Career Striving

9 May 2018

Karen doesn’t feel successful in her career - yet. 

This is her current definition of career success:

• Working in IT
• A minimum salary of $100,000
• 4 days a week
• A permanent government role
• Managing 2 – 6 staff

Success for Karen is an outcome, yet while she has achieved all these goals, the feeling of career success remains elusive.

Tim doesn’t feel successful in his career either - yet.  This is his definition of career success:

• Maybe this…
• Maybe that…
• And have a bit of fun along the way

Tim says he is embracing the concept of life as a journey rather than a destination.  When he reflects, even though he is enjoying himself, he still doesn’t feel successful.

Karen and Tim represent two ends of the theory of goal setting. I am sure many of you have heard of the decades of research that has shown people who set clear, specific and measurable goals experience more success and wellbeing.  This happens because their goals keep them motivated, focused and progressing.  In fact, the whole workplace performance development plans/review process is founded on the science of goal setting as it works (and yes, old as it is SMART as an acronym for goal setting is still very useful).  But goal setting is not the end of the story and recent developments are shedding light on why people like Karen, with clear goals, still feel unsuccessful.

It seems the secret sauce in goal setting, that makes it something that is also useful for your career, is not just having goals, but the act of goal striving.  That is, the act of working towards a goal, striving towards something, and making progress in those strivings is what really feels like success.  Attaining the goal often doesn’t feel successful and the initial thrill of achievement quickly fades as we become used to, and adjusted to, what we have achieved.  

Goal striving is particularly beneficial for enhancing the feeling of career success when the goals you choose also align with your personal sense of meaning and are in line with your values.

Try this exercise.  Working quickly, make a long list of 10 dot points that mightbe part of your definition of career success. Then rank the 10 in order of their alignment with your top values (don’t know your values – email me for a list or jump online – the Barrett Values Centre has a reputable free one). Then, on a separate piece of paper, rank the 10 in order of their alignment with your gut feeling about what is most meaningful to you.  Compare your two rank order lists and identify the top 4 items.  Allow these top 4 to define what you mean by career success for the next 6 months or so.  In the context of these write yourself a couple of (SMART) goals and enjoy the striving towards them.

As always wishing you a flourishing career.

Katherine