Hate your job? Floundering in a career that is boring or toxic to your mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being? Are you waiting to be rescued…by someone else, fate, or a big lottery win?
Perhaps it’s time to try something different. Perhaps it’s time for you to be your own superhero.
In the current issue of Training Mag, Bill Treasurer (founder of a courage-building company) writes about Building Career Courage. Here are his 3 tips followed by my observations and how-to suggestions.
Tip 1: Strike Out Fear – assess the times in your career when you acted with courage.
My how-to: create a career timeline and mark your pivotal courageous moments. Go one step further – what were the outcomes of those moments of career courage? Even what appear to be negative outcomes on the surface often have hidden positive lessons. Remind yourself that you do have the capacity for game-changing courage in your own life.
Tip 2: Anti-brownnosing Agreement – Gain permission from your boss to speak out and not be a brownnoser. Set the ground rules.
My how-to: diplomatic assertiveness is a much-needed requirement in just about every aspect of career (and personal) life. Ask for feedback from others and give your feedback to them if they agree. Mutual respect grows when honesty is tempered with social and emotional awareness. If you do not make your opinions and ideas known, no one else will do it for you.
Tip 3: Do Your Lead-ups – little acts of career courage lead up to bigger acts of courage.
My how-to: When did you last feel brave and courageous about your career? Consider it a lead-up to the acts of career courage you can begin today. Flex your courageous muscle…exercise it daily in little and big ways so it will grow. Understand that I am not advocating reckless risk-taking. Get informed, have some solid ground beneath your feet, and then LEAP.
As Douglas Wood says in Prescriptions from the Dock (one of my favorite books), “Look before you leap. But leap!”
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