Summer has officially arrived in Southeast Michigan. And while us Michiganders spend a lot of our time deciding what to wear on any given day thanks to constantly fluctuating temperatures, it can also be easy to get a little restless — and maybe even a little lazy — during the summer months.
Especially if you have a job that slows down during the warmer months, it can be difficult to stay focused — let alone show your boss that you’re a standout.
Here are a few tips to keep things interesting and engaging, and you never know how you might be rewarded for your proactive behavior.
Organize a company outing. I know of several companies that are treating their employees to a Detroit Tigers game on Thursday. This is a great example of something you can do to thank your employees for their hard work, get out of the office and recharge the batteries a little bit. Sure, it’s a little bit of a monetary investment, but it’ll pay off down the road with greater productivity and improved morale.
Organize a company barbecue. Nothing brings people together quite like food. So take advantage of the higher temps, have somebody bring a grill to work and get to roasting some hot dogs and hamburgers. Again, it’s a way to get people away from their desks, out of zombie-like mode, and talking to their employees and managers in a more laid-back setting. It may seem counterintuitive to take employees away from their duties in order to get more work done, but you’ll be surprised at how well it works.
Find a mentor. Most people think that, once you graduate college, it isn’t necessarily important to have a person in your life you can turn to for career advice and to bounce ideas off from. I would argue that now is an even more important time to make sure you’re following the path you wish to follow, so take some time to seek out someone you respect and admire — either inside your own company or beyond. Offer to take that person to lunch and then begin an honest conversation about how much you value their opinion and how you’d like to begin a mentoring relationship with them.
Learn a new tool and/or catch up on reading. So often we know we want to learn a new tool that will teach us how to do our jobs more effectively. But even more often, it seems, we use the excuse “there’s just not enough time in the day.” Well, if things slow down for you in the summer, now is the perfect time to be proactive and show your boss you’re interested in going the extra mile. Perhaps you’ve been wanting to teach yourself Tweetdeck so you can use Twitter more effectively, or maybe you downloaded an extensive white paper about your particular industry’s latest trends. Take some time to do these things that make you a better, more educated employee, and I guarantee it won’t go unnoticed.
What else would you add to this list? Let us know in the comments section.
This post is brought to you by the good folks at Dale Carnegie Training of Michigan, providers of professional development and management development courses and information in Michigan. We would love to connect with you on Facebook and Twitter @MarkWillDCT.
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