I’ve worked for a ton of different companies/employers who just didn’t get the concept of building up their staff. Luckily, the team I work with today totally grasps the fact that if you take care of your employees, they will be more likely to become personally invested in the success of the customers (as opposed to just following marching orders day in and day out).
The topic of promoting personal growth to advance your professional career is equally important for employees as it is for employers.
All Work, and No Play
Don’t mistake personal growth, for a green light to ignore professional responsibility. The point is that you cannot be focused and productive if you are falling apart at the seams. In a motivational speech by Randi Zuckerberg at the InBound 2016 conference, she spoke about a common dilemma that she ran up against frequently.
She explained that each day there are 5 areas of focus to choose from:
- Work
- Sleep
- Family
- Fitness
- Friends
As a young professional/entrepreneur she gets to choose 3 of the options above daily and still keep her sanity.
That message hit me hard.
When you’re trying to establish yourself in a developing career, it’s so easy to try and tackle all of the possible things and be supremely ineffective at mastering any of it.
(Think: Jack of all trades, master of none syndrome)
Take care of yourself. Choose your daily goals strategically, instead of trying to solve everything every day. By managing your personal life and balancing it with your professional life you’ll be able to make a stronger impact on the projects that are in your care.
Is There Room for Professional/Personal Overlap
Let’s take a step in the ol’ time machine and check out what 2008-Nichelle was being taught about work VS personal time.
At that point of my life (circa 2008) I was working for a company that literally had a saying for work time, and personal time. There was “A-time” and “B-time”. A-time was strictly for work activities: answering phones, reading applications and job offers, calling unsuspecting people to discuss job opportunities, taking detailed notes in the CRM, etc. B-time was for networking, or going out to do your own thing.
A-time as you might have guessed, was from 8:00AM-5:00PM. B-time was to only happen on your own time, and they made that abundantly clear.
This environment lead to high-stress, and high-turnover within the company.
I left that office each day and felt a thickness in my brain, the feeling people describe as a cloud hanging over you. There was no option but to go out and blow off some steam with friends after work each day because I wasn’t going to be allowed to have any personal time for hours on end starting first thing in the morning.
There Has to Be a Middle Ground
There is! No question. The company I work for today is the perfect example. The CEO swears by the “servant leadership” method of running a company. He encourages all of us to have a voice, and listens to anything we have to contribute each day.
Employees spend time together throughout the work week jamming on personal and professional topics, and that brings us closer together… more like a family, less like a machine. Enormous difference.
There are many times that I leave work in a better mood than I was in when I arrived. The culture is so strongly aligned with my values that I am able to grow personally and it makes me a more productive employee.
Not every company is going to subscribe to this same school of thought, but always remember to value yourself and sanity enough to make YOU a priority. Getting your work done is important; but your mental, emotional, and physical health is going to help you be a stronger employee (and person) for the long run.
You matter. Your journey matters. Remember that.
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nichelle brooke 