You want more from your career - but more what?
Understand what’s really driving your restlessness at work and you can make better career choices
It happens to us all – suddenly we find our work satisfaction has gone missing. Perhaps we’re feeling restless, unhappy, dissatisfied, angry, bored, or out of place. Whatever the emotion, we know something’s wrong at work.
Sometimes it’s painfully obvious what’s wrong, but at others it may require a gentler exploration of what’s really happening. You could try asking yourself one of these questions:
What’s missing?
What’s overloading or bothering you?
Let ideas surface over a couple of days, or try completing this sentence:
I just want more…..
When you can answer this question, you’re able to do something about it. And being able to change this status quo automatically opens up your horizon and makes new things possible.
Let’s do something about it
So let’s answer that question
What do you want more of? Is it something like:
Money
Status
Promotion
Time
Or is it something less obvious (because let’s be honest, a lot of us wouldn’t say no to these things). Something like:
Challenge
Autonomy
Flexibility
Opportunity to grow
Collaboration
Recognition
These are examples of values that might be deeply important to you. If you find yourself in a situation when one of these values is taking a battering or being squeezed out, it feels very personal. It actually hurts.
Each of us has a unique combination of values that matter most to us. They don’t change much over our adult life, but their order of priority might. That’s why it’s so useful to take a bit of time to uncover your values and what exactly they mean to you. Because more often than not, when you’re feeling disheartened or dissatisfied one of your values is under attack.
A closer look
AUTONOMY is one of my highest values. When I am free to take important decisions for myself and my business, I’m in my element. When someone else tries to guide my hand or micro-manage my choices or my work I feel attacked. When I can plan my day, my week, my month, my year I absolutely love it! That blank canvas fills me with joy. It doesn’t feel like a heavy responsibility (even though my livelihood depends on it) - it feels like freedom.
It took me many years to understand this important aspect of who I am. But when I did, I made full use of that knowledge to live my life fully and wholeheartedly.
When I was disenchanted in a previous role, one of the reasons for that unhappiness was that I wasn’t able to exercise my autonomy sufficiently. I knew I could achieve the set goals in front of me – I had the skills and experience – but the prescribed approach just didn’t allow me to be my best. I had a different way of doing things that would have hit those targets, and served the clients well. Sadly, there was no room to express them and ultimately, I chose a different route.
More of?
Back to the original question. Let’s look at a different group of values that may tell you something important. Do you want (or need) more space to express any of these through your work:
Making a difference
Serving
Belonging
Empowering
Advocating
Seeing justice served
Supporting
Values like these are really about the purpose in your work or life; its impact. If one of these resonates and you find yourself say ‘Yes, I’d really love to have more of that in my work life’, ask yourself what you’re going to do with that information. If you were able to get more of that value every day, how would you feel?
That’s important information. When you feel an emotion like unhappiness, emptiness or that you are being disrespected, that’s deeply significant for you.
It points to something that’s under attack or missing. Don’t ignore it or it will fester and grow. Instead ask yourself:
1. What am I feeling? Try to be as specific as you can. Name that emotion, or emotions as carefully as you can. This emotions wheel will help:
2. What is the emotion telling me? What has brought that feeling up for you? What’s happening for you? Identify the situation that prompted that feeling.
3. What value is under attack? Think about what is being denied expression and that matters to you. That’s an important value. Knowing that fact is empowering, but taking action to give that same value expression now is within your power too.
If for example your value of ‘balance’ is under attack, think of how you can create more balance in another area of your life. Express it right now and bring it to life. In that way you are activating your values – you are expressing who you really are.
Less of?
Yes! The reverse is also true. There may well be a list of things you would like less of in your life. These can also point to important values and you can follow the same process to adjust your sense of control.
But don’t stop there as this data can also suggest what you’re missing from your work. If for example you have listed on your ‘less of’ column:
Spreadsheets
Clumsy processes
Pointless meetings
Working from home
Working alone
A noisy office
Ask yourself what this tells you.
Perhaps you are not getting the opportunity to exercise a particular skill like collaboration or creativity. If that’s so, spend a bit of time considering how you could create more of that in your working week. Is there scope for negotiation, job crafting, or task swapping so that you really are playing to your strengths? Someone else in the team might love the tasks you hate – it would be a win-win if you could swap them wouldn’t it?
How Elizabeth crafted her new role
I worked with a client recently, let’s call her Elizabeth. In her late 30s, she came to me because although she was doing very well in her career she had a real hankering for change. As the main breadwinner with a young family, she felt the responsibility of drawing a reliable salary and wanted to make the best decision she could about her future.
While she enjoyed much of her work in a significant position within a boutique brand consultancy, she also knew should could do more. At the heart of her problem was not knowing what she really wanted, nor what her options really were. She could see too many possibilities, and while she knew she wanted a different challenge she was unsure what her next steps should be.
We worked together to identify her values, purpose, strengths and motivations and how these related to her life and her work. Once she had a set of criteria for a happy life and a fulfilled career she was able to generate and evaluate completely new options. At the same time she felt her confidence growing. She saw her achievements more clearly and understood better than ever the value she represented to an employer.
With this vital knowledge she was able to renegotiate her role so that she moved into a more senior role, but one that more closely played to her strengths and sense of purpose. I’ll let ‘Elizabeth’ explain what this meant to her:
‘Working with Becky was extremely clarifying and enabled me to pitch for and secure a new role designed around what I can bring to my employer's business over the next few years, rather than following a pre-set path that exists in the industry.
An increase in money and seniority was lovely, but the job description built around my unique path to leadership was more satisfying.’
Director, Creative Consultancy, UK
The first step to realizing ‘more’ is to understand what that word holds for you. With that clarity you can step forwards with a whole heart and focused vision. What then could you achieve?
If you’d like to learn more about my Values Discovery service or my Quickstep Career Change Programme just drop me a message below. We can set up a free 30 minute chat to see what you really need to step into a better future.