AUTONOMY

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3 min read

Approach to asking for autonomy at work

 

Autonomy in essence, is the ability to make your own decisions about what to do.

Having autonomy at work means having flexibility to determine the way you work - suited to your needs, style and preference, in the way most conducive to boost your performance. With a sense of control, you are likely to better manage your time and productivity levels, which positively influences your better mental health and performance.

Autonomy is built upon the foundation of trust, and hence there needs to be trust between you and your manager for autonomy to work effectively. Some key areas of concern that your managers might have would relate to competency - whether you are able to complete the work well, and meeting expectations. 

 

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The cornerstone of gaining autonomy is building trust with your manager that gives assurance to your manager that you know what you are doing, and what they can expect. This starts with understanding yourself and the team’s needs by asking yourself the following questions:

 

  1. Have you experienced autonomy at work in the past? If yes, what went well and what did not go as well? If not, what might some obstacles have been to attaining autonomy?

  2. Are there any specific areas of your work or tasks that you would like to have more autonomy in? Why is it important for you to have autonomy in these areas?

 
Let’s put this in
work context

 

Without trust, any autonomy granted is likely to fall through. You can start off by showing your manager what to expect when granted autonomy by:

  1. Identify goal you are working on - regardless whether it is an individual goal or team goal

  2. Chart the steps to achieve the goal 

  3. Identify key steps as the sub-goal that are measurable

 

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At the end of the day, you need to show your manager that you can be autonomous and perform well. A key component of trust is showing that you have the competence to do the work, and that can be seen from your preparation work in steps 3 to 5 above.

 

 

 

 

 

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I think there's great potential for autonomy, but we have to remember that we live in a world where people may have free will but have not invented their circumstances

 

- Thomas Frank

 

 

 

 

It is helpful to think about how to set better goals and how goal setting motivates you.

Here are other suggested readings for you:

 

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