Being intentional at work
finding your special sauce and forgetting the rest
When I saw peers thrive at work, I used to think, “What is it about them that I lack?” I was exceeding expectations, had great working relationships, and worked hard at my job. What was missing - why wasn’t I rewarded or noticed in the same way?
It took me a few years to jump from value-delivering to value-adding. Here’s what helped me:
Understand why I was hired.
At Alan, radical transparency meant I saw my entire interview process one week after joining. 😅 It made for a daunting read to say the least. Many skims and a few deep breaths later, I wrote down the qualities that made me valuable: self-aware, able to fill knowledge gaps, scaled a design system, logical, organized, helpful. This was my special sauce.
Then I built my first 6 month goals on these lines. I dived into fixing the Design System. I organized our first design offsite. I had a knowledge gap on design management - so I started recruiting. I told my coach what I lacked and asked for opportunities.
My interviewers laid it out. I owed it to myself to see what they saw.Ask about the gaps in the team - then take ownership.
There’s usually one or two people in the community (Design, Data, Product) who have a birds-eye view on whats’s missing. My coach is our head of design and every 6 months, I ask him for a zoom-out. Where is our design community leading and lagging? And how can I help you with it?
Examples could be: the design community is too slow in recruiting, or we are missing specific talent, or we’re not active enough in company strategy. I cross-reference these gaps with what I want to learn (see #3). I solved low-hanging fruit. I presented my solutions to bigger problem statements. I grew my critical thinking and took risks to learn.
List the missing pieces in my toolkit.
If I was fulfilled in my growth and abilities, what will I be doing in 3 years from now?
What should I learn today to get there?
In a design career, it helps to think about the sort of archetype I want to be in the community. Am I looking to grow into a strategic expert, a manager, a craft leader? More on that here.
I try to answer this twice a year. Then I pin the scribbled note to my Slackbot and it reminds me. When I see the note, I’m on the look-out for opportunities again (I’m manifesting right? 😆). Repetition is retention.
Every 6 months, I redo the exercise. If the answers don’t change, it means I’m neglecting my personal growth. My special sauce needs a stir.
Remove recognition from the picture.
We have a company-wide channel at work for praise. A year ago if I did something new, then Oh ho, maybe this will lead to a praise in front of everyone! I helped someone out of my way - they are bound to speak about it.
But it never worked. It took me months and many years of my life to stop caring. To separate praise from validation of my work. I helped someone, but someone else helped me too. What’s in my control? I can praise the person who helped me. I can make their day.If I wait for praise, I’ll be waiting forever.
When I stopped worrying about praise, I changed the way I work. I became more courageous and bold with my ideas. I don’t shy away from risk because I’m not chasing the reward. If I do get praised, my heart doesn’t leap bounds. I did it for myself, an audience of one.
For years, I thought about job success as a consequence of how hard I worked. When I didn’t get recognized, I felt my hard work crumble. I grew jealous of people who were working smarter, not harder.
With these 4 tactics, I grew more intentional about what I wanted to work on and why. The why was strong enough that recognition and rewards didn’t matter. I was filling my gaps, learning what I didn’t know, and that is my reward.