How this emotional intelligence skill can give you new career perspective
Photo by Gabrielle Henderson on Unsplash
How is it March already? After the holidays and year-end, we tend to experience a spike in busy-ness at work that makes time seem to accelerate. When we have our heads down as we focus on work, we can lose sight of some of our long-term goals and needs. This month, I encourage you to shift your career perspective and consider how service orientation can help you stay in touch with the big picture.
What is Service Orientation?
At first glance, you might assume that the term applies primarily to people in charitable organizations, but individuals in a corporate setting can absolutely lead with an attitude of service.
This management site defines it this way:
“Service orientation - builds on the empathy you have with others by helping you assist their personal development and satisfaction. People with this competence:
* Are able through careful questioning to identify issues that are affecting an individual's performance.
* Identify or adapt situations so that they provide an opportunity to improve their productivity and satisfaction.”
The author goes on to highlight key skills that contribute to a manager’s service abilities, including: influence, leadership, developing others, communication, working as a change catalyst, conflict management, building bonds, and teamwork and collaboration. You might notice that each of these skills involve people and relationships. It’s not about your production or work output, but how you manage, lead and inspire others to excel.
That internally focused service can then translate to external service. Employees who feel valued, supported and empowered carry on a culture of service that extends to clients and customers.
Hubspot calls this approach to service “customer orientation” and outlines its bottom-line benefits to for-profit businesses:
“With a customer orientation approach, your business would focus directly on solving for the customer. It all boils down to helping people. As a business, this tactic is useful because it's more expensive to acquire new customers than to retain current customers.”
That article goes on to outline how business leaders can create a customer-oriented environment. The steps include:
Recruiting the right people
Valuing employees
Investing in quality training
Leading by example
Understanding your customer
Evolving processes to meet changing needs
Empowering staff
Seeking feedback
These steps mirror the service orientation skills listed earlier. Once again, it all comes down to considering what people – your staff and customers alike – need and want. At its heart, service orientation focuses on what drives people and supporting them in ways that encourage success.
Purpose and Productivity
As an individual, you might feel an internal drive toward service. It aligns with your personal values and allows you to connect with a sense of purpose. In a business setting, that drive toward service can also translate into greater productivity and business success.
Understanding how these two seemingly disparate goals work together can help you form a new career perspective, which can bring you closer to your personal goals.
If you have struggled to find success on your current career path, consider whether your company or industry aligns with your personal values. For example, if you don’t feel comfortable using the strong-arm sales tactics your company favors, you’re unlikely to achieve the performance metrics set by management. That can leave you feeling frustrated and misaligned with your career, and that can impact your personal outlook as well.
The Balance Careers advises:
“Because not identifying your work values will diminish your chances of ultimately being satisfied with your career or job, it is imperative that you identify them early on in the career planning process. To do this, you will use a self-assessment tool called a work value inventory…
If you are working with a career development professional such as a career counselor or career development facilitator, he or she can administer a work value inventory.”
It’s not too late to identify your work values. Even seasoned professionals should take the time to go through this process – and you can revisit your career values as often as needed. If service orientation ranks high on your list of values, you need a role in a company that empowers you to serve your staff and your customers. The freedom to uncover, understand and meet others’ needs will in turn open up a path toward career advancement and personal satisfaction.
Ideally, more business leaders will begin to understand service orientation’s importance in retaining great talent and in attracting repeat customers. A culture of service can help a company thrive and also contribute to the greater community good.
If you would like to develop your career in alignment with your personal values, and if you would like to strengthen your emotional intelligence skills at work, reach out to me for a complimentary strategy call.