Mid Career Advice for Gen Xers Feeling Stuck At Work

MID-CAREER EXPECTATIONS

One of the reasons you can feel stuck in a job is because the job or company culture is out of harmony with your values and long-term goals.

PERSONAL VALUES

Your values are usually subconscious and only become apparent when they are challenged.

This Psychology Today article says it best: "Your values form the foundation of your life. They dictate the choices you make and determine the direction that your life takes. Your values will influence your decisions related to your relationships, career, and other activities you engage in."

Certain courses and workshops I teach involve values assessment and often most participants haven't given their values, beyond the religious, much consideration.

It's easy to lose sight of your values or even to ignore when corporate culture shifts and conflicts with your values when you need your job to maintain your lifestyle. But this cognitive dissonance can lead to burnout, frustration and reduced job satisfaction.

CAREER GOALS

• Do you have a career development plan? Are you on track?
• What's your career motivation?
• Where do you see yourself in 5 years? At your current company or elsewhere?
• In what areas do you need to grow as you prepare for your next position?

Career goal setting is critical if you are going to move beyond feeling stuck to regaining control. Just going through the motions week-after-week, month-after-month, and year-after-year isn't going to help you to stand out. When you will put your career on autopilot you look up a decade later and wonder where the time went.

If you have written your goals out, kudos. If you haven't, why not? If you haven't written your goals, you can find some help in these posts I've written on goals and goal setting:

• How to Set Goals and Achieve Them
• Productivity Hacks: Goooooaalls!
• Let Your Goals Guide You

If you would like a proven process to create and achieve goals, check out Goal Sprint: 7 Days to Clear, Achievable Goals.

I would ask you to review your goals and make sure they are your goals and not vanity goals (i.e. goals you think make you sound cool) or someone else's goals for you.

What are your goals, and do you feel you can achieve enough of them in your current position or with your current company?

EXPECTATIONS

You, me, everyone has expectations of their job and employer. Most people expect they will be paid fairly, challenged, motivated, equipped, and appreciated.

Beyond that what do you expect. I would bet folding money that that missed expectation is at the root of your current feelings of burnout and malaise. Ask yourself what do you really want from this role, your job, your leaders, what do you want out of your career?

When any of these expectations go unmet for extended periods of time you can become disenchanted and feel stuck. Beyond a consistent paycheck, what are your expectations and are they being met?

MID-LEVEL MANAGEMENT TRAINING

A recent study found that "67 percent of U.S. employees say they feel they need more training and skills to stay up-to-date. In fact, over a third of U.S. employees report they have done nothing to upskill in the past 12 months..."

Training is one of the basic expectations we have of our employers. A 2017 APA study of job skills training and career development showed that only 45% of respondents have "time time during work hours set aside for career development."

Which means that career development is an after-hours, on your time affair. Or worse, you don't work on your career development at all. Getting caught in the vortex of daily emergencies, crushed under the deluge of "must-attend" meetings, and carried off in the rapids of never-ending emails can cause you to deprioritize training.

The short-term response can have long-term consequences. At the current pace of technological, industry, and marketplace change your skills could be outdated within 1-2 years. 

You, rightly, expect to receive training from your employer. Training programs exist to make you competent in your job, effectively manage teams, and become a better leader. You are the primary stakeholder and decision-maker in your career success.

Company sponsored training just a piece of the puzzle. It's difficult for you to stand out when you are given the same training as everyone else.

How many times have you opted to miss a training because you had too much on your plate at the moment?

Training is moving online which helps with the time commitment but may still leave you completing it on your own time and getting the same ideas as everyone else.

With the workplace landscape changing so quickly, depending on corporate training alone might leave you unprepared for what's next.

Over the last few decades both retirement benefits (from pensions to 401(k)s) and healthcare benefits have shifted from being a primary employee benefit to being an employee responsibility.

Why shouldn't you take your training into your own hands as well, so that you can develop portable skills that will help you to stand out in any organization.

High potential leaders are often fast-tracked and provided additional training and opportunities. Becoming a high potential leader is often a matter of perception and almost always out of your hands.

Training is a key area where you can differentiate yourself from your peers and give yourself a strategic advantage. You can read more about how you can invest in yourself here.

WHAT IS YOUR CAREER CURRICULUM?

What should you do to increase your skills and your value?

Read 2-3 books on your chosen subject.

Read current articles and blogs on your chosen subject.

Listen to podcasts on your chosen subject.

Find a conference to attend this year.

Check out our upcoming comprehensive career advancement program designed to help you stand out, change perceptions, and reclaim control of your career.

Consider enrolling in one of our other leadership or career courses here.

Considering the trends, your above-and-beyond professional development efforts can future-proof your career whereas doing nothing may limit it.

ENLIST HELP

Everyone needs help and the wise seek it. -David Arrington

You may have bought into the myth of the self-made man or woman. But it's just that, a myth.

New year's resolutions have become synonymous with failure, why? The new year signals a fresh start and that enthusiasm without a plan and accountability usually ends with regret and rationalization.

Ours is a DIY society your DIY efforts can benefit from OPAE (other people's accountability and experience).

Here's some career advice: stop making it harder on yourself to succeed. Ask for help.

Every Luke Skywalker has a Yoda. Every high potential leader has a coach and/or mentor. Every CEO, superstar, or athlete has a team of coaches guiding them on any number of issues. Who do you have?

But "they did it by sheer force of will" you say?

Um, no.

The entire notion of willpower is under scrutiny. Some argue that it plays no part in your ability to achieve while others argue it's a limited resource.

What you know for sure is that you can undermine your best efforts by avoiding the difficult tasks in favor of easier tasks.

You, and almost everyone else, can self-sabotage and be your own worst enemy even when you cognitively know what you need to do.

CONSIDER A PIVOT

If you don't like how things are, change it! You're not a tree. - Jim Rohn

If you don't like the road you're walking, start paving another one - Dolly Parton

As you consider your career and your goals is it time to pivot? Here's some criteria to consider when you are thinking about a pivot.

• Are there opportunities for you in your current company?
• Are you feeling appreciated and valued at your current company?
• Do you feel you have more to give at your current company?
• Has the company leadership or culture shifted and you no longer fit in?

Pivots don't always involve switching companies. You can pivot to a new role within your company or to a new career track within your company.

Perhaps there's an department or division you've always wanted to work in. Now's the time to ask how to make that happen.

Pivots aren't for the faint of heart but as I mentioned the 25 STRATEGIES FOR GETTING PROMOTED (AFTER YOU'VE BEEN PASSED OVER) there are times when you should consider moving to another company or making a career change.