Job-Shaping - Who's Tried It?
Interesting cover story of the January/February issue of AdvanteEdge Magazine - The Dream Job Myth. In it, Dan Strutzel looks at a number of ways to turn the job you already have into your Dream Job.
One of the things that the author suggests is to write out a five-sentence description of exactly what your Dream Job would consist of - salary, perks, focus, location, etc., making sure that all of the things that are important to you are included in it. "If you think only about the company and job and not the fact that you may be on the road 70% to 80% of the time, your dream job may quickly turn into a nightmare because of how it affects the totality of your life," he writes.
Strutzel also suggests you take a fresh look at how close your current job is to your Dream Job model as you just might find the fit isn't nearly as bad as you thought - especially if you can do a little "job shaping." Job Shaping is the process of working with your boss to tweak, or re-shape, your job responsibilities to include more of what you like ... and less of what you don't. Given the high cost of replacing mid- to high-level employees, employers are often quite open to this in lieu of you flat-out leaving.
Has anyone out there successfully job-shaped before? I have, although I didn't know to call it that at the time.
I knew I wanted to get more into this coaching and mentoring thing, but as the vice president of telecommunications, well, let's just say that I was in an entirely different sphere. But when the head of HR left right before the launch of an important management coaching program trial, I asked if I could run lead on it until an HR replacement was hired. To my surprise and delight, I got the green light to not only do that, but to coach and mentor the person in Human Resources who would assist with the program's logistics.
By the way, the added responsibilities also provided me with the opportunity (read: necessity) to jettison some of my less-challenging/more time-consuming work to others. Interestingly, they found that exact same work to be a great learning opportunity of their own.
Do you have any stories you'd like to share about Job-Shaping? Please do.
Labels: Job Search Stuff, Success at Work
posted by Barry Zweibel at 4:40 PM
5 Comments:
On Monday, February 14, 2005 Beezee posted an article entitled "Are you a CEO 'Personality'?" and asked at the end of the piece, Is your ego driving your leadership style a bit too much? My answer is in two parts. The first is in regards to the story on Carly Fiorina. That is, how could she not be signaled out by the media and women for being a 'personality' CEO? And for developing a bit of an enlarged ego. Ms. Fiorina was the most powerful of the eight female CEOs at Fortune 500 firms -- and the most visible. While women everywhere are sad to lose this role model, it's also a good time to regroup and push more women forward to top positions so that the almost 8% of executives at the executive vice president level or higher at Fortune 500 companies can be increased. The second part of my answer refers back to the first answer. With more women in power, it will be easier to judged on performance and not on being a first or one of the few. And, yes, at times my ego did lead my leadership style; then I realized that others couldn't keep up with me and I slowed down.
Thanks for your comments, "Bubbles."
There's an old saying that goes something like this - it's the SECOND mouse that gets the cheese. Regrettably, Carly Fiorina was one of the first mice.
Hopefully the women AND men who saw her as a role model will learn well from her experience.
Job-Shaping . . . I highly recommend it. For some odd reason, I've always wanted to be an administrative support person (we called em' secretaries in my day). Unfortunately, instead of being able to support the companies I worked for in ways that would promote their success, I ended up having to support them by doing things I knew were not in the best interest of the company or their success - simply because the "boss" said so. I also wasn't thrilled with the fact that I had to get dressed up every day and go to an office where I would quite often sit with very little to keep me busy. So, I took job-reshaping to the limit. I am now a Virtual Assistant working for myself out of my own home-office. Now, I partner only with those clients who will allow me to assist them in ways that will add to the success of their businesses instead of undermining them. And, to make it even sweeter, I don't have to get dressed up every day. If I want to, I can sit in my office in my jammies watching the deer and the squirrels playing outside my office window. I have truly re-shaped my job into my dream job!
Terry L. Green
Master Virtual Assistant
Fastype
http://www.myfastype.com
Hello all,
Does anyone have references to companies who have succesfully implemented Job Shaping?
I'm looking for HR tools / systems / practices / etc.
Thank you.
"Job Shaping" tends to be something that individual employees do (rather than HR).
Companies approximate it by rotating employees in and out of different positions. This happens to Information Technology people quite regularly. For more information on job rotation systems/practices I suggest you give your company's CIO a call. S/he, quite likely, will have TONS to tell you.
Post a Comment
<< Home