Written by: David Lutes, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
You’re ready to be more and ready to do more – and do it better than ever before! Ok, yes, like you I can also get a bit excited about it – and about helping you find or rediscover that excitement as well! Work with me here… you’ll see the signs!
You may have incredible moments when you are psyched up about your personal future and your budding and expanding career! Maybe now is the time to be psyched again!
Let’s imagine that you’ve shifted gears in your present job by being more aware, more collaborative, more outspoken (or more reserved and quieter – which is also okay); you are learning to work smarter – not just busier and harder.
Why? Because you’re playing more to your strengths and recognizing your Achille’s Heels and being truer to your values, beliefs, and standards…and all the while discovering where you ‘fit’ and can make the most effective contribution to the team and the organization. And if you have not yet begun to cultivate these new ‘habits’, at least you’re seeing a strategy and plan begin to emerge for your journey ahead. More about this in Article No. 9 later.
But no matter how ‘READY’ you are to BE and DO more and better, the companion question is…is the organization ready for you? Is the timing right and are the circumstances right, ready and in place for that new and next step in your work and career?
It’s a timing and a ‘Seize the day’ intent thing
Opportunity is of course a timing thing – often out of your control or not even potentially on your radar. It’s an all-too-common theme tune that as a high potential leader, manager, or employee you feel you are ready and ‘ripe’ for more…but there is no place for you to go…no path, no ticket, no green light. Your performance appraisal ‘score’ may be off the chart, but you’re still stuck. Career progression can be blocked for a wide variety of reasons no matter how much you may feel that ‘it’s my time’.
So, you need to look at Readiness from both yours and the organization’s perspective.
1. Is the organization ‘ready for you’ to be ‘released’ to grow or to flourish – or to make the next move ‘upwards’ or ‘sideways’ or ‘elsewhere’ in the organization? Maybe it’s not a management or leadership role specifically, but you may be just what they need as a Subject Matter Expert or Technical Specialist. Aaaah, but sadly, they don’t have a job or role category for that in the HR headcount system or on the organizational chart. (At least as far as you or anyone knows, since the org charts haven’t been update for some years!) Pity.
2. Are you right and ready for the organization at this time – perhaps because of changes, a merger or acquisition, expansion, shifting fortunes and a new direction, etc.?
e.g., The timing may be right for you, but the organization’s new direction isn’t. Maybe you have outgrown the organization, or it has become too big and unable to respond to your need to grow in a much smaller garden. You’re READY to BE and DO something more and special – and to not become a number, or swallowed up by a complex, ‘matrixed supertanker riding a new tidal wave of growth and success’.
3. Are you a Flight Risk? e.g., This is a critical question you need to answer … for yourself very honestly – Because if you’re any good at your job, and your boss and your boss’ boss has their eye on you as a ‘high potential’ person, on the succession planning radar, then they will be asking that question. What are the chances you will leave? Fly away. If they’re smart, they will be always thinking about building their 2nd and 3rd teams – and strengthening their ‘bench’. Questions about Readiness for more, for promotion, for more responsibility and challenges will be asked.
Ready now, ready soon, ready forward
Are you Ready Now, Ready Soon or Ready Forward?
Now = Immediately
Soon = in 1-2 years
Forward = in 3-5 years
If the organization deems you to be worth keeping and investing in, then NOW and SOON people are the focus of increased, and even more proactive, investment and development – and opportunities to show your stuff.
But the organization might very well be asking the question, “If we don’t invest, don’t make a special effort to keep him/her and minimize the Risk that they Will Fly Away (Flight Risk), how much longer can we keep them and what will be the Impact of Loss if they go too soon? What are the Critical to Retain factors?”
But you need to be asking similar questions of yourself as well. Are you a Flight Risk? Are you content for now to be considered a ‘hot prospect bench warmer’…with 1st Team potential? Is this the best you can hope for now? Don’t let the answer frustrate or cripple you into inaction or into impulsive and hasty decisions…rather let it help you formulate a strategy and a plan.
4. To follow on from No. 3, in terms of work-life balance, are you ready to ‘fly’ and to realize and discover greater levels of potential? Or, for any number of reasons – practical or ‘dream-able’ – do you need to ‘land’, ‘park’ or ‘taxi’ your plane, or stay in a ‘holding pattern’ for while?
5. Or do you need to return to the terminal because you still need to re-evaluate and get some areas back in focus and re-examine priorities – as well re-look at your destination boarding pass and the length of the flight?
More than a glimpse of hopes and dreams
6. Career Pathing/Planning: While often not within your control (financially, practically, or otherwise), is your professional development keeping pace with your dreams and, at the same time, the demands of your job (currently and as you gaze a short distance into the future)? While your organization may ensure you have a professional learning and development or individual learning plan (PDP/ILP) with an emphasis on training courses and programs – taking it to the next level, do you even have a career path/plan? And if so, what shapes it; who calls the structure and shots for it? If not, and you still see a different or more engaging future for your career and life, then you really need to think about making one…practical and realistic with a hint of hopes and dreams.
7. How’s your work-life balance? This is really a question I (but preferably, you) should be asking those closest to you – your personal stakeholders who care about your mental, emotional, spiritual, physical, social, and financial health and life. Your work is NOT YOUR LIFE! Or maybe you should look at your last half-dozen blood sugar, cholesterol, energy level readings, as well as the aches and pains, weight, or blood pressure data – and see if you still remember the names of your kids.
“If you gave it your best shot, you will never regret it. Don't let your best shot be defined by someone else's idea of a bullseye. But if you aim at nothing, then I can guarantee that you will hit it, well…nothing. Reach into the quiver again. Raise your bow again. Raise your sights and re-site again. Raise your hopes again. Shoot your best shot again...and again.
You'll own that target one day!”
– David Lutes
David Lutes, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
David Lutes is a global talent management, organizational development and leadership coach, consultant and trainer. A former church pastor, he is radically and passionately committed to helping people discover their meaning, purpose and direction for their life and career. He has been described as a 'gift and latent skill detector and developer', as he helps people and the organizations they work in discover the wealth and richness within their people.
