Employees Who Challenge Themselves and Those Who Don't

Observing others. Patterns. Connecting the dots. Paying attention allows one to unearth patterns. The most recent pattern unearthed has me observing how people deal with challenges, feedback, improvement in the context of work lives/career paths. Over the last few months I’ve been privy to a number of communications where the lamenter sounded something like:

– I was in a place where I was the best. Everyone told me I was the best. Everyone told me all the time how awesome I was. And then I came here. I wasn’t the best anymore. I was among the best from the best. We weren’t told we were the best. We were told what we needed to do to improve. I had a responsibility . . . to myself

. . . to the name I carried . . . to the team. And you know what . . . That felt more real.

– I’m so glad I’m in a program where they don’t tell me how great I am all the time. They actually tell me what I need to do to be a better version of who I am. I want to be better. I don’t want to stagnate. There was a period where that’s what I felt. I could just feel – see – others moving ahead of me. I wasn’t getting the feedback I needed.

Work challenges. Some workers challenge themselves. They crave feedback; feed on feedback. Want to know how to improve. Want to move forward. Generally they have plans in mind and work their plans. It’s how they’re wired. For such employees, managers act as guides to insure their paths are free of obstacles so their plans can be worked. Managers help them maneuver around any obstacles which might arise.

Some workers need others to challenge them. They don’t know the potential they have because they haven’t thought about it. They can’t see it in themselves. A good manager can. A good manager knows which employees need to be challenged. With these employees, managers need to know the right amount of responsibility to provide at the right time so as not to overwhelm and so as not to insult. Managers and employees lay the groundwork together and build responsibilities upon that groundwork slowly, layer by layer, deliberately and methodically . . . systematically . . . strategically.

Still other employees say, ”Ummm yeah . . . I don’t want to be challenged. I just want to come to work, get my job done, go home and call it a day.” We’ve all had days like that. But overall, if that is what your job is and has become — you’re not engaged and not challenged. In all likelihood, you’re bored and not working to your full potential. And when employees aren’t engaged, aren’t challenged, they start looking elsewhere for a job. Sometimes challenges can be found by modifying the job position the person has. It may mean a promotion. It may mean the employee moves on — because after 20 years doing the same thing the employee just needs to do something completely different. But you as an employer should know where your employees are in that process.

I’ve been an attorney now for 33 years. And over those 33 years I’ve made a number of changes to keep boredom at bay (and I get bored easily). Eight years after law school graduation day, I started my own law firm— celebrating 25 years in business this year. And yes, running a business has been and continues to challenge me, as it wasn’t something I learned in law school. After being a litigator for 20 years, I took on the role of mediator and then 4 years ago the role of arbitrator. Last year, I started this blog. Along the way, I knew that I needed to do more, grow, to remain engaged; remain challenged. For me, challenge was and is internal. And luckily I chose a profession which allowed me the opportunities to continue to find those challenges. The level of challenge varies depending on the person and the profession. But there are many many ways employees can challenge themselves — committees, associations, blogs, guest articles.

So many employers are having difficulties recruiting and retaining employees with millennials entering the workforce and on-the-edge of-retirement baby boomers leaving the workforce. It’s a good time to look at how employees are being challenged . . . engaged . . . That requires that employers know their employees well. Communicate. What’s important to them? Communicate. Do they internally challenge themselves or do they need employers to provide those challenges? Communicate. Everyone is different. How do you challenge them? How do you challenge yourself?

Patricia Nemeth received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor). She earned her Juris Doctorate and Masters of Labor Law degree from Wayne State University School of Law. She is the founding partner of Nemeth Law, P.C. which is celebrating its 25th Anniversary in 2017. Patricia decided to start a personal blog because she wanted to write about topics other than the law.