Being Your Best: Coaching Yourself for Improved Performance

By Michael Baroff

Being Your Best helps you examine your attitudes, beliefs, and values, consider what you know or need to learn, expand your limits and boundaries, and solidify your sense of self and motivation--so that you can be your best in the work you do.Many career counselors will readily admit that no single test or assessment can really tell you what you are good at or the job you should be doing. By working through the material in this guidebook, you will be able to assess for yourself what is meaningful to you and then take action appropriately. Being Your Best supports you in being your own career coach.Are you beginning a new job, newly entering the workforce, or looking to make a job change? Use this guidebook as part of your own employee orientation program. Examine how your current beliefs, energy, feelings, motivation, needs, and wants are affecting your on-the-job performance and ability to adapt to change.Are you due for a performance appraisal? Your company may have a standardized performance appraisal process that allows you to discuss with your supervisor or manager how you are evaluated on various performance criteria. Regardless of the format of your appraisal, by working through this guidebook, you can identify areas where you need to improve, then set clear guidelines and time frames for your own development. By doing so, you will demonstrate to your supervisor a willingness to take responsibility for your own performance, and you will be better prepared to discuss developmental opportunities.Perhaps your supervisor has evaluated some of your work as "below expectations" or only "meeting expectations" and indicates that she feels that you don't seem motivated to do better or that your attitude seems to get in the way of your performance. You may be frustrated because you don't know exactly what she means or because there are things going on in you life that you don't feel comfortable talking about with her. By taking yourself through the Coaching Points in the guidebook you will explore, for instance, how your assumptions and beliefs affect your behavior, what influences you to succeed, and how to maintain your energy and sense of humor. As you take the initiative to understand more about yourself, you will be able to identify what stands in your way, find it easier to discuss your appraisal with your supervisor, and make changes to improve your performance.Why is focusing on your career important? Different from a generation or two ago, it is not uncommon for people currently in the labor force to have many careers over their work life, meaning different types of work, not just different jobs within the same field. In fact, there is even an expectation that the generation of people in the workforce now will not retire as they reach senior citizen status, but rather will begin new careers or expand on avocations they have developed during their adult life.To be your best is to consider yourself an asset or valuable commodity that can develop and produce a greater return on investment. Your most important resource is your talent, and what you earn will depend on what you learn.An all-too-common dynamic occurs within the ranks of employees in organizations undergoing change. A majority of people typically take a wait-and-see approach to the impending change, often with the attitude that "the more things change, the more they stay the same". A small group of people deal with the situation by holding tight, resisting, fearing, or rebelling against the change, often spreading rumors and gossiping. Still another small number of people seek to keep informed about what's going on, assess their options, and take a proactive approach so that they become part of the change. When the change and transition occurs guess, which group (a) gets the better jobs, (b) is likely to be out of a job, or (c) gets what's left over whether they like it or not. Being Your Best helps move you along your career path

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1520556306
• ISBN13: 9781520556307
• Release Date: February 2017
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 64 Pages
• Weight: 0.33 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.1" x 6.0"