The Counterintuitive Strategy to Set Yourself Up for Workplace Success According to A Harvard-Trained Neuroscientist

According to Juliette Han, a Harvard-trained neuroscientist and adjunct professor at Columbia Business School, true success is not determined by working longer hours or receiving significant pay raises. Instead, it effectively prioritizes commitments, deadlines, projects, and work.

Focus on Your Key Strengths

Han suggests identifying and concentrating on excelling in a few key strengths and priorities within your role to enhance happiness and success in your career.

As per Han, who is also an academic advisor at Harvard Medical School, it is a counterintuitive approach compared to the one pursued by many high achievers in their professional endeavors. Often, individuals mistakenly believe they must excel in every aspect to succeed. However, adopting this mindset can lead to detrimental effects on various fronts, such as work quality, focus, and health, ultimately resulting in burnout.

Dividing Job Responsibilities Into Categories

Here are the three distinct groups you can categorize your job responsibilities into to determine the specific strengths and priorities to concentrate on:

1. Tasks requiring excellence: These responsibilities are crucial for achieving success in your role and directly contribute to attaining organizational objectives, such as critical projects, fundamental client interactions, or core responsibilities that align with your core competencies.

2. Tasks requiring proficiency: While these responsibilities are essential for fulfilling your job responsibilities, they may not have as significant an impact on overall performance or organizational goals, such as routine administrative tasks, general project support, or standard client communications.

3. Tasks suitable for minimal effort or delegation: These responsibilities can be accomplished with minimal effort or delegated to others without compromising quality or efficiency, such as repetitive administrative tasks, non-urgent emails or calls, or tasks that fall outside your expertise.

Creating a Clear Roadmap for Improvement

Han advises creating a list of skills necessary for completing tasks in the first two categories. This list should provide a clear roadmap for potential areas of improvement or upskilling to enhance job effectiveness.

For those seeking a second opinion on their job audit, Han recommends consulting either a colleague or their manager, telling them that you are evaluating your current workload to enhance productivity and focus on larger goals. Inquire about areas of strength and areas for improvement and whether the outlined priorities align with the company's mission or bottom line.

Ultimately, the tasks that require excellence should align with your long-term career objectives, whether it involves positioning oneself for a promotion, acquiring leadership experience, or mastering a new skill. Even if individuals find themselves in a job they do not enjoy, reducing the number of tasks they devote total effort to can create more time in their schedule for networking, updating their resume, and exploring new opportunities, notes Han.

Mastering energy and time management in the workplace entails making some trade-offs. However, according to Han, the long-term advantages will surpass the short-term inconveniences. For instance, although you may become less responsive to emails, investing that freed-up time in focused, deep work likely results in higher-quality output.

Han emphasizes the significance of evaluating all aspects of your workload and assessing how they contribute to or detract from your career advancement. This thoughtful approach prevents autopilot mode and empowers you to take control of your career journey.

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Work, Success