By adopting a strategic, self-aware, and adaptive approach, especially given the current competitive and often non-transparent job market, individuals can proactively navigate career growth and sustainability within evolving organizational landscapes.
Here’s how to manage career growth and sustainability proactively:
Cultivate Self-Awareness and Define Personal Success:
It is crucial to proactively define what success means on an individual level, such as achieving “cross-organizational impact” by positively influencing outcomes not directly owned, whether through people management or product/program management. Success can also be viewed through the lens of individual happiness and engagement in one’s work.
Identify personal strengths and potential hurdles that may impede career progression, utilizing tools like personality surveys to gain deeper insights into behavioral traits that might be challenging (e.g., emotional negativity).
Consider “work-life integration” rather than just “balance,” allowing for a more fluid interaction between professional and personal life, especially with modern work and technology.
Strategically Navigate Organizational Dynamics:
Perceive organizational frameworks: Individuals need to understand how their company perceives them and defines success within its structure. Be aware that the “hurdle to go up is extremely high” in some organizations, making internal growth feel prohibitive.
Recognize Policy Gaps and KPIs: Organizations’ Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) or talent management processes may not always be “fit for purpose” and can have “unintended consequences”. For instance, focusing solely on proposal volume KPIs might penalize individuals working on complex, strategic, long-term projects. This requires identifying one’s “leverage” and deciding whether to be “risk-seeking” or focus on consistent, quantifiable tasks.
Utilize Career Personas: When communicating career aspirations, frame them using common “personas” (e.g., seekers, transitioners, growers) used by organizations and business schools. This allows for quicker access to specific resources and support networks, enabling individuals to “jump in and lead and guide a little bit more”.
Understand Informal Pathways: Acknowledge that alongside formal policies, much of organizational development is “tribal” and informal; understanding these can open new avenues for growth.
Embrace Continuous Learning and Proactive Development:
Invest in Continuous Learning: Staying competitive in the job market requires continuous learning of both hard and soft skills.
Prioritize People Skills: While technical skills can lead to initial promotions, reaching higher levels and overcoming career “ceilings” are often determined by “people skills”. Research suggests that career plateaus or terminations are usually due to a lack of people skills, not technical ones.
Structure Development with a “Gaps Grid”: A powerful tool is the “Gaps Grid,” which helps organize current strengths (self-perceived and others’ views) and future aspirations. The difference between these points defines the “gap,” informing a “learning pathway” or “personal development plan”. This also helps understand what others expect for career advancement.
Communicate Your Development Plan: Proactively share this personalized development plan with HR and line managers, as organizations and chief learning officers are often “very happy to help when someone comes to them with a view like that”.
Engage in Deliberate Practice: Simply identifying development areas is insufficient; “deliberate practice” is necessary to build new behaviors and skills, especially those that are not naturally easy.
Seek Coaching and Mentorship: Working with a coach can significantly accelerate learning and development by offering new perspectives, motivation, and accountability. Mentorship is also a vital aspect of continuous learning. Business schools and other providers offer such resources.
Manage Your Career Actively and Adaptively:
Take Accountability for Your Career: In a rapidly changing environment, individuals must “manage their career and take accountability for their career,” as opportunities may not simply “come to you”.
Be Vocal About Scoping: Being “more vocal about scoping” roles and putting “more structure around gaps” can effectively communicate value and ambitions.
Embrace the “Squiggly Career”: The traditional linear career path is largely obsolete; individuals should expect to “reinvent ourselves repeatedly” in what is now often referred to as a “squiggly career”. This requires constant adaptation and proactive engagement with personal interests and motivations.
Consider Job Crafting: This approach focuses on enhancing personal fulfillment and success within an existing role by understanding and deploying individual strengths more directly, even if formal pathways or KPIs seem rigid.
By focusing on these areas, individuals can enhance their understanding of themselves and their organizational context, pursue targeted development, and navigate the complexities of modern career progression effectively.
