How to Align Your Job with Your Strengths

Do you feel stuck in a job that doesn’t fit? You are not alone! What if you could transform your job to align more closely with your strengths and interests? What if you could transform your job into one that fits for YOU? I am excited to share an awesome tool with you to do just that.

Get Inspired to Align Your Job with Your Strengths

A few months ago, I stumbled upon an awesome tool called “job crafting” and immediately felt inspired to use it with my coaching clients. “Job crafting is a transformative approach to work that empowers employees to take an active role in shaping their roles and responsibilities. Instead of merely accepting predefined job descriptions, individuals can reshape their tasks, relationships, and perceptions to better align with their strengths, passions, and personal objectives.”

Usually, job crafting is initiated by progressive team leaders. However, as I’ve been experimenting with this approach with my career clarity coaching clients, we discovered that you can also apply this awesome tool by taking initiative. So read on and get inspired to transform your work experience!

Assess Your Current Work Situation

First, it’s essential to assess how you currently spend your time and energy. Mentally review your last week(s) at work. What specific activities did you engage with? When did you do each of these activities? Create a timetable and fill it with your personal data. Then colour code each activity with red if it’s draining, green if it’s energizing and yellow if it’s neutral for you.

For my client Andy (not his real name) mapping out his week, revealed that Andy spent most of his mornings answering e-mails and responding to emergencies. It felt frustrating and draining. In the afternoon, Andy tried to move big projects forward, but didn’t have the mental capacity for these focused tasks. There wasn’t much green in Andy’s timetable.

How about YOU? Once you have your personal data mapped out, what do you notice? This may be quite eye-opening. Jot down your immediate insights and put your map aside.

Dream Big

Then allow yourself to dream big. Imagine you could completely transform how you spend your time and energy at work. What would a dream week look like for you? What kinds of activities would you engage in? How would you structure your day?

In Andy’s dream week, he got to focus on his big projects in the morning, which he imagined to be energizing, followed by structured, action-oriented meetings. Andy imagined wrapping up the day with responding to the most important e-mails and creating a clear plan for the next day.

What about YOU? How would you like to design your dream work week? Map out your dream chart on a separate timetable. Jot down your immediate insights.

Modify Your Job to Align with Your Strengths

Now, look at your two maps side by side. What small adjustments could you easily make to align your job more closely with your dream? How could you tweak the timing of activities? Which energizing activities could you easily grow? What draining activities might you delegate and to whom?

When Andy compared his two charts, he realized that he needed to reverse the order of his primary activities. However, Andy felt that when he arrived in the office at 9am, emergency e-mails were already piled up in his inbox and Andy felt pressured to respond. When we explored this challenge together, the idea emerged to shift his work-schedule by two hours. Andy is an early riser, therefore even just pondering this possibility excited him. Starting work at 7am would allow Andy to spend the first two workhours on his big project work, which would energize him tremendously.

Follow-Through

Andy realized during his coaching session that his schedule shift idea would increase his productivity and effectiveness. Knowing his supervisor, (let’s call him Doug) Andy decided to focus on these outcomes when he pitched the idea to Doug. Because Andy recognized Doug’s reluctance to change, Andy proposed a month-long trial period. Andy’s experiment was a tremendous success and his new schedule quickly got established. As a result, Andy feels a lot more engaged in his job and empowered to continue looking for ways to tweak his work experience.

Who do you need to talk to follow through with the small adjustments you’ve identified? What will help you discern the potential added value for your employer? How will you pitch your ideas? Enjoy the sense of empowerment that comes from taking charge and asking for what you need.