Some of my clients are not sure they have the right job, they don’t feel the right connection to it and that can be very stressful. Have you ever felt like that? A disconnect?
Or maybe you are like the ones that tell me that they are perfect for the job and they really don’t know why that is either, they haven’t got the key of “What is it that makes me perfect?” or “What is it making me not like my job?”
The other day I was reminded of a guy whose name is Antonovski. He is a professor in medical sociology and he has created a term called Salutogenesis; it’s a hard word which means to look at what keeps us healthy instead of looking the other way around, the way that health care usually does where they usually are looking at what makes us ill.
More specifically this Salutogenesis model is concerned with the relationship of stress, health and coping. In other words, how people manage stress and stay well. So what is the key? You can understand that this is a subject and a model that really interest me when we’re talking about stressed out Lady Leaders.
So why do you dislike or like your job? I used this way of thinking in the back of my head all the time when I worked. So I thought I’d ponder a little bit about Antonovski’s theories and there in the end I will make it into a powerful tool that you can use in your future decisions about work, about projects and about co-ops.
The sense of coherence is the theoretical formulation for the role of stress in human functioning and it can be described like this:
Beyond the specific stress factors that one might encounter in life and beyond, your perception and response to those events is what determines whether stress would cause you harm and is whether or not stress violates your sense of coherence. This can be divided into three important parts and what it comes down to is that it’s really about feeling safe or not. The three parts are:
- Comprehensibility: that’s when you believe things happen in an orderly and predictable fashion and that you can understand the world around you that you can see what’s going to happen and you can understand it.
- Manageability: that’s a belief that you really can do what you have to do, you have the skills and you have the ability. You can get the support you need, you can get the help, have the necessary resources to do things and it’s within your control.
- Meaningfulness: I believe that things in life are interesting and a source of satisfaction that you would like what you do and it’s has a purpose for you. So according to Antonovski the third one “the meaningfulness” of your tasks or job is the most important. Because, if you don’t feel any meaning with what you do or are supposed to do it doesn’t matter if you understand what it is and you understand how to do it.
So that’s how it is, so the sense of coherence with these three components the understandability, the manageability and the meaningfulness can also be applied to the workplace like I said. I now want to give you a tool that you can use in your everyday life as a business leader:
Let’s take them one by one and break down these hard words in an understandable way:
- Comprehensibility:
I do understand the goal of my work, I do understand the structure and the process at work for what I’m doing and I understand the communication and I know what’s expected of me. It’s also about feedback but it’s about I know this and then I understand what’s going on.
- Manageability:
Is if I can actually do it, do I have the skills, can I learn or can I get the support and get the right means and the right coworkers and can I delegate so can I actually do it? And it’s about control that I can manage what I’m supposed to do.
- Meaningfulness:
Related to if I really want to do it, am I motivated to do it this, doesn’t matter how much I understand what I’m going to do and how much I understand how the processes are if I don’t like it then it’s not going to be good for me. So in the end it’s about do I really want to do it?
Let’s take this again and create a shorter version for our daily work because I know it’s complicated with these odd words. When you are about to start a new job or a new project or start at a new cooperation or something like that then you could ask yourself these questions to see if it’s a good fit for you or not because in here lies the key of:
“Why I like my job or don’t like my job? Whether I feel connected or feel disconnected?”
So the three areas that you ask the questions is:
- Comprehensibility:
- Do I understand what this job, this project, this co-op is?
- Do I understand where it’s going?
- Can I see the goals ahead and is it in line with what I would want to do?
So do I like it?
But first of all do I understand what it is?
- Manageability:
- Do I know how to do it or can I get helped to get it done?
- Can I understand enough to get the right help so that I can do it?
- Can I get the right support?
- Can I delegate?
So now you know what it is and you see if it’s possible for you to do it?
- Meaningfulness:
- Is it meaningful to me?
- Do I even want to do it?
- Do I like it?
- Is it in line with my values?
If you have three Yes’ you know that you can go ahead with the new project or work.
But if you have one “No” then I would recommend you to really think it over again. If you have one “No” to the answers to the questions above then you’re upcoming project is going to turn into stress.
This is because you don’t know where you’re going with it, or you don’t have the resources you need to complete it correctly, or you don’t even want to do it!
It might violate your sense of coherence and that is a big risk for disease in the future. This is a big clue to why so many people get burnt out. It’s because they are not in line with their own beliefs and they don’t have the sense of coherence in this.
I if you like this and want more free tips then click here and if you have friends or coworkers or someone else that you think would benefit from this information feel free to share the link.
Happy working!
To your success and keep smiling!
