Ready to quit? Maybe you should – here’s how to know…

By Gina Calvano | Leave a Comment

To quit or not to quit – that is the question…

 

In my last blog I offered you the opportunity to understand the importance of adopting a daily recovery strategy.  This strategy will help you to recharge after the daily, draining demands of your job.  Not engaging in an active plan to recover is like making daily purchases on your debit or credit card but never adding any money into your accounts.  Eventually the bank will shut you down and you will risk bankruptcy and maybe even exposure as being fraudulent in your practices.

 

Yes – the effects of draining job demands are cumulative.  It’s a debt that racks up and eventually it manifests as health issues (exhaustion, susceptible to common infections such as colds and flus, gastro-intestinal problems, back/neck/shoulder pain, panic and anxiety disorders, depression – to name a few), if left unaddressed.  The truth is you can recover and heal from the daily affects of your job – especially if you are going through a tough time that you know will soon pass.

 

But what if your not so sure this tough time at work is a passing phase?  Do you have this unsettled feeling about your job?  Are the demanding conditions an expected way of life (and it’s not what you want for your life)?  Is your fight or flight instinct is kicking in?  Are you wanting to run (quietly and quickly) or stirring up a heap of trouble due to feeling backed into that same corner where all the other “misunderstood and undervalued” employees are hanging out (are you fighting with some poor souls who deserve it – and even some who don’t)?  Maybe the time has come to make a drastic move – right out the company front door.

 

(Almost) convinced you’re ready to quit?  Maybe you should – here’s how to know…

 

2 factors that matter greatly for deciding if you should stay or go -even without another job lined up are:

Continue Reading

Feel like everyone else’s agenda runs your day and you can’t get anything done at work? You can break this cycle – here’s how…

By Gina Calvano | Leave a Comment

Do you feel incompetent, insufficient, discouraged or powerless to get done what you need to or want to accomplish?  Welcome to inefficacy.

 

How much would you agree with these statements:

 

  • I accomplish the things that really matter every day at work.
  • I have the resources I need to get my job done.
  • I feel supported and encouraged at work by my colleagues.
  • I value my contributions at work.
  • Others value my contributions at work.
  • I feel qualified to do my job.
  • I feel I can handle anything that may come up in my job.
  • It’s ok to contribute to others in my unique way.
  • My job matters.
  • I play an active role in addressing issues that come up related to my work or workplace.

 

If your degree of agreement with many of the statements above is low, you may be at risk for experiencing a feeling of powerlessness at your job which can lead to disengagement and eventually burnout.

 

Feeling powerless at work is especially concerning because it can directly affect the quality of your work.  We all know when the quality of your work falls, we stand out – and not in a good way.  In my experience, management tends to tolerate a degree of cynicism from workers who are still producing strong results – and everyone can easily empathize with exhaustion because we all experience it from time to time.  But when you don’t produce – your boss isn’t producing – so it’s a problem that quickly gets noticed.

 

Although there is a lot an organization can do to improve an employee’s ability to recover more quickly from inefficacy – but often it’s left to the individual to “shape up or ship out.”  It usually goes down something like this “It might be a tough time/situation, but your _____________________ (fill in the blank with some negatively perceived quality you may have – i.e. anger, complaining, lack of confidence, unwillingness to participate, etc.), isn’t helping.”

 

The organization often sees feelings of powerlessness as the employee’s problem to fix – not theirs.  Organizations tend to do their part by starting performance counseling – a “talking to”, poor reviews,  written documentation, demotion, etc. or threats of those things come your way to put you on notice that you need to improve.

 

So, do you feel like everyone else’s agenda runs your day and you can’t get anything done at work?  You can break this cycle – here’s how…

Continue Reading

May the force not be with you

By Gina Calvano | Leave a Comment

Have you ever felt forced to do something at work you knew was downright wrong?  Of course you have – we all have!  “Wrong” holds no degrees of “wrongness”.  We think it does – but the truth is if something doesn’t feel right – no matter how minor it might seem (i.e. assuring someone a deadline can be met when you’re just not quite sure that’s true or telling someone you read something you didn’t read – not yet anyway!), it leaves us feeling uneasy and it drains our sense of personal power.  

 

You might think it’s easier to cope with “wrong” doing when the decision to engage in a minor level of corporate cloak and dagger is in your control – and better yet – when it’s a secret you can keep to yourself – no one will ever know!  You might justify these little white lies as necessary to keep the peace (in corporate speak this really means – to preserve your reputation with people you believe have power to harm you in some way).  

 

But, when it’s out of your control…

 

Continue Reading

10 Secret Skills that Build Confidence and Engagement for Your Work…

By Gina Calvano | Leave a Comment

Continuing on in our countdown of 10 Secret Skills that build confidence and engagement for your work…

 

Remember, they are a countdown because these are a progressive set of skills that can be developed and practiced in your daily work to connect you to a more vivid sense of personal power – of confidence that what you do makes a difference for others.

 

As we practice these skills we not only build our confidence, we simultaneously quiet the noise (the self-sabotaging comments) that produces naturally from our brain/ego in response to anything that is expressed from our spirit – our higher self.

 

So let’s get on with the countdown of  “Secret Skills” – and practice, practice, practice away at them!  Here’s #2 and #1…

 

Drum roll please….

 

Continue Reading

Secret Skills that Build Confidence and Engagement for Your Work…

By Gina Calvano | Leave a Comment

Continuing on in our countdown of 10 Secret Skills that build confidence and engagement for your work…

 

Remember, they are a countdown because these are a progressive set of skills that can be developed and practiced in your daily work to connect you to a more vivid sense of personal power – of confidence that what you do makes a difference for others.

 

As we practice these skills we not only build our confidence, we simultaneously quiet the noise (the self-sabotaging comments) that produces naturally from our brains/ego in response to anything that is expressed from our spirit – our higher self.

 

So let’s get on with the countdown of  “Secret Skills” – and practice, practice, practice away at them!  Here’s #4 and #3…

 

Continue Reading

10 Secret Skills that Build Confidence and Engagement for Your Work…

By Gina Calvano | Leave a Comment

Here is #6 and #5…

 

Continuing on in our countdown of 10 Secret Skills that build confidence and engagement for your work…

 

Remember, they are a countdown because these are a progressive set of skills that can be developed and practiced in your daily work to connect you to a more vivid sense of personal power – confidence that what you can do makes a difference for others.

 

As we practice these skills we not only build our confidence, we simultaneously quiet the noise (the self-sabotaging comments) that produces naturally from our brains/ego in response to anything that is expressed from our spirit – our higher self.

 

Operating from ego is a state of being that requires effort in order to get something you want for yourself.  Operating from spirit a state of being that requires seemingly no effort in order to enable a benefit for another.  Quieting your will/ego enables your spirit to be the filter through which you perform your daily tasks – that is doing “your work”.  Doing “your work” enables you to easily experience fulfillment.  When ego is the filter through which you perform your daily tasks you are (at best) doing “your job”.  Doing “your job” is often not enough to sustain an experience of fulfillment – or happiness.

 

So let’s get on with the countdown of  “Secret Skills” – and practice, practice, practice away at them!  Here’s #6 and #5…

Continue Reading

10 Secret Skills that Build and Convey a Personal Sense of Power and Engagement for your Work

By Gina Calvano | 1 Comment

From now though March I offer to you a countdown of 10 Secret Skills that build and convey a personal sense of power and engagement for your work.  I suggest them as a countdown because I believe that they are a progressive set of skills that can be developed – meaning working on #10 provides a solid foundation that makes #9 easier to do and share with others.  In other words, I believe it’s going to be very hard to tap into Secret Skill #1 if you haven’t yet incorporated Secret Skill #10 into your daily work.

 

You might be wondering 2 things…

 

1.  Why should I value building a sense of power for my work?  Because when we feel that we have something unique to contribute to others it energizes us and makes us feel like we matter.  Do you want to tap into a greater sense of energy and fulfillment from your work?

 

2.  Why should I value conveying a sense of power for my work?  Because when others get a sense that we are powerful we inspire others (and stand out over other job candidates when we are interviewing).  Inspiring others connects us to a personal sense of mastery of our work.  (Check out what Harvard Business Review has to say about why inspiration matters).  Becoming a master often frees us from external factors (i.e. what others think, do and say) as contributing more to our sense of self-importance and value to others and shifts our source toward internal factors (i.e. what we think, do and say) as contributing more to our sense of self-importance and value to others.  We then become more intention-focused vs. (material) reward-focused.  That shift creates a more sustainable connection to happiness and (therefore), success from our work.   From that the materials markers of success flow more naturally and in greater abundance than we could imagine than when we were solely focused on collecting them.  They become an effortless by-product of our happiness and engagement at work.

 

Our jobs are one of the easiest realms of our life to make a difference because unlike in family dynamics there is no pre-context for others about what we are capable of – (or what might be appropriate for us to be capable of in relation to our elders or given some scale of privileged or tradition we were born into).  At work the people we serve are always welcoming and hopeful for us to give our best.

 

Boosting up the volume on the “secret skills” you already have can matter greatly to those who are served by you or work with you – especially if you…

Continue Reading

The Career Choice Mistake Solution – To Serve

By Gina Calvano | Leave a Comment

For finding love in a relationship this might look like – always looking out for others and their best interests – doing everything you can to demonstrate your intentions for their well being.

For finding love with your work this might look like – always looking out for others and their best interests – doing everything you can to demonstrate your intentions for their well being. (yes, ditto!)

Did you make a career choice mistake?  Of course you can always get another job, but what can you do to cope with the job you have while you search for another job?  Plus, you certainly don’t want to make the same mistake again – right?  Start to fix this mistake and prevent it from happening again by asking yourself a couple of questions…

Continue Reading

Career Choice Mistake #3 – To Suffer At Work…

By Gina Calvano | Leave a Comment

We all know someone who has worked for years and years in a job they constantly complain about.  Hopefully, it’s not you, but this behavior is typical of someone who is committing Career Choice Mistake #3 – To Suffer At Work…

If you were searching for a love relationship this mistake might look like becoming a victim of “singlehood” – growing old and bitter over never finding the perfect mate possibly surrounded by a few cats.

So unless you work in a place that allows you to bring your cats to work everyday, you might want to overcome this mistake.  You know your “suffering at work” if you:

Continue Reading

How to have a great week at work – even if things aren’t quite going your way.

By Gina Calvano | Leave a Comment

Do you feel that things just aren’t “going your way” at work?

If you are in a pattern (at least once a week) of coming home from work and then talking about all the bad things that happened that day with some innocent and gracious soul who loves you enough to listen to you – then you just may be in a rut of seeing things as “not going your way”.

“Not going your way” may also look like the following:

  • you don’t think you’re paid enough
  • you’re not getting the results you want from the people around you
  • you’re not getting the credit you think you deserve
  • you’re not getting the “sexy” projects
  • you think you work too many hours
  • you don’t have enough happy customers

Instead of accepting any of these scenarios as evidence that things are in fact “not going your way”, could it instead be an opportunity to…

Continue Reading