For many men – this is the Dimension of Life – Professional – Career & Work – that has the most intense planning due to the management experienced at work via to produce.
There are two key aspects to this DOL
- You are working for someone else, and you are getting paid for the work and results you produce
- You are the owner of your career which in this context is defined as an employee or contractor via a third party in a employment context
Your own initiatives, projects, side hustles, and businesses that you self direct are not considered as part of this Dimension of Life. Let’s take a look at each aspect in greater detail.
Work as an Employee
This is the job you have and the job you aspire to attain down the line. You may be an individual contributor or a manager. You could be on a technical track or a managerial track – as many companies even today typify the employment ‘career paths’ constructs. Career paths are something we’ll dig into a little later.
Today, many employees work ‘at will’ both in terms of their agreement to show up and to produce along with the employer’s agreement to keep them on the job. This agreement is governed by different laws depending upon the state here in the US, and by country internationally. Invariably, the relationship is contractual in nature and it is one that can be negotiated upon entering into an employment agreement.
There are many times opportunities to revisit with an employer while employed – particularly as assignments and roles change given the evolution of your career and work assignments once employed. Typically upon exiting the company, the current agreement is what governs the terms of the exit of the agreement either initiated by the employee or by the employer. The point here is – you and the employer are contractually obligated to abide by the relationship terms.
Environment – As an employee, you will be expected to perform the duties asked of you by management and these can vary widely from assignment to assignment – particularly for those that are employed at will. For some, this variability is exciting and welcomed while others prefer a much more predictable environment where their day to day assignments are not so variable and chaotic in nature. The environmental context of your role within the company is something to consider as you review this DOL.
A Boss – As an employee, you will also have a boss – many times multiple bosses at the same time in today’s workplace. Competing priorities, agendas, and aggressive deadlines are all part of the typical environment today. Your management above your direct manager will absolutely play into the relationship you have with your direct line manager. Are you seeking a management structure that is more of a coaching or more of a directive style? Are you seeking a safe environment with a high degree of trust and integrity spanning not only your direct management lines, and also all the way up through to the CEO? Are you energized by your management’s ability to lead? All important considerations – clearly.
Your Role – As an employee, your primary role is the majority of your job. This is where you spend the vast majority of your working time – fulfilling the primary and secondary responsibilities tied to your job. You are paid to deliver, ideally above and beyond the expectations that your management has of you in this given role. Many times, it is not enough to do the bare minimum of your job responsibilities. As a key employee – you will be viewed as someone that performs above expectations as a ’trusted professional.’ Another consideration as a key employee is how much potential you have in terms of expansion over your current accountability set. There are a variety of ways to view expansion – it could be as an employee to invest into as a future people leader, as an employee that needs more core skills, and as an employee that needs some incremental coaching to broaden and strengthen their impact.
Your Career Path – As an employee, you do have a career path – at least two – one with your current employer and one without your current employer.
The second career path may or may not involve another employer. In either case, career development is just as important as your current role, current management expectations, and the current environment with your employer. The best companies are exceptionally interested in retaining employees, particularly key employees as it is very expensive to replace workers – especially those that have a longevity with their firms. A primary retention strategy is to ensure that the work is interesting and leading to ever more interesting assignments that both the employee and employer can agree upon as a future set of assignments. Owning this conversation is critical as an employee seeking to develop a career within the same employer. If you chose to exit your current employment relationship – then this leads down the second path and second aspect of this Dimension of Life – career ownership.
Career Ownership
Much has been written about this topic – from landing your first internship up through to your first managerial role to possibly your first executive role – and everything in between.
There are volumes of books on this topic, and how there are various epochs that various generations were successful within. The strategies have changed from our great or great great grandparents that lived through the Great Depression – where having a job was the career aspiration for many. As the workforce returned from WWII – the manufacturing sector dominated the employment landscape as the industrial revolution took hold and unionization truly took root for those seeking a career path. Getting to collect on a pension was for many a career path – longevity and doing a solid job on the line was for many – the required approach to ensure their future.
As the industrial revolution gave way to the initial digital revolution – unionization and manufacturing began to cede to an increasingly worldwide sourced talent base predicated on automation, technical skills, and increasingly sophisticated approaches to work. This brings us to today – with many of the prior strategies that our predecessors utilized no longer viable as a de-facto approach to ensuring a career you can be satisfied growing into and excelling along the way.
Today – many in the workforce have languished with a default approach to their career that has meandered from assignment to assignment within an employer with some professionals making switches as they move across employers – for a variety of reasons.
Intentional choices when speaking with colleagues and with job candidates are a rare thing – in many cases I’ve seen folks that take the default next assignment that seems ‘roughly right’ given their aspirations. Clarity and intention are a rare thing when discussing job history and many times when discussing the possible hire’s career trajectory.
When you consider this aspect of this DOL – are you mindful of the job after the next job?
I was given some advice about a decade ago that was exceptional –
‘think of your current job as a stepping stone to the job you expect to have two jobs from now.’
For many, the clarity of where they would like to take their career is the most clarity they have in their lives, and even then the choices made with regard to their career could be honed in on. The first step in owning your career is deciding if you want to continue to have a career where you are working for someone else and if so – for how long? Once you have this fundamental answer – now you can set out on the plan to realize your career – which is effectively the key to owning your career.
Know where you are headed.
Know what gets you amp’d up to get out of bed, what energizes, and where you find meaning in your work endeavors.
This requires a high degree of self awareness, and what truly makes you excited to pursue your day to day with vigor. If you do not have this level of self awareness – chances are that you remain ambivalent, at best, regarding your career. For many, they are ‘checking the box’ to provide for their family – ultimately leading an unfulfilling career and work life.
This sucks.
The emptiness eventually becomes a gnawing feeling as you will eventually develop a sense of self that has you increasingly understanding that there is fulfilling work to be had – perhaps even with your current employer if you were to assert your wishes.
So the self awareness and clarity of drivers for your work life …
… are…
…still not enough.
You need to consider your professional brand within your day to day work environment, your immediate network for friends and family, and the broader more public spheres of involvement. All of these zones deserve a game plan when considering your career aspirations and intentions to realize your potential. How strong is your professional network and do you have a cadre of folks that are equipped to champion your aspirations as you continue to build your plan for your career?
Today – your career ownership is something you need to get active with – the default approaches of years gone by – are no longer as viable and increasingly irrelevant as you seek to scale into ever more meaningful and impactful assignments.
Here’s a quick summary as you consider this second half of this DOL:
- Decide if you want a career working for someone else, and if so – what is the time horizon you are targeting to be an employee as the primary source of income?
- Increase your self awareness. This can be accomplished through a variety of online self assessments – such as the Kolbe among others.
- Determine what the top two or three characteristics you require in a role to ensure your pursuing the correct roles.
- Determine the type of role you would like to enter into two jobs from your next job – like in 3-5 years.
- Determine your current brand by speaking with your current management, trusted peers, and perhaps even a rival or two at your workplace. This will give you a balanced view of the brand you have arrived at.
- Determine the brand you would like to evolve into, and put some next actions aimed at engaging your trusted colleagues and family/friends to get feedback on your approach to evolve your brand. Now you have a validated approach to evolve things.
- Establish an action plan aimed at modifying your brand over time with your immediate work environment, friends/family, and the broader more public industry spheres. Examples could be pursuing new project assignments, new roles, and uplifting your skills to ensure your have the tangible elements to match your new branding in a demonstrable manner.
- Most importantly – get to work on your ownership plan.
