Time for a reality check. All our careers reach a plateau at some point. For some, it happens sooner than for others. For professional sportsmen and women, for example, it’s typically when they hit their late 20s to early 30s. For most of us, however, the plateau won’t have such a clearly defined time, date or age. Indeed, is it even within our control? What steps can be taken today to future-proof our career development in order to delay the inevitable and stay in control of our own destiny?
Make a plan
Many of us spend our working lives without a clear plan for creating a satisfying career path. Or, we start with a plan, then ditch it, forget about it or decide it can’t be done. The first phase of your reflection should be ‘Exploration’ – essentially, you need to ask yourself what excites you and what you are passionate about.
What are you good at?
This is such a simple question, however it’s one of the questions most people find the most challenging to answer. If you can answer this question clearly and succinctly, you’re already a long way to career success and fulfilment. Think about it for a moment.
Any interviewer ultimately wants to know the answers to the following questions:Why should I hire you? Why do you want the job? The ability to clearly state the quantifiable value you will bring to an organisation and what motivates you to overachieve will result in two clear benefits. Firstly, and most importantly, you’ll understand what you want and, secondly, it will help you to differentiate yourself in today’s highly competitive employer marketplace.
Continue to evolve
Many executives cease their education once they’ve completed their degree. Their career and earning trajectory has been continuing upwards throughout their 20s and even into their 30s and life is good. However, natural ability can only ever get you so far. Without continual investment in your personal and professional development, the ‘plateau’ will undoubtedly happen far sooner. Through learning and development, we continue to evolve and the value we place in ourselves (and that others place in us) continues to grow. Otherwise, we will simply stagnate.
Execution
So, you have a plan, have absolute clarity as to the quantifiable value you bring to those around you and your current/future employer and have signed up to that conference or Masters course you had been putting off because life got in the way. Now what?
Before you decide that you’re ‘there,’ remember that ideas alone are worthless. Robin Sharma puts it well when he says:
Ideation without execution is mere delusion.
The world is full of people with great ideas, however no idea works until you do the work.
Does this mean the career plateau is a bad thing? If you’re honest, how much of your incessant quest to ‘get to the top’ is driven by your own inner demons, or even your need for peer/social approval? Surely these are irrelevant, and the sooner we overcome this and strive for professional (and more importantly personal) fulfilment, the happier and (ironically) more successful we become.
Just a thought!
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