Open Book

As staff members, there are practical ways in which each of us can strive for peak performance on a daily basis. Try practising the following Six Habits for Staff Members:

1. Motivate yourself: Attend meetings and understand the bigger picture

2. Fulfil your potential: Set challenging goals and seek out interesting projects

3. Develop yourself: Identify training opportunities; don’t wait to be told

4. Communicate with your manager: Give your manager honest feedback

5. Be productive: Be responsible for your tasks, regardless of your work environment

6. Be self-aware: Examine your own performance through feedback and self-reflection

Yet staff members cannot work alone; they need the support of managers. To complement the staff member’s Six Habits, here are Six Habits for Managers:

1. Communicate with your staff: Hold regular meetings to emphasize the link between their work and Organizational mandates

2. Motivate your staff: Challenge them to fulfil their potential

3. Develop your staff: Encourage continuous learning (target: five days per year)

4. Acknowledge your staff: Give continuous feedback and be approachable

5. Reward your staff: Recognize high performers

6. Be fair to your staff: Deal with underperformers

By building these habits into our daily work we enable ourselves to take ownership of our individual tasks, feel pride in them, and understand them in the context of the mandate. This is personal accountability at its best. And all of this means that, wherever in the world we work and whatever our responsibilities may be, we are each helping to make the world a better and safer place.