What’s YOUR Next Move?

I was catching up with a friend of mine today.  We got past our normal greeting and our conversation quickly migrated to work like it always does.  Me about my new practice and her about life in Corporate America.  

She shared that she was still feeling frustrated, but that the frustration was ebbing a bit and being replaced increasingly by a growing lack of ambition.  Indeed she was tired—tired of putting in countless hours, delivering amazing results, and having it ‘not be good enough’ to get her to the next level of senior leadership.  But this year it feels different.  Frustrated and frankly a bit bored by the lack of challenge, she has started to self reflect.  Do I even want the next level here?   

We talked about her accomplishments over the years—and they are great.  To give you a little background, they span the critical functions of both sales AND operations.  She’s built systems and processes, she’s routinely brought in to ‘clean up’ difficult situations.  And every time she knocks it out of the park.   

‘You’ve got a pretty impressive body of work,’ I remark, and she nods.  ‘Have you EVER failed?’ I asked, suddenly curious.  She scrunched up her face in thought for a moment.   

‘No.’ 

Hmmm.  In that moment I found myself feeling a tremendous sympathy.   

But not for her.   

I thought about how much her employer has invested in her over the years.  The experiences and opportunities they’ve provided, the training, mentoring, coaching—all to develop this amazing, confident female leader that they’ve only to tap on the shoulder to get so much more out of.   

And now it’s too late?  That’s a shame.  I don’t know how to help them.   

I do know how to help her.  You see, she’s already a powerhouse.  She just needs to figure out what she wants and determine her next move!

What’s YOUR next move?

Author’s Note - thank you to this ‘strong, talented woman’ for inspiring me and giving me your permission to share our conversation!