It’s important to bring our whole self to our work. To anyone who feels like doing a thing is not his or her job, you’re entirely correct. Your job is to bring all of yourself to the office everyday. Your job is to connect with your colleagues and be pleasant to work with. Your job is to be genuine and authentic.
I’ve recently found myself given new opportunities to solve interesting problems. Some of them have been big, and some small. Regardless of the size of the problems, they all required that I bring my own personal touch to solving them.
Doing this involves showing empathy by asking questions and genuinely trying to understand the situation. It involves making sure that people feel comfortable asking for my help.
There was a time in my career where I hated problems and wanted nothing to do with solving them. This was complete folly on my end. What I didn’t realize was that solving problems of any size is how you become indispensable. It’s this skill that makes you highly sought after and difficult to replace.
The days of keeping your head down and staying in the background are long gone. It’s those who are stretching their abilities and looking for new opportunities to try and fail who are being rewarded. I encourage you to put yourself out there and try something new today. Stretch yourself and see what happens.
Originally published at medium.com