5 Ways to be More Successful at Work

Now that I’ve been in the workforce for over 6 years, I feel like I’ve learned a thing or two about work and what makes people successful. There are tons of articles out there that give us advice on how to succeed, how to be your boss, or climb the corporate ladder. I’m not here to tell you how to be the CEO of a company, but I do want to share a few simple principles that could easily change your life.

I definitely don’t have it all figured out at age 28, but I have developed several strong habits and skills that have helped me to be more successful. Today on the blog, I wanted to share some of these important skills  that I’ve learned the past several years. The following principles could be applied to any industry, any role and any person.

1. Respond to e-mails within 24 hours.
   • This principle was ingrained into my head within my first 2 weeks of work. When I worked for Epic, we were told that we had to respond to all e-mails within 24 hours. Even if we didn’t have an answer, we still needed to respond and say something like, “That’s a great question. Let me do a little more research on that, and I will get back to you within the next day or two.“
   • I think this has helped me a lot in my career, and I have had so many people compliment me on how prompt I am with responses. People love getting their questions answered in a timely manner, and they love feeling like they’re you’re first priority. Depending on the volume of your e-mails, this may be harder to achieve, but you should still put your best foot forward to answer e-mails in a timely manner.
2. Always send an agenda for meetings.
   • I can’t tell you how many meetings I have attended with no agenda. It drives me crazy when the meeting organizer fails to send an agenda or fails to tell you the purpose of the call. Why would you want to leave people guessing? The conference call will be much more productive if you can send out an agenda 1-2 days prior to the meeting.
   • Your agenda doesn’t have to be anything elaborate. It can be a simple list of questions or topics you want to cover. I have gone into several meetings where someone asked me a question and I wasn’t prepared to answer it. Had they sent an agenda, I would have been prepared to answer their question on the call. You will end up getting your work done much faster if you can master this skill.
3. Pick up the phone.
   • Have you ever been on one of those e-mail chains that just won’t end? Maybe it’s the 5th reply or maybe it’s the 20th reply. Either way, it’s probably time to pick up the phone and call someone. I usually prefer e-mail over a phone call, but when you aren’t getting anywhere after a few replies, it is better to talk directly over the phone. Things can get lost in an e-mail string very quickly, so don’t be afraid to pick up the phone for a few minutes to hash it out.
   • Even though picking up the phone is great, make sure you still have a paper trail. If someone promised you something over the phone, make sure they summarize the conversation in a quick e-mail. It’s never a good feeling when someone says, “I never told you that.” Always always always document your conversations.
4. Send e-mails with clear subjects.
   • Have you ever received an e-mail where the subject does not match what is in the body of e-mail? Or maybe the subject is blank? Or maybe words are misspelled in the subject? Unfortunately, I have dealt with all of these scenarios and it can be really frustrating to try and decode this information. When this happens, I typically have to send an e-mail back and ask for clarifying information. Bad e-mails subjects can really slow down productivity. Make sure to send a clear subject that matches what you about to send. If you have a simple question, consider putting that exact question in the subject line. I have done that before and it works great.
   • Some advice: If someone sends you an e-mail with a bad subject, change it. I do this all the time! If I don’t think the subject of the e-mail makes sense, I change it to prevent future confusion. This is especially important if you are forwarding this e-mail to someone else. I almost always change the subject of the e-mail if I am forwarding it to someone else outside of the original conversation. Something that always helps me is to ask myself, “If I were about to receive this e-mail, what would I want the subject to be? What’s a clear subject that would make me read the e-mail immediately?“
5. Speak up in meetings.
   • If you got invited to a meeting, hopefully there’s a good reason for you being there. It is so easy to get lost in the crowd if you don’t speak up in a meeting. I am guilty of staying silent if I have nothing important to say, but I have been trying harder to make my presence known. I want to be seen as a leader and someone who contributes good ideas, so speaking up is vital. Even if you only speak for one minute, it is better than zero minutes. Make sure that your peers know your value and what you have to offer. You never know, maybe speaking up more in meetings could land you a big promotion!

Do you already follow some of these practices at work? Do you think that these principles are important in terms of one’s success at work?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this and what you think makes people stand out in the workforce. Is there one piece of advice that you would give to others starting out in their career?