January is almost over, so how many of us can honestly say we’ve kept our New Year’s resolutions over the past month? If during the holidays, you would constantly check your work e-mail or phone, you are not alone. While there are some good points, being a workaholic may be more of a burden than a blessing.
In fact, some research have shown that employees who are constantly immersed in their jobs and don’t maintain balance in their lives often end up more burned out and less productive, and even more likely to leave their jobs as compared to those with full and balanced lives outside of work.
Many may confuse high performance with “workaholism” as they pretty much look the same from an outsider’s point of view. Both seem to be hard work, but there is one main difference: how the person feels on the inside in regards to their feelings about their job.
High performers work hard in a healthy way, and are inspired and happy about it. Workaholics work hard, but in unsustainable, unhealthy ways that make them feel burned out and unhappy. Here are more ways to tell the difference:
1. Are You Doing Business or Being Busy?
High performers do business as their main goal, achieving results and creating value for themselves and their employers. Workaholics often only want to be busy for the sake of being busy.
2. Enough Is Enough or Never Enough?
High performers know when enough is enough – they have a clear definition of success and know if results matter or not in a situation. Workaholics stay too focused on “doing more” without having a clear definition of success.
3. 100% Effort at the Right Time or More than 100% All the Time?
Workaholics have difficulty prioritizing, giving 110%, 200% or whatever higher-than-100 percentile they can think is achievable. High performers don’t buy into that illusion. They give their full effort only at the right times, instead of too much effort all the time.
4. Knowing Your Value or Letting Others Dictate It?
Self-worth is very important for high performers. They can work with a sense of freedom, as opposed to workaholics who often wait for validation from others such as their coworkers and bosses.
5. Are You Proactive or Reactive?
High performers are proactive, workaholics are reactive. This is true about work, since high performers know how to schedule, designate, and prioritize what they do throughout the work day. Workaholics allow distractions whether consciously or not – this includes drop-ins, phone calls, e-mails, and other unplanned disruptions.
6. Control or Control Issues?
There is a difference between things you can control and what you can’t. High performers would much rather focus on their effort based on their own standards, while workaholics often focus on the outcome of their job especially in relation to their income.
7. Prioritizing Yourself or Prioritizing Others?
High performers put themselves first – this isn’t the negative connotation of selfishness. By doing so, these people are able to help and serve others more efficiently and truthfully. It’s actually selfless because by prioritizing their selves, they can give first-class effort to those around them and to whom they work for. Workaholics do the opposite – they put others before themselves, which may seem noble and selfless, but is actually not sustainable.
All in all, workaholics seem to do work in order to look important, while high performers look for important work they could do. Just because you do more doesn’t always necessarily mean it contributes more – strive for quality and not always quantity. Give yourself the time of day to be able to do your best work so you may also help others achieve their best as well. It’s a win-win not just for employees but for the employer too.
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