Career Energy – The Power Behind the Work
The drive to do the best job possible; the motivation to go the extra mile at work; even the kick-start to get up out of bed and into the office – these are all real and regularly experienced products of high career energy. There is no doubt that people produce higher quality work, the higher their felt levels of career energy. They commonly experience greater job satisfaction, and clearly, organisational efficiency is a key potential gain. So how is career energy level determined, and how can it be increased?
Just as Momentum = Mass x Velocity, so Career Energy = the felt importance/significance of one’s career x overall rate of work output/role progression. The weighting component of career within life as a whole is determined firstly by personal values, and secondly how the work/life balance ratio reflects these personal needs. Over-commitments at work and neglect of family can reduce felt importance of career and therefore reduce career energy, whereas, careful balance and selective application of focus in interest areas will provide an energy boost.
The velocity component comprises both internal and external drivers. The internal generator is essentially a function of how closely an person’s work requirements (i.e. personality, talents, interests and values) matches with their work role and environment. For instance, someone with a detailed and organised personality who operates in a work role requiring open-endedness and overviews will experience low energy at work. Similarly, high talent in 1-1 communication will assist a counsellor in deriving benefit for their clients, and also deliver a personal career energy benefit. If we feel a good match between ourselves and our work, we will be innately motivated to push the role boundaries, deliver above expectations, and therefore progress faster in our careers. Understanding this fit can sometimes be the key to major energy release.
Career Energy can also be altered by the impacts of people around us and by society in general. If a career is considered high-ranking, as with the medical or legal professions, then this positive energy is partially felt by the job-holder and spirits are high in terms of work. The opposite has clearly been true of teaching and nursing. A supportive manager or mentor can have an amazing effect on motivation and role performance, as a result of energy transfer. Networking is another significant source of highly directional career energy. If you contact the right people to help you with the right things at the right time – whilst ensuring that you also do the same for them in return – your career energy will grow considerably.
Personal career coaching can allow you to access significant career energy increases – as a side benefit, the organisation in which you work is likely to benefit from a knock-on efficiency gain. Understanding the role of work in your life, determining work requirements, analysing current role fit and generating options to improve it, are just some of the career coaching processes are designed to deliver this outcome.