Are you ‘just' doing your job?

In my younger life, I was often surprised (and irritated) that people didn’t do things the way I did them and didn’t see the world the way I saw it.

How do you measure what you are good at?

When I switched careers and retrained in psychology and HR, I started to understand that people’s brains process and comprehend information in different ways. Very different ways.

With the ignorance of youth, I’d assumed that other people were being stupid when they couldn’t do things I took for granted and asked what I thought were obvious questions.

I was also ignorant about myself, not understanding that my own skills and abilities, things I could do so well that I took them for granted, were valuable to others. I just did those things. I didn't have to think about them.

And that lack of self-awareness wasn’t limited to me, as I was reminded when starting with a new career transition client. Let’s call her Lucy.

Lucy’s role was being made redundant and she needed to apply for new roles. After our introductory chat, I asked Lucy detailed questions about her work experience and anticipated next steps. I then asked her what her strengths and special skills were… and she went quiet.

After a mildly awkward silence, she said: “I don’t have any.”

It was a surprise because she’d just spent 10 minutes telling me all about her (extensive) work experience and what made her (amazingly and measurably) good at her job.

Now, anyone who knows me will tell you that I’m rarely stuck for words, but on this occasion I truly was. How could she not see how incredibly strong her skills, experience and attitude were? It was obvious to me. But not to Lucy. She just said:

“There’s nothing special about me, I just do my job.”

She wasn’t being modest, she was genuinely perplexed that the complex tasks she performed each day couldn’t be done by, as she put it, ‘just about anyone with half a brain.’ I gently pushed and asked her, 'Are you just doing your job?'

Lucy didn’t see how great her skills were because she used them every day and assumed everybody could do what she did. They can’t. Trust me.

That conversation got me thinking about skills and behaviours we take for granted and the other times clients, friends and people I speak to don’t realise they have a skill or special ability because “it’s just what I do.”

Women especially underestimate the value of their skills and experience. We need to get better at recognising our strengths - and talking about them.

Giving 110%, sticking with it to get the job done, questioning, showing empathy and exercising judgement are all behaviours that, I find, we take for granted when we have and use them. And we say 'just' automatically, but by doing so, we diminish our strengths, abilities and unique combo of experience.

Similarly, being innately organised, multi-tasking, building relationships, managing difficult conversations and solving problems are skills we often forget that we have after we’ve been using them for years at home and work or because they are just a part of who we are - we don’t think of them as special or valuable skills.

One of the biggest barriers to achieving skills and strengths awareness is that we don’t stop to think about our skills and behaviours, so it’s surprisingly powerful when a client talks about what they do for a few minutes and I then play back to them how many skills I spotted as they were talking.

If you’re struggling to understand what you’re good at or find it hard to articulate your strengths, then a session of Career Therapy will help you. You might not see at first what makes you strong because it’s ‘just' who you are, but I can help you objectively see your abilities. In a way that you can own them, answer the question 'tell me about yourself' without squirming and be proud to shout about them (because it's not bragging if it's true).

Why not give it a try? What's stopping you?

Click on Book a call on the website for a free intro call or email me at louise@careertherapy.co.uk

Check out my articles on how to know your strengths and grow your confidence. And look at some of the online tools to help you identify your strengths.

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Check out my other articles on careers and confidence: You can grow your confidence, Pick your shine time, 5 steps to building confidence and Want more confidence? Take control.

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash