Schedule a meeting with your supervisor today to have a big-picture conversation about your organization’s financial goals. Ask them what they are, and how your team or department supports those goals.
Recall a recent setback you experienced at work. Identify your primary responses to that setback, both immediately after the setback and over the following two weeks. Identify which of those responses helped you move forward from the setback and which kept you stuck in the past.
Think of a project that you are working on right now. What obstacles are you facing? Maybe you are facing a change in the available budget, or staff are being diverted, or the priorities have shifted. For each obstacle, identify the first action you need to take to move the project forward.
Consider a prospective client or job you didn’t land. What was your reaction? When you got home, did you pitch a fit or cry? (These are perfectly normal reactions!) Or, did you celebrate? Did you quickly move on? Did you identify the ways in which you are better off? Take a few minutes to list what you learned from not landing this client or job and how you can use that learning in your next pursuit.
Consider a recent project that you worked on in which things did not proceed according to plan. Identify three obstacles you faced in moving this project forward that required you to shift gears and change course. Did those obstacles require major changes in strategy or minor readjustments? On a scale from well-oiled weather-vane to over-laden sailboat, how difficult was it for you to change course when faced with a storm? Why? What could you do differently next time to increase your comfort with changes?
Find an email you wrote recently that was more than two paragraphs long. Spend some time editing it down—try to cut the word count in half without sacrificing the clarity of the message.
Pick a day this week (or next) where you have some flexibility in your workload. On that day, schedule a full hour at the beginning or end of the day to dedicate to a side project you’ve wanted to work on but haven’t found the time for. If you don’t have a particular side project in mind, spend this time brainstorming ideas that are not directly related to your current projects, but that would improve your work or organization in some way. Be creative!
For the next day or two, notice how many times the concept of fairness drives your or someone else’s actions. Write them in a log. Then go through each one and sort them into one of these three categories: sameness, deservedness, or need. To help you get started, here’s an example: “My manager called all staff into a room to tell us all about the budget cuts at the same time” = Sameness. “My organization identifies ‘high potential’ employees and sends them through aggressive leadership training” = Deservedness. “Because of limited resources at the non-profit where I volunteer, we only provide services to those we define as ‘highest need’” = Need.
Develop a plan for your first interactions with your new boss, focusing on information that you hold that may be useful to your boss as she/he enters their new position. This information may include an overview of your mission and goals, key components of your work area, key contacts or stakeholders, or an introduction to the “go-to people” within the organization.
Find a book and open it to a random page. Use the first sentence you see as the beginning of your own story, and spend fifteen minutes writing about what happens next. Be creative! Your story doesn’t have to align with the book itself—it can go anywhere you want.
