So we’ve hit the promotions and laddering topic. But that doesn’t help us automatically draw the roadmap for our career. I fundamentally believe that career progression is something that must be analyzed independent of straight line promotional activity within any one corporate confine. I personally am a huge proponent of advancing your career whenever and wherever possible, especially outside of the typical performance review cycles. So, dovetailing off my previous post on promotions and laddering, I figured it made sense to take the next step and chat for a minute about career progression. When to stay, when to go, and what the implications of money, rank, and culture mean to the equation… And, most of all, how you can add color to your career roadmap in both large and small ways. Those sorts of things.
But first, a bit of background on me… I am incredibly logical and calculated. Almost to a fault. I weigh the pro’s and con’s of something as simple as whether or not to make myself dinner or go out and eat. To my credit, I think this ability to analyze situations, problems, and people has enabled me to do things and make decisions in my career that others might have shied away from. But I do realize that this means I will never be the kind of person that can immediately pick up their life and their belongings to chase a narrow window of opportunity at some obscure startup in some faraway land. But I’m fine with that – every person’s career roadmap is unique and should be assessed independent of societal, economic, or cultural pressures that may exist.
Back to the point, though. In terms of career progression, there are a few fundamental questions I keep in mind when considering any sort of move or decision in the career progression space:
- How can I evolve my habits and traits in order to be more like the person I want to become?
- What types of behaviors are indicative of the people I deem as “successful” or who model the type of career I want to hold?
- How is my company, my role, or my client enabling me to grow and take on more responsibilities or develop new competencies?
- What are the people around me doing to ensure I am supported in my endeavor to further myself and my career?
- What kinds of opportunities am I afforded (or not afforded) in my current position that would be different in another environment, functional area, or company altogether?
- What threats exist in my current situation that I need to consider when looking at myself and my career progression?
- Where have I prioritized compensation for my job with respect to the other intangibles that exist (non-monetary factors such as self-worth, long-term investment, ability to network or build high-profile relationships)?
- Would I ultimately be happier doing something else somewhere else?
- Have I appropriately prioritized “work life balance” (another topic for another time) and does my role put me in a comfortable spot along that spectrum?
These questions don’t have right or wrong answers. They just provide other lenses through which to view one’s position along the continuum of their career. And, please know that you don’t always move in the “right direction”. Movement of any kind, even in the wrong direction, will ultimately leave you more wise for the wear. Some of the greatest leaders have been complete failures for large portions of their career. It is their ability to learn from those mistakes and return to the fight with a better strategy and greater sense of purpose that have left them in the winner’s circle.
So don’t be scared to take action relative to your own career path. You will look back someday and have greater appreciation for the times you chose to act rather than sit on the sidelines. The times you were proactive rather than reactive. The times you took that “stretch role”. As long as you are continuing to engage formative experiences (i.e. not stagnating as we discussed in our last post), you will ultimately reap the rewards of having those experiences.
As always, hope the read was worth your time.
Til Next Time,
Michael