Back to work...

These are the words that we dread hearing from our supervisor or someone higher in authority than us. This is another fear to acknowledge in being an effective follower. We need to utilize our time wisely while we are at work. how many of us feel overwhelmed at work and that there is not enough time in the day to complete our tasks? We feel overwhelmed and burdened, feeling like we are never going to get unburied from our tasks. How much of our day are we giving to the task and how much are we claiming as a right for ourselves. We often claim, "If I don't check my facebook every two hours, I will be more stressed out", or "I need to have my breaks, just like those that smoke need to go out and take a break every half hour." We need to get back in check with our followership intentions. We claim rights that we don't have and take advantage of the ones that we are given. If this article offends you, it may be because there is something out of balance in your followership trends.

The first step would be to eliminate personal time from our 8 + hours of scheduled time. Sure, we all need breaks and we are given our break time and lunch time. Use them wisely. Use them to write your personal emails, make personal cell phone calls, check out facebook, and the like if you are able to on company property, if not, wait until you get home. If we can put our time only into our objectives of the day, we will bring much more efficiency and effectiveness to our job. This is how we can show others our effectiveness as followers. Not only that, but we can get to tap into some of the other benefits of the organization as well. If we have truly completed our tasks for the day, earlier than when we had anticipated, and there is nothing else to do, we have the privilege of going to our boss and saying, "I am finished with the tasks that I have today, can you recommend where I can get ahead in other areas?" or "Are there any projects you need help on that I can assist with as my work is completed?" This is how we get brought into special projects and gain experience outside of our service area. To have some project management experience or assisting with development is a nice added bonus to our work day. It can help us to feel significant where we are trained outside of our day-to-day knowledge base, as well as finishing our tasks efficiently. When we can do our task efficiently and effectively, our leaders will see the potential in us to do more. That may be the added push that is needed to get us where we want to end up. So, if you are reading this during your workday and it is not on a designated break...back to work! Be an effective follower.

Second, if we are truly putting all of our work time into the tasks and we are still overwhelmed, we need to ask for help. This is often something that is very hard to do for anyone. To say that we are unable to complete the tasks that are given to us, we feel as though we are truly not effective, when in fact, we are really trying our hardest. Asking for help is the next step in letting someone know that the workload is too much for you. They may not know this to be the case or maybe they just have not heard you complain so they are not looking in your direction. Too much responsibility can sometimes be the burden that a lot of effective followers feel because you are seen as someone who can get the work done productively and critically. Leaders like this and can unknowingly take advantage of a worker. Just take a chance and let them know what you are going through. You may get a response you were not expecting...this will help you get back to work as an effective and efficient follower of the organization.