What Has Your Career Done For You Lately?

Day 4 - Thirty Day Career Transformation Challenge - Thirty Bold Questions Over Thirty Days to Reset Your Career Vision

Where Are You In The Career Cycle?

Have you ever talked to someone and it feels like déjà vu? Their record got stuck and they never figured out how to move beyond that moment in time. A great example is someone who gets divorced, but twenty years later they’re still talking out the man or woman that left them! Why? The same thing happens in careers: we get the coveted job title and we stop dead in our tracks. We surround ourselves with people who validate the job title, but we have no substance beyond the title. The age-old question is: what have you done lately?

Are you building on your success, or have you checked the first box and decided that you’re done striving for more?

• Are you a “new entrant” with a lofty vision of what your career path should be or could be?
• Are you an “experienced employee” with a career trajectory that is based on your job title and built around a particular industry niched into a job, but not focused on a long-term vision?
• Are you an “expert” locked into a career path where you’re so good at what you do, but blinders prevent you from seeing beyond the desk you occupy? Even more troubling, are you scared to death of course correction?

Each category can lock you into permanent career traps that can be hard to escape. New entrants have a vision that may not be realistic; experienced workers build their careers like a laser and may not focus on the changing global world around them. Employees’ blinders often get their positions eliminated during economic downturns. Experts, on the other hand, have tunnel vision. They’re so locked into your career that they cannot see themselves doing anything else. They've spent years building their career to an expert level, to the point that any course correction or shift in the marketplace is almost fatal.

Are you focused in the rearview mirror when you should be looking through the windshield?

Sometimes we need to ask ourselves—what has my career done for me lately? As women, it is really easy for us to fall into one of these boxes and stay there. When we start our career, we are eager to please. But as time goes along, we become disillusioned because our career progress is stalled or not moving forward fast enough. Always be reminded that you have options. The fact is that you got up this morning, you’re alive, and you have options.

Getting clear about where you are is important, but understanding why you are there is even more important.

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About Margaret Spence: Founder - The Employee to CEO Project and CEO - C. Douglas & Associates, Inc. 

A transformational keynote speaker, author, business strategist, executive leadership coach and visionary trailblazer. Margaret has 30 years’ experience inspiring organizations to value talent. Engaging employees in a shared vision, creating inclusive initiative, and fostering collaboration across silos are the tenets of her work. She is a leading expert in talent development, diversity and inclusion, and a vocal advocate for the effective development of women and millennial leaders. Margaret has authored three books. Her latest book, Leadership Self-Transformation: 52 Career-Defining Questions Every High-Achieving Women Must Answer, challenges women to clarify their vision, pivot from expert to leader, and build the career they want. The opening chapter of her book asks women two simple questions, what do you want and why don’t you have it now? To Learn More About Margaret Spence - www.EmployeetoCEOProject.com and www.TenXLeadershipAcademy.com