Could “Job Crafting” Power Your Career?
Work anywhere. Bondi. Australia
Recently I shared my insights on how to build a portfolio career. In it I outlined how being able to bring my strengths into my roles has helped me embrace the challenges of new roles, develop new skills and build a career that is personally fulfilling and rewarding.
Mine is not a unique story. A growing body of evidence suggests that having opportunities to develop our strengths at work, rather than focusing on trying to fix our weaknesses can help us be more engaged, confident and successful in our jobs. And I’ve come to realize that the way I have being doing this is by “job crafting”.
So what is “Job Crafting”?
Many jobs can be summarized as a list of tasks we need to perform, and people we need to interact with, however most of us can usually shape and prioritize these to suit our workstyle preferences and strengths. Amy Wrzesniewski and her colleagues have found that when we actively “Job Craft” by customizing our tasks in ways that give us opportunities to use our strengths, values and passions we feel more in control and satisfied in our work. And if by chance we’re currently in a job we don’t particularly enjoy “Job Crafting” can help re-energize us and make us feel more satisfied in our work.
“Job Crafting” can also increase our engagement, performance, resilience and sense of purpose. And rather than undervalue the importance of tasks assigned to us by our managers, it encourages us to adapt these to bring out our best. In fact Amy proposes that “Job Crafting lets manager’s turn the reins over to employees, empowering them to become job entrepreneurs.” And in doing so reduces staff turnover, absenteeism and presenteeism.
We can “Job Craft” in three different ways:
Task Crafting - changing the boundaries of our jobs by taking on more or fewer tasks, expanding or decreasing their scope, or changing how we do them. In this way we can invest more of our time and energy into tasks that align with our strengths and values.
Relational Crafting – changing how we interact with others to forge stronger connections. This includes not only those who bring out the best in us or who we can mentor to bring out the best in them, but also those who may challenge us in ways that can help us grow and develop other strengths over time.
Cognitive Crafting - changing how we think about our work to consider the impact that our work has on others – our team, our organization, our customers or clients, or the community. Having a service mindset where we connect what we do in our work with contributing to others in some way can make our jobs feel more meaningful. And the good news is that this can help us reframe some of our most tedious tasks to perceive them as part of a bigger picture.
How have I been a “Job Crafter”?
Some of my character strengths are curiosity, love of learning and zest. My curiosity means I thrive when exploring new ideas and am open to new experiences. A love of learning motivates me to grow my knowledge and skill set, and zest shows up as energy and enthusiasm to take action. And in combination these three strengths have been a powerful force throughout my career, that also fuel my passion to explore and find better ways of doing things.
Although today much of my role as a health and wellbeing strategist requires public speaking, I must admit twenty years ago this was not my forte. However, I realized that being able to speak publicly to communicate messages with ease, clarity and confidence was a critical skill I needed for my career, so spurred on by a love of learning I undertook a public speaking course.
And while my transition from a job in Sustainability to my current role in the Sustainability of Human Capital (that is Health and Wellbeing) evolved from my personal passion and zest for wellbeing, I have no medical or wellbeing training, so I upskilled myself reading new articles made easier with the magazine aggregator Flipboard – to build up a detailed knowledge of the impact of wellbeing and its links to performance in the workplace.
As I delved further into this field I realized that taking action on wellbeing is more than just raising awareness, it’s also about creating our own goals for better health, and making small deliberate changes to achieve these. Therefore, once again I drew on my curiosity and love of learning to undertake training as an executive coach so that I can use these new skills to assist others to create changes that they’ll follow through with and be more likely to stick to, to achieve their wellbeing goals.
“Job Crafting” my signature strengths into my roles throughout my career has led me to be able to do purposeful work helping others shape their journey to be their best healthy selves. I come to work enthusiastic, motivated and engaged in what I do. But I know it doesn’t stop there – “job Crafting” isn’t a one-off event. The learning never stops, and I often find myself jotting down new techniques from research I seek out.
Regardless of whether you’re currently in your dream job (or not), you can find ways to play to your strengths and shape your own career. And this doesn’t need to be a big investment of time or energy. Even just five to ten minutes a day can be all that it takes, as over time help you “micro-craft” adjustments, which can add up to help you make powerful “Job Crafting” changes. And in doing so can help you feel more satisfied and engaged in your everyday tasks right now, as well as create exciting opportunities for your future.
So take five minutes and think how can you “Job Craft” your strengths into your job?