2 Steps to Increase Your Impact at Work
Anyone can do the first step. The second one grows your impact and makes you invaluable to your employer.
The most important motivation for young people in the labor market seems to be that they want to make a positive impact, both at a personal and a professional level. They want to avoid the notion of “bullshit jobs” and employers that do not take social and environmental responsibility.
High job satisfaction is positively correlated when the goals and values of firms and their employees are aligned. While matching with the right kind of employer is important in the first place. However, you can work to change the personal, social and professional impact of whatever job you are currently holding. The point is that you should not let current conditions and results limit the possible opportunities for change in the future, even within the same job!
The process of making an impact at work boils down to two steps:
- Identify specific problems or general issues that should be addressed by the company
- Create practical solutions to remedy the problem
First step: Identification.
The first step is actually really simple, and without thinking you are probably doing it already. Some problems may be internal to the company. Everyone probably has a “feeling” that some tasks at work could be solved in a better way. It may be that there is a repetitive task that takes a lot of time that could be streamlined. Other issues may be external, for example relating to the company’s social responsibility in the local community contribution to reducing negative environmental impacts.
The most important characteristic of the first step is that anyone can identify problems that someone has to solve. And not only that. We are all pretty good at complaining that the problem exists and that nobody seems to do anything about it.
The second thing about the identification step is that it doesn’t really get us anywhere. Society has to act on identified problems to solve them. Complaining may even amplify the problem. Faced with criticism, the first response is usually to double down on what we are already doing, even if that action is what causes the problem. We dig into our trenches to protect ourselves from the costs of accepting that we are wrong and that we need to change. You may even be told to “love it or leave it”, which leads us to the next step.
Second step: Innovation!
The second step is how you make an impact, both personally and professionally. To make an impact, you have to induce people to change. This implies constructive criticism is at the heart of the second step. Constructive criticism formulates practical solutions, identification of the problem is not sufficient for it to be constructive.
Why is this second step so impactful? Because it is where innovation happens!
Innovation is the practical implementation of ideas to create new or improve aspects of existing goods and services.
Innovation is the use of new ideas, products or methods where they have not been used before. -Eurostat
Most people talk about the degree of innovation, ranked in increasing novelty as: Incremental, sustaining, radical and disruptive. While the degree is important, I would like to point to two types of innovation:
- Product innovation — A new or improved good or service that differs significantly from the company’s existing goods or services
- Process innovation — a new or improved business process (production process, market, organization etc.) that differs significantly from existing processes.
These two types of innovation show that change can happen at different places in the company. Usually, we associate innovation with new goods or services we consume. For example, smartwatches brought a whole new type of wearable technology to the market. Hence, product innovation is by definition an external form of innovation.
The second type of innovation shows that you do not have to make a new product to be innovative. Implementing a more energy-efficient production process at your company is considered a process innovation, which will reduce your company’s carbon footprint. A smaller carbon footprint can be a competitive advantage in the market, leading to increased demand from consumers that prefer more environmentally sustainable products. Another example may be streamlining a repetitive task, which frees up time for the employees to do more productive and meaningful tasks. Process innovation can be both internal and external to the company.
If you contribute to innovation, you will make an impact both personally and professionally. From a personal perspective, problem-solving innovation is more fulfilling than just showing up and mechanically doing your tasks every day. Professionally, you increase the value created by the company, which will make you more valuable to your company. The initial cost may be that you have to spend your free time working on practical solutions because your working environment is stuck in the current routines. This is called taking responsibility for your own professional development. If you successfully innovate, you can expect more respect and increased willingness to accept new suggestions from your manager in the future.
Start locally, then grow your impact over time
The possibility of making an impact through contributing to innovation is appealing. But where do you start when most problems go beyond your control or influence?
I suggest you start by identifying problems or other aspects of your current position at the company that you feel are not handled optimally. Remember that you are the most knowledgeable person about what your position currently requires, and how its functions can be improved. Your manager probably had the same type of position many years ago, and may not know or understand the possibilities associated with implementing new tools and processes.
If you successfully change your own position, you can broaden the impact by suggesting to implement similar solutions at other positions in the company. Then you can start over, with a new problem. If you happen to be a manager, remember to involve your team members when working on innovations that will affect their work. The team members probably have the information you do not know about the problem, and participation in the innovation process is a powerful technique to increase the quality of as well as the acceptance of changes.
