Showing Up Doesn’t Have to be a Geospatial Reference
Until relatively recently the phrase showing up in a professional context most often referred to the literal act of being physically present at your employer’s place of work whether it be an office building, retail establishment, factory, or job site. As we are all well too aware however, the onset and duration of the COVID 19 pandemic fundamentally changed – for the time being – how the modern workforce views the concept of physically showing up. You might argue that to some extent the ‘post COVID’ corollary of ‘showing up’ is being ‘logged on’ or ‘signed in’ – preferably with an active status right? – to whichever collaboration platform or platform your employer utilizes.
But what else does it mean to ‘show up’ at work? Surely there are other, equally or more significant, interpretations at play. So what are they? Why is it important that we remain aware of them? Let’s look:
Showing Up means being intellectually engaged and curious. We can be physically present all we want, but if we’re not intellectually engaged during that time we may as well not be there at all. Placing ourselves in circumstances where our work aligns with our genuine or sincere curiosities is a substantial contributor to maximize the positive impact of being engaged by making it easier to remain engaged and by enhancing the depth of your contributions. Studies have also shown that curiosity can greatly enhance learning and retention[1]. Sincerity can be a very powerful tool for each of us in the workplace.
Showing Up means striving to create a lifestyle that facilities a consistent state of mind. None of us are, or likely even want to be, robots and no one can have their best day every day. But by developing healthy habits in the areas of rest, diet and exercise, work balance, and stress management we place ourselves in the best possible position to consistently perform at a high level. Of course the definition of ‘healthy’ is will vary from individual to individual based on a large number of variables but let us not lose sight of the larger lesson: that striving for consistency isn’t necessarily about finding someone else’s recommended plan but moreso about learning what combination of behaviors, activities, foods, etc. allow you to be at your best as frequently as possible.
But what happens when we aren’t at our best on a given day? We are all familiar with the challenge of working productively despite not being at our best. Committing to the exercise of developing formal mitigation strategies that allow you to make the best of those days is key to maximizing consistency and productivity; and where many of us fall short in the pursuit of maximizing consistency in our work.
One simple framework for becoming more intentional and effective about consistency is to approach it from both a ‘frequency of occurrence’ and ‘amplitude of occurrence’ perspective. By focusing on intellectual and lifestyle strategies that minimize the frequency of ‘off’ days while simultaneously working to develop techniques that enable you to work through ‘off days’ to maintain forward progress despite a less than ideal state of mind. An example of the latter might be to shuffle calendared tasks for that day to redistribute workload so that it better aligns with your strengths for that day in that state of mind e.g. struggling to think abstractly? Pivot to more rote tasks or engage in open discussion on a topic with colleagues to sharpen your own thoughts.
While the reality that we are not always in charge of the timing of our work priorities is unavoidable, your organization will value your emphasis on maximizing productivity. Remember that the goal is to continue moving forward despite not having your best stuff. It’s a simple concept that we all encounter frequently but worthy of emphasis because developing the ability to minimize the ‘upset’ that off days cause in your work pays substantial dividends across your professional work.
Showing Up means remaining aware of the context of our role in our organization. We are all stewards of our role and the responsibilities that go with it. By maintaining ‘situational awareness’ of our role, we are more able to align our work with the workflows, scopes, processes, or procedures of our colleagues and stakeholders; enhancing the overall impact that our work has on our organization.
Some straightforward suggestions for gaining or refreshing context for how your role fits in your organization: Reading any strategy documents your organization may make available. Looking at current organizational charts (with a focus on titles and how they might each be expected to contribute to their team/department/division. Re-reading any outputs or documents related to your last performance review can be a good way to quickly – if also abruptly – regain a sense of direction and help prioritize where you should be focusing your attention.
Showing Up means taking pride in what makes us each unique to our organizations. Don’t forget that you went through an interview process, that was likely both rigorous and time consuming, prior to being hired and your organization ultimately chose YOU. It wasn’t by happenstance or a lack of options on their part that you were offered the opportunity. Be proud of that but also make sure you aren’t depriving your organization or yourself of the benefits that come along with bringing those traits to bear in your day-to-day.
While this is certainly not, nor intended to be, a comprehensive list of the different ways we can all Show Up to work, we hope that by shining a light of some of them this content adds value to you either through providing actionable advice or by creating further discussion within your organization on the topic of how we can all be both champions of productivity and better, understanding of ourselves, our colleagues, and others.
[1] Matthias J. Gruber, Charan Ranganath, “How Curiosity Enhances Hippocampus-Dependent Memory: The Prediction, Appraisal, Curiosity, and Execution (PACE) Framework”, National Institute of Health, National Center for Biotechnology Information, 2019, PMC6891259