The most dramatic symptom of our newly christened professional trauma stress disorder (PTSD) is the belief that “I can’t afford to be out of the office!” If you believe that this statement is true, “I can’t afford to be out of the office!” is at risk of becoming a mindset that hinders your ability to raise your visibility. Mindset is a habitual mental attitude that determines how you will interpret and respond to a situation.
You may hate Bruce Willis and scowl anytime you see one of his movies advertised. You might love eating out for lunch and organize your schedule to ensure you make this happen. You may hate conflict and do everything you can to avoid a confrontation Whatever your mindset may be, it is at risk of pre-determining how you interpret and respond to a situation.
Once “I can’t afford to be out of the office!” becomes your mindset, it becomes your way of interpreting and responding to opportunities to participate in your organization and industry. You start to believe you cannot get out of your office or workstation. You start to accept that you do not need to participate in activities at your organization in order to be successful. You stop looking for opportunities to participate. Your visibility evaporates.
Greg Nicastro, the Executive Vice President of Development at Veracode, a leading cloud-based provider of application security, speaks passionately about the mindset of participating with a purpose. “You have so much traffic coming your way that you must be pragmatic about how you spend your time at work. You must actively shape your environment or you are at risk of your environment shaping you. A key way to be pragmatic with your time and positively shape your environment is to purposely participate in activities that help your clients and your business become very successful.”
