It may happen that not all managers you meet in a lifetime be serious and motivating. So, what do you do as an employee if your supervisor isn’t doing their best to support you? Today we are going to have a look at 10 different ways to avoid disempowerment at work.
Avoiding Disempowerment – Tactics and Strategies
1. Don’t Over-Identify Yourself with the Job
Many people fall into this trap and tend to give their job an importance bigger than it deserves. It’s essential to remember that your life is much more complex than that and you’re not defined solely by your job. Your professional identity is merely one facet of your complex life and personality. If there is something you don’t like at work, try to change it. Whether it’s yourself or the tasks you need to fulfill, you should be able to make significant changes to be happy.
2. Grow
It may sound like a cliché, but one way to avoid disempowerment is to grow. Take advantage of all the opportunities you have and master the field you’re in. It may take some more time and effort, but it will be worth it in the end. Take advantage of the opportunities to develop in a new area, so nobody can make you feel insecure about your professional self again. Once you know a lot of things, you’ll have more confidence in yourself.
3. Don’t Be Led by Your Ego
The worst decisions you can make are those based on your ego. Don’t decide for the purpose of gaining recognition, power, and control. Often, these factors will lead you in a way that doesn’t match your true passion. For this reason, you need to make your ego work together with your intuition, thinking, and understanding. Do your decisions reflect who you are and where you want to go?
4. Quit Denial
One of the most common mistakes that leads to people’s disempowerment is denying you’re unhappy. Many people avoid discussing or thinking about their worries, frustrations, or problems. This only prolongs their negative feelings and impacts their productivity. Take your time and think about what’s not working professionally. Start planning to fix things. You don’t need to set high objectives, just take it step by step. Maybe you need to start looking for a new job or simply have a talk with your manager.
5. Get Outside Support
Sometimes, you may be too involved in a situation to see it objectively. Try getting an outside opinion, from a mentor, coach, or even a career counselor. Look at the field you want to advance into and see who made it there. Then, get their insight. There’s no need to hide the need for a fresh insight and perspective. Plus, you never know when you’ll stumble an opinion or an opportunity that can change your life.
6. Take Advantage of Your Passions and Talents
Many people get out there into the working field without knowing exactly what are their passions and talents. This can lead to a large array of situations of disempowerment. The necessity to repay a student loan means that you will have less free money. In other words, you will have to sacrifice a lot in order to cover installments. That’s why sometimes, students opt for Amassix Online Loan that help them to cover the basic needs in case of emergency. For this reason, it’s important to be aware of your skills. Find the best company that allows you to work on these areas you’re good in. See what makes you happy and what activities make you feel as if you’re not even working. It’s a good way to prevent getting into the professional crisis.
7. Take Care of Your Life Outside Work
One thing that tends to be overlooked in this corporate world is the work/life balance. However, balance doesn’t mean the same thing for everybody. For this reason, it’s important to find out what balance means for you. Is there anything you feel that it’s missing in your life? Think about it and answer this question. Try to be as clear as you can about your goals and needs.
8. Have Short- and Long-Term Goals
A life without set goals will eventually have an impact on your mental state. Write down what short- and long-term goals you have. Make sure your goals match the following requirements:
- Measurable;
- Behavioral;
- Concrete;
- Specific.
In this way, you can objectively measure your progress towards achieving them. Next, break them down into smaller steps and achieve them one at the time.
9. Know Yourself
Knowing yourself is the basis of every activity you want to start. Try not to underestimate yourself and look objectively at your achievements. You need to start believing in yourself, as well as assess your potential correctly. There is an old saying, ‘Fake it until you make it’, which you can use in this case. Even if you don’t feel confident today, dress up, look the best you can and act as if you were the person most confident in themselves.
10. Be Authentic
If you’re planning to pretend to be someone else at work, you should know it won’t work forever. Do and say what you feel it’s important to you. Besides being useful for you on the personal side, it’s also valuable when it comes to your professional direction. If you always follow your authentic needs and wishes, it will be obvious when you need to make a change.
These strategies are universal and can help anyone confronting a professional crisis. Here you can see an interesting talk that tackles empowerment by disempowerment:
It’s interesting to look at the overall impact these two states have on people and their productivity.
To draw a conclusion, if you happen to confront disempowerment in the workplace, try using the tactics above. They might seem a little too general in the beginning, but the best thing is that they try to solve the cause of the problem, not the effect. As with any other field of life, being confident in yourself and knowing exactly what your passions and skills are will help you a lot. Finally, look for a mentor to guide you and maybe to offer you an objective opinion.
Image source: depositphotos.com
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