CultusQuick learners are at the base of any growing organization since they are considered the heart and soul of that organization.
It is their willingness to go an extra mile that makes them stand out.
Quick learners are smart and witty in their dealings with colleagues and supervisors and know where to draw the line in being assertive or downright aggressive in putting the point forward.
They could be those who quickly catch boss’s eyes and are granted privileges, such as being allowed to leave early on occasions or accompanying boss to meetings. While they are assigned different “names” in organizations, to them they are the show stealers and are entitled to any or all privileges.
Your tenure in an organization may account for some growth, but it is not how long you stay, rather how long does it take you to learn the ropes and put them to test.
Let us look at some points which make quick learners who they are:
Urge
Being a quick learner has less to do with genes than with a drive to learn. If you’re always curious and have always been the kind of person who asks WHY a lot, you’re likely to become a quick learner. Although quick learner is not a title in itself but if you’re being hailed as the one you surely are a force to be reckoned with.
You are branded as someone who will climb the corporate ladder fast. Is that too much attention? Well, your choice. The urge cannot be created, but induced over time. You have to be willing to seek knowledge such as reading books, staying up to date with current affairs, watching documentaries or movies based on world history, traveling, networking/connecting with people in your niche and so on.
The urge will keep you on your toes and naturally with this much knowledge, who wouldn’t want to have them implemented? This gives birth to fresh and creative ideas such as finding new ways to solve a problem, cutting down on wastage and/or streamlining existing procedures.
Keeping the brain healthy
A healthy mind is a key to many pursuits in life not just professional. With a brain full of positive energy and with less nonsense is surefire to get noticed in any organization and that is what quick learners have in abundance. They don’t bring their personal lives to work or be affected by them (exceptions aside).
The issue with the world is that they are so much caught up in petty issues that they tend to overlook the matters requiring of their most attention. Office politics, grievances with management, hating colleagues, not realizing that this way the mind is becoming cluttered and is taking away their energy of giving hundred percent.
While it is not suggested that you become sitting ducks and let the world walk all over you, but to complain on the issues on an almost daily basis is not going to do you any good. Wait for proper forums to raise your points and in front of people who actually have authority to do address those concerns of yours.
Quick learners tend to score in this area, meanwhile, the majority of the staff is engaged in trivial stuff and hence loses their chance to focus and expand efforts for improvement.
Saying ‘NO’
This is easily the most neglected aspect in any working environment. Quick learners are also good scanners of their surroundings – how information is disseminated, who is assigned what task, how can I lend a helping hand or take an initiative in a particular project, in addition to what I need to avoid at all cost from landing in my court.
You must understand the gravity of a simple ‘No’, when exercised in a respectable, manner and backed by valid argument is not a workplace sin. Many of us have been told to comply with whatever boss tells us and are afraid that saying no, may be considered as a confrontation or in any way a thing of defying the order of your superior(s).
If your hands are already full with a task and you cannot do justice to an additional task you could simply say “Boss, as you know the deadline is approaching and since this report is of immense importance to the Board of Directors meeting, may I suggest that if I’m allowed to focus solely on the task at hand, I can draft this report with meticulous detail, so that you won’t have to go through it in its entirety and can skim through when you sit down to vet it yourself”. How’s that for a ‘No’?
Did you sense any negative connotation or an unwillingness to not take up additional work in the request above?
So, as a matter of fact, this approach is advisable since in an attempt to please your boss, you may end up not doing any of the tasks assigned to you, because you could not make time for one and kept trying to squeeze time for another.
Quick learners prioritize their work and hence succeed. It may not always be that your request will be accepted by your boss but learn this skill on how to articulate a ‘No’ response without sounding bad.
Of course, you cannot blatantly say ‘No’ to your boss’s face or be prepared to face the consequences.
Find a mentor or become a mentor
Mentors can range from your superiors to your colleagues or even your juniors that can teach you a lot. If you walk with the mindset that ‘I know everything’, ‘I’ve worked for such and such companies’ or the classic ‘I’m well-qualified’.
Although, aforementioned things carry their weight but in a new organization you have to play by different rules and that can be how to avail certain breaks, for example, smoke, lunch etc. However, mentoring goes beyond that.
Mentors are leaders that coach you during the course of your stay in any organization. Quick learners are fast to pick up on that opportunity and attached themselves to that individual. For example you can shadow a fresh graduate in an organization and enlighten him/her on how things are done in an actual workplace than he/she might have learnt in a classroom, understanding of hierarchy and reporting levels, and advice in general on how to treat his/her first job as a launching pad to further their career that you may have accumulated on your own during your professional span with no one to tell you beforehand.
The results will speak for themselves when that individual performs up to the standards and in compliance with company policies. In marketing terms that person will be your ‘cash cow’ – someone who came of your professional nurturing.
I’m sure by now you would be able to see the distinction between a quick and a not-so-quick learner plain as day.
Author’s Bio:
Rayanne Dany is a coach and trainer by profession. Her extensive study in the field of human psychology makes him stand out among her peers. She is also an assignment writer, so you can seek his expertise for true assignment writing help.
