When being successful at work is important to you, you likely want to find metrics to measure your performance by to make sure you are doing well. One common way workers assess their own performance is by comparing their performance to that of their peers.
Unfortunately, if you’re comparing yourself to your co-workers, you could be doing yourself and your fellow colleagues a disservice. There are a lot of reasons you shouldn’t compare yourself to your co-workers, including the following:
- You can better focus your career goals by setting benchmarks for achievement that are personalized to you: Your co-workers don’t have the same strengths and weaknesses you do. By comparing yourself to them, you could end up selling yourself short if your skills are in a different area and you’re constantly beating yourself up over the fact you can’t compete on a trait. You could also be overestimating your own abilities in the areas that matter most to your career by comparing yourself to co-workers who were hired to bring different things to the table than you.
- You can better support your co-workers and work collaboratively if you don’t feel like you’re in competition: Comparing yourself to your co-workers fosters an environment that is adversarial rather than collaborative. If you’re trying to outdo your co-workers, you’re much less likely to be successful at collaborating with them and everyone’s success can be undermined as a result.
- You can propel forward more easily in your career by emphasizing your own efforts at success: Your path to success is not through beating your co-workers and showing them up, especially as most companies today prize teamwork. Instead, make sure you show your employer you are continually learning new skills and getting better at your job. Compare yourself to your own past performance and make sure you are always striving to do better than you did before.
No matter what metrics you use to measure career success, ensure you are employed by a company that appreciates the work you do and rewards you for your efforts at professional development. High Profile can help you to find a job in Dallas, Fort Worth or surrounding areas where you can excel. To find out more about how our staffing service can help you, give us a call at 972-991-7900 or contact us online.