Craft your job and your career
Posted on June 18, 2010 at 05:30 PM
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It is often said that “people join organisations and leave their bosses”. Too often, when I hear people complaining about their jobs, it is not the work, or the company that is the source of their dissatisfaction – it is their bosses. So what are your options?
One of our first instincts is to run – get out of there, change firms, escape the problem. And then we find ourselves in the same situation again – a repetitive cycle. OK, not always, but our bosses can be a source of frustration even when they’re good.
Here are some other options:
- Know what sort of management and leadership styles bring out the best in you
- Learn to articulate your needs appropriately and share these with your colleagues so they understand what enables you to perform at your best
- Look at other aspects of your work to ensure you are playing to your strengths with regards the type of tasks you perform, the control over your work and time, your level of mastery and challenge, purpose in the work.
One model is to ask yourself these questions:
- What type of people do I find it important to have around me, to bring out the best in me?
- How do I prefer to work?
- Do the processes in place support me, or frustrate me?
- What scope is there to modify those processes and still excel?
- How does the organisational culture enable me to be my best?
As your experience increases, note how your strengths and needs change. Regular review will enable you to craft your job to accommodate those changes. And, when it is time to move on, use this information to better inform your career decisions.
About the Author
Toni Butler - Guest Contributor
Toni is an executive and leadership coach with over 30 years experience as a manager, leader and coach across the Australasia region. She is often described as a challenging coach who readily blends theory with practice and a strong sense of pragmatism. Toni is able to draw on a range of tools, techniques and methodologies relevant to the particular needs of clients, along with a readiness to challenge the status quo to bring about change and deliver return on the coaching investment.
Her client base has geographic and sectoral diversity, a result of living in Australia, Asia, India and the UK and working in the legal and financial services, hospitality, development, retail and logistics sectors.
Coaching for personal transformation and leadership impact, clients include:
• Executive and senior leaders in professional services, financial services, health, FMCG, mining
• CEOs of not-for-profit organisations
• Senior public sector leaders
• Entrepreneurs
• Emerging leaders and high potentials in manufacturing, education, investment banking
Continuous learning is a fundamental tenet for Toni. She has a business degree in human resource management and economics, where she received academic awards in her penultimate and final years of study; a graduate certificate in business and has pursued a masters in international management.
She is a certified practitioner of a range of instruments including:
• Marshall Goldsmith Stakeholder Centered Coaching
• Marshall Goldsmith Global Leader of the Future assessment tool
• Human-Synergistics® products – Life Style Indicator, Group Style Indicator, Leadership/Impact, Management/Impact
• PRINT® - a tool to reveal the unconscious motivators that drive behaviour
• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator®
• PsyOpus® Team Synergy Scale
• Rosinski’s Cultural Orientations Framework
Toni is accredited by the International Coach Federation as a Professional Certified Coach.
Beyond work, Toni loves new adventures and strives to live by her motto of “never let security be your anchor”. As evidence, she obtained her motorbike license in her 40s and rode her BMW motorbike from London to Tokyo via Russia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia. And that was just the start of her motorcycling adventures.
+61 (0) 488 006 769
+852 8121 0928
Note: the views and beliefs expressed by our independent contributors are of their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Star Anise. All personal development matters of an individual are unique to that individual, and coaching should be tailored to suit that individual's needs.
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