I just got slapped on the wrist about stickers! Bl**dy Stickers!!

In a conversation with a client, she told me she had been told off because of an issue around stickers – she works in produce where stickers for food products are a big deal. She hadn’t done anything wrong, another department had but she and her team have been tarred with the same brush.

We discuss the merits of settling the record straight with the executive team. She is very senior and reports directly to them.
“No point. They aren’t listening”. She replies defeated.

As she said this I knew she had lost agency at work. Once we disconnect from the agency we lose our ability to communicate with clarity and credibility.

It can start to feel like we are stagnating (my client certainly did!) and then we get frustrated that we are stagnating – which drains our energy and can lead to us beating ourselves up for being stuck and frustrated in the first place.

We can feel like we have been shut down so many times before that ‘what’s the point’ becomes the way we operate. We stop trying – not because we don’t care – we really do – but no one is really listening! Eventually, we begin to stop believing in your own capacity

Even worse, when people do compliment us at work we start to dismiss it and think they are just being nice or are clearly misguided!

Have you felt like this before? What did you do to get yourself out of the situation?