What is being effective in the workplace? First of all, in so many respects it is easy to be able to quantify technical skills and experience. With technical skills you can be taught techniques, go on training courses and gain qualifications. It is a very factual account of what an employee brings to a team. They are either qualified or not. They can either carry out a particular skill competently or not. Then there is experience. This differs from skills. For example you may have passed your driving test, but that does not necessarily mean that you are an experienced driver. It’s not until you have been doing something for a while, and under different conditions, do you then begin to call yourself ‘experienced’. But is a combination of technical ability and experience enough in order for someone to be successful professionally?
Well, no it isn’t that easy. Despite your technical ability and your experience there is also the necessity for you to be effective in the workplace. In fact, despite a huge amount of technical ability and experience, if you are not effective then quite possibly you are not going to be considered as being any good at your job, probably won’t last that long in the position, or if you do, certainly won’t achieve anywhere close to the potential of someone with less skills, but who is more effective.
Being effective is all about doing the simple things well and at the right time. Being in the right place when you are supposed to be; anticipating and dealing with a looming situation before it becomes a problem; standing by your promises; being credible and so much more. For example – what is the difference between a good plumber and a bad plumber? So little of that is down to their broadly similar technical abilities. Assuming they have both fixed the problem, it is down to: did they arrive on time; did they tidy up after them; did they stick to the figure quoted: were they polite etc. The one that got all of these basics right could very well be perceived by the customer as brilliant, whilst the other (if they got all of these things wrong) would be perceived as terrible. Effectiveness is all about getting the basics right. These basics are the foundation to everything else. It is a thin line between being brilliant and mediocre. The line is drawn where being effective starts.
Aimed at the ecological sector, but with so much that is transferrable into other service sector roles, ‘The Effective Ecologist’ covers much about being effective within your workplace. See the following link for more details: http://www.pelagicpublishing.com/the-effective-ecologist-succeed-in-the-office-environment.html
