“Love It, Don’t Leave It!”

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advancement, book review, growth, promotion

John Borrowman CPC
Borrowman Baker LLC
Gallatin, TN

C’mon, admit it. You’ve sometimes wondered what it would be like if … you had more time with your family … were paid more … didn’t have to work with that jerk … weren’t so bored … had unlimited access to chocolate. Beverly Kaye and Sharon Jordan-Evans have talked with countless individuals who wondered exactly the same things. Their eye-opening perspective is outlined in Love It, Don’t Leave It: 26 Ways to Get What You Want at Work.

Kaye and Jordan-Evans build their book on several key messages. What you want could be right where you are. Sometimes, all you need to do is get clear on what’s missing and go after it. You’re in charge. Others do have a role to play, sure. But, bottom-line, it’s up to you to fix what’s wrong or find what’s missing. Don’t wait. Don’t “settle” for work that doesn’t work for you. Take action to improve it. Double-check those greener pastures. Your next job could easily have the same – or worse – challenges, frustrations, disappointments. Fortunately, the authors also include a laundry list of practical action steps to enable you to take this initiative.

One of the most efficient routes to improving your current situation is to simply ask for what you want. Easier said than done, you say? The very first chapter lays out exercises to help you work you way through the issues of what you want, how, when and who you’ll ask, and even what to do if the answer is no. Subsequent chapters offer creative strategies to integrate family and career; ways to get the mentoring you need to grow; even ideas for getting the rewards that really mean something to you.

Balance any thoughts about making a move, Kaye and Jordan-Evans say, by considering the equity you’ve built in your current job. Skill equity. What you know, and how to apply it, that bring you respect and enable others to count on you. Social equity. Friends and colleagues you’ve gotten to know. Influence equity. The ability to get your ideas heard, the connections you’ve learned to use. Financial equity. The dollars, the insurance, the 410K, the bonus you get for the job you do. It can be too easy to leave this workplace equity behind without considering how much it really is, how long it might take you to rebuild it, or how heavily discounted it may be somewhere else.

The smartest move is always to put the priority on making your job work for you, right where you are. Only by doing that can you know that it may really be time for a move after all.

Love It, Don’t Leave It is published by Berrett-Koehler Publishers, San Francisco, and is available through most on-line book sellers.