#20 Dealing With Uncertainty At Work

Uncertainty at work can be difficult! Once you know the source of the uncertainty (listen to episode 19 to know more), there are some different ways you can deal with the uncertainty to change the situation.

And if you want to hear more about how to use this time to plan, find, and land your dream job, go to www.dreamjobconference.com. I look forward to "seeing" you there! 

Transcript

Hi! This is Anita Belitz from the Wise Women’s Workplace Podcast. In today’s episode I want to carry on the discussion from episode 19 – Pinpoint Professional Uncertainty and address different ways to deal with uncertainty at work because different challenges need different solutions!  

Backstory (Desires internal and external)

In episode 19, I spoke about how to identify the source of your uncertainty and spoke to inside, outside, and all around. Essentially, inside deals with your own mindset and emotions, outside deals concretely with the professional context and how you interact in that context, and “all around” deals with the bigger picture of what you want for your career and ultimately, your life. If you would like to pinpoint where your uncertainty is coming from,  don’t hesitate to check out that episode.

In this episode I want to go into some more detail about how we can deal with uncertainty. I understand it can be hard! At different points in my career I have dealt with each one of these challenges.

So, let’s look at each one of these in turn: Inside, Outside, and All Around:

1) First, let’s look at INSIDE: As I mentioned, this has a lot to do with mindset and emotions.  For me, one occasion that really stands out in my mind where I had this challenge was when I had been in my job for just a few years. We were on the verge of a merger and this led me to question what would happen with my career’s future in the organization. I knew there was at least another key player in the other organization involved in the merger and I just couldn’t see how it was all going to work out. Essentially, from a business perspective, I felt like there could be too many cooks in the kitchen, if you see what I mean.

I stressed over this a lot but mostly kept it to myself. On the one hand, I trusted my boss completely and believed he would make sure I was well positioned going forward, but, on the other hand, the director of the organization that we were merging with was older and more specialized than me. I felt I really couldn’t compete when it came to experience. And so, I eventually decided the best was to go to the source: I approached my boss and asked him what message I should share with staff about changes going forward and asked how to reassure them.

He was surprised by the question – I saw he had assumed we all trusted it would just be ok. This gave me the opportunity to tell him that even I was wondering what the plans were and he took the time to explain to me what he had in mind. And he stuck to his word because that was the kind of boss that he was.

So, even if your boss isn’t that kind of a person, bringing up the issue with them should help. Their answer should give you some insight and it will signal to your boss that this is a growing concern with staff – both of which are important things and much better than staying in the dark. And you can get those INSIDE worries to settle down, hopefully!

2) Next, let’s talk about OUTSIDE: As a reminder, outside is about the professional context and how you interact in that context. In episode 7 I spoke about my experience with a particularly unpleasant colleague who was consistently trying to undermine my department and it felt like it was working to sway my boss’s opinion at the time. It was pretty difficult to deal with. I try to be a nice person and to treat others with courtesy and respect. I definitely felt like my values were not the same as this colleague’s. The way she behaved felt extremely aggressive and personal. I eventually realized it wasn’t personal against me in the way I thought it was. It took me some time to see this and it definitely required taking a step back from the situation. I even spoke to an executive coach about it. It was through explaining to my coach that I could see the situation with different eyes. This was important – having a coach who was unbiased and who kept me focused on the facts instead of letting my emotions get the better of me was a major step in changing how I felt and reacted to the situation. Eventually, I was able to find other ways to react to her behavior and this actually made me more capable of keeping my cool. It was a big lesson for me. After a while, when I thought about it, I realized that the situation hadn’t changed, but I had – my emotions, my reactions, and even the way I approached the whole situation. This led her to change her behavior sometimes, and when she was still unfriendly, I was able to rise above it. So make sure that if it is something in your professional context that is causing your uncertainty, that you take a step back and get some guidance!  Now, clearly this can’t always resolve uncertainties, and that leads me to my third point: all around.

3) The last thing I want to talk about it ALL AROUND: All around is the bigger context: what you want in your career or in your life. This one crept up on me and it took me a long time to recognize it. Which is funny to say, in a way, because looking back I can think of a number of occasions where this came up for me. For me, it was the realization that I didn’t want to be doing the work I was doing anymore. And ignoring the signals that I was getting that were telling me it was time to move on. I was so entrenched in what I was doing – always fighting for the organization and feeling like I was responsible for our success or failure – and I couldn’t see the forest for the trees, as they say. It’s hard to pinpoint when exactly I realized things weren’t how I wanted them to be anymore, but I can clearly identify a few things that happened that made me think about things differently:

a. 1st, my kids were really growing up. I know it may sound a bit cliché but I think this happens to most parents at some point. The truth just stares you in the face. And one day I was at a conference where someone said “You only get 18 summers with them” and it really struck me. I had planned so many things in my life around my work that I felt like I wasn’t truly in control of my own life.  I needed to let go of the reins a little bit. I actually decided to reduce my workload and refocus on the part of my work that made me the happiest.

b. 2nd, we had a new director who had a different focus for the organization. That realization was very present – and came up almost every single time we interacted. One day it became clear that the new direction of the organization was no longer in line with what I had believed in all those years. So I knew it was time to start looking around, and I did. But this actually led me to consider the bigger question about my career: 

c. So, 3rd, I finally acknowledged to myself that the money and title weren’t really satisfying. Overall, I liked the people I worked with but I kept asking myself what I was really contributing. This is a question that people ask themselves naturally as they get older but I find this is more and more common with today’s younger generations. And I think it’s great because I know when I am doing work that really satisfies me, I am actually excited and energized about going to work, instead of stressed out tired.

So, do any of these sound familiar to you? It’s funny, because I can tell you that in each of these situations what made things move was the unpleasantness of the situation. How severely unpleasant things could be. But I also know these things didn’t come up overnight. So if you are feeling uncertain about work – whether you think the source is internal or external to you – I really encourage you to take the time to pinpoint the source and to start working on a solution. Happiness isn’t necessarily very far away!

So, to recap:

1) If the problem is external to your organization or your department and you are feeling uncertain, speak to a trusted and informed colleague or superior. They will often be able to reassure you if you need to be worried or not yet.

2) If the problem is with a colleague or your work context, try to take a step back and see the bigger picture about what is driving the situation. Most of the time it isn’t personally against you. You can go back to episode 7 to hear more on that. Or, you may realize that an adjustment in your own behaviour can turn the situation around!

3) If the problem feels bigger and is with you all the time – as in you are consistently unhappy  at work and you can’t figure out why, it’s time to do some soul searching and think about what is your best next step. This is one problem which certainly won’t work itself out on its own and the sooner you take steps to make the situation better, the better off you will be. 

These are uncertain times for many people, certainly. But what I think is the most difficult is in action. So make sure that you are working on changing things in your life that make you feel uncertain. Because the truth is, the facts of the situation are what they are and you usually can’t control most of what’s happening around you. But you certainly can decide how you will react and then act!

Now, I have a special announcement for you: I am hosting an online event in September aimed at how to use this time to plan, find, and land your dream career. You can find out more on www.dreamjobconference.com and you can sign up to be informed when registration opens. It will be free to hear from specialists about how to use this time to plan your transition, to find a job that is a good fit for you, and what it takes to land your dream job. If this sounds useful to you, head on over to dreamjobconference.com and sign up for the reminder. I would love to have you join!

Alright ladies, as always, if you really want a career and life which makes you happy, please be very mindful of what you are doing and take deliberate action every day. Make sure you are always looking after yourself, including in your career. And don’t just survive, take steps to thrive!

I look forward to speaking to you again soon. Until next time, may you be healthy, wealthy, and wise!