4 Ways to Regain Control of Your Identity in the Workplace

 

1. Adopt a new mindset.

You have to shift your thinking from the organization as provider to the organization as enabler. The good news: It’s now a place for you to bring your whole self, rather than just fulfilling a job function. In a more profound sense, you need to start thinking of yourself as a participant in a larger whole, rather than merely a worker at a particular company. You’re part of a greater community, one defined by those areas of expertise and interest that you share with people well beyond the limits of the organization itself. So while your new position may feel riskier in some senses, in other ways you will begin to feel greater security as you explore, develop, and inhabit that community.

2. Invest in yourself continuously.

Large organizations in the past could support you with an impressive array of resources and professional development. In the new normal, post-recession, economically constrained landscape, many of those resources have now been limited or lost entirely. You’re going to have to get by with less in the new workplace. You’re going to have to work smarter. You’re going to have to be more resourceful in ways you never had to before. You must think like an entrepreneur in how you navigate, survive and thrive in the new economy. You must think like an immigrant.

3. Adjust your vision; shift your focus.

The linear thinking that was possible when you worked in a large corporation with many other work groups to complete the project you started, the process you moved along, the sale you initiated – is no longer possible. You need to see with wide-angle vision. Like the immigrant leaderwho sees around corners and ahead in time to anticipate both troubles and opportunities, you must let go of your one dimensional existence and become fully three-dimensional.

4. Get to know the real hierarchy in your organization.

Every organization has a formal hierarchy and an informal one. The formal one is defined by what is noted on the organizational chart. In the traditional corporate org chart, this is a political diagram that defines accountability and authority. The informal hierarchy represents those employees that actually get the work done. Don’t follow the traditional org chart. In the new workplace you must identify where trust and transparency exist. You must discover the people who can help you make things happen, not just the people who have the titles. Find the real influencers – those people that seek to create initiative and innovation.

SOURCE:forbes.com