Could being grateful make you weak?

“I guess I'm just lucky to have a job at the moment.”

This is the most common response that clients give me when I ask how things are going at work. With so many redundancies, people feel grateful to still be in gainful employment and relieved that it's their salary rather than savings that will feed the family and pay the school fees for another month.

The problem with feeling grateful, whether it’s towards an employer or the markets at large, is that it can leave you feeling trapped and powerless. Any plans you had to advance your career, change role, start a new business venture or move house have been put on hold, and when our power to make decisions for ourselves has been diminished, dissatisfaction and unhappiness are sure to follow..

And it's not just your work life that suffers; the reverberations can be felt in your relationships and your health. Even if you still enjoy the content of your work, the fear of loss of income or lack of flexibility tends to reduce your motivation levels. Professional insecurity leads to low personal morale which in turn does nothing to improve the atmosphere in the workplace or the faith of the people you manage. Whether you are aware of it or not, it's your own sense of vulnerability which will prevent you from progressing in these volatile times.

As with most situations that are out of your direct control, the best course of action is to change your attitude towards them. Adapting your mindset won't fix the situation but it will make you feel like choices, and thus power, are still yours.

Here are a few tips on how to regain control and feel the reins firmly in your hands again:

Act as if: Work as if you think this year will bring you the largest success of your career....after all, it may be a reality as soon as next year. There is a fine line separating constructive optimism and blind delusion. Use your common sense – you know the difference. Draw that fine line and decide to tread on the right side of it. You know the risks involved, you are happy to take them. Conviction is key.

Fight the fear: If you want to move job roles – ask if you can. It’s business as usual. The fear isn’t real – its just in your head. Still being engaged in your career progression will help you feel in control and show Management that you haven't tuned out and you won’t accept excuses. You’re displaying personal traits of confidence and resolve – the traits of a true leader. By taking action and leading you feel more in control, positive and powerful.

Know your market value: There may not be much movement in the job market but firms are still hiring, especially for more senior positions. Making some enquiries will at least let you know your current worth, help you gauge what your next move might be and identify the skill gaps that you should be working on now. It will help you and others reassert your conviction to the job at hand. Opportunity never disappears, it's form merely changes over time. Not everyone can see this. You can.

Have a life: Easier to say than do when you have picked up the workload of everyone who's departed over the last few months, but spending time with friends and family doing sport and relaxing will all help you cope better with the stress in the long run. Striking the right work/life balance should never become secondary. Your life engagements need to be prioritised correctly much like your work one's are. An unhappy personal life will ultimately reflect on the quality of your work.

Author
Jo Geraghty is managing Director of “Beyond the Ladder” and is one of the UK’s leading coaches for executives and entrepreneurs.

A sustainable London? We all need to be leaders.

As Londoners, London’s future is something we all have responsibility for and for our future to be sustainable, we all have to take a leadership role.

The London Sustainable Development Commission’s London Leaders programme tackles this head-on. Sustainability requires partnership, it requires innovation, and above all it requires the kind of solutions that cannot be delivered by one organisation alone.

The London Leaders programme brings together sustainability leaders from all walks of life, from chief executives of large organisations, to community workers and faith leaders, to business entrepreneurs and our very own Passion for the Planet founder, Chantal Cooke. Bringing together such diversity of experience is exciting and rewarding and demonstrates that action at every level is crucial if we are to deliver the changes deep enough, and quick enough, to secure a sustainable future.

London Leaders work to inspire and stimulate change, by leading by example and encouraging others to take positive action. Sustainability can be a difficult concept without a face or a project to its name, so over the last two years we have been working to deliver projects that demonstrate, not just talk about sustainability. These aren’t just environmental projects; these are projects that take a holistic, joined-up approach to sustainable development, looking to provide environmental, social and economic benefits.

So what have we achieved so far?

Dusty Gedge, founder of Living Roofs, retrofitted two green roofs in central London, providing a whole string of benefits for the building occupants and beyond – stimulating biodiversity, providing amenity space, and having a positive impact for climate change adaptation and reducing the urban heat island effect. Projects like this have helped to make green roofs an important part of London policy, and part of the city’s leadership role in tackling climate change.

Lutfun Hussain and the Coriander Club at Spitalfields City Farm published the Coriander Club Cookbook, full of tasty Bangladeshi recipes and healthy eating tips, the cookbook forms a vital part of the farm’s community outreach work. (I especially recommend Lutfun’s dahl!)

Earlier this summer, Wayne Hemingway and the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, opened KiosKiosK, a creative kiosk outside City Hall designed to provide young entrepreneurs with the opportunity to get their foot on the business ladder. The idea has been a great success so expect to see KiosKiosK near you in the not too distant future.

And later in 2009 the London College of Fashion will be announcing the winners of Fashioning the Future, a student competition delivered in association with the London Leaders. The fashion industry has a massive impact on sustainable development across the supply chain and the life cycle of individual products, and the Centre for Sustainable Fashion is at the forefront of innovation, developing and showcasing new solutions for ethical fashion.

This gives you just a taster, but it does show how sustainability touches every industry and requires all London organisations and Londoners to get involved.

And now you can. The London Leaders programme is currently looking for its London Leaders for 2010.

Each year the London Sustainable Development Commission appoints a new group of Leaders. Whether it's a pan-London business initiative or a small-scale community project, inspirational and practical sustainability action that delivers tangible benefits is the key.

Are you doing something special to make London a better place to live and work now and for the future?

Do you think you could inspire others with your work?

Will stand up and be counted and make your commitment public?

If you are already making extraordinary things happen in London, in our eyes you are already a London Leader.

Join us by applying to be a London Leader and we can help make your sustainability aspirations a reality.

You can find out more on our website or email us.

Bryony MathieLondon Leaders Programme Manager