Choose your coping strategy consciously
It’s Friday afternoon. For many of us, phew, it is the kick-off to some well-deserved time over the weekend to step away from work and recharge our batteries. As you are shutting down for the day, perhaps there is something bothering you. There’s a project not going well or a difficult work relationship, or maybe you even feel like your current job and your ideal vision for your career are out of alignment. How you approach dissatisfaction at work (or in any facet of life, really) falls into one of four buckets, according to organizational psychologist and Wharton professor Adam Grant in his 2017 book Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World. To cope with your issue, you can choose to recommit to (or persist at) what you are doing. You can disengage from (or neglect) what you are doing. You can voice your dissatisfaction, or you can leave (or exit). As you think about your situation, you may recognize that you have already chosen one or more of these strategies at different times. Especially when we are not fully aware or taking responsibility for our dissatisfaction, we may waver between recommitment and disengagement. One day we’re all in; we’re going to make it work. The next we’ve had it, and we’re just punching the clock. But as we become more aware of our responsibility in the matter, another more proactive choice comes into focus: we can say something about the situation or talk to the person in question and see if things get better! The challenge here is figuring out how to say something for the most desirable outcome. Here’s where a coaching session (or a few) can come in handy. Deciding what you would like to get out of a meaningful conversation, how you will approach it and how you will keep your cool if things go off course are key to your success. I’d be glad to support you in this process, particularly before you get to the last option: to exit.