As we are turning over yet another new leaf we probably all made New Years resolutions that are supposed to make us, and our lives, better and that is obviously a good thing. No matter what the occasion, improving oneself is always a good idea. We collected the most promising habits to adopt in order to start the new decade with a refreshed and inspired mindset. Let’s have a look!
1. Innovation and creativity
The first point on our list is, obviously, important in all aspects of life. From a professional point of view however it is a must have these days in order to stand out, and not only reach the top – but also stay there. Don’t just be ok with what you have, strive to find new innovative solutions and creative approaches to distance yourself from the rest. Should you feel like needing some assistance in implementing such a mindset into your every day business, don’t hesitate to contact us and feel free check out our creativity and communication course.
2. Constant improvement
This goes hand in hand with the previous point. While striving to innovate and be creative you obviously also have to understand that it is not only others that need constant improvement but that you yourself also should be lookin in how to constantly improve. This could be via obtaining new skills (via our courses for example 😉 ), taking language lessons, learning to code, listening to Neil deGrasse Tyson on Masterclass, and many other educational activities that will add directly and indirectly to your professional success.
3. Time Management
Such an old school thing to add, isn’t it? However in a time where distraction is everywhere it is more crucial than ever to being able to make reasonable plans, stick to them, and make the most out of ones times and not just – oh look at that cute cat video!
4. Open mindedness
All of the aspects mentioned above become void if you don’t practice this one habit over and over again. Keep an open mind. When reading this you probably say ‘Hey, I am open minded!’ We all say that, but if you are being honest, are you really ALWAYS open minded? Many times we do have our own opinions based on what we heard, knew, liked, etc before which leads to be biased and, well, not open minded. Actual open mindedness, looking for the ‘objective truth’ (hat tip to Neil deGrasse Tyson), can hurt our own ego, but definitely improve us, and the bottom line of our business.
5. Learning
If you check all the above boxes, you, eventually, end up here. Learning. Learning never stops and, if you do it with an open mind, will lead to improvement. Learning can be done actively by taking classes, workshops, etc (we’re here for you) or passively by listening to podcasts, masterclasses, or subscribing to us 😉 Life long learning is a thing – and making it a habit will definitely benefit you.
6. Complex problem solving
Problems in 2020 aren’t one dimensional anymore. One dimensional problems are so 1990 and we don’t even take them serious anymore as we usually just google answers to such straight forward problems. Hence it is crucial that we understand how to solve complex problems. Problems that consists of several variables and aren’t solvable with a quick wikipedia search and the following of a checklist. If we manage to solve such problems faster, better, and differently than others, we can set ourselves apart from the pack. If that sounds interesting to you, check out our entrepreneurial mindset course as that is what we will focus on there.
7. People management
Due to the increasing complexity of problems in life and work it is quite likely that we won’t be solving all the problems by ourselves but as part of a team – probably even as part of several teams. Hence it is from utmost importance to being able to understand and manage people. Being that teammates, superiors, employees, or clients. The skills to understand and react to a different kind of people appropriately needs to be honed and we would be happy to help you with exactly that.
8. Emotional intelligence
EQ has been a buzz term for a quite a while now but it has never been as crucial to have as it is now. Building on the people skills part the best way to understand people you work and interact with is via building emotional intelligence so you will be able to understand others without them having to explain their behavior. You understand the situations others are in and hence can comprehend why they act in the way they do. Ideally you will be able to make predictions based on your EQ with will make working in a team even easier.
9. Judgement and decision making
As stated before we are shown an overwhelming amount of distraction on a daily basis and even if we try to focus on a task at hand we will see lots of different choices that will make it almost impossible to make a quick decision. Just imagine the last time you tried to decide on what to eat when looking at foodpanda. Took forever, right? If this now becomes part of your daily, professional, life, this could mean we could lose actual money. Therefore we need to be able to make decisions. In order to do so we need to improve our judgement capabilities. How to do that? We already talked about that! Be open minded, look for the objective truth, don’t let bias influence your judgement!
10. Service orientation
Who’s the most important person in your company? The customer or client, right. Service orientation should be a no brainer by now. This doesn’t mean that you have to kiss a$$ of your client though – it means think about what they want and how to give it to them in the best way possible. This, by the way, also means that you think about how to serve your employees in the best way possible in order to enable them to do their work in the best possible way. It is all about understanding the problems a team is facing and then solving those problems service oriented. Design Thinking could be the way to go here – if you want to know more about that, you know what to do. Check out our Design Thinking course!
11. Cognitive flexibility
With everything we mentioned above has become clear that in 2020 we can not just focus on one idea, problem, solution, approach, and so on. It is important to switch between different approaches, being able to see different ways to success, and to entertain diverse thoughts and solution ideas. This is what we call cognitive flexibility – the ability to switch between those different trains of thought – not being on a one way street, but being open for new ways of getting things done – and to come up with those new ways by yourself thanks to your cognitive flexibility and the ability to entertain a wide array of thoughts.
12. Critical thinking
We heard that in school, in uni, and at work. Critical thinking is something that everybody seems to value, yet when we actually do it, we seem to be on the edge / outcasts that don’t follow the mainstream. Don’t be afraid of being not part of the mainstream though as the edge of what people consider as ‘normal’ is where we can push boundaries and find new solutions to problems that might not have been solved yet. Part of critical thinking is, by the way, also not always trusting lists you found on the internet.
Which are habits that you will be trying to implement in the new decade?
This article is so good, it reminds me that we must have all habit above because it so important in this period. All work, job and society needs people like this to work with them. I will improve myself to have all of them, not much but needed.
Thank for information. Because it make me more productive to learn new thing to improve my skill. Because nowadays, people lack most of those habits, so their capability is less than potential that they can really do.
Thanks for suggestions. They are things that we necessary to have if we want to be a professional and I will improve myself followed by this article.
Thanks for writing this article! These suggestions really useful and remind me about new decade is starting! Im prove one self always good idea!
Thank you for the information. It is very good to improve ourself to be better. Moreover, this article make me productive
Even though this article headline is about 2020, I think it still works for me to improve myself in this 2022. All of these 12 habits are useful and practical, especially ‘Critical thinking’ which I plan to focus on improving this skill in this year!
Despite the fact that this is listed as “habits to adopt to improve professionally in 2020,” I believe it is also relevant in 2022. “Improving oneself is always a good idea,” I completely agree. I believe that innovation is omnipresent and very vital; all of the 12 habits are shown in this article are also very significant, and I believe that these things will improve as habits with each passing year.
Thank you for sharing about this, it’s very helpful to me. This article can use with every year to improve myself, so I will try to use all of these in my daily life.
thank you for sharing this article it’s really benefits to students like us, and I think these 12 habits are essential for developing ourself to fit in nowadays society.
For self improvement to occur, it is always beneficial for us as individuals to develop our physical and mental strengths. Personally, I tend to procrastinate a lot, thus I feel like it would be best for me to focus on the aspect of time management. Furthermore, I would also like to develop my cognitive flexibility skills as I feel like I often don’t think outside of the box enough. I found this article really helpful, thank you for sharing it!
First of all, this article is very helpful and useful for everyone who would like to improve themselves professionally. It’s very important for everyone to improving themselves and I completely agree with this article about all of the 12 habits that could help people to learn and understand about themselves more. So, thank you for sharing this all information.
Thank you for sharing this list, it makes me look back and check myself which topic I should more focus on to improve myself in the future.
Thanks for these useful information!! This article inspires me a lot to enhance myself. I’ll apply it to improve myself to get the bright future.
This article is very beneficial to anyone who wants to improve themselves in a better way. I believe that it is important to always reflect to yourself and find ways to be a better version of yourself. I also agree with this article’s list of 12 behaviors that might help people to learn and understand the right way to improve professionally.
This is one of the most uesful information that inspired me to be a mindful one and check myself to be the better one. I would like to say thank you very much for information that make my future brighter.
Thanks for sharing this article, it really useful for me to know and how to have an inspiration in my life.
This is really helpful! Personally, after reading articles, it gives me lots of productive energy. Almost every problems such as bad time management, decision making, weak emotion is all in everyone and I think this article would make an inspiration to many people.
Very useful in this time,I really need it to realize myself ! In fact,during Covid-19 situations,I’m so burnout and after reading this blog I think I will start learning new things in my life , avoid being unproductive ! Be open minded and out of my burnout zone completely,these have to be completed in this decade.
Very beneficial article to the audience! It makes me think to myself to improve myself better in the future and it gives really optimistic and motivative energy. We should regularly focus on checking on ourselves and get out of our comfort zone to improve our ability to do things. Thank you for sharing this article..
Thanks for the encouragement and the positivity provide from this article! This will forever applies as we continue to live on and never stop determining to improve ourselves to become a better person!
Thanks, for the information (it’s advice actually). It helps me improve and manage myself better.
This article is so interesting and beneficial! I am motivated to be a better version of myself and I would encourage other people to be the better version of themselves too!