Is it possible to believe you’re making all the right moves at work, while in reality you’re at best treading water while your career’s stalling out?
One Woman’s Illuminating Career Transformation
A query for a recent post about “Terrible, No-good, Bad Boss Survival Strategies” prompted this inspiring career turnaround story from Megan Bigelow, President & Co-Founder, PDX Women in Tech.
She recalled this painful experience….
“After asking my boss for two years for a discussion about how to take my career to the next level, she did — on her last day with the company. She chose to do so during my annual review, with my new boss in the room! While she did tell me about all the great things I had done, she concluded, ‘You are not ready to move to the next level because you need to be more strategic.’ I thought I was strategic!”
What happened next transformed Megan’s career, and her life. .
Megan admits she believes if it hadn’t been for that awful final scene with her boss, it would have had taken something equally horrifying to prompt her to forge a new perspective and strategy.
“Sometimes you don’t feel activated until something breaks in a large-scale way– an outcome you were hoping for is unexpectedly swept away from you or you suddenly find out that the space you were occupying is no longer safe for you to learn and grow. I wish I could say the way to avoid this is to remain vigilant and watch for the signs, though I don’t think it is possible in every situation. The true definition of who you are happens in how you respond during the most difficult and challenging times.”
The Conundrum: Stay or Go?
Megan was at a crossroads; she needed to decide whether to stay and advance her career (and if it was even possible there), or whether to leave and get a fresh start elsewhere. If you’re wondering whether it makes more sense in your case to brave it out or bolt, check out Do You Need to Quit?
She decided to stay.
“Deciding to stay is highly dependent on what you see when you look around you, coupled with your belief in what you can accomplish if you stay. In my situation, I have a remarkable team of individuals who I absolutely enjoy working with everyday. My adoration for the team was built over two years of honesty and a culture of high expectations of one another. While having an amazing team isn’t always enough to stay, I was able to leverage it into a belief that I was capable of making new things happen with my new manager, despite the past.”
Without a strong attachment to her team, faith in her company and trust in what she could accomplish, she would’ve left.
Preliminary Action – How to Begin
Megan next performed serious research to decide what steps she needed to take to advance her career.
1st – External research via Internet and professional networking.
“I started reading blogs written by employees at companies that offer progressive thinking related to leading teams like mine. Based on the information I collected from those sources, I then validated the ideas with folks in my network at other companies in similar roles.”
2nd – Internal research, checking in with key stakeholders and decision-makers
“Additionally, I began meeting with other executives in my company asking for feedback and advice.”
3rd – Ongoing feedback and analysis
“The collection of information, which I am still seeking to this day, is what informs and continues to shape my strategy.”
The Result?
Success! “It didn’t take long before I began getting feedback from executives impressed with my work.” Re-energized, Megan firmly believes she made the right choice and is thriving as the Manager of Customer Care at Jama Software. But her (and most of our) career management doesn’t stop….
Continued Goal Setting
Megan set two outcome-based goals for herself this year – achieving a promotion and building her personal brand. Her plans included
- Asking for a promotion based on the top three things she had done since her old boss gave her feedback.
- Presenting at an industry-specific conference.
- And finally, she always revisits her goals on a regular cadence. In this process she leverages what worked before: getting ideas from blogs, validating these ideas with her network, and seeking the advice of her leader and other leaders in the organization.
“Progress isn’t always a straight line,” observes Megan.
Advice: The role of feedback can’t be overstated
Always a fan of feedback (see this article Megan wrote), Megan noted “Once I realized the gap between what my boss saw in me and how I felt about myself, I realized I wasn’t seeking feedback often enough. In taking charge of your career, I believe it’s paramount not to wait to find out what others think about you. Get out there and ask them, all the time. Even the people you can’t stand. Everyone! You aren’t going to like 75% of what you hear, but accept what they have to say graciously, just as you would a gift. You don’t have to act on it, though use it as a tool to inform you and help you grow.”
5 Tips: Building your own career development personal support team
Megan lives by the Chinese proverb “The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is now.” She adds, “This is exactly how you should feel about your personal network or support team,” and offers these five tips:
- Start looking for meet-ups, groups, conferences, gatherings or whatever that you feel yourself and resonate with.
- When you meet people you like, follow up with them via email and LinkedIn. Schedule follow-up calls to talk through things or better yet, meet them for coffee or lunch, if they are local.
- Pick an amount of time you are going to dedicate to networking and dedicate that time. It can be 5%, 10% or greater, depending on what else you have going on and how soon you will need to tap into that network.
- If there is no group that you feel you belong to, then create one yourself.
- Now, more than ever, finding where you can be YOU is of critical importance.
Jump-start your career with career services
Only you can truly take charge of your career.
Brilliant and successful as Megan’s transformation is, sometimes getting a little outside coaching is just what’s needed for getting you on the fast track for success. Dorigan & Associates now offers Career Services for all levels, from graduation through C suite executives. Dorigan and Associate bases these services 20 years experience with executive search, keenly observing what time-tested and leading edge strategies and tactics work. Click here to learn more about how to re-invigorate your career today.
As the old adage goes, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll wind up someplace else.” Now is the time to decide where you want to be.
Review Disaster to Career Turnaround
Connie Dorigan, Founder and Director of Recruiting, sees the food processing industry as the link between good living and good people. She’s the west coast’s most experienced and trusted food processing recruiter. She also provides Executive and Career Coaching and lots of free job search tools. Once you’ve connected with Connie, you’ll always be connected.
© 2018 Connie Dorigan. All rights reserved.
This is a general interest article and does not constitute specific or legal advice.
