Improving Your Job Satisfaction

After filling out the survey in the previous chapter, identify one area you believe additional work would give you the most value. Look that up in the table below where you will find a few suggestions for how you can strengthen your skills in that area.

If you also wish to work on a second area of development, fine––but make sure you focus on each one for sufficient time so that you will make substantial progress. It is much better to make significant progress in one area than to feel guilty about neglecting two.

Your Support Group

Like and respect your colleagues.	Focus on one person with whom you have the most difficulty. Identify three good qualities in every person in your workgroup. Identify the specific sources of conflict and create an opportunity to talk with the other person openly about them.
Trust others and give people the benefit of the doubt.	Seriously evaluate the relationships with people with whom you have the lowest level of trust. Is this based on their actions or on your perception of them? Challenge yourself to analyze a situation where someone caused you to have negative emotions. What did they think they were trying to do? Why was it logical to them? Figure out how much of a risk you would really be taking if you decided to trust a person with whom you currently have difficulty. Read some books and articles on “emotional intelligence” to help understand how to relate to people with different views and approaches. Take an assessment as an individual or with your group to help understand styles, strengths and weaknesses with yourself and others. You receive valuable feedback from 360-degree assessments, which gather information from a number of points of view around you.
Communicate openly with anyone and everyone.	Slowly increase your level of openness and honesty, and test to see how it is received by each individual. In a situation where you are asked to support something you do not feel good about, dig deeply into the issue. Why do others support it, and what is their frame of reference? Identify three people with whom you would most want to have an open and trusting relationship, and start opening up to them. Be honest about some of your doubts and weaknesses, and be supportive when they do the same.
Seek out people who appreciate what you do and how you work.	Identify the people who supported you in the past, and try to figure out why they did. Look for, and perhaps invent, opportunities to work with those people again, even in an informal way. Rebuild the lost relationship. Talk with your supporters about whether those opportunities can be turned into a more formal job arrangement that would benefit you both. Recognize the contributions of others in ways that are appropriate to the culture of your group. Every day, send an e-mail of appreciation to someone and their boss. Mention your gratitude for others’ help at group meetings. And keep doing this every day until it becomes habit.
Try to help others be more effective and look good.	Identify the people you are reluctant to support in front of others, for whatever reason. Find or create opportunities to say something specific and supportive. Watch how your positive support comes back to you either directly or indirectly. Describe your current underlying philosophy about the value of and your need for self-promotion. Be honest and probe deeply.
Appreciate everyone’s unique contributions and abilities.	If you have leadership responsibilities, look for the places where those on your team have skills or approaches that you are not using for greatest value. Discuss this with them, and explore ways to expand this to contribute to team success. Find or create ways to discuss the value of diverse approaches in your team. Identify three people outside your immediate team every day for a week whose help or contribution you appreciate. No matter how small, find a way to express gratitude.
Set appropriate expectations with your boss and co-workers.	Examine your achievements over the past few months, and identify those places where you either did not meet, or surpassed expectations. What could you have done to actively set expectations closer to what you actually delivered? Take time to question and understand the expectations of the person who assigned your next three tasks that cannot be handled in just a few minutes. And, also consider the people who will use the results, if they differ. At the next three appropriate opportunities, state something that will set a proper level of expectation, and thereby test to see if there is a significant gap. Adjust and negotiate, as you deem appropriate.
Actually commit to others and to yourself.	Identify the places where your sincere commitment would deliver the most value to yourself and your organization. Explore what barriers you have to make a full and sincere commitment in those areas, to learn about yourself, and to find ways to increase your ability and desire to commit. See what happens when you speak of your internal commitment to someone else as an expectation or even a promise. How did you approach the task? Did it give you more focus or energy?
Take care of little things quickly.	During the next week, identify any task that will take less than a few minutes of your time. Do those tasks immediately, if possible. After that week, analyze where this approach worked and where it didn’t. How did it make you feel? How did it make others feel? Create a set of questions you should ask yourself to separate small –and unimportant tasks that you can ignore from the small but valuable ones. For instance, ask is this a relationship I want to nurture, and does this align with my team’s purpose?
Build bridges rather than burning them.	Identify places where you have burned bridges, intentionally or not. Be honest. Are any of these in areas that you would like to rebuild? Examine the behavior patterns that get you into trouble in this area. If you believe they are too deep for you to fix, find someone who can help and advise you. Learn how to change your patterns. Identify areas where your bridges might be shaky. Find people in those organizations with whom you can (re)build a trusting relationship.