Are You Coasting?

Reclaiming your power over your career.

I ask this question to get your attention. So many of us are so busy doing our jobs that we forget to check in with ourselves. We check in with our managers, our leaders, our peers, and our teams, but do we check in with ourselves?

My question really is: how intentional are you being about managing your career?

Career management is a term that has been thrown around for many years to such a degree that I fear it may be losing its meaning. When it comes to career management, the onus is on each of us to make choices and decisions about what we want our careers to be. We cannot rely on our managers or leaders to ensure we have the career we want. We have to know what we want and then we can access resources like our managers and leaders to help us achieve what we want. But the first step is knowing what you want.

Interestingly I have recently been having conversations with people who fall into 1 of 3 camps when it comes to their jobs:

1. Love my job, it’s everything I want
2. Grateful I have a job, even if it’s not perfect, at least I have security
3. Not enjoying my job and looking for something else but not 100% sure what that is yet

For each of these groups of people there is one key challenge that can impact anyone regardless of their current position.

Job In/Security

If the global pandemic and the aftermath have taught us anything it is that job security is a thing of the past and is an illusion. In fact, job security has never been real.

The leadership of any business is charged with making decisions based on the best interest of the business for the most optimal outcome and best results. Those of you who have been part of any form of restructuring know that when it comes to making the best decision for the company, while the process may be structured to be human focused, the focused outcome is better business results. Should your skill set no longer be required, or no longer a match for the strategic direction of the business, you will enter a separation process with the company.

So even if you currently have your dream job and you are in Group 1 in the list above, you must embrace the uncertainty of what lies ahead and map your options and actions accordingly.

The Rebalancing of Power

Another result of the global pandemic is that the power dynamic has shifted to be more balanced between employee and employer.

In the past, employers would hold the balance of power, and interviews were about the prospective hire selling themselves to the business in such a way as to make them the preferred candidate. With the advent of The Great Resignation, employers the world over are lamenting the fact that they cannot fill positions. The interview process is not as much about selling the company to the prospective employee as it is about the prospective employee selling themselves to the business.

People are being more intentional about the jobs they apply for. They are doing more research on the companies that are hiring. They want to work for companies where their own personal purpose and values are aligned to the company, and they are looking for proof of this alignment.

Intentionality Matters

I said in the introduction, career management starts with you, and you have to know what you want, and what you don’t want.

You cannot get the job you love; keep the job you need or find the job you want without intentionality. You have to know your values and drivers and understand yourself to know what situation would be a good one for you. Coasting is not an option if you want to be in control of your life and your career.

Personal goal setting is a key skill in career management. And effective goal setting requires heightened self-awareness. As a coach I am always talking about self-awareness creating choice. The more you understand and know yourself, and why you operate the way you do, the better set of choices you will be able to create for yourself. And with enhanced choices, you increase the likelihood of achieving your career goals.

Once you know what you want you need to be clear on where you are now.

Knowing Where You Are

If the “job for life” culture is no longer — what choices will you be making to manage your career to get what you want and need? How will you be charting your personal journey to create the atlas of your world?

I think this starts with knowing where you are. In coaching, I have come across the concept of a career audit — this is not a new concept but completing your reflections on your career and where you are will provide you a solid base from which to make relevant career decisions.

Some of the questions I would invite you to consider in your career audit are the following:

• How has my career progressed up to now?
• What jobs / roles have energised me most and why?
• What jobs / roles have demotivated me the most and why?
• What has helped me in my career and what has held me back?
• How has this career progression helped me achieve my goals to date
• Where is my career heading?
• What is my personal fit with this organisation and this team?
• What is my future in this business and this industry?
• What do I want to be doing in 5 years’ time?
• How prepared am I for future trends and what have I done / been doing to prepare myself for these future trends?

Answering these questions should give you a good perspective on where you are and should start showing you where your passions lie.

From knowing what you want and where you are now, in typical business parlance you can complete your “gap analysis”. You will be able to define how far away you are from your goals and can move with intentionality to close the gap for yourself and your career. Now you can identify your strengths and weakness as well as the opportunities available to you and the things that may potentially threaten your success.

Doing this kind of deep reflection work is invaluable in creating the career you want; however, zit can be tough to do it alone. It would be useful to find a thought partner as you move through this process. This would be someone who can help you consider what you want and support you in developing your action plan to achieve your desired outcome. It could be your partner, your manager, a peer or a mentor or coach; the only criterion is that have your best interest at heart and are comfortable challenging your thinking and your perspective to ensure that you develop a robust career management plan.

So tell me now: how will you reclaim your power over your career and create the life you truly want?