We all fall out of love with work and our day to day jobs from time to time but don't worry, we are here to help!
You know that feeling of new love. The birds are singing, the flowers are blooming and you feel like all is well in the world. It’s a feeling we search for in life and also in work. It may sound a little fluffy, but what if you really could love your job—or even like it just a little more?
One of the fundamentals of love, is the feeling of being fully known, and of course it applies to workplace. Feeling known at work is the experience of colleagues who understand our unique mannerisms and like us anyway. It is the project team where we can contribute fully because people appreciate our strengths. It is the manager who puts us forward for a promotion because they see our potential.
But how can we bring our true selves—and our whole selves—to work?
A study by Rice University tells us that people who divulged key elements of themselves at work reported greater happiness, productivity, commitment and job satisfaction in addition to less anxiety. Like so much in life, it’s a balance of sharing and oversharing. Here are a few recommendations:
Listen to Others and Ask Questions
Listen to others, ask questions and be genuinely interested in your co-workers. This starts a positive pathway toward more openness. The more interested you are in others, the more they will share with you and open the door to a closer working relationship.
Share Yourself
It seems obvious, but to be known, it is helpful to share more about yourself and what makes you tick. This doesn’t have to be intense or an all-at-once proposition. You can share a bit of yourself at a time. Share your personal stories, interests and bits of detail. As you share, others will tend to share more as well, and you can begin a positive share loop where you are building relationships with others.
Ask For Feedback
Asking for regular feedback can reduce blind spots in the workplace. Blind spots are characteristics about ourselves that others see but of which we are unaware—that annoying habit that drives our team crazy or the nervous tendency that distracts the audience when we’re making a presentation. The more we’re open to feedback, the more we can know ourselves and manage our behaviours.
Loving your job connects directly to feeling like you can fully be yourself there. To know others and to be known ourselves can contribute to greater happiness and fulfilment in our work. What’s not to love about that?
