Could crafting your job bring back your spark?
So far in Parts 1 and 2 I’ve taken you through some ideas about how you can nourish your soul outside the workplace. Now you’ll want to think about how you can achieve this at work.
I’ve left this til Part 3 because many people find that once they’ve created a more wholesome experience of their life by tackling the simple exercises in Parts 1 and 2, their job becomes much less of an issue as it becomes less of a focus.
However, if you’re still dissatisfied, then job crafting may help.
Recently the Michigan Ross School for Business developed the term ‘job crafting’, based on the straightforward idea that when an individual takes action to alter their job in such a way as to better suit their skills and interests, they increase their job satisfaction.
What is Job Crafting?
Think about how your job has changed in the last year. I’ll bet that at least one element is different now than it was a year ago. Organisational change maybe a factor, but if you have added to your skills and talents in some way over that time, your role has probably reflected this to some degree. In other words, your job evolves as you do.
Job crafting is simply proactively evolving your job. In my last year in corporate I’d just qualified as an NLP practitioner and life coach when a re-organisation meant that I was asked to manage a group of now ‘redundant’ executives into vacant positions across the business.
I saw this as the perfect opportunity to craft the job to better utilize my new skills, and create opportunities for the business. Instead of simply managing this group into jobs they didn’t really want, I designed and delivered a career coaching programme that helped these people achieve their best outcomes. The business ended up with a bunch of motivated individuals working in jobs they enjoyed, rather than the angry, disengaged group they started out as. It was the best job I’d had in over a decade!
What skills, talents, interests and values do you want to make more use of?
How might they be put to better use in your business?
Evaluate what impact this will have on you, your immediate team and the wider business.
Go and make your case!
If you’d like to discuss job crafting in more detail, I would be delighted to help. Contact me to find out how I can help you.
If you think a complete career change will be the only way to soothe and nourish your soul, then I would encourage you to seriously think about it. An under-nourished soul won’t heal itself, unless you feed it the right diet. A career change does not have to be hard work, or scary. Many of my clients, even at mid-life, have slipped easily and effortlessly into jobs they are passionate about. My case studies reveal how they’ve achieved their dream jobs, so please take a look. If you’d like to talk with me about changing your career, I’d love to hear from you.
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