Your job is OK, not bad, just OK. But you’d like it to be more than OK, you’d
like it to be – dare to dream - great!
You don’t need to find a new job to have a great job. Here are three ways to redesign, add on, and
de-clutter your way to a great job.
Work To Your Strengths:
We all have things we do really well, without even
trying. People ask, how do you do
that? And we answer, I don’t know – I just
do it. That’s one of your strengths in
action. A strength is a combination of
innate talent combined with knowledge and skills acquired through experience.
Becoming conscious of our strengths is the fast path to
success because your greatest potential for growth comes from your areas of
strength, not your areas of weakness.
To turn up the volume of your current job, redesign it around your
strengths. You probably have more
leeway than you think to design your job around your strengths.
One of the core questions Gallup asks is, “At work do you
have the opportunity to do what you do best every day?” Think how great it would feel to answer,
“Yes!”
I love the Gallup StrengthsFinder tool. If you’ve never taken this assessment,
purchase a new copy of StrengthsFinder 2.0, complete the online questionnaire using
the access code in the back of the book, and download the detailed report of
your top 5 talent themes. Then identify
your strengths and find ways to incorporate them into your days.
Don’t’ Go It Alone
When I interview new clients who are unhappy in their
current job, the common theme I hear is they feel alone. No one supports them, no one appreciates them,
and interactions with coworkers are generally negative. They feel isolated, set up for failure, and
the only solution they can see is to find a new job.
Don’t let things deteriorate to this point. Building authentic relationships with
coworkers, networking in your industry, and partnering with others is something
successful people make a conscious effort to do well, even if it’s outside
their comfort zone.
I was coaching a new client recently who likes to work at a
really fast pace. But he understands the
risks associated with his business well enough to know when he needs to reach
out to a couple of trusted partners for help thinking things through. We all need those sounding boards, no matter
what we do for a living.
My last boss in my corporate job asked me about my
networking outside the company. I was not an industry networker, and I regret
it now. When coaching people in senior
management positions, I urge them to make sure they have a network (including
LinkedIn connections) with people outside of their company – people they meet at
conferences, etc. Keeping up with trends
in the industry keeps you current and could spark some new ideas. And of course it comes in handy if you find
yourself looking for a new opportunity.
Stay Away from the
Dark Side
The dreaded dark side is populated with negative people and
energy vampires as well as your own inner beast or shadow. The sooner you recognize that you’re engaging
with the dark side, the sooner you can extricate yourself. This includes Negative Nellies as well as
those people who might be gunning for you, determined to make you look bad in
public. Find a way to disengage or limit
your engagement with these people.
Recognizing them for what they are is the key.
We all have a shadow, that inner ogre that takes over when
we’re stressed or pushed beyond our limits.
Different people have different looking shadows. Mine retreats, but other people have shadows
that turn combative, judgmental, overly critical, manipulative, close-minded, or
pessimistic. Learn what triggers your
shadow so you can take steps to avoid those situations, or if you can’t avoid
them, manage your responses.
Implement these three strategies, and “kick it up a notch”
at work!
