Is your career the second love of your life? If not, it could be time to get divorced!

WARNING: THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SOME CONTROVERSIAL POINTS.

The excited rush of nerves during the early days of a relationship is not all that different from starting a new job.

But like a relationship, as you settle into a job, you might begin to overlook things and just enjoy feeling comfortable knowing what you are doing.

That’s not to say that every relationship becomes boring or stale, and the same holds true for a job.

But sometimes we forget how important passion for our career or business is in our well-being.

Do you feel like you lost that lovin’ feeling in 2018?

Do you find yourself starting to hate coming to work?

If the honest answer is yes, then stop what you’re doing and let’s think about how to break up.

WARNING FOR EMPLOYERS: I know some of you may be reading this and saying, “Paulette are you crazy - why are you telling my staff to quit?”

Having staff members who feel passionate about what they are doing not only benefits the individual, it also benefits the employer and the team around them. If a team member does identify they are not passionate about one of the below areas, this also provides you with an opportunity to do something about it.

And by the way, this also works the other way around as well... for Business Owners who may have started a business but miss working for someone else or specialising in their field and not necessarily doing all the other business owner requirements.

Don’t keep going into a job you hate, or even just don’t like, EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.

Here are 4 signs that you might need to divorce your job.

1. Not the right role

The good news for this sign is that you don’t have to quit your company, maybe just your job.

So, for example, your current role involves managing staff. But turns out, you hate dealing with administrative tasks, handling the employment issues and checking to make sure people are doing their jobs.

Maybe you actually don’t ever want to speak to a human. There could be other jobs for you.

On the flip side, you could want to manage but might need someone to take a chance or give you the training opportunity.

Go in and have a chat with your superior and perhaps you can find the right solution for you within your current company that will give you more joy.

2. Not the right work

This one might take a bit more work.

Do you actually like the work you’re doing? Are you toiling away at a job doing something you hate?

If you are unsure or have just forgotten what you want to do, and you’re just doing what needs to be done every day, then this is where the hard work starts.

In a Forbes article from September 2018, the author talked with Gay Hendricks, who wrote “The Big Leap.”

In his book, Hendricks talks about recognise not just where your passion is or what you THINK you like.

“In fact, it can often be something you may not love a whole lot initially, but it’s something you recognise you are naturally gifted at.”

Hendricks says to think about the following:

• “What work do you do that doesn’t seem like work?”
• “In your work, what produces the highest ratio of abundance and satisfaction to the amount of time spent?”
• “What is your unique ability?”

Find your genius and find job satisfaction, maybe even job true love.

And P.S. sometimes when you do this, you can also realise actually you are doing all these things and find a connection to your job again.

3. Not excited about where you’re going.

It’s hard to reach your goals if you forgot to define what those are.

Running a business sucks up time everywhere you look, from billing to employment issues to keeping the lights on.

But like we’ve said before, thinking big is an important skill of being a good leader.

Spend the time to write down your goals—specifically what do you want that will make you happy personally and professionally.

Make sure you take it even further by mapping out exactly what you need to do to achieve them.

4. Not the right people

Sometimes it’s not about the role or career, but the people surrounding you.

I’m talking about all the different people you interact with at your job — from your boss to your team to your admin.

When the people don’t mix well, then the whole concoction won’t taste right.

So, depending on what the problem is and your role, you may need to step away from the team and find another department. Sometimes it means finding a new job for yourself, not because the job wasn’t right but because working with people you like and gel with is important to your well-being too. Sometimes it means reassessing the roles people play in the team, addressing conflicts or setting new sets of team rules of play.

TIP: A small thing everyone can take control of straight away that can help is right from this moment, decide not to get involved in office politics, gossip or negative, counter-productive discussions and OWN the mood you are in at work.

And that’s what January is for, pausing to reflect, starting anew and setting goals. Make sure 2019 meets your expectations.

WARNING FOR TEAM MEMBERS: If you discover that you may not be in the right spot or are not passionate about what you do, first, see if there is anything you can do to change your attitude towards it for the better.

If that does not work, then consider discussing with your boss as they may be able to see another option, or you can then at least openly discuss it and/or plan out an exit from the business so it provides both of you time to put in place an integration plan. 

Next: What’s the one action you’ll commit to after you read this?

Cheers,

PK

Paulette "Matchmaker" Kolarz

P.S. Realising it’s time to find a new career path? Is your business no longer right for you? Do you feel like your team are not connected to their job, work or team? Get in touch with me in one of the following ways.

1. Sign up to our BespokeHR Community to receive complimentary access to free useful tips and tools that help navigate your way through people issues.
2. Like and follow the BespokeHR Facebook page for free to receive inspirational quotes, reflections and current issues.
3. Fast track your leadership and culture with our new 90-day Culture Accelerator Program https://90dayca.tilda.ws/
4. Book one of our 1-day intensive leadership programs—commercial, practical and highly tool based to get you walking out with immediate value, clear implementation, quotes, steps and actions. Our next session is a 1-day Business Owner Session on 8 March 2019.
5. Private consultation. Work directly with me and my team to help set up your people platforms up for success, just reply to this message, with “Private” in the subject line, and tell me a little about your business and what you’d like to work on together, and I’ll get you the details!

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Paulette Kolarz is widely recognised as one of Australia's leading authorities in Human Resource Management and Leadership Development.

Having been awarded the Telstra Business Women of the Year, the PricewaterhouseCoopers Young Business Women of the Year and the Hudson Private and Corporate Business Women of the Year in SA, she has spoken to thousands of people on the topics of effective leadership, maximising individual and team potential, human resources strategies, business growth and more.

Today Paulette leads the BespokeHR team, with a mission of empowering small and medium sized businesses with world class HR strategies and processes, leadership development, executive coaching and recruitment solutions.

Paulette can be reached at [email protected] or on +61 412 393 068.