Shawn had a strange feeling about his job. On one hand, he felt that he did his job well, just as well as anyone else in his workplace. Yet on the other hand, Shawn could clearly see that he was not succeeding in his work to the same degree as his co-workers. The supervisors and managers didn’t greet Shawn with the same consistency and cheerfulness as they greeted his co-workers. Shawn always seemed to get the worst assignments. He also ended up getting the blame whenever anything went wrong. Shawn could take all that, except that he also knew that he wasn’t getting the bonuses and promotions that his co-workers were getting. And because of all that, Shawn no longer felt good about his job. He began to think that he needed to have a clearer idea of what he expected out of his job, or things were going to have to change soon, one way or the other.
Success
We all want to be successful at whatever we do. We want to succeed not just in our education and vocation but also in our finances, recreation, and relationships, including for instance in our friendships and marriage. That desire for success is also true, and especially true, about one’s job. Jobs are such a big part of our lives that, at times, we can draw more from them than we do from friendships, recreations, and a lot of other activities. We have a lot riding on our job success. Those stakes can include our identity, self-esteem, and confidence, not to mention our income, healthcare coverage, and other general security. No one goes to work with the clear goal of failure in mind. Failure may come, but we’d generally rather succeed. So, consider a little advice on what constitutes job success. Your success at your job likely matters a lot to you.
Aims
The concept of success assumes that you work for reasons and aims, and with a purpose. Work should have aims, reasons, and purposes. Indeed, life should have aims, reasons, and purposes, and work can be a big part of giving life those aims, reasons, and purposes. Again, you can have several different aims for your job. Income to keep a roof over the head of you and your family, and food in your bellies and clothes on your backs, can certainly be a primary job aim. You can also work largely or primarily for job benefits, referring here to healthcare coverage, retirement contributions, vacation pay, and maybe dental, vision, life, and disability insurance. Yet you can also work primarily for other, non-economic reasons. Once you are financially secure, you may work mostly to stay engaged in productive activities and to maintain meaningful relationships around a structured schedule. You succeed in your job when you fulfill its aims, reasons, and purposes, both for you and your employer. If you’re not clear on your reasons for working, then have a good discussion with someone who knows you well and cares deeply about you, beginning with your spouse or other closest family member. They’ll help you discern your true aims.
Alignment
In the ideal job, your aims overlap or coincide with your employer’s aims. An alignment of aims is essential to successful employment. You and your employer need to be pulling in the same general direction for your joint venture to succeed. Alignment doesn’t mean that you have the same reasons for working that your employer has for giving you a job. Indeed, you don’t. Your employer hasn’t given you a job just to provide you an income, even though your income may be your primary reason for holding the job. But if the income your employer provides you gives you sufficient reason to put your best effort forward every day on the job, and your employer needs and values your best effort, then your aims have aligned with the aims of your employer. If, instead, your employer is not paying you enough when sufficient income is your aim, or your best effort is not good enough for your employer, then you’ve got an alignment problem. But as long as your aims align well with your employer’s aims, you’ve got a good foundation for a successful job.
Alternatives
The above income-for-effort formula is the traditional job-aims alignment. Your employer gets your work, and you get your employer’s pay. But it’s not the only potential alignment. While income and effective effort are the usual employment exchanges, they are not the only possible exchanges. In some cases, the employee has other aims outside of income, while the employer may likewise have other aims outside of the employee’s effort. Employers, for instance, sometimes continue to employ legacy employees for the reputational and relationship effects. A famous ballplayer may stay on as a putative consultant with the team after retirement, when everyone knows that consulting isn’t the team’s aim. The team’s aim is instead to have the ballplayer’s lustre continue to illuminate the team among fans. Employers can value goodwill, not measured at all by effort but instead by aura and relationship. May you be so fortunate as to have your employer value your aura. Employees may likewise stay on after an anticipated retirement date for non-economic reasons, such as simply to continue to be a part of the community the workforce comprises. You can work for whatever aim you wish, whether money, community, legacy, engagement, structure, or cause, as long as your aim reasonably aligns with your employer’s aim for employing you.
Measures
Once you identify aims, you do well to identify measures for those aims. The aims tell you what you hope to achieve. The measures tell you whether you’re reaching your aims or not. Put another way, measures tell you whether you’re succeeding or failing at work. Having measures for your job success can help you stay on track and engaged at work. Measures help you see your progress or lack of progress, so that you know whether you’re gaining or losing ground at work. Knowing that things are going well for you at work can encourage you to stick with it, to stay engaged, when without knowing how well things are going you might have slacked off or changed direction. By contrast, knowing that things are not going well for you at work can encourage you to investigate why, make corrections, and give greater attention and effort to get back on track. Make an effort to put measures to your aims. Without measures, your aims alone may not tell you enough.
Objective
Measures for job success can come in all shapes and sizes. The point, though, is to make your measures reasonably objective, as much as you can do so. To say, for instance, that you want to make a good living isn’t sufficiently measurable other than in the vague sense you might attach to the phrase. Instead, set some specific financial goals such as to retire debt and build savings to cover six months of household expenses. Then, build a budget to see if the income your job provides can cover your household expenses while accomplishing those other goals. Then, get on the budget, and measure your progress toward your goals. Even goals like to grow more skilled or to lead a balanced life can have objective measures. You could measure your skill, for instance, by the amount of work you produce, the quality of that work, the degree of supervision you require, and the new work that you are able to accomplish. You could measure your life balance by whether you have evenings and weekends consistently free from work, the number of hours you work each week, your ability to maintain and enjoy a hobby or recreation, or with a periodic survey of whether your spouse and children sense your attention and presence at home. Taking stock in objective ways of your job success can help you confirm or correct your vague impressions of how well you’re doing with your job.
Goals
Once you discern your aims for working and get a good sense of how to measure those aims, you might do even better to set some goals. Success isn’t a static thing. To the contrary, success can be a moving target where the moment you succeed, you need a new target. Just because you reached a certain financial benchmark last year doesn’t mean that you’re already good on finances this year. Instead, you should have a new benchmark for the new year. The same would be true for job knowledge, skills, and advancement, and your physical and mental health and other aims related directly or indirectly to your job. Aims tend to be progressive, leading you forward toward a better life. Setting interim goals that serve your overall aims can help you gain a stronger sense of where you stand, where you’re headed, and how fast you’re getting there. You don’t have to fixate on goals. Indeed, you shouldn’t do so. You can enjoy life no matter where you stand relative to goals. But goals can help you enjoy life when you can translate your purpose into reasonably specific, visible, and measurable things.
Progress
The progressive nature of job aims, that aims are not static but generally moving and growing, means that you should periodically take stock of your progress. You don’t need to do so every hour of every day or even every day or every week. Doing so could drive you crazy, giving you too great a focus on goals and measurement, when you need instead to pay attention to doing your job and need to relax and enjoy the job without too great a focus on whether you are succeeding or failing. Yet checking your progress periodically can help maintain appropriate attention and devotion. Indeed, noting a little progress on one measure or another can be just what you need to keep at it or to redouble your effort. Likewise, noting a lack of progress can be just what you need to change course with a new approach or new effort. Consider setting a quarterly review of your progress on job goals. Every three months, sit down, take a good look, and record your progress. But also check on progress whenever the need or inspiration hits you. If you need to check one measure or another once a day or once a week, then go ahead and do so. What gets counted gets attention, and sometimes attention is all you need to ensure success.
Rate
The point may be too fine to readily appreciate, but the rate of your progress toward your job aims can also be important to your job success. Plodding along may be fine for a time and on some measures. The race may go to the tortoise, not the hare. Yet on the other hand, plodding along on other measures may not be enough. Job advancement is an example. Promotions come episodically, not progressively. You either get promoted or you don’t. There’s generally no creeping up into a new role. You may slowly gain the necessary knowledge and skills, but the promotion itself comes all at once. And even with progressive goals, like to increase your job skills, you may need to see periodic surges rather than tiny incremental improvements that are barely visible. Indeed, the excitement of a job is largely in looking for opportunities to make quick gains. Small step increases in pay are fine, like inflation adjustments, but how about one big pay jump relative to a promotion, or one big bonus for breakthrough work? Or how about mastering a new job skills quickly through a special training program? For job success, look for opportunities to jump ahead on your job measures. Rate of improvement can matter more than mere progress.
Reflection
How would you measure your job success? Articulate your job aims, as many as you can list. Include both economic and non-economic aims. Then assess how well or poorly, on a scale of one to five, each aim aligns with your employer’s aims. What do you learn from the pattern of scores? Do you need to adjust aims or negotiate job changes with your employer for better alignment? For each job aim that you just articulated, discern an objective measure for that aim that you could periodically record, telling you whether you are approaching and achieving that aim. Make a record of your job aims, measures, and scores that you can use to track your progress and rate of progress. Return to that record at least every quarter or more often as you need or feel inspired. Use the record to encourage yourself and to make adjustments to ensure your sense of progress.
Key Points
Job success is important, much like success in other areas of life.
Job success depends on having reasons, purposes, or aims for work.
Your job aims should align closely to your employer’s aims.
Job aims can be economic, like income and benefits for security.
Job aims can also be non-economic, like growth and balance.
You should be able to measure your job success objectively.
Goals can help you discern whether you are achieving success.
Your progress toward job goals can guide and encourage you.
The rate of your progress toward job goals can also be important.