Five steps to reinvent yourself for increased job satisfaction
What comes to mind when you ask yourself how this year has progressed for you? How has your career moved to greater heights, or what signs did you see that it’s stalling?
If you feel like your career has stagnated, it may be time to consider how to recapture that initial buzz of a fresh job with exciting challenges. There are steps that employees can take right now to ensure their role moves in a new direction, or even help to effect a culture change within an office.
5. Know yourself
If a move to a new role in a different company is on the cards, then take some time assess your strengths, personal priorities, and even your weaknesses.
Regardless of whether you are seeking pastures-new or searching for a way to revitalise your current job, consult with the person in charge of your happiness – yourself.
Consider what has made you happy in your role, and what you could do without. This is a challenging process and it’s all too easy to miss the wood for the trees.
4. Gain an outside perspective
Consider reaching out to a mentor, coach, or friend to discuss your thoughts. You may be able to see a thousand negatives patterns, but an outside perspective could help guide you towards the positives or areas for development.
If you are under the impression you have already perfected yourself, you will never rise to the heights you are no doubt capable of. Kazuo Ishiguro
3. Reflection for development strategies
Once you completely understand your motivators and where you could use extra support, the journey to change becomes a smoother path. Perhaps you have trouble asserting yourself within meetings at your role, or you are expected to take on work without extra training: could you control your own destiny through self-development?
2. Set your boundaries.
What are you willing to change and what is non-negotiable? Can your current skills be improved, or can you gain a new skill or knowledge-set to secure an improved pay-offer (or even extend the longevity of your role in a rapidly-changing and partially-automated world)? Think about your own communication style as well; do you appear open to change or can you confidently ask for the support or resources that you require?
1. Make a SMART plan of action
That is a Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely plan of action. By the end of the first quarter, where do you need to be? Split out each action and assign a timeline – set short-term and long-term goals: perhaps it would be helpful to learn a language that is native to overseas clients, to help strengthen bonds, just don’t give yourself one month to do it!
Take note of the following sentence uttered by the narrator / protagonist in Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel, The Remains of the Day: “If you are under the impression you have already perfected yourself, you will never rise to the heights you are no doubt capable of.”