Many people express an interest in reinventing their careers, but few actually follow through.
There are many people seemingly frozen in indecision. This was well illustrated by a recent Microsoft study (of 30,000 people) that showed that 46% of workers are thinking about a major career pivot or change after the Covid years.
It seems to come down to a few key elements that leaders battle with –
1. It’s hard to leave the status quo, especially if your work is seen as successful.
2. Personal reinvention requires reappraising life choices and imagining alternate paths (not something many people relish doing).
3. This can be difficult when the path a leader is on is seen, at least outwardly, as successful.
4. Leaders’ identities are so dependent on their work that it can be hard for them to consider different possibilities.
Researchers Heather Cairns-Lee and Bill Fischer worked with executives and found four traps that leaders often fall into when trying to reinvent themselves.
Successful executives experience these roadblocks most often:
1. Self-sufficiency,
2. Overthinking,
3. Procrastination, and
4. Searching for the answer.
“Once a leader confronts and understands the traps that prevent them from reinventing themselves, they can rapidly advance in new directions.”
Let’s expand on these four challenging areas:
Self-sufficiency
‘A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd.’ —Max Lucado
Leaders who are too self-sufficient can find themselves isolated and out of touch with the changes happening in their companies.
Leaders often pride themselves on self-sufficiency. They rely on their own contributions, work well independently and hardly require motivation or management from others. This is often how they earned their senior roles.
To overcome this, they need to be willing to ask for help and accept it when offered.
Overthinking
If you catch yourself frequently saying “let me think that through,” you are likely overthinking.
Executives can get stuck in the overthinking trap, which prevents learning from experimentation. Paying attention to other often-overlooked sources of data — emotional and intuitive.
Personal reinvention is best served by doing, rather than thinking. You’ll progress faster by trying things out and learning from the outcome.
These often-missed sources of information can help people out of the overthinking trap.
The Right Answer
We’ve been brainwashed through school and society to think that there only are “right” and “wrong” answers.
When faced with a career reinvention, don’t be afraid to experiment and explore different options. There is no “right” answer, so be curious and open to new possibilities. The important thing is to ask – does a new direction fulfil me?
Procrastination
Contrary to the common idea that procrastinators sit around and do nothing, avoidance can take the form of extreme business. All the other urgent work you have to do as an executive is an easy way to procrastinate – to essentially avoid starting a reinvention process.
If you use other activities to procrastinate, ask yourself why you are putting off important decisions about your life? And, why you are choosing to prioritize other tasks if you truly are thinking about a new direction?
Successful leaders are rewarded with ever-greater responsibilities, which means that they have less and less time to focus on their own longer-term aspirations. That limited bandwidth can also fuel anxiety: It can be hard to imagine a nebulous future when weighed down with the very real demands of today. More than this, personal reinvention can be scary.
The points we just highlighted – self-reliance, thinking their way to an answer and throwing themselves into work – are strategies that have worked well for many leaders throughout their lives. To create a more fulfilling life, these individuals must first recognize the dissonance between their inner yearning and the status quo they perpetuate.
Confronting the traps that prevent them from reinventing themselves can help them finally imagine their new selves and start on their way.
Contact us for more Info.
