As life is, the workplace is full of challenges, politics and frictions that need to be daily surmounted by an employee in order to succeed in his/her chosen career. These battles are not fought in the physical, neither are they fought in the spiritual, although the spiritual preparation and attention could help an individual in the fight, they are often fought in our minds.

Workplace battles are intellectual battles that can only be won by those who apply some basic principles in its fight. Putting up a good fight requires some basic qualities by an individual who wishes to win in his workplace.

No matter how genuine and brilliant your ideas are, you will always be faced or opposed by some elements within or outside your organization. As a matter of fact, the more brilliant your ideas, the more opposition it would be confronted with.

For you to succeed and win in your workplace however, you need to come up with these ideas, better and effective ways of doing things in order to meet your targets, and contribute to the bottom-line of your organization. To achieve these, you may sometimes have to face opposition and in some instances, confrontations with people who have competing agendas.

The workplace environment is dynamic and changes nearly every day, therefore any employee that needs to succeed must be able to recognize those changes and embrace them.

To enable you stand a chance to compete at all, you need to have some basic qualities, which is like a key to access the arena, without which you’ll only be a spectator in the workplace and by extension, winning may not guaranteed

• Soundness of mind
• Boldness
• Loyalty
• Commutment to organization goals
• Personal goal and discipline
• Positive Learning attitude

ATTTITUDE

As the saying goes, ‘aptitude can get you the job, attitude would keep you on the job.’ What is your attitude at work? Are you excited about your workplace, the policies and co-workers around you? Are your Monday mornings as exciting as Friday evenings? Do you wake up each workday to fear, disdain and anxiety? Do you enjoy working with your supervisors and your co-workers? What is your productivity threshold while at your place of work?

AUTHENTICITY

Be authentic, be yourself. Being authentic empowers you and inspires you for high performance. Too many people in the workplace are trapped and stuck at being what others want them to be rather than showcasing the skills and characteristics that makes them most authentic and effective in their work. – be true to yourself, live your personal brand. Authenticity allows you to become more aware of your full potentials.

INNOVATION

Be innovative in your thinking and in performance of tasks. Be nice, go out of your way to help others. It really pays to help. Always carry out personal appraisal of your own performance. Does your personal goal align with that of your organization?

FOCUS

Stay focused on your goals and objectives. Never give room for distractions. It is easy to become aggravated by other people’s actions and forget what you were trying to achieve in the first place. Avoid unhealthy intimate relationship with an opposite sex at work, it’s a distraction, it’s a trap, it could bring you down.

EMPATHY

Build an empathetic understanding of other people’s point of view. Do not jump to conclusions, seek to understand other people’s motives – don’t be judgmental and never be discriminatory. Do not presume evil or vindictive intent. Always use humor to diffuse difficult situations. Be appreciative, sincere appreciation of colleagues in the workplace helps you to quickly get things done by your colleagues, it helps your productivity.

LEADERSHIP

Be a leader within your space. Take responsibilities and be ready to face the consequence. When you consistently show a sense of genuine commitment and dedication to work, it radiates to others and it will positively affect your performance thereby also giving you success and the likeness you desire. Set goals and timelines within your space and always strife to achieve them.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

For you to have excellent career advancement and be relevant in your workplace, you need to commit some time and personal resources to developing yourself in the career path you have chosen. This will, by extension, improve the way you approach tasks, increase your level of creativity and your strategic thinking prowess thereby also boosting your overall performance index. If you are not growing continually, you cannot maintain high performance level.

RLEATIONSHIP AND TRUST

In order to reach the top and be relevant in your workplace, a good relationship cannot be overlooked. You need to get along with your co-workers as much as possible to avoid heated confrontations. Teamwork and collaboration are important to achieve greatness in the workplace. If you value relationships, it will bring you good resources and opportunities. The more trustworthy and transparent you are, the easier it is for the system to support and recognize you. This will invariably open doors to more tasks and responsibilities for you thereby increasing your chances of making it to the top in record time.

Oluwadare Adesogan
Executive Coach and Trainer.
Lead caoach at Eicit coaching Company