How to Create Opportunities Inside Your Current Role

Research & Sources / Corporate Professional Growth

Sometimes a room feels wrong. Dark, cramped, not quite yours. You could move house. Or you could rearrange the furniture: move the desk to the window, take out the old cabinet, add a lamp. Suddenly it is a different room. Many professionals think they need a new job to grow. Often, they can rearrange the one they have.

Waiting for the next role

Many people treat their current job as a waiting room. They do what is asked, hoping that the next promotion or the next company will bring the growth they want. Meanwhile, months and years pass.

But most roles have more room to move than people think.

Job crafting

Researchers Amy Wrzesniewski and Jane Dutton described how people actively shape their own jobs, a process they called job crafting. People change which tasks they focus on, who they work with, and how they think about their work. These changes can make the same job feel much more meaningful and energising.¹

Three ways to rearrange the room:

• Tasks: take on more of what you are good at and what the organisation needs.
• Relationships: work with new people, mentor someone, connect with other departments.
• Meaning: see how your work connects to something bigger.

Where opportunities hide

Problems nobody owns. Every organisation has issues everyone complains about but nobody fixes. Offering to own one is a fast way to grow and be noticed.

Your manager’s worries. Ask what keeps your boss busy. Helping with that is valuable and visible.

The organisation’s priorities. Find out what matters most this year and connect your work to it.

Your strengths. Gallup found that people who use their strengths daily are six times more likely to be engaged.² Shape your role towards them.

How to start

Talk to your manager. Not with “I want a promotion”, but with “I’d like to contribute more in this area. Would that help?” Most managers welcome people who take initiative on things that matter. John Gabarro and John Kotter stress that a good relationship with your boss is a shared responsibility, and that includes making your goals visible.³

What this means for you this week

• List three problems in your area that nobody owns.
• Write down which tasks energise you and which drain you.
• Talk to your manager about one way you could contribute more.
• Make one small change to your role this week.

Before you move house, try rearranging the furniture.

Sources

1. Wrzesniewski, A. & Dutton, J. E. (2001). Crafting a Job: Revisioning Employees as Active Crafters of Their Work. Academy of Management Review, 26(2), 179-201. doi.orgPeople actively reshape their tasks, relationships and view of their work, and this changes how meaningful the job feels.
2. Sorenson, S. How Employees’ Strengths Make Your Company Stronger. Gallup. gallup.comPeople who use their strengths every day are six times more likely to be engaged on the job.
3. Gabarro, J. J. & Kotter, J. P. (2005, originally 1980). Managing Your Boss. Harvard Business Review. hbr.orgA good relationship with your boss is a two-way responsibility: understand their goals and pressures, and make yours clear.