Who Is Managing Your Career – You or Your Organization?
May 5th, 2010 by David Utts
- Have you discovered your underlying purpose for work or why you show up every day to work?
- Given that purpose – have you connected passionately to what the highest expression of that purpose would be?
- Do you feel a sense of independence from your organization, boss or senior executives as far as directing your career?
- Are you free from the idea that “I must pay my dues before I am in the position to set my course?”
If you answered a resounding yes to each of those questions – congratulations. You are most likely in full charge of your destiny. If you answered no to one or more of these you may be cheating yourself and your organization from your best efforts. When I ask my clients to face these questions and I confront them on any of the questions they answer no to – I usually get a miffed look at first. They may say “but I am reliant on my organization to direct me – they know the best place and my job is to follow their lead.” When I ask why that is – the answers get more interesting. Typical answers are:
- Well if I was too forceful with where I felt I fit and would be most satisfied – my job might be in jeopardy
- I really never thought about what I wanted and really don’t have an answer to what I want.
- Well I know what I really want but am afraid if I go for it I will not be able to support my family and lifestyle.
Yet, in my experience when people understand their purpose, passionately hold a vision for the impact they would like to have, and set a course to unfold that – not only are they happier – they perform at a much higher level. Also, it is rare that if I am talking to a technical person that they want to become Picasso. While there are some cases when a person realizes they must make a major change – in most cases they are in their sweet spot yet have an underlying desire to shift their focus a bit and usually in a way that adds value to the organization they are with. And yes – it can be a challenge to influence the powers to be to support a person in changing direction. Yet, again, in most every case where a person has stuck to their guns – both the individual and organization benefit.
The bottom line is – life is too short to allow others to dictate your life and that includes your career! After all we spend over 2000 hours each year working which equates to almost a quarter of our total time! I believe doing what you love and loving what you do is a birthright and we are at a time in history when we truly have the power of choice. So ask yourself – on a scale from 1 to 10 how fulfilled am I really every day at work? If you are below an 8 – I would take a serious look at the questions above and if you do not like your answers I suggest you spend the time to take your career back!
