Accountability for your Career
By Alvah Parker
When you leave a job after having had a demanding manager, you
may feel like you just took off a tight pair of shoes. What a
relief!
Even if you have been laid off and you are not sure what your
next step is there can be a feeling of freedom.
Being accountable to someone else is constraining. You
can't just do anything you want. You must do it the manager's way
and in the manager's time frame. Sometimes you are in synch
with him or her but sometimes not. Often the pressure of
producing it fast is unrealistic and stressful. Hence the
relief!
That is not to say that there is no anger, disappointment and
fear that comes with being laid off. It is natural to feel this
too. People often need time to recover after the trauma of being
laid off because they do feel so upset and discouraged. They must
learn to deal with those emotions and that can take some
time.
On the other hand finding a new job takes time too and so the
faster you can adjust to your new situation and put your anger and
fear aside the better off you will be.
Initially being accountable to only yourself does feel
freeing. But eventually reality sets in and you will need to
figure out how to motivate yourself to take some steps
forward.
How do you do it?
The first step is to set some goals. What is it you
really want to do? Since you probably have fear around being
out of work for a length of time as well as a desire to find a
better job, a good place to start is to set some goals for making
contacts and meeting people that can help you to find that better
job.
While taking action and developing relationships will make you
feel better, it still may be difficult to do. Days with no agenda
may be welcome in the beginning. There is no boss to complain if
you don't reach out to your network in a reasonable amount of time
and it is so easy to forgive yourself for not moving. ("I'm
still upset." "I need a rest." "I can wait until
Monday.")
When you find you are procrastinating and finding a million
other things to do instead of working on your goals, one way to
move forward is to enlist the aid of a colleague or friend. Ask
that person to become your accountability partner so that you can
move forward. Share your goals and tell them your time
line.
Making a commitment to that person and to yourself is a public
promise to get moving. Your friend is acting as your
manager. (There is a reason for managers!)
I've been talking about people out of work up to now but this
is equally important if you are working long hours in a job.
Whether you are love your work or are miserable in the position, I
recommend that everyone work on his or her career a few hours a
week.
Here again an accountability partner can be
invaluable. Having your boss do this is not a good
idea. Managers have agendas (They usually want you to stay
where you are.) and their plans may or may not align with
yours. Instead choose someone else with whom you are
comfortable to help you and make this career work time a
priority.
Where do you find an accountability partner? Ideally
you'll know someone who also needs an accountability partner so you
can help each other. If you don't know anyone like that, then
a friend with whom you have shared your career frustration and/or
highlights would work.
Finally of course people hire coaches to work with them for
this purpose. Accountability coaches can help you to set
realistic goals and then make you accountable for attaining
them.
Coaches are trained to help clients to overcome the obstacles.
They are unbiased partners who hold your vision of your next career
move. So in addition to having an accountability partner who
supports you and your goals you also have someone skilled in
working with clients who want a partner who sees the vision
and hears the obstacles to success. The coach will
guide you through the challenges toward the dream.
Take Action
- What are your current career goals? Write them down. Is there a time and date you plan to get them done? Would an accountability partner be helpful?
Make a list of possible accountability partners? (This could be helpful even if you don't want to have one right now. You might listen for opportunities to help the people on your list with their goals so that when you need them they will be available to do the same for you.)
