Leadership - Life transitions
Life transitions
Age
When you set a personal vision it is based upon your current knowledge and experiences.
Your basic values will remain the same.
Naturally, your knowledge and experiences will alter as you get older.
Hence, what you want out of life is likely to change at different stages as you get older.
At different stages of your career you may well have compromised some or all of your basic values in order to achieve some short term gains.
Eventually, you get to a point where your career options and vision are at odds with you basic values and the ‘benefits’ are unacceptable.
Of course, many people have no idea what their personal values are because they have not gone through a process to find out.
This ‘mid-life’ crisis is very common from the ages of 30 to 50 and even outside of these ages.
For many people their job becomes their life. When it ends in retirement an enormous void appears.
This can often lead to a demise in health with ‘nothing useful’ to do.
For some people their job is purely a means to an end. It will support a good family life and other interests.
They may be very happy and any change is unwelcome. In this case, if change does occur, for example via redundancy the issues may be very difficult to cope with.
Others have a career plan that doesn’t develop as they would like and are forced to comes to terms with this and may re-evaluate where they are going.
Decisions
You will make decisions concerning your career based upon perceived benefits that might contravene your basic values.
At some point the negative aspects of your decisions will come to the fore and the benefits may not be so visible.
When you reach such a crossroads some sort of change must happen or things will just get even worse at the expense of your health and possibly that of others.
Many people will say ‘I am lucky to be in a job that I enjoy’. This is probably, for many, a great position to be in, to having a successful career in a job that you really enjoy. If the job is an extension of a hobby so much the better.
There is a distinction between doing a job because it has financial benefits compared to a job that you enjoy.
When you are young you will make many decisions in your education.
You might make these because of all sorts of reasons.
- Your family have always been in this business.
- You have heard the salary is high once you gain experience.
- The job is generic allowing easy movement and potential security etc.
It is not unusual for people to choose their educational path based on one set of ideas, as above, but find out later that it is against their basic values and they have made a mistake. Sometimes it is easy to get stuck into the rut of the ‘system’.
Technology change
When you choose an educational path you are doing so based upon the environment in which you live.
This is based upon many things, for example.
- What you like to do and your interests.
- Influential input from family and friends.
- Media communication.
- Current perception of particular careers.
- Technology in place at the time.
The latter can make a big difference.
Clearly, advances in personal computer technology and the internet have given a tremendous boon to interest and careers in this area.
Advances in the special effects in the film industry will have increased interest in this area.
Advances in surgical techniques will have attracted others.
If you go back 10, 20 or 30 years to the start of a particular career the lack of these technical advances may have influenced a decision to move elsewhere.
Leadership is about a vision of the future, and trying to assess trends is part of this.
The ‘mid-life’ crisis may arise because you have ignored the signs early on and haven’t taken steps to change early enough.
Job change
It is not only areas like technology that change it could be that the job will evolve over a period of time.
What was a good match against your personal values when you first started may not be the case now.
In later years you may find the job of less interest, less of a challenge and draining of your energy.
This could happen for many reasons.
- Your own job expands as others leave and are not replaced.
- The legal environment evolves and changes the nature of the job.
- There are dramatic technology changes that require you to develop new skills that you are not happy with.
- The company expands in new areas redefining the boundaries of your job etc.
- Is the job becoming too physical?
- Is it now a young person’s job?
Any or all of many changes can cause alienation of your personal values leading to stress and a disaffection for the job.
It is at times like these that you may choose to reinvent yourself.
Career change
If you are considering a career change or you are just currently unhappy in your present position you can take a few steps to assess the situation.
Ask yourself some questions about why you began this career in the first place.
- What were your influences?
- Where did you expect to be and where are you?
- What motivated you to take this career path?
- What has changed?
- What can you do about it?
You will need to admit and accept that your desires and the job may have both moved on in the intervening years and that some sort of change is inevitable if you are to ‘get back on track’.
Whilst your basic values will not have changed the job and external influences are a dynamic system that you have to adapt to.
You can look at the key steps in your career and compare them with key areas in your personal life.
If there appears to be any connection you may want to analyse it further.
Some key personal areas could be.
- Leaving secondary school.
- Attending university.
- Carrying out research work for a doctorate.
- Getting your first job.
- Your first promotion.
- Reaching the ages of 30, 40 or 50.
- Your first movement to another company.
- Losing your job and obtaining another position.
- Setting up your own business.
- Retirement etc.
Other personal milestones might be.
- Getting married.
- Having children.
- Getting divorced.
- A bereavement in the family.
- A severe illness or disability.
You may even be a great success. However, being great at something and being successful (in monetary and status terms) may not mean that you are in a job that you like.
A good analogy is a car tyre.
No matter how good the tyre is it will eventually lose pressure. If you do not monitor it regularly and do something about it the tyre will get to a hazardous state. It will lose grip and be difficult to steer.
This is similar to the continued drain in your energy. Eventually, it will get so low that it will become a danger to your own well being and that of any passengers (friends and family).
Avoidance
When we choose not to change we are naturally accepting the current position.
This will probably be accepting all of the negative aspects that we don’t like that makes the position less than ideal.
It is one thing to analyse and list all of the negative aspects and another to do something about them.
If you choose not to act then the ramifications can be severe.
- You may feel that you are unfit and wish to accept it. This could lead to more serious health problems.
- Your budget starts to get out of control and eventually other areas of a project are seriously affected. Perhaps the project collapses.
- A minor fib turns into additional lies and a loss of trust and leadership standing etc.
If you leave many of the issues unchecked then the situation will not change and neither will you.
By taking a close look at work related issues.
- Skills.
- Relationships.
- Work environment etc.
And personal issues.
- Personal training and development.
- Physical and mental health.
- Knowledge development.
- Emotional development (EQ) etc.
You can ultimately get your career and personal development on the same track.