INsight/ Your Next Career
Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash.
Manila, 13 September 2023 — Why your next career success might look different.
Story
It happened in 2017. The large hotel ballroom in Sydney was full of people with a shared purpose. Having joined the quarterly intensive of Thought Leaders Business School, the sense of expectation was palpable in the room. I could see and feel that the participants—aged between their thirties and seventies—were open to learning as well as unlearning, myself included. We were being introduced to a curriculum and a challenging process that would change our lives forever.
Last week I gained an additional insight into the adventure that I was part of in that ballroom in Sydney. It came when I read From Strength to Strength by Arthur C. Brooks, a professor in happiness studies at Harvard Business School. In his research on aging and career progression, he discovered how successful professionals can learn to evolve from one career into another during successive stages in their lives. That, I realized, was what was really happening at that Sydney intensive of the Thought Leaders Business School. We were setting ourselves up for success in our next careers.
To help professionals move from one career stage to the next, Prof. Brooks introduces several new mental models in his book, such as the Strivers Curse of declining abilities, the Second Success Curve to discover evolved roles and a clear purpose, and the Reverse Bucket List to manage what you want—and decide to want less as you chip away things that you no longer need for bringing out your best. These models resonated with my own experience of shifting my career and with the experiences of leaders I now coach to make transitions happen in their careers. As Prof. Brooks shows in his book, these transitions unlock tremendous value in our lives.
Challenge
What I found especially interesting in Prof. Brooks’ research is that strivers who fervently held on to their chosen career paths, who showed signs of being addicted to gaining more success, were likely to experience a steeper decline in life than the leaders who are making space to discover new opportunities and a shift to their next careers. This is what the Strivers Curse is about, and it has also shown up in the life story of Prof. Brooks, who shifted from French horn player to academic to CEO and onward to a role as professor.
Likewise in my case, my shift from international water specialist to leadership coach and thought leader caught many of my former colleagues by surprise and prompted many questions. What I have realized since then, however, is that many or most professionals actually dream of shifting into jobs and roles that align better with the life purpose they are discovering. It’s the change rather than the continuity that excites them. I feel that excitement too, as I keep discovering new ways to contribute to the success and growth of fellow leaders and professionals, many of whom are working on water and sustainability.
Drawing on the experiences of guiding leaders during the past decade and more, our Leader in Transition coaching program has been tailored to help leaders make positive changes happen in their careers. For some, it’s about a challenge to become more effective in their current roles and to prepare for promotions, while for others it involves a change of role, job, or career. With the high mobility in today’s market, we see more clients feeling attracted to the prospect of transitioning to what Prof. Brooks called a second or third success curve.
Question
My question for you this week is to reflect on where your current career is taking you. If it is to gain more success and prestige from what you have already been doing for many years, you might be setting yourself up for an unnecessarily deep decline caused by the Strivers Curse described by Prof. Brooks.
If, upon reflection, you find yourself on that path, it may be time to give yourself a change of perspective. What can a second (or third) success curve in your carer look like? What strengths, knowledge, and experience can you build on to design your next role in life?
If, on the other hand, you are already exploring the next transition of your career, I say a hearty congrats! With proper support, you will be setting yourself up for an exciting journey of flourishing for your life purpose and for growing more leaders around you as you keep moving from strength to strength.
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