Will you gift me some time?

A blog by Helen Cramman. Posted: 09 April 2024

Have you ever wished that your colleagues knew more about what you do?

I just want to be listened to.

I don’t mean this in a whingy, whiny way (although I have definitely felt that way at times). All I mean is that I would like someone to listen to me as I tell them, uninterrupted, all about me. The key word there being “uninterrupted”. I frequently talk to people about what I do, but it is almost always with a sense of urgency knowing that at any second they will stop me and start to tell me what they want to say.

I want the opportunity to talk uninterrupted so that the person listening to me can really think about what I am saying and consider what it is that I do that could be valuable to them, or the people they work with, or their organisation. I don’t want to do this in a sales pitchy way, trying to get a new job. I want to do it to know where my skills might be of benefit to someone. I am fortunate enough to be in a full time job, but I want to make sure my job is meaningful and purposeful. To do that, I want to be working with the people who need, and value, my skills.

More than just a job title.

I had a realisation some time ago when I came to update my CV that job titles really are not helpful to understanding me or my background. I have spent many years in roles where my job title hasn’t described what I have done in the role. I have also had job titles that led to assumptions about a stereotype of a role, which also didn’t help anyone to understand what I actually did.

Having realised this, my preference is to describe myself by my skills, but I find that takes time and that is why I need the listener to gift me the opportunity to tell them about myself in more detail.

I need to go round the houses.

The other challenge I face is that I often find it difficult to know which skills may be useful for someone to know about me at a particular point in time. Because of this, I am not good at a snappy elevator pitch because I like to do too many things. I never want to miss out on an opportunity, so I try to cram too much into my descriptions.

I also don’t feel I come across at my best when rushed or put on the spot.

I think it is why I have loved learning about and using the Thinking Environment approach so much. I know how much time I am going to get to share my thoughts. It puts me at ease knowing that I have all that time with the promise of no interruptions.

When I don’t know how long I have, or I am anxious that someone will jump in over me, I rush explanations. I frequently feel that I pick the wrong thing to focus on in my description of myself because I am trying to second guess what I think the listener might want to hear in the short amount of time I expect to have.

I need time to let my explanations go around the houses, to give the listener context, to share my back story, to tell them about the things I think are important about who I am. What you get with me is someone who is always thinking, always making connections, always tweaking the way I think about myself.

Crucially, I want the listener to have time to think about what I can do for them, which I believe needs them to understand something deeper about me than the headlines on my CV or my job titles.

Enough waffle, what would I like you to know about me?

So, having said all of that, what would I like you to know about me?

I would like you to know that:

I get great satisfaction out of helping others.
I like to help people discover new things and develop their skills.
I like to do this by making connections between my research, experience and getting to know people.
I enjoy doing education research, because I like to get under the skin of what is going on and to ask deeper questions about why something happened.
I am a creative person, who likes coming up with ideas and trying something new. I get bored when I do the same thing for too long.
I am a problem solver. I am energised by developing solutions to challenges.
I like to work with others. I am at my best when bouncing ideas around and drawing out the perspectives of others.
I like to take the lead in a team, but I absolutely want what I do to be a genuine team effort.
I need appreciation. I work best when receiving regular feedback to help me know I am doing a good job.
I am a details person. Don’t get me wrong, I can do ‘Big Picture’ thinking. But I then want to take the big picture and break it down into strategies and plans of action.
I am a very organised person. I like defined processes and have a need to know where I fit within those processes. I have a tendency to fill the void if no one is taking the lead and I will create structure if no structure exists.
I need what I do to be meaningful and purposeful and to be solving a problem for someone.
I am very very reflective. I need time to think and make connections between experiences and evidence. Without this, I don’t feel I am doing a good job.
I need to share my thinking with others, it is how I develop my ideas. Hence why I created the Educational Ponderings blog.

Who am I?

Right now, if you ask me who I am and what I do, I will tell you (in no particular order) that I am:

An academic developer who helps educators recognise their value and develop their skills in education research.
An education researcher who focuses on application focussed, purposeful research.
A team leader.
A team player.
A connection maker.
A project leader.
A project manager.
A consultant.
An education blogger.
A coach.
A mentor.
A Scout leader.
A mum.

And that last one I find hardest of all. Because life outside of my paid work and volunteering is messy, unstructured and frequently feels like it is in chaos. My team don’t always have the same goals as I do and don’t think or work the same way I do. We muddle through though, and I wouldn’t change them for the world.

The direction of travel

The good news for those like me who need the chance to explain what we do beyond our job titles is that there is a gradual shift towards a more narrative approach to how we are being asked to describe ourselves in Higher Education in the UK. It is the way large funding agencies are now asking applicants for information about themselves and how universities are being encouraged to update their reward and recognition processes. UKRI (the main research funding body in the UK) have recently introduced the Resume for Research and Innovation (R4RI) with the intention of enabling researchers and research teams to show evidence of a wider range of experience and skills. They describe it as being half-way between a cover letter and a CV. In my view, this is a definite step in the right direction even if it is a steep learning curve for how to do it well.

However, I strongly believe there is still so much more we can do in our everyday interactions to help us understand the interests, strengths and ambitions of those we work with on a daily basis. If we are able to take the time to learn more about each other, there is the opportunity to appreciate one another more and create roles that help each of us feel most fulfilled in our jobs.

My plea to you is to start taking small steps to help this happen.

Final thought.

If I can leave you with one final thought, it is to encourage you to try to find time to enable your colleagues and friends to talk about themselves uninterrupted. Give them the chance to tell you about the full breadth of who they are. Then switch places and let them do the same for you. I promise you will be amazed by what you learn about each other in a short space of time and how therapeutic having someone truly listen to you can be. Such a small gift makes a surprisingly large difference.

And finally, thank you.

Thankyou for your time listening to me talk about myself. I appreciate greatly the attention you gave me in reading this article. I hope it got a few synapses sparking with thoughts about the opportunities you get to describe your own skills and what is important to you.