Owning Your Output
Harnessing your creativity and boldness to get things done.
Imagine waking up every morning and never feeling that dread.
You know, that sinking feeling — we’ve all experienced it. The one that says, “Fuck, I really don’t want to go to work today.”
Sometimes, it’s for what seems to be a good reason. Maybe you’re really under the weather, going through a tough personal problem, on some new medication that’s messing with your mood. But usually, it’s for one reason and one reason only: going to work is a drag, especially when it’s just a job that you just don’t feel connected to.
Most of the time, you get over that AM lull somehow. You roll out of bed, hop in the shower, grab a cup of coffee. Maybe you take your dog for a morning walk, get in a couple quick Instagram likes, bop your head to some tunes on your commute. When you arrive at your job, you say a couple hellos, get yourself and your work situation set up, take a deep breath. Hey, this isn’t too bad. You go through the motions of doing what you’re supposed to do; never more, never less. Maybe you peek at the clock once or twice, but the day goes quickly enough and before you know it, it’s time for lunch. Ahh, a nice breather. You daydream about some promising weekend plans. Another Instagram browse. Back at it.
By 3PM, you’re checking the time a little more often. You’re getting distracted on Facebook. You join a boring meeting in a freezing cold conference room that you think doesn’t really matter to you, until you get called out for something that you fumble an answer to because you were zoning out. Suddenly, now it’s 5:30PM and you’re in a hard scramble to get two more reports completed and an email sent out. On your way home, you get an email from your boss who wants to chat about your participation in that meeting. The dread kicks in again, numbed by a night on the couch with your Apple TV and a glass of Pinot Noir, until you wake up the next morning and rinse, lather, repeat.
So, how the fuck does anyone avoid that depressing spiral of work dread?
In July 2016, I was nominated and awarded as “Avenger Of The Month” by my peers at Inspire Energy. The theme for that month was “Ownership Mentality”. This was defined as four characteristics: harness creativity and boldness, get things done, do the right thing, never surrender. In my reflection of that award, I realized that there were many times in my professional career where I didn’t have that ownership mentality due to work dread. And it showed. I learned the hard way that I couldn’t just rest on my laurels and expect to be recognized for my successes. If anything, not putting in my best effort — being my truest, best self in my job — only served to amplify work dread because I was setting myself up for failure. I wasn’t getting shit done with the right priority, wasn’t always doing the right things with the right focus and at times, I was surrendering in the face of adversity and really hard work.
The way I got rid of my work dread was pushing myself to be an owner everyday.
First and foremost, I had to learn how to be a better listener. In order to best be an owner, you need to learn as much as you can everyday about your business, industry, technology and pain points. So right from the get-go with Inspire, I asked a lot of (hopefully smart) questions. I tried to be a fly on the wall in meetings that didn’t directly involve me so I could be a sponge regarding other aspects and information about the company. Fortunately, Inspire is the kind of place where you are encouraged to learn all you can through every level of the organization so it almost became contagious to do this often. Through this, I picked up so much in a rapid timeframe and as such, I became more bold in driving growth hacks and realigning digital strategy to propel the company forward.
Secondly, I had to remind myself to see the forest through the trees. This is easier said than done and requires some creativity. Most people know what it’s like to be assigned work without the real context or understanding the real importance. Without that vital piece of the puzzle, you can never truly own that work in the right way for obvious reasons.
At least once a day, every single day, I would take 10–15 minutes to look at my tasks, priorities and meeting schedule from a completely different lens: what is the big picture goal of all this? And if I still couldn’t answer that question, I would proactively reach out to the most senior person available who could help me to get that answer. With that puzzle piece complete and my toolkit being utilized properly, it was much easier to reprioritize my workload, put more thought and care into my deliverables and most importantly, to minimize my stress and maximize my results.
Lastly, I stopped surrendering. If I didn’t like the way something was going, I spoke up to the right people to voice my concerns and usually, would help to drive things in a better direction. If I didn’t feel like other people were pulling their weight and it seemed like no one else was realizing it, I took it upon myself to pull those people aside and talk honestly about it. Once you get over that awkwardness and just have an honest and real direct conversation, it’s amazing just how quick things can turn around. If I felt like the company had a larger problem that was “above my pay grade” or outside of my department, I didn’t shy away from tackling it head on with the appropriate stakeholders. Typically, I ironed out these issues on the front lines with co-workers at all levels of the business and across many different disciplines.
So what does this all mean at the end of the day? It’s important in any career path to take the wheel and drive yourself in the direction you know is best. I’ve made plenty of wrong turns on my drive, but they have all led me to what seems to be a much smoother road I’m on now. Even if that ride becomes bumpy in the future, I’m more prepared than ever to best handle those roadblocks as they come. I’m proud to be an owner. I’m proud to be an Avenger. I’m proud to avoid work dread.
If any of this sounds like something you want to achieve alongside, learn more about Inspire and check out our current job openings.
