I’m always fascinated by the common threads that run through our careers. It never ceases to amaze me that we can all be so unique, yet so much the same. We all have patterns, or ‘ways of dealing with/approaching things’. For example, I have a tendency (read pattern) to dive into new areas of interest head-first. I want to get fully immersed, totally knowledgeable, and have an in-depth understanding of any new area of interest. Its one of the things I like about myself, it is a piece of what makes me ‘me’. Unique. However (here is where I’m ‘just like’ everyone else), I can overuse this pattern to the point that it becomes a detriment. When faced with an onslaught of interesting things, I am easily distracted. Jumping from interest to interest. It’s something that I have to pay attention to all the time, in order to maintain the focus I need to get things done. Without that ‘attention’, this would definitely be a career-limiting behavior for me.
I came to this topic today, as I was thinking about one of my favorite clients. I’ll call him ‘Pete’, but of course that is not his real name. Pete worked with me for several months last year, with a focus on coaching around building and leading a new team. He is a quite a competent and successful manager, but came to realize he had some of his own ‘career limiting behaviors’, and wanted to identify them and work on being more conscious in his actions, and more in tune with who he is as a leader. Pete still calls from time to time for a coaching session, usually when some difficult or new situation arises and he wants to make sure he stays focused and away from the old behavior patterns. In the past several months, though, an interesting trend has begun. I guess you might call it a pattern. Pete has called me on three occasions, leaving a message that he wanted to set up an appointment, something critical was going on at work, and he needed some coaching. Each time, I phoned him back and left a message with options for meeting, phone numbers to reach me. And each time, I heard nothing back. Then a few weeks later, another phone call with a message of wanting to meet. I was thinking of Pete because I’m planning to call him next week to point out that he hasn’t returned three of my calls, and to check-in with him. The pattern that he is displaying is so familiar to me, having worked with Pete. One of Pete’s ‘patterns’ is to take full ownership for corporate initiative, develop a rallying ‘message, and rally his team towards accomplishing the goal. Where this asset gets flipped/overused is when he needs help/advice but does not seek it because of his drive to fully ‘own’ the problem himself. So I suspect that is what is going on with these phone calls. From our coaching, he learned that he needed to reach out for help sometimes. And he did. But I’m guessing that after making the call, he slips right back into ‘I can handle it myself’ mode. And perhaps that is the case. But I think I’ll check in with him anyway.
This all ties in so nicely with our dig what you do philosphy. When you overuse a pattern, when you second guess yourself, or when you don’t fully analyze a situation before acting…you risk, at best, the undercurrent of anxiety over your decision. At worst, you risk making unconscious mistakes that others around you see but that you do not. You risk others undermining your decisions, which ultimately takes control away from you. And when you don’t feel in control, its really not possible to love your work.
To avoid all of this, or at least to do the best you can towards not falling into the trap of overusing patterns that can limit your career success, you’ve got to know yourself really well, pay attention to what is going on all around you, and make conscious, intelligent decsions based on what you know, towards actions that are based on keep observation. You’ll sleep better, and you’ll dig what you do.
Posted by Chris Fogarty – FiredUP Careers
Visit us and get your FREE report
