Have you ever met someone who gladly takes on any role or task that’s asked of them? They’re flexible and willing to jump in whenever they’re needed. Maybe that person is even you. I’m here to tell you: Don’t be that person.
Content design is an impact-driven discipline. Regardless of how your company frames its performance cycle, your rating boils down to how much impact you deliver the company compared to how much the company expects you to deliver at your level.
You might think that pitching in and taking on any and all work that needs to be done is how you deliver impact. And if you have a manager triaging and prioritizing incoming requests who is carefully balancing them against your level expectations and your progress against those expectations, it might be true. But that’s rarely the case. A good manager will send some growth projects your way and help you prioritize but they simply don’t have time to carefully weigh competing priorities against each person’s goals and priorities.
This creates a situation where content designers think they’re having a lot of impact, but they’re really just working… a lot. There are never enough content designers to go around so good people get sucked into the hamster wheel of content. They work their asses off, burn out and then are stunned when they don’t get high ratings or rewards. They may even end up leaving a job they otherwise enjoyed in search of greener pastures.
This creates a situation where content designers think they’re having a lot of impact, but they’re really just working… a lot.
Ultimately, you are in control of your career path. You decide when to focus on a promotion vs. growing in your current level. You know where you want to go and when. You are the best person to decide whether a given role or project serves your goals. And, if it doesn’t, you should categorically say no.
This isn’t to suggest that you should never take on a task that’s not aligned to your career goals. Sometimes, we all have to suck it up and take one for the team. But even in those cases, you should understand how the work you’re doing ladders up to the company’s goals and your organization’s goals. If you don’t see a connection, ask your manager to help you understand the impact of the requested work. If they don’t see it, lay out the other work on your plate and its expected impact and ask what you should stop to take on this new work. The answer might be none of it.
Focusing on the impact of your work rather than the work itself forces you to ask yourself why you’re doing something.
Saying no to work that isn’t impactful is critical to career growth. Focusing on the impact of your work rather than the work itself forces you to ask yourself why you’re doing something. It draws clear lines between work that’s nice to have vs. business critical. It builds a case for the importance of content design as a discipline and turns cross-functional partners into advocates. It makes you a better content designer.
To do this effectively, you have to:
Create goals for yourself that are mapped to the expectations for your level and, as you begin to move toward promotion, the next.
Make sure these goals are focused on impact, not activity: Your goal is to drive a 2% increase in customer acquisitions via a new onboarding experience, not to write copy for a new onboarding experience.
Map your goals to all of the expectations at your level and ensure your planned work will meet or exceed them within a 40 hour work week. Add in a 10-20% buffer for meetings and other activities.
Socialize this with all of your partners to ensure they agree with your prioritization and focus.
Then, every time a new request comes in, go back to your goals and see whether the new work is more or less impactful. If it’s less impactful, decline and share your rationale. Perhaps the new work has more impact than you recognize. But if not, stick to your no.
You’ll work less, have more focus and perform better.
Important lessons for all of us. I shared this with the women in my office.