May Busch* says when you’re feeling under-utilised, pigeon-holed or stalled in your career, you can take action that doesn’t involve looking for a new job.
Have you ever felt under-utilised at work? Like you can add more value if only someone would recognise your capabilities and put you into a more fitting opportunity?
Maybe you’re bored by tasks that aren’t interesting to you and don’t use your best skills.
Perhaps there’s not enough work or you’re in between jobs.
When you’re feeling under-utilised, pigeon-holed or stalled in your career, it’s demoralising and frustrating.
This is exactly the time to harness your dissatisfaction and turn it into an opportunity.
Specifically, it’s time to look for ways to use your strengths and create a role you would enjoy and where you can contribute.
Think of this as ‘creating your own work’.
This means being able to find productive and energising ways to spend your time without needing or waiting for someone else to tell you what to do.
It’s being able to think strategically and creatively about what you can do to add value during times when things are slow, or when you’re bored by doing more of the things you already know how to do.
Being able to create your own work is crucial for your career.
The more senior you get, the more you’re expected to lead — to know where you add the most value and to build a team around you to do the rest.
Being able to create your own work is the type of skill that makes you more visible to decision-makers and shows you’re working at the next level.
You don’t want your only option to be having someone else create a job for you.
You at least need to be able to bridge that time between jobs.
The same applies for those times in between jobs because these days, no one can count on continuous employment.
Here are five ways to create your own work and expand your sphere of influence.
Be curious
As a lawyer in the litigation department of a Fortune 100 company, Wendy noticed that the number of lawsuits was increasing.
While some might have seen the trend as providing job security and a reason to grow their team, Wendy became curious about why they were getting sued more and more.
Through conversations with her business unit colleagues, Wendy learned there were warning signs during the sales process that, if addressed, could prevent many of those lawsuits.
While this wasn’t part of her day job, Wendy felt something had to be done.
With her boss’s support, she spearheaded the development of an ‘early warning system’ that ultimately saved the company millions of dollars in litigation settlements while also protecting its reputation.
Follow your passion
As a Vice President in the IT department, Nina was interested in helping her female colleagues advance, and mentored several in her unit.
When she heard that the organisation wanted to establish a Women’s Network, she jumped at the chance to make a bigger impact.
While her main job kept her busy, it was her role as head of the new Women’s Network that fed her soul.
It also was a golden opportunity to broaden her network across the firm and develop relationships with the senior managers who spoke at events and participated in the mentoring program she developed.
Take on a challenge
When I was a Junior Associate supporting senior client relationship officers, the opportunity came up to expand our prospecting efforts into a new geographical region.
The senior officers were all working at capacity, so they asked the three of us in the Associate Pool whether one of us wanted to step up.
Since this was completely new territory, they figured someone junior couldn’t do any harm and it would be a great opportunity to learn how to ‘cold call’.
Maybe we’d even get lucky and bring in some business.
As the more experienced of the three associates, I decided to put my hand up and take on this challenge.
Armed with a suitcase full of ‘pitch books’, I hopped on a flight, rented a car and met with treasurers at 10 companies in the region.
While I didn’t bring in any deals, it was a fantastic opportunity to learn to cold call prospects and I got kudos from the senior bankers for having the courage to take on this challenge.
Plus, I got a kick out of meeting with people twice my age and having them interested in what I had to say.
Adopt a senior leader’s initiative
Our company’s President invited all the female client relationship officers to a women’s golf outing where we could learn to play the game.
Since so much business was done over a round of golf, he wanted us to be able to take out clients out just as our male golfing colleagues did.
The outing showed me that golf truly was a great bonding opportunity, whether with colleagues or clients.
That’s when it dawned on me that we could run a women’s golf outing to help our female clients learn to play golf too.
My boss loved the idea when I proposed it, and he set up a meeting for me to present the idea to our President, who was thrilled I was emulating his initiative.
Publish your ideas
When I was transferred to London to start the corporate bond origination business, we had little infrastructure to support this brand-new effort.
While no one asked for it, I decided to start a weekly update for our relationship bankers that could be used as a script when talking to their clients.
Taking the initiative to publish this update helped us stay visible to our bankers while also making it easier for them to talk to clients about our products.
So, when you feel under-utilised, it’s time to take initiative.
Don’t wait for your boss or anyone else to give you a more interesting assignment.
*May Busch works with smart entrepreneurs and top managements to build their businesses. She can be contacted at [email protected].
This article first appeared at maybusch.com.
