Groundhog Year
Have you ever dropped everything while listening to a podcast to write down some notes and ideas - right that moment? I’ve had one like this today. I was actually trying to pre-cook something for lunch (Chicken & Broccoli Stir Fry) when this moment happened in the ReWork Podcast.
One of the hosts, DHH, was explaining something about ‘when to make decisions and when to let people make decisions in an organisation’. He said that the person with 10 years of experience typically has a better gut-decision-ability than the person with 3 years of experience... then he stopped and added ... “well unless the 10 year career has just been a 1-year -repeat for 10 times”
That’s when I jumped away from the stove to write down my thoughts. This struck a chord.
The 3-Headed Snake
I see this in my coaching practice on a daily basis, people come to me, deeply unhappy about their careers for a variety of reasons. Often, however they come down to these 3 culprits:
Dickhead Manager this one is easy, the manager is simply not respectful, doesn’t coach, is more interested in their own progression and ego, manipulates and plays games. There is this saying: ‘people don’t leave jobs, they leave bad managers’. That’s probably true, more than often though, people stick around with bad managers and then wonder why they feel so terribly unhappy.
Blender Brand / Ambition Mismatch well this one is a little more nuanced, however relatively easy to spot. It’s typically a really smart person with a good education, a lot of ambition and drive who fell for a meaningless job with a big brand. Oh, I work at Hooli now. That’s one of the most prestigious companies in the world. Feels great. Yes it typically does but can turn sour really quickly if the daily job is not aligned with the ambition / ability of the person. I see this all the time, a fancy company hires a highly educated, trained and ambitious person and then all they do on a daily basis is click through a CRM to complete mind-numbing tasks repetitively. It’s the equivalent of working in a car factory on the production line only screwing in the same 3 bolts in that engine over and over. Even though the brand is still cool and the free lunch is amazing and the instagrammable selfies inside the game room create a lot of likes - what the person is actually missing is an honest challenge. Smart people don’t want monkey work - they want a fucking hard and important challenge with no clear path to get there. Additionally they need the support and autonomy to give it their best shot with an equally ambitious and fun team. It requires them to be truly creative, work hard, work smart, break through their own understanding of what’s possible and do this while winning together with others.
Groundhog Year that’s the one from the podcasts that prompted this whole post. Again, something I hear a lot from clients “I have been at Hooli for 8 years already, but I feel so unhappy” Often when digging in, it turns out that they actually didn’t have an 8 year career. All they really had was the first year repeated 8 times. So on LinkedIn, it looks like a fantastic career growth but actually they are dead inside, deeply bored, lack self confidence and don’t believe in a better tomorrow.
What now?
Luckily there are a number of ways to break out of this. Here are a few simple (not necessarily easy to do) ideas:
You comfort zone is your enemy If you are comfortable for too long, you are most certainly not stretching yourself in the right ways anymore. Soon enough, muscles atrophy, the shine disappears and work feels stale. Seek out opportunities to leave your comfort zone regularly. It’ll be hard and may seem pointless. Try it and see how you feel on the other side.
The best substitute for action is more action Sure, there is a lot of thinking and planning you can do. You can do a Career Plan, a PDP, a 5 year vision etc. But nothing will really happen until you start taking action! More thinking about it won’t make a difference anymore. It’s time to do something. Doesn’t have to be big audacious stuff either. Start small if you like, but do something already!! Not this week, not today, right now!
Accept the struggle This whole process will be slightly uncomfortable, disorienting and perhaps even confusing. Good - if it feels that way, you are likely on to something. That’s the space in which no memory and experience pre-exists in your brain. It’s all new. Often the excitement of this newness get’s confused with anxiety. It’s just excitement and maybe a little fear of “the unknown”. Once you feel that, you know you are on the right path. Go back to point 1 and push outside of your comfort zone.
So should I just quit?
Not necessarily. In fact you may just carry your challenges into another organisation, another team.
Start taking a hard look at where you are now and what you want. What’s holding you back? Is it a terrible manager? Boring work? Your own inability to leave your comfort zone? Start here and then take action. The momentum of that action will likely bring you more data points quickly, which will then become fuel for more action. Repeat until you find “it”.
Last thought: “It” is not a final destination, it’s a way of being. We’ll always be on the move in life, either towards or away from it. It’s like body weight, either you are moving towards your ideal weight or away from it. At best you’ll be there for a little while and then you start movement again. It’s natural, it’s normal. It’s part of life.
Your work is to be intentional about the direction in which you’re moving.