
Step 1: Review
- Being the DRI of Your Career
- Expecting More from Your Career (and Less from Your Job)
- The Rent Versus Buy of Career Growth
- How to DRI Your Professional Development
- Coachability++
- DRI Your Support System
- 5 Signs It’s Time to Quit Your Job
Step 2: Plan
- Assess if it’s time to quit (this will shape how you approach the next steps).
- If it’s time to quit, or you think it might be, figure out your constraints versus need.
- Do you need to make your current role manageable to give yourself time to look for something else?
- If you’re a maybe on quitting, think about what’s pushing you to that point, and what you could try to improve things.
- If you’re a no, great! Less overhead for you. Move to step 2.
- If it’s time to quit, or you think it might be, figure out your constraints versus need.
- Look at what options you want to be available to you.
- Check yourself on whether it’s a job or a title – what do you really want to be doing in your 40+ hours a week you spend at work?
- Assess where you are relative to them.
- For those where you’re on track, great – you’re done here.
- For those where that is not the case, take them to step 3.
- Define your current moment.
- What is your current moment?
- What do you need right now?
- Given those things, what constraints do you have here?
- Discuss the constraints with someone you trust – do they have to be true?
- Clarify the deal you made under capitalism.
- Think about what your employer is renting.
- Are you building market value?
- Are you undermining market value?
- Think about what your employer is buying.
- Is there anywhere where they are taking more than they’re paying for?
- Are there any boundaries to redefine?
- What kind of deal do you want?
- What supports your longer term goals?
- What do you need to support your life right now?
- Think about what your employer is renting.
- Identify some proximate objectives.
- Come up with some (1-3) shorter-term goals that support what you identified as your overall career options.
- Make sure you really nail the `what` and the `why` – achieving this goal is meaningful to you, and will represent meaningful progress.
- Put together development plans for each of them.
- Discuss and refine the plans with someone you trust.
- Come up with some (1-3) shorter-term goals that support what you identified as your overall career options.
- Think about your relationship to feedback.
- Identify what quadrant you’re in for some key relationships.
- If it’s receptive and actionable – great, what’s working and how did you get to that point?
- If it’s receptive but not actionable, or not receptive but actionable, why is that? What would help?
- If it’s neither receptive nor actionable, why is this?
- Is there a way to extract yourself from this situation?
- Think about what you could do generally to be more coachable. Pick 1-2 suggestions from the list to work on.
- Think about some difficult pieces feedback you’ve received. What can you take from them? Is there anything useful here?
- “No” is okay!
- Even in the worst contexts, there may be something we can learn about ourselves. And then, it’s much easier to let that feedback go.
- Some feedback and feedback relationships need to go in the bin. Do you want to put anything in the bin?
- Identify what quadrant you’re in for some key relationships.
- Audit your network.
- What relationships are good? Celebrate them.
- What relationships are okay, but could be better?
- Think about how things could be better.
- Think about things you could do to improve those relationships.
- Decide if you want to make some time to invest in those relationships.
- “No” is okay!
- So is “not right now”.
- What relationships are missing?
- Think about what those missing relationships cost you – i.e. if you have a very small professional network, maybe it makes it harder to find new opportunities.
- Think about what you could do to build more of a network, what would be the easiest things you could do? What would you enjoy?
- Assess the gap versus what you might do to solve it and decide whether or not you want to do it.
- “No” is okay!
- So is “not right now”.
Step 3: Execute
So excited for you! Let me know how you get on.