You Checked Out at Work. Here’s How to Check Back In.

Do you enjoy your job? You can be honest with me. If the answer is “no,” you’re far from alone. Through my work as a career coach, I’ve encountered more professionals than I can count who are mentally checked out of their roles while continuing to receive their paycheck.

If you’re unhappy at work, you already know that feeling can grow rapidly for a variety of reasons. Maybe there’s a constant deluge of stressful deliverables. Maybe your scope of work has shifted in a way you can’t control. Maybe you have a manager, coworker, or client who makes things difficult. Or perhaps there aren’t enough growth opportunities to sharpen your skills and capture your interest.

In the current economic climate where reductions in force are becoming increasingly widespread and job stability feels uncertain, professionals who had previously been disengaged at work may be rethinking their short-term objectives. If you want to keep your job until you can make the next step on your own terms, here’s how to shift your approach and intentions to embrace the role you currently have.

Decide how to refocus your reputation.

In my book?Prep, Push, Pivot, I share an exercise called “Creating your career commitments.” In essence, these are your professional pledges. They are unique to you. They’re the key tenets that anchor the work you do and how you navigate your career. If you want to shift your approach to how you engage at work, this is an optimal time to determine your career commitments, amplify what you do best, and refocus your reputation.

The first question to ask yourself is: “What do I want to be known for?”

If you’re unsure of where to begin, don’t panic. Start by making a list of the characteristics of high-performing, highly respected professionals you’ve worked with closely or have observed.

Some of those traits might be enthusiasm, great communication skills, reliability, or working well under pressure.

When you’re done with your list, pick two or three characteristics you want to be known for. They might be traits you already possess but want to fully leverage, or they could be skills you want to fine-tune or improve.

Next, ask yourself: “How will I show up at work moving forward?”

To do this effectively, look at the traits you’ve selected and write down one example of how you can bring each one to life with aligned actions. For example, if you chose “self-starter” as a characteristic you want to be known for, one way to demonstrate this might be to consistently initiate a task ahead of schedule that you’ve historically avoided.

Be intentional and incremental.?

When you’re ready to embrace a new approach, be invested for the long run and be prepared to make incremental, but consistent, changes to how you work. Even the smallest shifts in body language, mindset, communication, participation, collaboration, visibility, or productivity can result in significant and lasting impact.

A few years ago, I was hired to coach a senior executive who had been at her company for many years. She had been promoted two years prior to my engagement as her coach, but after hitting that milestone, things had started to slowly unravel. This executive was disengaged, and it wasn’t going unnoticed. Her manager had started to comment on her diminished enthusiasm, and her feelings about work were palpable to me during our first interactions.

We used our first coaching session to discuss what she wanted to be known for. Providing the space to pause and reflect on what mattered to her and her career growth allowed her to identify that she needed to take steps to be more visible.

At first, she didn’t know where to start, but as our conversation progressed, she told me about a recurring company meeting that was open to all, but optional. My client had never attended because she was always too busy, but during our session she realized this could be a first, incremental step toward becoming more visible that she could commit to. So, she tried it and discovered that a 30-minute informal gathering was much easier to incorporate than she had feared. She returned again the following month, and her participation was noted and valued by her boss.

Commit to solving simple But impactful problems.

You’ve already got the ball rolling by considering how to adjust your approach to your day-to-day responsibilities at work. Continue to find ways to make a difference when the opportunity arises. Solving problems doesn’t have to be time consuming or complex. At its core, problem solving involves embracing a solution-oriented mindset instead of getting derailed by an obstacle.

You know your work best. Don’t underestimate how you can add value just by sharing or applying what you already know. Being an impactful problem solver could be as simple as showing a coworker how to use a tool they’re unfamiliar with, or troubleshooting an issue that’s impeding your team’s productivity.

Think about how you can make a positive difference as you encounter problems, but don’t fall into the trap of assuming going the extra mile means working all hours. If you consistently start working longer hours and your workload hasn’t changed, this might be perceived as a sign of inefficiency, or lead to a misperception that you don’t have the skills needed to complete your work on time. Instead, demonstrate that you’re efficient, proactive, and willing to go the extra mile when needed.

. . .

As you embark on your next steps, avoid seeking external validation from others as the only measure of your success. The investment you’re making in your career is invaluable. Maintaining your new commitments to yourself and tracking your own progress is all the acknowledgment and validation you need right now. Be proud of your choices and the steps you’re taking to make a shift.

Reputations take time to form, and it’s time that’s well invested. Professionals who are highly regarded consistently operate at a certain level, and that consistency becomes what they’re known for. Commit to building a professional reputation that will propel you forward instead of holding you back.

Source: Octavia Goredema, via Harvard