Katrina Pacey

Without recognising where your emotions are taking you, it is very easy to say or do things that directly undermine your reputation, standing with colleagues and influence up, down and sideways.

Absolutely! You cannot impress if you neglect the most important thing (usually determined by the person/company that approves your timesheet) in order to do something you have prioritised over it.

If you want your initiative to pay dividends in promotions, pay rises and more responsibility, ensure that you continue to met and exceed your existing role expectations. Some enthusiastic high achievers can risk self sabotage by going over and above what is expected as they take on projects which use time that is needed to meet their KPIs. Not only does it not look good, but it can lead to feeling unappreciated, overwhelmed and burnt out. Take the initiative to make your bosses’ life easier by increasing productivity and helping yourself and others achieve expectations.

It is vital to client outcomes to remain mindful of the human rights and quality of life of those in your care. We are people caring for people. The work we do is not primarily to do a job, but it is to bring care to people who may not have others to be their voice or to do the caring. Care first, task second.

Person centred outcome measures have been around for a long time. The Canadian Occupational Performance Measure still has great utility as does the Goal Attainment Scale. Asking clients to define their own goals and then supporting them to make their goals specific and measurable with a role limit allows you to then ask where they see themselves on the scale of 1-5 or 1-10 on achieving that goal and follow up again over time. Reviewing the relevance of goals over time is important too.

Remember that while mentorship benefits both mentee and mentor, the mentor is essentially gifting you their skill, experience and insight. Invite to coffee and buy for the mentor. Be prepared. Be interested in the drivers of their success. Come with specific questions. Respect each others’ time by closing the conversation after only half an hour with a question of whether they would be willing to follow up with another conversation where you can learn from their wisdom? Mentoring doesn’t need to be face to face or personalised. Learning can happen now through multiple avenues. There are so many great podcasts, books, blogs and vlogs or you tube videos. Learning is a lifetime sport so stay open and learn everyday.