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HRM. Personal development
An individual always needs change; the desire ‘to change something’ comes to many of us on a rather frequent basis. After a period of self-observation, I concluded that my yearning for change springs from the fact that either I don’t know what I want to do at a particular moment, or, should I be in a position to answer this question, I move consciously in that very direction which I have chosen for myself. This longing for change is one of the reasons why extremely capable employees leave their jobs. As a rule, the cause for their departure sounds like this: “I’m bored, something needs to change”. If you allow the situation to take its course, the person is likely to leave and the company loses an important intangible asset.
My method of working with members of staff in this situation is as follows: I simply ask them to have a think and then in the first instance answer for themselves the question “Why do I want to leave?”. People rarely ask themselves this question and try to find something deeper than this in their motives. Once this question has been answered, (in 90% of cases it transpires that the person is simply bored with their current role), I put forward several options and observe the person’s reaction; depending on this, I then propose a feasible alternative to their current position for the next few years. It is important to change a person’s routine rhythm and actions' procedure, so that they again feel that occasional twinge of something new even in old routine things; this can be new projects, or a change of business area within the company.
In itself, the answer to the question “What do I want to do now?” generates a lot of fresh energy and vigour, adding the self-confidence that an individual will stop “being bored”’ at work and that a field of them being able to realise their own potential has now opened up before them. If the employee is able to add their own personal ideas for development to this, a particular skillset, for example, as a result of working on a new business activity, then they will be able to carry on working in their old capacity for a considerable period to come.
If the atmosphere in the company is work-oriented and comfortable, the employee will focus on new things more readily, than going to a new unknown environment where prospects are uncertain. In this instance, staff training plays a significant role in the employment process and requires a sincere approach from both staff and managers alike. The company should take an active interest in the employee and in their personal development, so that the cooperation process is mutually beneficial. In this case, where the employee requires advice or assistance, then they should be provided, and for this it makes sense to heed the advice of any manager. In this regard there is no point in acting like a nanny: an individual must develop independently.
It is also important that the employee is aware of their objectives and how they correspond to the goals and objectives of the company or department, where they work. If there is no meeting of interests, then it would really be better to find another place to work. If there is sincere interest and motivation, however, then this can act as a tangible impetus to developing and achieving the desired goals and objectives. And there is not much sense in changing one place of work for another to achieve this.
Corporate culture. Training
Training as part of work
I accept working in an office as an intrinsic part of life. The more time it takes during the course of a day, month, year, then the more use should be drawn from this process. In the other case this is an empty waste of time.
In my first post dedicated to corporate culture I mention the necessity for comfortable personal space to become oneself. Today I want to write about training, i.e. to go further and expand my principle and understanding of the working process as it is for me and others who set themselves the aim of a conscious approach to one’s activities in life.
According to the principle of development, people gain experience from any activity and each of us can make this process more active and dynamic if there is an aim – to seek something new.
I have often noticed the peculiarity in myself that if I don’t apply effort in the completion of some task or other I often get bored of it and want to switch over to something “more interesting.” In a certain sense this trick is my own laziness and unwillingness to develop what had already been begun. It can be explained very simply: until that point when I reached my imaginary ‘ceiling’ – my knowledge, capabilities and skills were adequate for the job – everything was going swimmingly. But at the moment I hit ‘the wall’ I needed to initiate something. In this case the way to make a step forward would be to do something (every task has its own precise step at this moment) that would lead me to a new level of understanding and open new possibilities.
It is amusing that this principle of development is reflected most widely in computer games, but most people prefer to keep on playing.
In this way I can glance through the ‘wall’ and surmount it. If you don’t do this, then it is pointless completing the job and activity will naturally grind to a halt. The sense of this same aim to seek for something new in whatever you are engaged in comes down to searching inside, within the borders of your current activity, and even afterwards, if the quest has dried up, to start looking from the outside selecting a new or accompanying direction.
In my work under a pseudonym I apply the word training as the most understood and illustrative description of the search process. If you need to climb over ‘the wall’ and learn, if you choose that activity or direction, where you really don’t want to go but you know deep down inside yourself that it’s useful. This state of mind is a true sign of which point you need to apply your effort.
I use a similar principle when working with colleagues – some of them often get those tasks which enable them to spend their working time usefully, some should test to their heart’s content the fullness of their current activity in order to understand where they want to go next, while some can simply carry out a clearly defined set of tasks well – these are all important stages of individual training for each of them.
Sincere Interest
Why I enjoy working
In every person’s life there are a huge number of external factors which constantly direct us. Surely we have all experienced a situation in life when they completed something and hit the ‘ceiling,’ as if seemingly nothing more can be done and it’s time to change something. Many people, under the influence of external factors, collapse at this crossroads and choose a new activity, a new partner in life, change work, take up sport, friends, etc. Meanwhile at each of these crossroads there is the possibility of a choice – to make an effort or to give up. In this context ‘effort’ will be the transition to a new level – it is as if you reach the next level without collapsing or leaving the building and don’t set off on the quest for something new. As a rule, people start convincing themselves that it’s necessary, that they are sick of the old, that they can’t be bothered to anything extra, when it is already clear... This happens, but more often than not this is a trick of our mind. In order to understand it, you have to try and think of all the events in your life which have been done without the influence of other people or unexpected events. It’s great if you find a partnership, the rest will simply be the convergence of circumstance.
I am quoting a couple of examples to make it simpler:
- You’re just about to buy something, a new sofa for example. You go into the shop, haven’t chatted to the shop assistants and chosen the one that’s most ”for you” when at the last moment someone comes to you by chance and says that this sofa is not so good, the springs are flimsy and bla-bla-bla... Certainly you have nearly been ”tricked,” you start to doubt and buy another one so at least it will be a proper sofa and not a rollaway bed.
- or, you’re driving a car, and you think about a beloved girlfriend on the new sofa..., when suddenly a boy-racer cuts you up... Nine out of ten people react to this with an attack of indignation and offence and will probably forget about the sofa and the girlfriend instantly.
The situations described are mere trifles that happen every day in real life.
Interest - is something more constant, something on which we focus our attention and maintain it for a long time. Attention is the tool that feeds our interest. The result is the end of the road, our visualisation of what we aim to achieve. The effort that needs to be applied at the crossroads, which I wrote about earlier, is the act of attention focused on a result. If this act doesn’t happen, external factors bear down from above and we can forget about the aims, results and reasons that convinced us to start one thing or another. It has often been the cast that people close to me, friends and other ‘chance’ acquaintances have turned me onto the wrong course. I consider these things a big success and a valuable lesson.
So why is work interesting for me?
Work is the process of searching for those same perspectives from which I can make a step forward in development. Unfortunately I never use the opportunities presented by life to the maximum. I never pay enough attention. Nevertheless, when this happens somehow or other, it is an extremely stimulating and motivating therapy which provides a lot of new experience and opportunity.
