By I attended a workshop in the Spring where the presenter (Cy Wakeman) suggested that people are the masters of their own misery in the workplace. That drew me in immediately because I often work with people who are unhappy and feel helpless with the never-ending demands of work. I have heard many times that people feel underappreciated, that they are expected to do more with fewer resources, that they are underpaid. Cy Wakeman argues that people actually have more control than they think and the qualities that they need to tap into to be happier in the workplace are accountability, self-reliance, self-mastery and resilience. They have to stop depending on the employer to make them happy; the trick is learning to see their circumstances differently.
Here are her suggestions:
- DON’T HOPE TO BE LUCKY. CHOOSE TO BE HAPPY. Your level of accountability – not your circumstances – determines your level of happiness. When you stop making excuses for why you can’t succeed, you start looking for opportunities, create better results, and watch as more good things happen to you.
- DITCH THE DRAMA. Most of you are not consciously trying to create drama, but unconsciously many of you do it all the time – by complaining, creating stories, and arguing with your reality. When you conserve the energy that used to be siphoned into drama, you will use it where it will have its highest return on investment – assessing the facts of your situation and choosing a response that adds the most value.
- BUY-IN IS NOT OPTIONAL. YOUR ACTION, NOT OPINION, ADDS VALUE. When faced with a new task or project, top value comes from being able to deliver despite the challenges you see, not from pointing them out. If you are not the decision-maker, if no one asked for your risk/benefit analysis, give your leaders and coworkers the gift of getting over it and getting to work.
- CHANGE IS OPPORTUNITY. People have become ridiculously averse to even the word “change” – let alone the concept. But in today’s world, the minimum expectation is that you will not freak out when your cheese is moved. Let go of the idea that things should stay the same, and get flexible enough to flow seamlessly into what’s next.
- SUCCEED ANYWAY. Your challenges are not imagined – they are real, and they are tough. But these challenges are not the reason you can’t succeed. They are the circumstances under which you must succeed. Accept them as reality and start focusing on your mindset and approach – the only two things you can control