12 SELF-ADVOCACY IN THE WORKPLACE Helping your team build self-advocacy skills Paula West AgCareers.com WHAT HOLDS YOU BACK FROM SELFADVOCATING IN YOUR WORKPLACES. WHY AREN’T YOU ASKING FOR NEW CHALLENGES OR RESPONSIBILITIES? WHAT BARRIERS EXIST IN YOUR WORKPLACE AND, IF YOU ARE A SUPERVISOR WHAT CAN YOU DO TO BREAK DOWN THOSE BARRIERS? In response to these questions, Jonathan Shaver, Envision Partners LLC, asks us to think about organizational barriers and to think about how organizations can create a culture of self-advocacy. When taking the initiative, team members are often concerned others will perceive it was for personal benefit. Due to past experiences, they have difficulty building trust within the organization Pause for a minute and ask yourself, what is your barrier to self-advocacy? Shaver says there is a correlation between confidence vs competence. Typically new hires start with high confidence, but low competence. Which is normal because they do not know how the company functions, the company culture, and company policies. As employees continue their journey with a company, their confidence often begins to fall, but their competence increases. Ideally, at some point in the future, employees regain their confidence and move into a high confidence, high competence level. Shaver asks what happens when someone does not regain their confidence. He explained that this is a dangerous spot for team members to be in as they can become disengaged and eventually may leave the organization. Shaver shared some clues to spotting team members who are disengaged: employees who are not high contributors, not contributing at all, and employees who are not taking opportunities. These employees are at risk of leaving the organization. However, disengaged employees can be re-engaged, says Shaver, by instilling their confidence back in them. WHAT ARE SOME OF THE CAUSES FOR THIS LACK OF CONFIDENCE? • Fear of leadership disapproval -- there could be history that holds them back. • Avoiding the ‘doing that again’ statement if things go wrong. • A lack of resources – they cannot keep up with the current workload. FOOD & AGRICULTURE PROFESSIONAL CAREER GUIDE
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