Five to Thrive 12/2/2019

UMD’s Thriving Workplace Initiative is making the University of Maryland a great place to work by providing tools and support to foster engaged, inclusive and empowered faculty and staff across campus. 

Each Monday, its Five to Thrive list offers five strategies crowdsourced from research, experts and our own UMD community to help your workplace thrive. 

One characteristic of people who excel at their jobs is that they’re always looking for ways to get better. Looking to up your game at work? Here are five places to start:

• Seek out other people who do the same thing you do, and do it well. Offer to take them to coffee, then take notes. 
• Read up. How are other institutions approaching similar challenges? What new tools are available that might improve a process? The internet and industry publications are great places to start.
• Ask those directly affected by your work—whether it’s your supervisor, the population you serve (like students) or colleagues—what’s working, what they need and what you can do better. These simple conversations can be a revelation. 
• Look for opportunities to get involved in special projects that cross over into different units. Having perspective from colleagues beyond your immediate work environment builds connections with new people, gives you a sense of the bigger picture and demonstrates where your work has impact. 
• Make goal-setting, and goal-reaching, a collaborative process. Work with your supervisor to create objectives that play to your strengths but stretch your abilities. Then, don’t wait until the next PRD; instead, carve out regular time to check in on your progress and address stumbling blocks. 

Want more tips? Visit the Thriving Workplace Resource Library here or sign up for Food for Thought Friday, which delivers strategies to your inbox each week. Send an email to thrivingworkplace@umd.edu with the subject listserv to subscribe.