The Most Paralyzing Roadblock to Career Growth & How to Get Real Results
When you think of career growth, the first thing that springs to mind might be taking a class or obtaining certifications to enhance your skills. Your technical skills, while essential, are only a component of effective career growth. The foundational material that makes up true success to see real results in your career has little to do with ‘technical’ skills. Unfortunately, because most people focus in the wrong areas, it creates a paralyzing roadblock to career growth.
The most paralyzing roadblock to career growth exists because we are constantly looking outside of ourselves for solutions to get ahead. All true growth starts inside and has nothing to do with how ‘educated’ you are.
In reality, seeing real results in your career growth journey is quite simple. There’s no complex algorithm or special formula to push past the paralyzing roadblock to your career growth. The problem is, we expect other people to provide solutions, training, time, change or give us a ‘quick fix’ to spark our transformation.
“Winning in life is more than just money . . . it’s about winning on the inside.” — Doug Firebaugh
You won’t find the answers to see the real results in your career (or in your life) if you rely on:
- A quick fix scheme
- Someone else to change
- Your company to provide you with training
- Being the best or being perfect at your work
- Hard work, putting in the hours and biding your time
- A certification to unlock the growth you’ve been looking for
- Waiting for the ideal time or place before you start focusing on growth
Earlier in my career, I was a victim of these career growth myths. I was convinced that working hard, trying to be the best, getting technical skills, putting the hours, getting a certification, and waiting for the ‘right’ time would get me to my goals. I was completely unaware that my career success was a direct result of my personal growth. I didn’t realize that the walls I had built between my professional and my personal life were actually hurting me.
I didn’t realize that who I am as a person will make or break my career.
Busting the Career Growth Myth
Believe it or not, what you know, how many credentials you have, and how hard you work is only a small piece of the puzzle! What matters for real results is what type of person you are. It’s that simple. But, it’s too easy to get paralyzed by common career growth myths. We hear about ‘overnight’ success stories and wonder why it never happens to us. In fact, there is NO overnight success story. Behind each of those success stories are clarity, commitment, and consistency.
Instead of getting clear on a direction, being committed to consistency, most of us seek out another degree (like an MBA or Ph.D.), get more training, or put in hours of energy to obtain another certification. I personally know someone who has every possible certification he could get, just because he wanted to prove how knowledgable he is. At the end of the day, he’s still unfulfilled in his career and he’s not seeing real results.
Why? … Because he keeps looking for external validation and he doesn’t work on himself!
True success in your life and your career hinges on your ability to align the outside of your life with the inside. You have to get your insides right to establish a solid foundation to enjoy lasting success. In other words, before you can DO — you must BE.
How We Roadblock Our Growth
Quick Fixes: I’m impatient, so I get that it would be great to have a ‘quick fix’ to see the results you want in your career. The problem with ‘quick fixes’ is that they always skip critical steps that are essential for long-term gains. Inevitably, without getting clarity, being committed and consistent — the whole thing comes tumbling down under stress.
Changing Other People: If for any reason you feel that your growth is dependent on someone else — you need a serious perspective shift. Your growth relies on YOU. Anything else is an excuse. Much of the personal journey required for real results in your career/life starts inside and it doesn’t even cost anything. Do you want to see a difference in your environment? Then start changing what you put into it.
Training: I’m a firm believer that knowledge is essential to development. However, knowledge alone does you little good to achieve your goals, unless that goal is to be ‘the most knowledgeable’. Without the personal growth side of the equation, you will not be able to fully apply the knowledge you gained. As a coach, I help highly intelligent, fully capable professionals realize that all of their ‘smarts’ will be wasted if they don’t work on their personal journey.
Perfectionism: The sheer nature of perfectionism, or over-achievement syndrome, is self-defeating. For one, nothing you do will ever be good enough for yourself. I know, I’ve been there. It didn’t matter how hard I tried or what I did, I could never measure up to my own unrealistic expectations. On top of that; I set high expectations on others which made relationships, of any kind, stressful. By its very nature, over-achievement can alienate you, as it did for me. You need strong community ties in order to enjoy real results in your career.
Hard Work: Putting in your time is great but it won’t get you where you want to go. Time alone is not a magic pill. While this is not an invitation to slack off at work, hard work is only a component of the equation for career growth. If all you do is work hard, get more technical skills, and put in the hours — you might move up in your technical area of expertise. However, to see real results: it requires focus in other areas. Ignoring ‘soft skills’ will have hard consequences.
Certifications: I would love to say that certifications are the ticket you need for career advancement. Honestly, I think we rely on certifications a little too heavily. The problem is, I know professionals that have more letters after their name than the alphabet and they still aren’t seeing the results they want in their career. All the credentials in the world won’t solve your problems if you are broken inside.
Connections: “It’s all about whom you know and not what you know.” Very true, to an extent. However, if all you’ve done is focus on building your network with little to no focus on building yourself — no one in their right mind will refer you up the ‘ladder’ or career advancement or open doors to new opportunities. If you are brilliant, but a self-absorbed jerk, your so-called connections won’t get you anywhere. People don’t refer or recommend those that they don’t like.
The Right Time. I love this one: “I’ll focus on developing myself when ____”. We like to wait for the ‘right’ time to work on ourselves or on a goal (or anything really). In reality, this is just a form of procrastination. There are exceptions: there is such a thing as bad timing and you don’t want that either. But, just waiting for the planets to align, or even better, for when you have some ‘free’ time (who has that??) is just putting off what you need to do in the first place. You won’t see different results if you don’t change anything.
Career Growth Can be Easy
Are you willing for career growth to be easy? Are you prepared to wrap your mind around just how simple it all can really be? For me, when my eyes were first opened it was mind-blowing in its simplicity and power. It was stunning how beautifully direct the growth journey can be. It was also glaringly obvious how much I needed to let go of complexity in order to see the results I wanted.
The first step I had to take was to let go of my external focus to see career growth and focus internally on MYSELF. I had to develop my character first. I had to grow personally before I could enjoy career success. I put too much emphasis on what I knew and not enough on how I applied it. I was GREAT at what I did, but I sucked when it came to my personal skills. I lacked emotional maturity and self-control. I didn’t realize how much impact I had because I was convinced I didn’t matter. I just reacted to my environment, thinking that my ‘character’ was fixed.
Everyone has much more impact than they realize. Even the most introverted of people impact thousands of individuals during their lives. By not working on our personal growth, we are being irresponsible with our influence and wasting it. Your character and personae are not fixed. It’s an out-dated phycological belief that our demeanor is solidified by the 8–10 years of age. New research has found that you CAN change your character.
Unfortunately, mass consciousness has yet to catch on to this idea and we still think that formal education is the only way to achieve career growth success. As John Maxwell put it: “Most people focus too much on competence and too little on character”. Character growth determines how much you can develop your personal growth and without personal growth, you may never achieve your potential.
1. Get Clarity
Identify the areas you want to grow in at least 2 (no more than 4) areas. One should be an area of choice and the other an area of skill (ideally related to the choice). An area of choice is something you have complete control over right now such as a behavior or mindset. An area of skill is about refining an ability or gaining knowledge/mastery over something personal — such as public speaking or communication.
Most importantly, grow in an area that is important to YOU. If it’s not important to you, you won’t commit and you won’t be consistent.
A great example is the story of the married couple. The wife wanted her husband to change an annoying habit. Because the husband loves his wife, he wanted to make her happy and it seemed like a small thing to ask. So, the husband put out an effort to change but it never stuck. He wasn’t consistent and his wife became frustrated, feeling like he really didn’t care about her. One day, the husband’s best friend mentioned how his little habit so annoying to his friends that several of them didn’t like hanging around him anymore. Suddenly realizing that the impact was more than just at home, the husband developed a great interest in changing — and change he did!
The moral of this story: don’t expect other people to change for you, don’t try to change just for others, and if your family notices — probably the rest of the world does too.
2. Commitment
Commitment is a big deal and some people (I even know a few) spend a vast amount of energy avoiding it altogether. What’s funny is, they’ve actually committed to avoiding commitment … so that’s a commitment anyway. Ironic, isn’t it? I feel strongly that we make commitment out to be much bigger in our heads than it is in real life. The other reason is, we are so spoiled that we don’t want to do something we don’t want to do.
Regardless, you have to commit to growing in order to increase your chances of enjoying the benefits of personal development. Commit to intentionally grow and share it with your community.
It’s that simple! By sharing it with others it creates a new level of accountability. A shared commitment becomes a strong commitment. During your journey, share your growth with someone. Keep in mind; if you share and receive little to no supportive feedback, move on. If they don’t want to hear it or try to drag you down, you don’t really need them in your journey. If you share and you receive positive feedback, keep sharing!
It’s also much easier to stay on the path of personal development when you have a support network. Because we like to see instant results and can become discouraged during set-backs, it’s encouraging to receive positive feedback and genuine interest in your journey. It’s also a testimony to the results of the journey if you are in a group that has people who have already walked the path you are currently on. Not only does this increase your accountability to change but it also fuels true commitment over time.
3. Consistency
You will gain nothing if you are not consistent in your practice. Character development is not a ‘quick fix’ program. There is a cycle involved in growth. First, you become aware, then you focus, you learn, you absorb, you apply, and you practice before you master. This is the learning, iterative process of preparation, practice, and reflection. You WILL reach your goals if you trust the process.
While personal methods vary, there are some best practices that yield excellent results through consistent application:
· Set aside 1 hour every day to focus on your career growth in the areas of Choice and/or Skill. That one hour is ideally focused on the preparation, or learning, phase. Be sure to jot down notes and create a methodology that works for you to absorb the information.
· Devote 1 hour every week to reflect and write about what you have learned. I recommend that everyone ‘jot’ before you journal. Writing isn’t for everyone. Jotting is an excellent daily practice of quickly outlining a note to yourself. By the end of the week, you have a great outline for your journaling practice.
· Be intentional about the application of what you have learned. Practice does indeed make perfect, or at least — a habit. You will be challenging old mental routines and assumptions with new information. The only way to solidify this in your consciousness is through action. Putting knowledge into action also creates a positive affirmation feedback process in your brain that what you are learning does work.
Trust the Process
My first focus in personal growth was to communicate with intent. I had developed bad habits over time and was largely unaware of the impression I made on others. This is very common with the vast majority of people. Most people think that they don't have a choice but to communicate or act the way they are as adults. This isn’t true and you can alter your communication style with intentionality and practice.
I didn’t communicate enough, wasn’t relatable, or was too blunt in my delivery. In order to connect better with others, I needed to learn new methods and means to communicate more effectively so my intentions were clear to my audience.
Because I had clarity of purpose, I was committed, and consistent: I went from being an ineffective communicator to being offered a leadership position within the same company in 9 months. That is record time for a complete overhaul of a personal interaction style. The only reason it worked so well and so quickly is because I had a passion for change. My heart and soul were in the process! Once I started, I realized quickly that this had the power to transform my life — and it did.
Career growth can be easy if you focus on your personal growth. You will get real results if you trust the process. You can overcome your most paralyzing roadblock to career growth by first becoming aware that all true growth and long-term gains start INSIDE.
A word of caution: once you experience how transformational personal growth can be, you will be hooked! A personal growth plan doesn’t really have an end. There’s no ‘deadline’. It is a consistent and continuous process. The focus is not on becoming perfect, the focus is simply on getting a little better, every day.
Most importantly, a successful growth journey isn’t complicated. Complex programs and methods rarely stick and are hard to absorb into our busy lives. Identify your roadblocks, eliminate your assumptions, become self-aware (not self-critical) and make the leap!
