As 2021 approaches its end, we reflect on the past year and look into the future with new goals and ambitions. Quiet Tenacity shares insights on what worked for our clients in 2021 and helped them move forward professionally.
Job Crafting
We all hoped that 2021 would end pandemics and we would return to a more or less “normal life.” In reality, the past year only proved that uncertainty is here to stay. Moreover, the second year-run of working from “wherever and at any time” showed that flexibility could seriously backfire. Especially if there are no clear boundaries set and no work-life balance exercised before. (“Work-life balance” is an oxymoron now. It’s all life and only life balance now.)
Literally, every client that we worked with this year mentioned burn-out. Such a state often led to emotional actions and decisions not well thought through regarding their career, professional development, and growth. Some were leaving jobs, going nowhere just to escape the pain.
“My 8 to 5 working hours turned into 24 hours working day – we’ve often heard. – I am exhausted.”
Job dissatisfaction isn’t uncommon to even during good times, but pandemics made it acute for many reasons and many individuals. We won’t dive into a deep discussion of causes. They vary from case to case. However, before making any radical changes regarding your job, we recommend considering Job Crafting.
Professor Amy Wrzesniewski has been studying Job crafting for over 20 years. Her research focuses on how people make meaning of their work in complex contexts (e.g., stigmatized occupations, virtual work, absence of work) and the experience of work as a job, career, or calling.
With the Job Crafting Exercise, we helped many of our clients to adjust their jobs at the task, relations, and personal level and look at their work from a different perspective during these challenging pandemics times.
Making Learning a Habit
While no one disagrees that Life-Long Learners are the most wanted employees nowadays, we have observed that individuals who made learning not only a goal but a habit progressed much faster and more efficiently over the last two years. Approaching learning from a skills gap analysis & a roadmap building process is the first step required; however, plugging actual time into your weekly calendar, identifying the focus of that time, keeping yourself accountable, and turning learning into a habit is a vital follow-up step.
Logging Information and not relying on memory
Our observation is that attitude to journaling changes as professional experience grows and individuals progress into leadership roles. Nevertheless, there always seem to be two camps – ones who love journaling and the others who hate this activity. In our opinion, journaling undoubtedly creates an accumulated value and helps you rethink situations, evaluate opportunities, and hint at the direction of your professional journey. However, if you feel like it’s too much work, we highly encourage you to reconsider recording your working life in any other appropriate way for you.
Any project management tool or simply Excel Doc would work. Most importantly, don’t hope for your memory – it’s unreliable
What you should include in the log depends totally on you, but we recommend including quantitative information on projects results and organizational impact from these; skills development (both hard and soft); challenges, and how you dealt with them; outstanding achievements or ideas that you brought to the table, stakeholders that you dealt with, timelines, and dates.
While by-weekly records in this log might seem like tedious work, you will find all information to be a treasure when preparing for your discussion with a manager or for your upcoming job interview.
Record!
Simplifying on the goals and focusing on short term
Always set up ambitious goals! But then fly back to Earth and realistically look at what can be accomplished in three upcoming months. Plus, add to that “miscellaneous space” – time for everything that could fall at you unexpectedly. For example, “Your kid should stay at home for the next two weeks. There is a Covid case in their class.”
Choosing a “Word of the Year” that would guide you as a compass and help you focus on the right attitude might be of good help as well.
Most importantly – simplify and focus! Ambitious goals can be achieved only if what you have planned for today is done.
Taking performance reviews into your own hands
It is upsetting but true – many organizations have very poorly crafted performance review processes or don’t have them in place at all. Meaningful performance review conversations that genuinely bring value to both managers and employees are like gemstones. You know that they exist, you might even have one or two in your life if lucky, but they are rare. Time constraints and operational priorities are always additional roadblocks.
So, what to do? First, if you are on a job search journey, ask potential employers what your performance review process? This will clarify the organizational situation for you. You can also communicate your expectations to the potential employer that regular performance review is important to you. You want to have these conversations despite there being no formal process.
Secondly, if you discover that performance reviews are informal in the organization, initiate yourself an open conversation with your manager and explain that you need to have a compass and trajectory of your development, and without an understanding of what is expected from you, it’s hard to add value to the team. Don’t forget to log agreed-upon information and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). We can help you with preparation if you are unsure where to start.
Finally, if you have tried to have such a conversation couple of times and it looks like not having a performance review is a part of their organizational “ways of doing things,” seriously consider moving to a different place. You will stagnate in such a culture. It’s time to plan an escape.
In summary, we constantly observe that clients who take performance reviews into their own hands and practice how to handle them with an open mind and self-reflection move up professionally faster.
Making mental health a priority before anything else
Burnout is not something you will be able to handle over the weekend. If it hits – it will take a long time to find yourself back and overcome it. Don’t let it steal your life.
A good read for your consideration: “Burnout – The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle” by Emily and Amelia Nagoski
Every day ensure that you have time for yourself first before all other obligations – family, work, community, friends.
It is not easy because making yourself a priority is not a task or decision – it is a psychological shift. You might slip on your way, don’t get discouraged. Return to “yourself” every morning and ask: Did I try my best to make my mental and physical health a priority today?
You won’t have the strength to be successful professionally if you don’t choose to be healthy in the first place. This is a fact, not only our observation.
As the year comes to a close, let yourself celebrate the past 12 months.
Sometimes the most effective way to move forward is to step back.
Observe. Listen. To yourself in the first place.
If you feel that 2022 needs to be a year of “rest” for you – let it be.
We wish you a wonderful 2022 and believe that all your quiet tenacity will lead you to success!
Thank you for walking your journey with us.
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