Accomplishment is a key driver of how engaged you are with your role. Achieving milestones and feeling competent in doing so, will not only dispel self-doubt, but will also serve as a motivation boost to strive towards the next big project, Salesforce release, or a busy period in your business’ calendar.
Accomplishment could serve as the antidote for feeling out of our depth or, feeling as if we are not progressing in our careers.
Unfortunately, a gap can form between our competency and our responsibilities. This is a gap that technology professionals find themselves up against – the feeling that our knowledge or the time available doesn’t stretch to meet the demands being placed on us results in falling outside the zone of optimal challenge. Left unanswered, it can prevent Salesforce Admins and Consultants from reaching their full capabilities, instead of feeling overwhelmed or unengaged.
We were curious about the gap between responsibilities and competencies that technology professionals often self-reported – so we’re asking the worldwide Salesforce community for their thoughts.
Why Accomplishment Matters
Accomplishment is “the successful achievement of a task”, or “an activity that a person can do well”. There are plenty of activities throughout our working days that should spark a sense of accomplishment – whether that’s a big event, such as a large Salesforce deployment, or smaller kicks like one of your users understanding a Salesforce concept that they can filter down to their team.
Accomplishment matters because it:
- Reinforces our self-image in the workplace,
- Makes us feel competent, giving us motivation.
- Helps to banish Impostor feelings (which are all too common in tech-related disciplines).
Accomplishment builds up our feelings of competence, engagement with our work, motivating us to strive further. It could serve as the antidote for feeling out of our depth or, feeling as if we are not progressing in our careers.
Progress Boosts Performance
Two professors collected and analysed 12,000+ diary entries recorded by employees at 7 large organisations. Their findings are found in a book titled “The Progress Principle”, at its crux, proves that consistently making progress on projects (even the small kicks), leads to more creative, productive, and engaged individuals.
What’s missing in our working habits? How can we leverage accomplishment to close the gap between responsibility and competency?
How can you apply “The Progress Principle” framework to your Salesforce projects and workload? Here are 3 ways to keep front of mind:
1. Don’t Change the Goalposts
‘Set goals’. It’s an instruction that’s drummed into us. Setting goals that follow the correct format (known by the acronym SMART ) is one thing, but sticking to those goals in their current shape and form is another matter.
I don’t mean ditching the goal entirely, like a New Year’s diet; I’m referring to extending the scope of the goal, what achieving that goal looks like.
As I mentioned, by working with a technology like Salesforce, we have to accept that innovation is fast-paced. Things change: new features are released, others are retired – there’s new best practice configuration, and system upkeep can be an energy sap. It’s tempting to push for more in a given project, never being satisfied because there is always something extra coming on to the scene.
Don’t keep extending your goals until you have achieved them, otherwise, you will end up metaphorically reaching for the prize, but never quite grasping it.
I’m going to call this task creep. Similar to scope creep in Salesforce projects (when clients will try to squeeze in extra items that aren’t part of the original, agreed-upon deliverables), ‘task creep’ will leave you with a bloated workload that pushes goal further, rather than restricting your focus to what’s achievable. You made an agreement with yourself on the deliverables when you made the goal initially.
Frequently changing goals makes reflecting on the progress you have made almost impossible. One moment you could be 80% to your goal but add another workstream into the mix, you may recede back to 50% instantly. Realistically, being pulled into other projects last minute this is not entirely avoidable – but if you are like me, there are plenty of items that I add unnecessarily to my to-do list that could just take a back seat.
2. Access Tech & Training
Solely relying on your determination would be unwise when there are other ways to maximise your productivity at work. Think about the number of tools that could help you achieve the same output with less energy drained from your finite supply.
You only need to peek at the AppExchange to find tools for assisting Admins, or alleviating avoidable workload altogether. Categories include: automated release management, deduplication, data loading, project management, document management, and more.
When there’s a cost attached, you may need to put forward a business case.
Admins should enable their users with self-service training, which is more easier than ever to roll-out using Salesforce In-app Guidance. By providing resources that answer their questions while using Salesforce, you will contribute towards building their sense of accomplishment!
3. Deadlines
Keep deadlines far in advance to not feel squeezed. Time is not an infinite resource, and attempting to stuff more into our days will leave us scrambling and missing the achievement mark.
In my personal experience, this has also involved explaining to business stakeholders why something would take longer than expected. Implementing a new change to Salesforce and connected apps may come with hidden complexities, like security implications, limitations to the data model, governor limits, etc.
How can you get around time pressures? It may help to apply a prioritisation technique in your own business like the IdeaExchange has done; the aim of reimagining the IdeaExchange was to marry up what users see on the Salesforce platform (+ their wildest wishes), to the reality of how Salesforce product development actually happens. The system seems to be working well! We record the latest additions to the roadmap from the prioritisation cycle here.
Read the full article at the link below.
