The Career Success Journey - where are you right now?

Everyone has a different story when it comes to their careers.

Different starting points, unique challenges and twists and turns along the way. But even with all this variety, there's a pattern that shows up again and again between those who stall in their career and those who go on to enjoy their work and find real meaning, joy and purpose in what they do.

From our 25 years of coaching more than 2,000 executives and leaders, we have seen this pattern many times. It's a journey we all take in our careers. Let's call it the "Career Success Journey."

This journey has five main parts. These parts, or stages, are steps everyone takes in their career journey. No matter who you are or where you work, these stages are part of your career story.

This journey is not about experience or seniority. It’s not about the kind of roles or level of responsibility you take on as you progress.

It is entirely about an attitude towards growth and developing the self-awareness to know that hitting your career potential requires a clear vision, direction and the will to maintain the momentum to achieve heights in your career that others only dream about.

This journey does not represent a time journey. You can quite easily be stuck in the first stage of “Powerless” for the whole of your career (and many people are!).

Equally, you can be only a few years into your career and have developed the self-awareness to see what you need to do to reach your goals and be further along than most.

To better understand each of the stages, let’s break each one down.

The First Stage - Powerless

It's where people feel stuck. A prime example of someone stuck in this stage may be their use of language like, "It's too late for me to change." Or “This is just how things are.” People in this stage might be 30, 40 or even 50 years old. Even though they still have many years of work ahead of them, they feel like they can't make a change. It’s not true, of course. You can choose you change where you are at any stage.

Explore

At this stage, there's a realisation that there could be something more to your career. If you're at this stage, you may feel like something isn't right in your career. You may feel like they're not doing what you should be doing. Or you may be very successful and earn a great income, yet you may still be thinking, "Is this it?”. This is a perfectly normal feeling.

People in this stage start to look at other options. They start to think about what else they could be doing. This stage can be hard because there’s a big decision to be made. You have to figure out what you exactly want from your career and from your life. If it turns out that what you actually want is different from what you have now, it may require a big shift. But it's an important step towards finding the right path. Often it can be hard to work out what you want at this stage.

Many people who join the Power Up program are at this stage and want help and support exploring what their vision and purpose are.

Drive

At this stage, the direction is set and you most likely know what you want. You know your destination and you’re willing to invest the time and effort to take the action to get there. You’re taking control of your career and now you want the strategies and tools that will help you get there.

With this renewed level of awareness also comes a realisation that you benefit from accountability and ongoing support to build the momentum you need to keep going. Many people who join the Power Up program are looking for high-level strategies to help navigate their career progression successfully by mastering the 7 Natural Powers. 

Accelerate

If you’re in this stage, you are really starting to move! You have been consistently working towards achieving peak performance and now you want to shift from consistency to acceleration. You’re focused on discovering and implementing ways to reach and achieve your goals faster. This means you’re making big moves, taking big steps towards what you want, and consistently stepping outside your comfort zone – possibly on a daily basis. When you’re looking to Accelerate, it’s all about speed and getting where you want to go as quickly as possible.

Powered Up - Full Power

This is the final stage - when you have hit full power and you’re ready to step into the role of a Powered Up Leader. As you can imagine, only a few leaders reach this stage due to the level of commitment, persistence and resilience you need to perform at your peak on a consistent basis.

So, that's the Career Success Journey. It's a journey of how you can raise yourself from feeling unsure and unclear about your future direction to elevating yourself to achieve peak performance consistently.

The question is, where are you on this journey?

Are you stuck in the Explore stage and need help to discover what you want and where you want to go? Or do you know where you want to go but need the tools and resources to take your development to another level? Or do you simply need the support and accountability from a group of like-minded, high-performing individuals who will keep you moving forward?

With the right support and tools, it's possible. You are in control of your career, you just need to make the choice to go for it.

If you’re not sure where you are on the career journey, or you would like help to figure out how to move to the next stage, let us show you how. Explore our Power Up programs and see how we can support you.