In the course of our careers, we are bound to have times when we feel dissatisfied, unhappy and discontent with our work and career. Employees often expect that their manager or organisation should create a career and growth path for them and keep them motivated. To some extent this expectation is fair. Which is why a lot of organisation invest millions of dollars every year in career progress and employee development.
But the moment you leave the ownership of your career growth in the hands of your organisation, it also becomes a matter of chance. You may have a manager who is very invested in your growth or you may not. You may be working in an organisation which may or may not invest in your career satisfaction and growth. The fact remains that the one person most impacted by your growth and motivation is you yourself.
Here are some simple steps to ensure that you are happy and satisfied with your career and growth.
A shift from an employee mindset to a stakeholder mindset. The first step to taking control of your career is to own it completely. Assume that your manager or anyone else around you are a resource to build your career. Some resources are more useful than others but the ownership of your career has to rest with you. The moment you hand over the ownership of your growth to someone else you also lose control of it. While people can support or guide you, only you can decide what is best for you.
What do you need to be happy with your career? Make a list of things that you need to have in your job/career to feel happy and satisfied. Be as detailed and specific as possible. Do you need continuous learning? Do you need more money? Do you need new and interesting challenges? Do you need more influence and power? The first step to taking control of your career is to know what will give you satisfaction.
List where you are on each of the attributes? Once you have your list, rate each aspect on it on a scale of 1-10 where 10 means you are completely satisfied in that area and 1 means you are on at all happy.
- How you are doing in that area?
- How you would like to do in that area?
- What needs to happen to bridge that gap?
For example, if learning opportunities is an area that is important to you, rate how you are doing in that area. Let’s say you rate it a 5 and you want to be at a 9. What would make it a 9? Acquiring 2 new skills every year? Getting to work on new technology? Be as specific as you can?
As you do this exercise you will find that there are specific areas that contribute to the dissatisfaction and not each of them is equally important.
What can you do to meet that criteria and move? Now that you know what you want different from where you are today, what are some steps that you can take yourself to move closer to the goal. While there may be uncontrollable factors in your list there is an equal chance hat there will be controllable factors as well. Even if you can only think of 1-2 small things to do yourself, take charge of those. You may find that things start opening up for you and you will start feeling more in control of your career. This is also a point where you may realise that the current environment cannot support your needs.
Who can you speak to about this? As you get clear on what you want and what needs to happen for you to find that satisfaction, make a list of people who can be your mentors, ambassadors and partners in this journey. It is important that you communicate your needs in a professional and objective manner to these people. This will help them know the kind of opportunities you are interested in should they come across any. These conversations will also give you clarity on whether your needs can be met in the current organisation. A note of caution is to ensure you share your needs as information and not with the intent of making these people responsible for your growth. It is possible that some people you speak to may not have any options for you today. Be mindful, not to make them feel awkward.
As the owner of your own growth, continue to calibrate your growth and success. Our needs evolve and change as we grow. So it is important that we continue to evaluate what we need and find ways to address those needs regularly.