Being able to handle stress is perhaps
the most basic of job expectations; it is at the core of not just doing
good work but doing work, period.
—Being able to handle
stress is perhaps the most basic of job expectations; it is at the core
of not just doing good work but doing work, period.
To do a good job, you need to know what is expected
of you. While this may seem obvious, in the hurly-burly of a new,
fast-moving, high-pressure role, it is something that is often
overlooked in order to get the job done.
Find Out What Matters
Job analysis is a
useful technique for getting a firm grip on what really is important in
your job. By understanding the priorities in your job and identifying
what constitutes success, you can focus on these activities and minimize
work on other tasks. This gives you the greatest return from the work
you do, keeping your workload under control and reducing the stress
factors.
Understand Your Organization’s Goals
Your job will exist for a
reason, and this will be determined by the strategy of the unit you work
for. This is often expressed in a mission statement and, in some way,
what you do should help the organization achieve its mission. (If it
does not, you have to ask yourself how secure your job is!) Look at
which of your objectives contribute towards the mission. These should be
the major objectives of your job. If they are not, make a note of this.
Use Winning Ways
High Impact
Knowing your job priorities
Focusing clearly on your performance measures
Contributing creatively to your team’s “mission”
Getting good, job-focused training in key areas
Taking the lead from high achievers by copying them
Negative Impact
Failing to prioritize work
Ignoring performance measures
Refusing to plan ahead
Assuming that appropriate training will come your way if you wait long enough for it
Allowing others to look after your career instead of progressing it yourself
Think Smart
If you know what is expected of you in your job you
will get a much better feel for how well you are performing it and
progressing in your role.
Look at your most recent
job description. Identify the key objectives and priorities. Study the
forms for performance reviews and incentive schemes to see precisely the
behaviours that will be rewarded. If any of these documents are not
available, write down what you believe the role, objectives,
responsibilities, and performance criteria to be, and work through these
with your manager. After all, an important part of doing your job well
is being seen to be doing your job well.
Understand the Organizational Culture
Every organization
has its own culture – historically developed values, rights and wrongs,
and things that it considers to be important. If you are new to the
job, talk with established, respected members of staff to understand
these values. Ask yourself how your job objectives fit with these
values. Do they reinforce the organization’s culture, or clash with it?
If looked at through the lens of the organizational culture, would the
job you do be valued by your organization?
Know What Your Priorities Are
Knowing what to
concentrate on will help you to perform well and minimize stress. It may
seem like a very basic requirement that you should know what the
priorities of your job are, but many people, when asked, can give only
the vaguest of answers. If you don’t have a clear job description, or if
you report to more than one person in the department or organization,
you may find that competing demands on your time and resources are
causing you to experience high levels of stress.
Techniques to Practise
If your job description hasn’t been updated as
you’ve progressed through the organization, it can help you to identify
and focus on the priorities of your job if you write a job description
for yourself.
Make a comprehensive list of the activities in which you are
currently engaged in the course of your day-to-day activities.
Add anything that you think you should be doing and that you have
identified as something that will advance you in your long-term
objective of advancing your career within the organization.
Delete from the list any activity that you believe is squandering
your talents and that could be done by someone else in the organization.
Discuss your list with your manager and suggest that it could be used as the basis for an up-to-date job description.
Understand Top Achievers
Find out who the top
achievers are and why they are successful. Inside or outside the
organization, there may be people in a similar role to you who are seen
as highly successful. Find out how they work and what they do to
generate this success. Learn their skills and approaches.
Understand Your Career Prospects
Sometimes jobs are
created to solve a particular problem and little thought is given to
career progression. These can be dead-end jobs that can harm you career
if you stay in them too long. If little thought has been put into the
design of your current job, you could find that career progression from
this position may not be a possibility. You need to work to ensure that
you are sensibly placed for your next career move, and, if the next move
is not obvious, this may be a matter of serious concern. Even if a job
seems very attractive, ask the right questions about career progression
before accepting it.
Confirm Your Job Priorities
By this stage, you should
have a good understanding of what your job entails, and what your key
objectives are. You should also have a good assessment of any lack of
clarity in objectives, any lack of resource, and any discrepancies or
inconsistencies between what you believe your job to be and the
realities of the situation. Any of these could potentially undermine you
in your role, thereby causing you stress. Talk these through with your
manager, and make sure that you resolve them in a satisfactory way.
Case Study: Analyzing Your Job
Clarissa was very upset.
Despite working harder than ever, she couldn’t get on with her new
manager. Suspecting that something structural was wrong, she conducted a
job analysis exercise. Working through her old job description, she saw
that the job she was doing now had moved on. While she was a key member
of her team, her work did not contribute directly to the measurable
goals of the department and didn’t match the vision her new manager had
recently explained. They discussed this together, and, with a little
negotiation, things were soon going well. Clarissa’s job description was
seriously out of date. The company’s direction had changed, while
Clarissa’s role, responsibilities, and goals had not.
By
renegotiating her job with her new manager, Clarissa was able to drop
many old duties, and refocus her efforts on activities that were
regarded by the organization as more important. This made her workload
much more manageable.
Her manager understood more about what she was doing, and became more flexible in her expectations of Clarissa.
