly: Not all tasks are created equal. Take a hard look at your to-do list and identify the items that are truly urgent and important. Focus on tackling those first, and don’t be afraid to say no or delegate the rest. Use methods like the RICE method or the MoSCoW method to prioritize tasks.
• Break work down: It’s easy to feel paralyzed when facing a big, daunting project. The key is to break it down into smaller, more manageable chunks. Create an action plan that outlines each step you need to take, and then focus on completing one piece at a time.
• Say no to more work at times: If you’re feeling swamped or struggling to meet a deadline, let your manager or team members know that there’s no more bandwidth to take on new projects. Moreover, pass some of your work so that others can do better or faster so you can focus on what’s most important. Learning how to say no at work and how to delegate tasks are pivotal in workload management.

You might be interested in the best prioritization methods, too.

12. Work-life balance

If you work longer hours, check emails on weekends, and blur the lines between your personal and professional life, then this area of work needs improvement. You don’t need training programs to find that elusive balance between life and work, but you do need to draw some clear lines between your personal and professional time.

• Set boundaries: Define clear boundaries between work and personal time. This may mean logging off emails at a certain time, closing your computer at 5 PM religiously, and setting expectations with your team about availability.
• Prioritize health: Start incorporating regular breaks, walks every few hours of work, and downtime into your work routine to recharge.
• Communicate your needs: If you’re struggling to find balance, don’t be afraid to speak up and ask for help or support. Your supervisor or a mentor in the company might know how to help and what recommendations to offer. Explore options like flexible working arrangements, delegating tasks, or taking time off when needed.

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