Great resignation – should I stay or should I go?
Have you ever started a new job where you have been hired to transform a department or start something new or make some major change?
You dive in fully energised by this exciting challenge and fuelled by the possibilities of what you are going to do.
And then a few months go by, and it seems you are getting nowhere. You start to feel like maybe you have made a mistake and the job is the same old boring routine. You feel like you have been sold a pup. The excitement you felt drains away and you kick yourself for believing the hype.
If it truly is the wrong role for you, there is nothing wrong with looking around. But at the same time, set yourself a challenge.
Sometimes when we go in all guns blazing and it seems nobody else is interested, it can be easy to be turned off and then even easier to blame it on others. During a coaching session, clients will say to me I have tried everything, and nothing works.
But what they really mean is they have tried everything with the anticipation that others are as engaged as they are. Or, they have tried everything that they usually try.
If you are looking for personal development, this is a really good opportunity for growth. Remind yourself why you were hired. What experience and skills do you bring to the role? Your vision is not necessarily everybody else’s and this is where you can dig deeper.
What strengths do you have? If you are a relationship builder, then who do you need to build a deeper relationship with? Who are the influencers? And look at where you are at in terms of reaching your goals. If you are at 1/10 then what can you do to get to 2/10? Once there how do you get to 4/10 and so on?
Think about past projects you have worked on that were challenging. What happened, and how did you respond? What did you do that made it successful? What combination of your strengths can you use to start to persuade others? For instance, if you are a change agent and a good explainer what stories could you pull together to influence? And if you have humour as a strength even better.
All change starts with small steps. It’s easy to imagine the big picture of where you want to be and to be impatient if it doesn’t happen quickly enough. And taking small steps to move towards the goal can seem like you are not getting anywhere. One day though you will suddenly realise those small steps are starting to add up to something bigger. And if you keep doing the same things you have always done, you will get the same results. And nobody wants that.
