The Forming Five, Part 2
Having A Less-Than-Ideal Job
INTRODUCTION
In this post, we continue my blog series called “The Forming Five: 5 Experiences We Must Navigate to Work Better.” My goal in this series is to help you with work challenges you may be facing by giving you hope.
In my last post , I talked about a common workplace challenge for many of us — dealing with a challenging boss.
Today, in Part 2, I want to help you navigate having a less-than-ideal job.
Let’s get started.
DEFINING THE CHALLENGE
What makes a job less than ideal? What causes us to grit our teeth, loathe the early mornings, and cite our commute as the bane of our existence?
Well, it depends.
As I was writing this post, I thought about the fact that any job or career track can be inadequate, and the reasons can vary from person to person. The lack of advancement or slim salary that bogs one person down may not even faze someone else. But still, there are those out there who are struggling, needing ways to work through this challenge.
I’m here to tell you that you can navigate this work challenge. You can be better because of the job you have, even if you don’t like it that much. With that in mind, here are three ways you can learn from a less-than-ideal job.
HOW TO LEARN FROM LACKLUSTER EMPLOYMENT
1. Define what’s not best.
I love what pastor and leadership author Craig Groschel shares in his leadership podcast about this point. He says that you can’t accomplish what you won’t define, and makes the case for all of us to be clear.
Here’s what I want you to know — you need to do the work of getting clear on the handful of reasons your current job isn’t working. You need a process; you need a next step.
How you get clear in the reasons your job isn’t working could take many forms. Maybe you take time during a weekend off from work to write a list of reasons your job stinks, and why. Maybe your process looks like a Friday night discussion with your spouse before bed, or an early morning prayer walk.
Whatever your process may be, it’s critical that you start getting clear on whatever isn’t working in your current job. Start by getting clear on what’s not working and why you think that is.
Your process of getting clear is important because it works to distance you from the emotional pangs of your job, and ultimately lead you to a place that’s objective and balanced. Once you get clear, then you can move on to awareness. After awareness, then you can begin to take right and positive action. And all of that that is what we’re after — you working as your best self in the best possible way. Once you get clear, you’re ready to move onto the second way you can learn from a less-than-ideal job.
2. Assess what you can learn
In this step, your focus should be on what’s positive about your current role. If you’ve listed out the reasons your job isn’t working, now think through what skills, abilities, or opportunities you do have in your current job. Write out what skills your job allows you to work on and develop. Then, think through practical ways you can keep developing those.
For example, in my current role, I have the ability to plan and lead staff meetings. I lead a team of two career coaches who serve Special Education high school students, and I believe our meetings are an opportunity I should maximize. I try to do that in a few ways…
- Offering to buy my team lunch once a quarter for our staff meetings
- Working to send a meeting agenda at least a week in advance
- Keeping my staff meetings to an hour as a way to respect their time
- Having short, individual “one to one” meetings with each staff member, as a way to problem-solve with them and answer deeper questions
In the last 8 months, my team have shared with me they’ve found these meetings not only helpful to them, but also relevant to their needs. This is a win for me, and I’ve been glad to work on leading intentional, purposeful meetings in my workplace.
Now that I’ve shared an example from me, I put the ball back in your hands. Part of your task to succeed in a less-than-ideal job is maximizing the skills, abilities, and opportunities you have in front of you. Search them out! They are there, if you look for them.
Part of your task to succeed in a less-than-ideal job is maximizing the skills, abilities, and opportunities you have in front of you.
— Randy Mahoney Jr.
3. Fix your focus on progress
Finally, the third way you can learn from a job that’s not great is to focus on progress. The point here connects back with point number two, searching out and maximizing the opportunities your current job allows you to work on.
One way you could start to change your focus to progress would be to pick a skill you want to develop, and break it into small chunks.
Let’s say the skill you’re wanting to work on is being more organized in your job. A simple way to go for progress could look like this…
- Write out a to-do list of everything you need to do for one week.
- Once you have that list, select the top three things you need to get done that day.
- When you have those, think through what your next three would be.
- Get to work!
If you try this and don’t finish your top three items, that’s okay. See it as you’ve mapped out your starting place for the next day. In this example, you’re starting to develop the skills of prioritizing your time, being more efficient, and aiming at what’s most important.
What I hope you’re seeing here is that the process is the point. When you focus on progress in your current job, you’re devoting time to thinking, making small tweaks, and trying again and again. You’re trying to move your focus from one of perfection to one that values the small wins of progress. In the long run of your career, the best companies value an employee’s results, character, and integrity the most. And all of these can be built if you focus on getting a little better every day.
It won’t happen tomorrow, but it can be built over time...IF you focus on progress!
THE WAY FORWARD
If you’re struggling in a job that is less-than-perfect, I hope you have found one or two take-aways that meet you right where you are. Rest assured in this truth — you can learn from your job, even if you don’t think it’s that great. To do that, the place to start is to define what’s not best. Next, flesh out what opportunities your job does provide you, and develop those. Finally, choose to change your perspective by focusing on progress, not perfection.
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