Maybe it comes with the start of a new calendar year, but I find myself reflecting back on my career in the last few days. I find myself reviewing decisions I made, and the personal norms I adapted. In organizing these thoughts, I tend to put these decisions, these ways of working, into one of two buckets. The first bucket is regrets – that is, things in retrospect that I wish I had done differently. And the second bucket I call validations – that is, things that I feel good about doing when looking back over my career. Thankfully I have many more validations in my career decisions, than regrets. I am publishing both in hopes it helps other professionals in their respective careers.
Regrets:
Business Attire – In retrospect I wish I had dressed better. There is an old adage, “dress one level up in management from your current station if you want to progress”. Excluding my job working for a large law firm, where I wore a suit e every day, and rare appearances in front of external clients, I dressed casual – probably too casual. This was an aspect of my career I did consider over the years, but since my values were so strong on results, and competency, I put less effort into dressing to business formality. Looking back, I think that was a mistake. By dressing to high standards, you communicate to everyone that you meet – everyone that sees you “I am a professional, and I take my role seriously”. In looking back, I would have worn more dress shirts, ties, and suits.
Engaging with a Coach – Sad to say, until the last two years, I have not engaged with a professional coach. In hind sight, I think things would have come easier, and my life would have been easier if I had engaged with a career coach, or executive coach in say, my 30’s or 40’s. In self-defense, professional coaching was in its infancy when I was in my 30’s. Frankly, there were not many certified professional career coaches available early in my career. Thankfully, this has changed, although I would like to see more coaches actually pass certifications. Non-the less, if I had engaged, and had a long-term relationship with a professional coach my career, and my life would have been even more successful.
Validations:
Planned Career – I am thanking myself that I spent some time to plan a career. Mind you, not all things go according to plan. For example, I graduated with a bachelor in Communication Arts/Journalism at a time with companies were generally not hiring new staff for internal communications, and press releases. You bend – don’t break. But I’m glad that as a young man I took time to consider the trajectory of my working life over the years. I didn’t just “get a job”. I prepared my way by finishing a BA at a good school. Then after I had been in the business work force for a number of years, enrolled in, and completed an MBA at another good university. I am glad I planned my career.
Reasonable Working Hours – There have been exceptions, but as I look over my career I must say my normal work week was about 45 hours a week. I was not locked into these hours. If there was a deadline to meet, or if there was a change in direction on a project, I would work longer hours, and even work the weekend if needed. I don’t regret going above and beyond to satisfy client needs. But more normal work week was about 45 hours a week. I think by keeping my normal work week at a fairly conservative length I was able to keep job stress in balance, and more importantly I feel my health has been better than those I know who regularly worked 50 to 60 hours a week. I don’t regret setting reasonable limits on my work week.
Voicing my Opinion – Frankly, in looking back I think that in some situations voicing my opinions actually hurt my advancement with an organization. But after some thought, I do not regret having opinions, and voicing them – even when not asked to voice them. My thinking is that if I have the responsibilities of a corporate role, my overriding obligations are to the organization as a whole, and in the case of corporations, to the shareholders. If presented with a new process, or a change in the way of doing business, if I think the process is flawed, or if I can visualize a better, more cost—effective process, it is my obligation to speak up. The on-going goal is to have people do their work more efficiently, and faster, while maintaining high quality – thus reducing costs and increasing profits, or in the case of a non—profit, increasing effectiveness. To more information on this topic of business change, see my book, “Change Management Guide” available on Amazon.com.
Mentoring - There was a number of occasions during my career to help newer professionals along in getting better at their work. For the most part, if I had a chance to help another peer, another employee, another professional, I would. Sometimes a few minutes of direction can save hours, or even days of wasted effort. If I had an opportunity to give a “heads up” to help someone else, I did. I feel good about practice, and continue to do this.
Education – As mentioned above I completed a BA at University of Wisconsin, Madison, and an MBA from the University of St. Thomas. By the way, I did a full, three year MBA, not a mini, or “fast-track” program. These two degrees involved quite a bit of work, and commitment, and were not cheap. But I have not regretted enrolling, and finally finishing these two goals. Once you complete a degree, no one, I mean no one, can take that degree away from you. This is powerful.
Retrospection is a good thing. We need to understand where we came from – where we started from to judge our success at where we are now. There are certainly exceptions to the “norms” that I stated. We are talking generalities right now. The couple regrets I do have are around projecting professionalism, and getting better mentoring. Thankfully, I have many more items listed in my “validations” column – things that I feel were the right thing to do. These validations include doing some thought and planning around my career, work-life balance, and mentoring others. I'd love to bring others into the conversation. I would love to hear your regrets and validations. Looking forward to hearing from others.
Author: Brian Kail, MBA, CPC is a Professional Coach, and Business Mentor. For more information see AscendProCoach.com
Regrets:
Business Attire – In retrospect I wish I had dressed better. There is an old adage, “dress one level up in management from your current station if you want to progress”. Excluding my job working for a large law firm, where I wore a suit e every day, and rare appearances in front of external clients, I dressed casual – probably too casual. This was an aspect of my career I did consider over the years, but since my values were so strong on results, and competency, I put less effort into dressing to business formality. Looking back, I think that was a mistake. By dressing to high standards, you communicate to everyone that you meet – everyone that sees you “I am a professional, and I take my role seriously”. In looking back, I would have worn more dress shirts, ties, and suits.
Engaging with a Coach – Sad to say, until the last two years, I have not engaged with a professional coach. In hind sight, I think things would have come easier, and my life would have been easier if I had engaged with a career coach, or executive coach in say, my 30’s or 40’s. In self-defense, professional coaching was in its infancy when I was in my 30’s. Frankly, there were not many certified professional career coaches available early in my career. Thankfully, this has changed, although I would like to see more coaches actually pass certifications. Non-the less, if I had engaged, and had a long-term relationship with a professional coach my career, and my life would have been even more successful.
Validations:
Planned Career – I am thanking myself that I spent some time to plan a career. Mind you, not all things go according to plan. For example, I graduated with a bachelor in Communication Arts/Journalism at a time with companies were generally not hiring new staff for internal communications, and press releases. You bend – don’t break. But I’m glad that as a young man I took time to consider the trajectory of my working life over the years. I didn’t just “get a job”. I prepared my way by finishing a BA at a good school. Then after I had been in the business work force for a number of years, enrolled in, and completed an MBA at another good university. I am glad I planned my career.
Reasonable Working Hours – There have been exceptions, but as I look over my career I must say my normal work week was about 45 hours a week. I was not locked into these hours. If there was a deadline to meet, or if there was a change in direction on a project, I would work longer hours, and even work the weekend if needed. I don’t regret going above and beyond to satisfy client needs. But more normal work week was about 45 hours a week. I think by keeping my normal work week at a fairly conservative length I was able to keep job stress in balance, and more importantly I feel my health has been better than those I know who regularly worked 50 to 60 hours a week. I don’t regret setting reasonable limits on my work week.
Voicing my Opinion – Frankly, in looking back I think that in some situations voicing my opinions actually hurt my advancement with an organization. But after some thought, I do not regret having opinions, and voicing them – even when not asked to voice them. My thinking is that if I have the responsibilities of a corporate role, my overriding obligations are to the organization as a whole, and in the case of corporations, to the shareholders. If presented with a new process, or a change in the way of doing business, if I think the process is flawed, or if I can visualize a better, more cost—effective process, it is my obligation to speak up. The on-going goal is to have people do their work more efficiently, and faster, while maintaining high quality – thus reducing costs and increasing profits, or in the case of a non—profit, increasing effectiveness. To more information on this topic of business change, see my book, “Change Management Guide” available on Amazon.com.
Mentoring - There was a number of occasions during my career to help newer professionals along in getting better at their work. For the most part, if I had a chance to help another peer, another employee, another professional, I would. Sometimes a few minutes of direction can save hours, or even days of wasted effort. If I had an opportunity to give a “heads up” to help someone else, I did. I feel good about practice, and continue to do this.
Education – As mentioned above I completed a BA at University of Wisconsin, Madison, and an MBA from the University of St. Thomas. By the way, I did a full, three year MBA, not a mini, or “fast-track” program. These two degrees involved quite a bit of work, and commitment, and were not cheap. But I have not regretted enrolling, and finally finishing these two goals. Once you complete a degree, no one, I mean no one, can take that degree away from you. This is powerful.
Retrospection is a good thing. We need to understand where we came from – where we started from to judge our success at where we are now. There are certainly exceptions to the “norms” that I stated. We are talking generalities right now. The couple regrets I do have are around projecting professionalism, and getting better mentoring. Thankfully, I have many more items listed in my “validations” column – things that I feel were the right thing to do. These validations include doing some thought and planning around my career, work-life balance, and mentoring others. I'd love to bring others into the conversation. I would love to hear your regrets and validations. Looking forward to hearing from others.
Author: Brian Kail, MBA, CPC is a Professional Coach, and Business Mentor. For more information see AscendProCoach.com
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