Читать книгу The Office Jungle - Judi James, Judi James - Страница 6
ОглавлениеBefore you begin studying career-related problems and hurdles, it’s vital you have a good understanding of yourself. You are the product we’re marketing. Without a solid idea of your own core values, objectives and ambitions it’s impossible to compile an effective action plan.
As the volume of your work increases, so the amount of time available for self-study diminishes. As soon as you wake up on a working day the pressures and deadlines you face are mainly business-driven. Your personal and professional self-perception may be affected by the same external influences.
If you are good at your job you will see yourself as a successful person. If your work receives criticism your confidence may droop. Your business targets might possibly be set by someone other than yourself. Sometimes your expectations of ambition, pleasure and even happiness will all be externally influenced.
From the day you were born you listened to other people telling you what you are like and what you can or can’t do. Small babies will react to the tone of a parent’s voice even when they don’t understand the words. Other animals will be the same. Tell your cat it’s stupid – but in a warm friendly voice – and it will purr happily. Shout the same thing and it will run off, scared.
Once you began to understand the words themselves you heard a constant stream of approval or disapproval of your actions from both your parents and family. Then your teachers muscled in on the act – and finally your boss and work colleagues.
It is now essential to your success in the workplace that you allow time to take stock of yourself now and again – reassess yourself and recharge the inner batteries. You need to find out your own likes and dislikes, your own standards of ambition and your own requirements for happiness and contentment. This assessment is vital in order to build your self-esteem.
Without self-esteem it is difficult to like and get on with yourself – let alone other people.
How the Hell Did I Get Here?
A good question – and one you probably ask yourself on a regular basis as you swing dolefully backward and forward on your flexi-recliner chair, gaping bug-eyed at the trance-inducing configurations on your screen-saver.
How did you get involved in your current business? Was it ever a childhood ambition? Surely only the most snivelling little baggy-socked nerd would have listed things like ‘Line Manager’, ‘PA’, or ‘Account Manager’ as his or her primary choice during career sessions? Didn’t you once want a proper job, as a train driver or traffic warden?
The point you missed as you stepped trembling on to the first rung of your career ladder was this: virtually whatever your choice of scintillating and dazzling job, the odds were a pound to a penny that at some stage you’d end up with your knees pressed beneath a paper-strewn work-station with your aching fingers clicking away a happy tattoo on a poor little mouse.
The Work Windfall
Did you choose your job then, or did you just fall into it by mistake? Do you see it as a stepping-stone to greater things, or a barrier to your career progression?
EXERCISE:
Let’s start by being honest – why exactly are you in your present job? Underline the statement or statements that get nearest to the truth, or fill in your own statement if none of the options is suitable (remember, this is not a quiz but a personal evaluation exercise):
1 I am here because I feel totally fulfilled.
2 I have worked my way up through my profession and this is the last step before retirement.
3 This is my own company and I enjoy the challenge.
4 I enjoy my present position, but have my eye on promotion within the company.
5 I am using this job as a stepping-stone to something better in another company.
6 I plan to hold down this job until I can branch out into a totally different career.
7 I am here because I have no choice – I need the money and see little alternative.
8 I took a job with this company as a stopgap but somehow seem to have been here for years.
9 This is the job I always wanted to do.
10 I had other plans but dreams rarely become reality.
11 I had no choice in my career and feel bored and resentful.
12 This was the job I wanted but certain factors make it less enjoyable than I had anticipated.
13 I hate my job but I am stuck with it.
14 I have no idea whatsoever.
The demands made on you at work may be immense – bosses expect loyalty, commitment and dedication, while the work you produce is supposed to be well-nigh flawless. Reassessing your options and ambition is like having a spring-clean. Knowing you’re unhappy in your job is not a step forward – but understanding the need to compromise is. So is planning objectives.
The human brain needs challenges and objectives for stimulation and happiness, but it’s hard to keep sight of those longer-term goals if you’re peering at them over a mountain of paperwork, e-mails and constantly-ringing telephones.
ACTION PLAN:
1 Make time for yourself, and for self-assessment, rather than always listening to and relying upon other people’s opinions of your talents and abilities.
2 Find out how you got into your present job and target any areas of unfulfilment.
3 Develop your own positive inner voice and listen to it.
