My Job Sucks: How to Love (Tolerate) the Job You Can’t Afford to Quit…Yet
February 1, 2011
How to Love (ok, Tolerate) the Job You Can’t Afford to Quit… Yet
If you’ve seen the movie “Office Space” you’ll remember the scene where the female coworker overhears the main character, Peter, saying he’s about to lose it because his commute stinks, his bosses are idiots, his work is meaningless and he thinks his girlfriend is cheating on him. “Uh oh…” says the Sally Sunshine coworker. “Sounds like somebody’s got a case of the Mondays.”
Not to be crass but, really, you want to inflict on her exactly what Peter’s neighbor suggests. (Rated R for language; not for little ears.)
Let’s Get Real
In all seriousness, do you have a case of the Mondays? Every day? Do you feel this way at work? Stuck. Wishing for something better. Knowing that there just has to be more to work than TPS reports (again, from “Office Space”).
A few words of encouragement:
- YOU control your professional and career development. Not your boss or the company you work for. It’s up to you to make something positive happen… and YOU CAN DO IT.
- And, a favorite idea from Claire Colvin, Senior Editor for TruthMedia Internet Group, your job does not define you but how you DO it does.
How do you show up at work now? Are you pouting or positive? Do you mope with a little black cloud over your head or do you find something productive to do every day (or at least week) that is in alignment with your career goals and personal brand?
It starts with clearly defining what you want from your career and what you want to be known for (your career vision), then making those opportunities happen for yourself even in — especially in — a job you can’t afford to quit.
Because here’s the best news: It won’t last forever if you are intentional about reaching your career goals. You can start looking for a new job whenever you want. In the meantime, until you find something “better”…
Add Something New
Find … better yet create … an opportunity for yourself at work to shine. To do what YOU do best.
Fact Finders: Find a new or existing project that needs your data-digging strengths. A new research project, a feasibility study, a fact-checking assignment. You naturally need and seek the facts, figures, data to justify and prioritize your work. Volunteer to do what you do best to make sure work the company is doing is worth the investment of time, energy, money. The natural strategist, you’ll make sure what everyone is working on helps move the company toward meeting its business goals.
Follow Thrus: Is there a project that isn’t being managed as effectively as it could? Without ruffling feathers of the current project owners, offer your natural expertise in creating a plan, defining the steps, helping to manage those steps and measuring the results. It’s what you do… you can’t help it. Put your talents to use to help your team or organization complete what they’ve started and measure the outcomes. The natural project manager, you’ll make sure it gets done.
Quick Starts: You’re the natural brainstormer. Are any of your colleagues “stuck” and can’t seem to think what to do to make progress on a project or set of tasks? You are the natural “unsticker.” Offer to brainstorm different solutions with your counterparts to help them work their way out of the paper bag and get moving again. You’ll save them from wasting time in “analysis paralysis.”
Implementors: You strive for quality outcomes, not just band-aid quick-fixes. Jump in and support a project that needs “beta testing” before a full roll out. Run the project through quality tests to ensure the biggest bugs are worked out before the whole team or organization has to implement something new. It’s what you do best! You’ll have your company time, money and other precious resources.
Delegate Something Old
Is there something in your job description that you’ve done a 1000 times and, well, you’re “over it?” Could it be a development opportunity for a junior colleague? A chance for growth for someone else on your team or someone you manage?
Three reasons to delegate it:
- When you delegate a task, activity or project that empowers someone else to put their strengths to work and do what they do best, you’re not only giving them the opportunity to show the team and organization what they’ve got but you’re increasing their level of engagement.
- When you give it away to someone whose natural talent(s) fits the task, that task will be accomplished more productively and efficiently than if you try to complete something that pushes you against your natural modis operandi (M.O.).
- When you give up one thing, you’re freeing yourself to take on more in your role to fit your unique strengths… to do what YOU do best. Please reference “Add Something New.”
Stay Positive
Get rid of the black cloud. And fast. No one likes to work with a Negative Nelly (or Ned). Fake it if you have to for a while. But put on a positive attitude and focus on doing something productive. Especially if you suffer from what I call “workplace depression,” the best cure for on-the-job doldrums is helping someone else accomplish something great. (See #2 on this list of 10 tips for staving off depression.
What Do You REALLY Want to Be When You Grow Up?
May 26, 2010
If you’re anything at all like me, you grew up in a time when parents told offspring either…
“Success is all about hard work. Work hard and you’ll go as far as you want.” Or… “You can be anything you want to be, dear, if you only put your mind to it.”
The fact is, to be truly satisfied, engaged and content (even happy!) with your career:
- Start with YOU and your goals.
- Intentionally design The 3 Elements of Your Ideal Career your “must-haves” are less likely to fall through the cracks.
- Take your unique 3 Elements for a test-drive to make sure they fit as designed. Tweak if not until you get it just right.
- Call on an expert career professional to help you think outside the job title box.
Reality Or…
To those parents I now say with all due respect and several years of confidence-building experience: HOGWASH.
Ballerina was never on my list of careers to pursue but it was fun when I was 4.
Growing up as a people-pleaser, comments like these did absolutely nothing to help me identify my talents, pinpoint my strengths and help me find ways to take my innate abilities for a test-drive in order to find my fit in the world of working professionals.
Quite the opposite infact: I was confused, left hanging and wondering if I was good at anything at all. So as the people-pleaser I started to think of vocation possibilities based on what those around me did themselves or thought I should do.
Accounting! Sure. My father was a numbers person as a financial planner. I could do accounting, just like several of my cousins. I loved playing on the now-considered-behemoth adding machine on his office desk. That was it: accounting. Until I saw my first manual cost accounting “spreadsheet.” Run!
Next: Teaching! Why didn’t I think of it before? My mother was a preschool teacher and became a middle school and high school English teacher later. My father had been a high school vocal music instructor prior to the financial planning shift. My grandfather devoted his entire career to academia eventually becoming a high school principal. Of course: teaching! It was in my blood! Then I reached my rebellious teen years and wanted nothing to do with any career path previously cleared by my elders.
Flight Attendant! That was surely it! Oh the adventure! The glamorous lifestyle! Yet, these first thoughts of pursuing a selfish desire (to travel… as far away from not-terribly-exotic Oklahoma as possible) was also short lived.
Finding — or better yet Designing — Your Sweet Spot
It wasn’t until I truly allowed myself to focus on where I knew I excelled (or could), on what I was passionate about and on what kind of place would bring out my best that I was able to be intentional about what I really wanted in my career.
Now I know. To be truly satisfied in a career, it must be comprised of exactly those three elements above and a somewhat selfish perspective. Before you start looking for a new house, for example, you make a list of “must haves” and “nice to haves.” Same with a new car, yes? Treat your career plan or job search no differently.
It has to start with YOU and your goals.
Get intentional about first carefully understanding what constitutes the three key elements of your ideal role, at the intersection of which you’ll find the sweet spot: your ideal career.
3 Elements of Your Ideal Career
Whether you are a highly motivated job seeker looking for a new position or a gainfully employed professional looking for the “next opportunity” internally, consider these three elements when asking yourself, “What do I really want to do?”
3 Elements of Your Ideal Career
3 Elements of Your Ideal Career
FUNCTION
This is the what you do piece. The tasks and activities you’re responsible for completing, the role you play, the duties and responsibilities in the job description. Marry your unique MO – how you naturally do the things you do – and your strengths with a role that needs those talents to accomplish the job most effectively and you have a match that allows you to do what you do best every day.
For example, if you are a gregarious brainstorming type who adapts every documented process to address the needs of the current situation and who thrives on experimenting with new ideas to see if they work… perhaps a role in direct marketing planning and analysis isn’t for you. (That was me, by the way. For the first 15+ years of my professional life.) No, no, leave that job to a systematic planner who decides, through strategic data analysis, what is feasible to try then carefully measures the results to gauge success and gather information on how to do it better next time. (Thank goodness for me there are people out there like this!)
PASSION
The why you do what you do piece. What difference do you want to make? What impact? What will be your legacy? What would make you excited to get out of bed every morning to work on and invest 8+ hours a day?
I’m not necessarily talking about finding the cure for cancer or saving the whales here. Unless that’s truly your thing. I’m talking about what you feel is important… what is meaningful to you. Just because your father wanted to fill the world with song doesn’t mean that’s what would make you race into the shower after turning off the alarm every morning. When you can work toward making a difference in some area that you feel strongly about, you will apply what you do best every day to something that matters.
ENVIRONMENT
The where you do what you do best piece. What does the “place” look like that will allow you to do your best work? Bright, open shared space? Private office? Your car? Outside? What is the culture/core values of the organization? Who are your colleagues (if any) and what are their attitudes, beliefs, work ethic? What are the ideal benefits and compensation?
From the physical space to the intangibles like values and benefits, outlining the characteristics of the right environment is just as important as what you do and why you do it in order to find — or design — the exact right fit for YOU.
3 Ways to Put These Ideas Into Action
1. Look back to past (or current) roles. At work. At home. In volunteer capacities. Pick one or two and list all the tasks for which you were responsible. As many as you can think of. From reading e-mails to project management to strategic planning. Then rank how you felt doing them 1-4:
1=LOVE IT! I love doing this and know I’m adding value! I could do this all day!
2=Good. I feel good about being productive and the work is essential to getting the job done.
3=Eh. A necessary evil. I could live without it but I know it has to be done.
4=HATE IT! Please don’t make me.
Those activities you ranked 1 are must-haves in your next career adventure and deal-breakers if they aren’t part of the job. The 2s are likely keepers. The 3s, well, we all have tasks that have to be done that may not be a favorite activity so which of these can you stand to do once in a while. That is compared to the 4s that drain you of energy and motivation. Are your 4s non-negotiables for your next position?
2. Ask yourself this question and write down all the answers you come up with: If I won the lottery tomorrow (and I’m talking the never-have-to-work-another-day prize), what would you do anyway? What is important enough to you that you would continue to work at it even though your financial security was no longer at stake? Now, go volunteer in some of these capacities to see if it’s worth pursuing as a vocation.
3. Remember your values. Write down the most important ideas about how you want to live your life and what you want people know about you. Write it down, post it where you’ll see it every day, and remind yourself that the new environment you will work in will respect and support these values.
“But I’m Stuck…!”
If your roof is blown off in a hurricane you would call a roofer to fix it, right? If your books are complicated, you would hire a CPA wouldn’t you? Need to build a bridge, hire an engineer to design it. You can also avoid costly career mistakes by getting help up front. It really isn’t as easy at 1-2-3 unless you’ve known since you were 5 that you wanted to be a prosecuting attorney cleaning up the mean streets of your hometown or until you’ve invested time for serious thought on all three elements with the help of someone who can hold up the mirror for you.
MPOWER can help. If you’re feeling stuck (either in your job search or in your current job), use me as a resource. Let’s schedule time to talk.
Performance Management: 5 Steps to Stop the Insanity
June 9, 2009
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
~Albert Einstein
Stop a second and think. Does this quote apply to the way you lead and manage your direct reports?
Is the “traditional management” method (a.k.a. “my way or the highway”) working for you? Seriously… what are the results this produces? Outcomes I’ve seen mostly include dissatisfied, disengaged and un-empowered employees. Not to mention frustrated, exhausted and overworked managers. Exactly who is this good for?
STOP THE INSANITY!
The “my way or the highway” management technique may work for a time. But for long-term success I say it’s time to try something different. I worked with a group of managers on performance improvement and management issues in which one manager could not understand nor grasp why his direct reports couldn’t just get off the dime and get the work done. He talked a long time about he just wished his team would hurry up and do the work (a.k.a. use his work style), how he couldn’t understand why it took them longer to “get it” (a.k.a. apply his modus operandi), and how frustrated he was that they still couldn’t produce better results under his “management” (a.k.a. why the same ol’ same ol’ wasn’t working). Oy.
The Manager’s True Duty
The primary job of any manager, regardless of which rung you occupy on the company ladder, is to provide your employees with the tools, training and room they need to do their work. Otherwise, why not just go ahead and do it all yourself? Oh, you’re trying to do that now, you say, because you’re afraid it won’t get done correctly? How’s that working for you?
For those managers who are trying to same techniques over and over expecting different results, I challenge you to try these five steps to create a more productive workforce… and less stress for yourself.
1. Set the Bar High & Measure
We will strive for that place where the bar is set. Think about it. When we set goals and expectations high and hold ourselves and our teams accountable, we accomplish more. As a manager, when you continually accept mediocre results as the norm that’s about all your team will produce. Invite your team into the conversation about goals. Be clear about what is expected of them, how you will contribute, how you will measure success. Then do it. Revisit your goals and where that bar is set on a regular basis and don’t be afraid to adjust as necessary. But keep it high and watch new and improved outcomes replace mediocrity.
2. Uncover Hidden Talents
You’ve set the bar, detailed your goals, discussed how success will be measured. But it’s easy to pigeonhole employees based on job descriptions and lists of duties and responsibilities. They may even be highly skilled at doing what the job description says. And traditional management will keep them there as long as the results are, well, OK. What if, just what if, you considered who the right person was for each task based on their natural talents? Eureka, now that’s different! But how do you uncover those talents? For starters, Kolbe Wisdom™ helps us understand how each of us naturally solves problems and takes action. Uncover your employees natural instincts (their unique MO) and put them to work using those innate talents. When you try it, think you might get different results? In fact, I guarantee if you take time to uncover hidden talents and make assignments based on who can accomplish each function most naturally (and efficiently), you will get different — better! — results.
3. Assess Roles
You have your goals, your metrics and now understand who can get the work done most efficiently. Uh oh… you think some people are in the “wrong” roles? Can you ask them to do a different job than what they were hired to do? And you might have to spend time building new job descriptions? Yes, yes and yes. Consider who is the best person to play each role to get the work accomplished most efficiently based on their strengths and talents. When they work against their grain, so to speak, it takes more energy and produced more stress and less-than-best results. Rearrange roles to make the best use of those talents and *poof* you will have more productive, more engaged employees. Yes, it takes a time investment up front. But it will make your job easier in the end. Did you hear that? It will MAKE YOUR JOB EASIER to have the right people in the right roles. How? Because as you put the right people in the right roles, your team will be more productive (get more done), more efficient (more done faster) and more effective (produce better results). Why wouldn’t you try that?
4. Empower Them
Ask them what else they need to get the job done to meet the goal you’ve established together. Then listen… really listen to what they need and work with them and other leaders to give them what they need — training, tools and room to experiment and make mistakes. When you do this you will be creating a culture of empowerment and begin to give decision-making skills and power to employees. Now that IS different.
5. Move It or Lose It
Set the goals, uncover hidden strengths, put the right people in the right roles, give them what they need to get the job done… then GET OUT OF THE WAY. Imagine a day when your direct reports aren’t coming to you to make every single decision no matter how small. Will you be less frustrated, less exhausted? Maybe even more productive yourself?
Seriously, man: stop the insanity! You’ve been banging your head against a wall, losing your mind long engough.
