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Outside the box: If you want to achieve something extraordinary, you need freedom
Photo: Colin Anderson / Digital Vision / Getty Images
Jochen, 38, asks: »I've been with my new employer for a year. In the interview it was said that someone was wanted who would like to help shape and get involved. I enjoy questioning things and developing new solutions. But I quickly noticed that my colleagues only do their work according to the rules and that I offend my team with my ideas. My boss blocks everything I propose. I feel like he's keeping me small on purpose. What can I do?"
Dear Jochen,
You are one of many highly motivated employees who cannot bring their strengths and ideas to an employer as they could.
All the more frightening when you were even hired with the expectation to get involved as a designer - and now notice that it is apparently not desired in everyday life.
It is important that you do not switch to duty according to the rules in frustration, but instead stay as the natural creator of the designer that you are.
Doers must be allowed to do
Behind "doers" like you are often broadly trained and versatile interested generalists who are often not specialized in one subject. In the résumés of generalists, after a few years in different positions, more colorful than the red career thread becomes visible. I don't know how you are, but many of these doers are quickly enthusiastic about new things and they need a large playground in their job, on which they can move as freely as possible with a long lead with a long lead. Too much routine is boring, only the ever new challenge as an adventure on unknown terrain drives you.
Jochen, you feel surrounded by colleagues who work according to regulations and who obviously do not appreciate your ability to do things. Employees who routinely want to do their job nine-to-five every day in a well-rehearsed team have different values and goals in their job. You have landed in an environment in which change probably triggers fear and where people prefer to stick to what already exists. It is no surprise that in this environment you are viewed as a supposedly dangerous troublemaker and systematically weakened instead of being valued as a thinker, designer and controller.
Real doers are also a challenge for many executives and entire organizations.
Because they question things critically instead of obediently following instructions and because they incessantly demand new things instead of being satisfied with the status quo.
But if you keep employees small as a boss or even as a whole company, you will not grow yourself.
Every team needs a doer
Don't worry, Jochen, you are fine as you are. The solution is not to send the doer in you into the desert and adapt in order to be accepted, but rather to become even more aware of your own impact as a doer in the first step. Because I assume that you don't decide every morning to have tough fights with your colleagues and get on your boss's nerves. No, you want to make a difference, create something meaningful with your experience and strengths, successfully achieve goals as a team and feel appreciation for this. What is wrong with this?
Approach your boss and colleagues. In discussions without justification, create clarity about what makes you tick as a person and what is important to you in your job. Discuss with your boss how you perceived the past year, how you feel today and what you would like him to do more or differently in the future. Take away your colleagues' fear of your ability to make things happen and give them the chance to understand your real motivation and thus reassess your behavior differently.
The aim is to no longer be seen as the busy, disturbing know-it-all and enemy in the team. But to be accepted and valued as someone who can also strengthen the team, support colleagues and contribute to the team's success in his own way. And if this is still not desired there, then you should look specifically for a suitable playground and employers where you as a maker are really welcome. Believe me, they exist.