Sustainable Ambition Forum - 03.22.22
To Quit or To Optimize? That is the question.
The Sustainable Ambition View:
Leaving a company, role, or job isn’t always the easier or optimal path. When making that choice, embrace the liminality, knowing that change requires effort.
Why it matters:
I don’t want to minimize the Great Resignation nor its positive impact on companies raising wages (especially in those industries where wages have been depressed for too long) and improving employee experience. Yet, I think the media hype often doesn’t present the nuances and reality behind the numbers. Who is resigning and why? There isn’t a mass exodus across all industries, and yet there are good reasons why some are jumping in certain sectors, like food service and retail, or due to family circumstances (e.g., working mothers).
The problem in painting a broad picture is that it can glorify the act of changing jobs, when in fact changing jobs can be hard or lead to suboptimal outcomes.
A path worth considering before making a move is to see if you can optimize where you are now before incurring job switching costs.
Behind the thinking:
There are costs to change. Adam Grant shared research that shows satisfaction, energy, and belonging drop for over a year when changing jobs, while work-family conflict increases.
Speak up before you leave. For better or worse, we are not always top of mind or the first priority for our bosses, as shared by this week’s podcast guest. If your work isn’t working for you, be bold and courageous and ask for what you need and want before you leave. We often don’t ask for the growth opportunities we’re seeking or the flexibility we need only to realize that our senior leaders didn’t realize we were unhappy. We have to speak up for ourselves and make our needs known to get them addressed.
What to optimize? Up your happiness at work with PERK (Purpose, Engagement, Resilience, Kind), based on research from the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley. Take their quiz and get tips on what to do next.
But if you aren’t feeling it, change. I loved how in this podcast episode Ina Garten in conversation with Katie Couric shared that if you “aren’t in the right stream,” switch course. I’ve had that experience—where I was trying to follow a path but kept bumping into the shore or getting stuck in a pile of rocks. I wasn’t flowing with the opportunities I was going after; I wasn’t flowing with the job I was in; or I was finding myself resisting the work at hand, which is so not me. If you’re not feeling it, try something that is calling your attention now and gets you back into the flow.
And if it’s bad, move on. To be sure, if you are working in a toxic work environment, which contributes to burnout, get out. Or if you are burned out and need a break, responsibly negotiate taking a break in some way.
What’s next? Ask yourself:
Optimize: Is there good here? Can my job be optimized? What do I need to ask for?
Quit: How can I plan for my change to ensure I progress myself towards a better fit, not burn bridges, and support and sustain myself and those around me through the transition?
Making a job change isn’t effortless. It takes attention and energy. In truth, optimizing takes energy, too, but avoids switching costs. To be sure, if you are truly unhappy, make a move. But if there’s some good in where you are at, consider if optimizing is worth exploration and the effort.
Warmly,
Kathy Oneto
Founder of Sustainable Ambition
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The Round-Up
Get the goodness out of your regrets. Daniel Pink is out with his next great book, “The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward.”
To hear more, I enjoyed this podcast episode from HBR IdeaCast, since part of the discussion leans into career. The four regrets Pink identified are: foundation, boldness, moral, and connection regrets. Boldness regrets relate to what’s becoming for me one of the tenets of Sustainable Ambition: take good risk always, which borrows from the idea of good risk that Mike Murgotroyd shared in Episode 35 and of Dorie Clark and her bookThe Long Game in Episode 31. I don’t think we should leave risk-taking to just when we’re young. How can we be bold and take good risks always to help us move forward from decade to decade?
If you prefer to read, this is a good interview from GQ.
Optimize by investing in friendships at work. A lot of research shows that strong community connections contribute to our happiness. And it’s no different at work.
Could you be getting in the way of your own performance? A good article sharing 3 habits that can derail our success at work.
Get beyond the resume. From our friends at The Verse, get some ideas to stand out vs. the ho-hum, traditional resume. Try these approaches instead.
A new way to interview. Love the tips in this article to break out of the mold to stand out in interviews. Be bold, be you.
Make networking work for you. A great article with tips on fostering your network. This is especially important if you are seeking what might be your next career ambition. Research has shown that most jobs are found through loose networks, and yet in this article it mentions how our loose networks suffered the most during the pandemic. Networking doesn’t have to be hard, and regularly investing time in it can be powerful and pay dividends.
Or, consider Brian Grazer’s approach of holding “curiosity conversations.”
Wondering how to stand out? You can get a free Stand Out strengths assessment here from Marcus Buckingham.
Build resilience with a smile. I always love the annual nature photo awards.
The Sustainable Ambition Podcast - Episode 47
Join me for conversations with experts, authors, and friends on
what it means to live with Sustainable Ambition.
In this episode, I’m joined by Mark Herschberg, author of The Career Toolkit, Essential Skills for Success That No One Taught You, for a conversation on the importance of career planning and its ROI, assessing role and culture fit when job hunting, and the benefit of learning and applying these essential skills throughout one’s career. With the book, the accompanying app, and resources on the website, Mark offers a highly practical and insightful guide to the tools you need to manage a successful career over time.
“So this is how we deal with our career plans. Don't try to get it perfect. Start where you can. Get the nearer term a little more concrete, the longer term is going to be fuzzier, and then recognize you can and should adjust your plan as you go.”
Mark is a model of being a multi-hyphenate, someone with a serious day job, an established side gig, and many additional talents. He’s certainly not one note and has a lot to share on career management from his 20 years of teaching at MIT’s “career success accelerator.”
Find it on Apple Podcast here
Or, listen on our website here
You can also find the podcast, subscribe, and listen on Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Overcast.
A Question:
If you’re ready to quit, what values do you want to stand in as you move through this transition?
If you’re ready to optimize, what small shift can you make to address something that drains you at work or in life?
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SUSTAINABLE AMBITION™ IS ABOUT CRAFTING A FULFILLING CAREER TO SUPPORT YOUR LIFE FROM DECADE TO DECADE.
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