Latest / The Rosanne Callens Podcast / E23: Why High Performers Wait For Opportunities That Never Come
Transcript
- Rosanne Callens: a lot of successful people are accidentally waiting for their careers to happen to them. But the tricky part is it doesn't look look like waiting. It looks like working. Hi friends, Rosanne Callens here. Did you know that 52% of American employees are either actively looking for another job or watching for opportunities? More than half. And that tells me there are a lot of people walking around thinking, hmm, I might want something different. Different. And maybe you are one of them. You might not be miserable at all. In fact, you might be doing really well. Work is getting done, people rely on you, and from the outside, there may be no obvious reason to change a thing. what else might be out there. Maybe a job posting catches your attention or someone you know gets promoted and you start. Thinking about your own next step. Then you hear that a friend changed careers, and suddenly you're wondering whether you could do something like that too. Of course, Monday comes and you go right back to doing what you've always done. When was the last time you actually made a decision about your career instead of waiting to see what happens next? a lot of successful people are accidentally waiting for their careers to happen to them. But the tricky part is it doesn't look look like waiting. It looks like working. Why is that? Well, I mean you're showing up every day, you're answering a million emails, you're solving problems, and you're taking on another project and getting through yet another deadline. And you are so busy and productive, of course it feels like you're managing your career. Except managing your workload and managing your career are not the same thing. I've had so many conversations over the years with clients who tell me some version of the same story. They've been with their organization for six years, eight years, 15 plus years, and their responsibilities have grown tremendously. They've trained people, they've picked up extra work, and they have become the person that their boss can depend on when something goes wrong. Then they reach out to me and they say, I just don't understand why I'm still in the same place. To which I respond, Well, can you tell me what you actually want? Sometimes they know immediately. They want to lead the department, move into a different kind of role, have that job title that's eluded them throughout the years, or they finally want to make the money they know they are more than capable of earning. Sometimes they tell me they're not sure if they even want the same industry anymore. And other times there is a long pause. And I completely understand that pause because when you've spent years getting really good at answering, what does everybody need from me, you may not have spent nearly as much time asking yourself, what do I want next. And that's where we can get ourselves into quite some trouble, right, everyone? We assume that if we're doing excellent work, eventually somebody will notice and they're gonna tell us what's gonna happen next. They're gonna just come up to us and decide it's time for a promotion. And yes. Of course, sometimes that does happen. I have had wonderful people open doors for me throughout my career. And I do believe deeply in relationships, mentors, sponsors, and the people who see something in us before we completely see it in ourselves. But I just think we cannot hand those people the steering wheel. Think about it. Think about somebody that's been in the organization for 10 years. She is fantastic at what she does. Every time something difficult comes up, her boss gives it to her because they trust her. She becomes the fixer, and over time, she becomes indispensable. For years, she interprets that as evidence that she's going to be moving towards something bigger. But then you know where this is going. A leadership position opens up and someone else gets it. Of course, she's hurt, I mean, and a little angry. her reaction is, how could they not have known that I wanted that? How could they not have known I wanted that? The painful answer may be that they genuinely didn't know. She thought her performance was communicating her ambition. But those are two different conversations. Doing excellent work tells people that you are excellent at the work you are doing now. It does not automatically tell them where you want to go next. And that leads me to another version of the story that I hear just as often. This person doesn't hate his job, and that's almost the problem. The salary is good. He likes most of the people around him. And he knows exactly how to do the work. He's considered the subject matter expert. Every once in a while, though, there's just this little feeling that he has that says, man, I don't think I want to do this forever. But then the week gets busy. there's a new project, another deadline, and that feeling just gets pushed aside. Why? Because you're managing and you're doing. And then six months later, the feeling comes back. Then another year goes by. And he just kept waiting for the moment where he would finally be unhappy enough to justify making a change. And I really want to challenge that. You do not have to hate your job before you are allowed to want something different. You do not need to be completely burned out before you decide to make a move. You also don't need to know exactly what the next five years are going to look like before admitting. That what you have now is just no longer what you want. The career decision for someone like this is simply acknowledging, I think I'm ready for something different. then there's another group of people who know exactly what they want, but they keep waiting until they feel ready to go after it. They tell themselves they're gonna apply after one more certification. And that networking is gonna happen when they're officially job hunting. The problem is, everyone, life rarely sends you a calendar invitation that says, do great news, everything finally settled down, and you may now change your life. At some point, you have to move while life is still happening. And this is exactly where I want to give you something that you can take away from this episode because I never want you to listen to me for 10 minutes and then feel inspired for the next hour and then go right back to doing exactly what you were doing before. Sometime today, I want you to do a career check-in. I want you to start with this question. Ready? What do I want more of? Do not immediately jump to a job title. Think about what it is that you actually want your work and your life to contain. Maybe it's more influence or flexibility. You may want to lead at a higher level, earn more money. Or have more time for work that genuinely matters to you. Then on part two, I want you to ask yourself what you want less of. You might want less of endless firefighting or less of bureaucracy or less of work that you have already outgrown. When you identify what no longer fits you. You begin to see where it is that you want to go, but you have to let go of that stuff that you want less of. Here is the question that matters most. What are you waiting for? Are you waiting for someone to notice you? Is there a conversation? That you keep postponing because you want to feel more confident first. you're waiting for someone else to tell you, you know what? You're ready. Whatever your answer is to that, I don't want you to judge yourself. I just want you to be honest, right? We have a hard time being honest with ourselves about these things. now I want you to ask yourself what part of this is actually mine to do? Okay, this is putting you in the driver's seat. As funny as it sounds. You can't force someone to promote you, but you can tell them what you want and ask them what you need to demonstrate to be considered. You can't guarantee that somebody's gonna hire you, but you can start building relationships in the field that you want to enter. You might not know exactly what the next chapter looks like yet, but you can certainly start exploring it. And please, everyone, don't turn this into a giant career reinvention project. I just want you to pick one move. And that could be sending the message that you have been thinking about sending. That could be you asking someone to coffee or finally telling your boss that you're interested in the next level and that you want it. It might be updating your LinkedIn profile and researching a position that has been on your mind or schedule a conversation with someone whose career you admire. That last one, scheduling a conversation with someone whose career you admire, that has been powerful in my career to meet people who are doing fantastical things in the world and being inspired by them and learning from them and watching the natural doors that open up from those conversations. Please just make one intentional move this week. Did you know that our careers rarely change when we suddenly have the entire path figured out? Usually one decision leads to a conversation. And that conversation introduces us to something we didn't know before. And then suddenly there's the next decision to make. That is how momentum starts. We misunderstand confidence when it comes to our careers. We tell ourselves, you know what? I'm gonna do it when I feel more confident. But most of the time, confidence doesn't come first. You make the call while you are nervous. You walk into the event a little unsure of exactly who you're gonna talk to. And you finally say out loud, I wanna be considered for something bigger. Even though a part of you is wondering if you have any business saying that yet. And every time you make one of those moves, you are building evidence that you can trust yourself to take the next one. You're so proud of yourself for doing that. Here's my one power VOLT for today. For my electric leaders out there, I want you to find 10 quiet minutes. Put your alarm on your phone, put it on Do Not Disturb. and I want you to realize how long 10 quiet minutes actually feels. Okay. And I want you to answer four questions. What do I want more of? What do I want less of? What am I waiting for? And what is one small move I can make this week? Then make sure that that last answer, that one move that you can make this week gets out of your note section, your phone or the notebook that you wrote it down and into your life. Your career is too important to manage only when something goes wrong. You don't need to wait until you're miserable, burned out, passed over, or forced into a decision that you did not choose. You are allowed to be intentional even while things are going well. And if you're listening to this thing thinking, Rosanne I know I want something different, but I have no idea what that different thing even is. I want you to know that you don't have to have the answer before you ask for help. That's actually one of the main reasons people come to coaching. People are sometimes so busy being successful in taking care of what's right in front of them and becoming the person that everyone counts on that they have they don't have space to think and think seriously about what they want right this minute. Those are the conversations I love having with people. I want you to make one promise to yourself after this episode. Please don't spend another week simply wondering what might be possible. Life is too short. I want you to make one move toward finding out. I'm gonna be so proud of you. Just one move. One opportunity can change an entire trajectory of a career. And sometimes that opportunity just begins because you decided to stop waiting for your career to happen to you. And with that, my friends. I'll see you next time. I can't wait to hear about the one small move that everyone's deciding to take after listening to this podcast. Have a great day. I believe in you. Don't forget. Bye bye.