3 Steps to Navigate an Executive Career Transition
If you are like me, I begin each new year with energy and commitment to achieve the objectives I set for myself. We often call these resolutions. You might have set resolutions like eating healthier, making regular trips to the gym, preparing for a promotion or growing your business. But those resolutions infamously fall by the wayside after only a few weeks or months. Why is that?
From my experience helping professionals in executive career transitions, it’s often due to a lack of proper planning and preparation. The New Year triggered you to make a change, but the goal lacked a solid foundation.
If this happened to you - you’re not alone.
Everyone goes through different ages and phases in their career. The problem is that we rarely think about them in advance. We only take note as the energy and opportunities build, ultimately leading to a radical shift. As a result, we’re not adequately prepared for the next step. We fail to assemble the structures and action plans that help us make that shift with the best foot forward.
As a recent guest on Monument Wealth Management’s Off the Wall podcast, I spoke with Jessica Gibbs, CFP® and David B. Armstrong, CFA® about the nuances of avoiding this cycle and planning a successful executive career transition that sticks.
Here are three steps you can take.
Step 1: Identify Your Goals and Values
If you’re feeling frustrated by the experience and atmosphere at your current place of work, that might seem like reason enough to change places. But if you can identify what about a particular situation frustrates you, you’ll be better equipped to find the solution. Otherwise, you may end up leaving your current organization only to feel that same frustration a few months down the road.
If you’re considering an executive career transition, it’s crucial to get to the core of who you are and what you want out of your career before making a leap. Dig deep into your underlying goals and values to ensure the transition aligns with what you want from life.
Here are some questions to start with:
What drives me?
What gets me up in the morning?
What’s the contribution I choose to make?
What are my skill sets and values?
What would give me fulfillment?
All these questions are designed to help you find clarity on exactly what you want. You don’t want to default to “getting to the next level” just because you think that’s what you’re supposed to do.
One way to organize your thoughts is by creating a vision board. Grab a poster board to explore the ideas you have about a career transition. Cut out pictures from a stack of magazines, paying attention to places and actions in life that had meaning to you (positive or negative).
Get specific with the questions you ask yourself. Do I prefer to innovate and invent? Or, sustain and grow? What kind of environment do I want to be in? What kind of people do I want to work with? What is the specific kind of work I want to do? Knowing these answers can help you decide if you want to work at a startup or a large, more established organization.
Don’t forget that this can also include more practical considerations, too. You may consider what you and your family need, the area you want your children to grow up in, and whether or not a relocation is feasible for your family.
If possible, consider taking a sabbatical to pause, rest, and refocus. Disconnecting from the daily hustle and bustle can help you reorient your priorities and remember what brings you joy.
The goal here is to diverge before you converge. Come up with a lot of ideas of what might make you happy before distilling it down into what matters the most to you.
Step 2: Evaluate Your Options
With a few ideas about what you want from your professional life, it’s time to start thinking about how you can get there. Ask yourself these questions:
What skills or experiences do you need to achieve those desired next steps?
Is it possible to get those experiences within my current organization, or do I need to move somewhere new?
Start by surveying your current available opportunities. Leaving your current organization may not be necessary if there’s an opportunity to shift closer to your end goal, such as seeking a promotion.
Alternatively, many people overlook the possibility of a lateral move. If you’ve spent your entire career working with company financials, taking on a lateral role in operations could provide the experiences and skills you need to move higher in the company.
If neither of these is possible, then it may be time to consider a new organization that can provide the experiences you need.
Some professionals may even land on another option: founding a new company. Many ambitious workers find that an executive career transition means using their skills and knowledge to become an entrepreneur, which gives them freedom and flexibility as they continue to grow.
Step 3: Build Your Network
Identifying a clear direction for your executive career transition gives drive and intentionality to your decisions, but the hard truth is you likely can’t get there on goals alone. You’ll need to get on the radar of those who make the decisions and establish a network of advocates who can support your path forward.
Who needs to know you and your contribution to the company?
Who can advocate for you when it’s time to make the hard decisions?
This goes beyond simply meeting someone influential for lunch. When you’re trying to catch the attention of a valuable network contact's attention, note what they’re paying attention to and any special projects they’re working on. Is there a place for you to get involved in those projects so that you can be seen for the talents and skills you bring to the table? Are there people in your network who could make a key introduction?
When meeting and connecting with your network, it’s crucial to consider your personal brand and how others view you. Is that how you want to be recognized and described? If not, what needs to change?
If you want your network to advocate for you, you must be seen as a viable candidate – not just in your experiences and skills, but in the kind of leader necessary to fill the role.
One way to understand the current state of your personal brand is by establishing your “board of directors.” This should consist of four to six people inside and outside your organization who know you well enough to comment meaningfully on how they see you. You can also ask for feedback from your boss, HR, or peers. Getting feedback from subordinates can be a little more challenging, but you can create a 360-degree feedback process that gives you anonymous feedback in reports and surveys.
After you assess your personal brand, it’s time to start creating a relationship map. For long-term plays, you need to start networking outside of your organization with lots of lead time. Make a running list of board members and senior leaders in the organizations you’re targeting to see who you already know. Make meetings with them and get introductions where you can.
Put out the word about what you’re looking for in your executive career transition. Sometimes, you can be upfront with your current organization about your long-term plan. Other times, it needs to be a closely guarded secret. If the latter is true, then you have to be more strategic with whom you talk to if you want to avoid information circling back to your current company.
Considerations for When It’s Not Your Choice
We don’t always have the luxury of planning a transition in advance. When companies downsize or offer a severance package, you may be left floundering and unprepared for what comes next.
When these difficult situations arise, remember you’re a good person with value. Whatever’s happening in the organization isn’t a reflection on you. It’s just the necessity of the business at this particular moment in time.
The best thing you can do is remind yourself of all the work you’ve done in your current position. Create a timeline of your contributions. Not only does this remind you of all the accomplishments you have in your career, but it also puts you in a mindset to go out and start to find new opportunities. Use this tough situation to begin building your narrative.
When possible, give yourself some time to get back up again and brush yourself off. There’s often grief associated with being unexpectedly let go, and you may need a little bit of time to let that settle before you start pounding the pavement on a career transition.
How Do You Know When It’s Time to Step Away?
Eventually, there will be no more promotions or career changes in your current line of work. When thinking about what brings you fulfillment, consider “Act 3” of your life. What does life mean to you after work ends?
Retirement is full of wonderful opportunities, but many people don’t plan for what they want to accomplish in their final act. If they do make plans, it must take into account the financial aspect of retirement as well as what will bring them happiness with all their newfound free time.
Consider this case study on the Edwards couple, two busy executives who decided they wanted to retire sooner rather than later. With some professional advice and planning, were able to model the scenarios that would lead to a successful retirement – not just financially, but in a way that brought them joy and fulfillment.
If you’ve been too focused on day-to-day life, like busy executives or business owners often are, other areas of your life may have fallen by the wayside. There may not be much left outside of your work life which can be incredibly scary.
When I work with clients, I always recommend the Three-Year Glide Path. In the three years leading up to retirement, take some time to test out different hobbies and activities to fill your time. This allows you to ease out of your working life and into new hobbies or activities in retirement without a sudden, disruptive transition.
Deciding on your next step can be hard. I hope that by following the steps I’ve outlined above, you can navigate your next phase with more ease and joy. If you’re ready for a change and need a partner to guide you through it, please reach out. I would be happy to help.
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