Ep. 96 - Redefining Success as Progress: Season 6 Opener
Find Us Wherever You Listen To Podcasts
In 2020, our team at Strategic Momentum conducted a survey and published a report titled The State of Work and Career Success. We wanted to know: what does career and work success mean to today's professionals? And how has it changed?
One of the things we found is that when people think about their careers, they don't just think about trading their time for money. Every age bracket surveyed, from those just entering the workforce to those who are at later stages in their career, told us that they want more than just a financial incentive — their career goals are personal and multifaceted.
Work-life goals are intertwined because we now live in a world where we don't want them to be separate or siloed. And in today's pandemic world, they can't.
But culturally, our measures and ideas of success are still rooted in the traditional model of what a career should look like, as well as that linear, sequential, and rigid approach to getting there. Yet, that often doesn't match worker's reality or desires today.
As a result, a lot of us are unhappy, disengaged, or unfulfilled.
85% of employees are not engaged or actively disengaged in the workplace, according to Gallup's State of the Global Workplace 2020 report.
And according to Gallup's 2021 report, global employee engagement dropped another two points during 2020.
At the same time, 95% of workers are thinking about quitting their jobs, according to a Monster.com survey.
And 46% of employees told Gartner that they are largely dissatisfied with their overall experience at their organization.
Only 13% responded that they are largely satisfied with their organization.
And when Connie stepped back to take this all in, it helped solidify a feeling that's been growing in her for quite a few years now — but it's also a trend that we’ve been seeing in others:
Creating meaningful work-life fit in today's ever-changing world requires redefining success as progress.
We can see that too many people are unhappy. We can see that businesses of all sizes are struggling to adapt in a way that drives both business success and employee satisfaction.
So we think it's time to change how we as individuals — as well as the companies we work for — define success.
That will require a shift in our mindset and approach so that we can achieve the alignment that helps us reach our full growth potential. And in this season, we'll be diving into stories from those who have done so in this new fluid world of work to help you build the business of you or help create that fluid organization.
Today, we're going to focus on the individual. And specifically, how individuals who are both successful and fulfilled in today's world define success and their perspectives and approach to achieving it so they could ultimately find that work-life fit for themselves.
Pivoting Towards Progress
For the past few seasons, Connie has asked her guests the same question: How do you define career success? And when we went back and looked at all of their responses, we saw the same stories over and over again.
They started their careers with that traditional definition of success we're all too familiar with: the title, money, and that upward progression as a result. But many of us have been doing a lot of introspection during the pandemic — and, honestly, before COVID.
What do we really want to do? Who do we want to be? How can we make a positive impact? How can we do all that AND be truly happy and fulfilled? Somewhere along the way, they changed... and the world changed.
It’s in these moments of transition that we find opportunity — and that we find out a little bit more about ourselves.
“So, what is a career?” Jenny Blake mused when we asked her about career success. “I share the metaphor of a smartphone, not a ladder. So, first of all, there's no upward climb. It's really about...all the different skills, education, experiences, hobbies, side hustles: those are all your apps. Do they work for you? We don't compare our phone to someone else and say, ‘Who has better apps? You or me?’
“It's, ‘Have I customized the apps on my phone to work for my needs, my lifestyle, how I like to have fun, what I need for productivity?’”
Jenny just has a way of bringing this concept into clarity — what I like to call the Career Mashup. We're talking about the career of the future and present, in which workers are able to merge their breadth of skills, interests, passions, and experiences into a career that fits a person's whole self; it’s this alignment they're finding between who they are, what value they want to deliver in the world, and the work they do. That hybrid may be something that happens in a particular role or position in a current or future job, or it could be parallel pathing, multiple jobs at once.
Today, younger professionals yearn to defy labels and reject boxes. They favor varied experiences that can help shape their day-to-day jobs into dynamic and meaningful careers that happen to have a paycheck attached.
The career mashup is how it happens, and each career mashup is a series of pivots or transitions. And I think Jenny's pivot methodology is so helpful in thinking about this because it's both strategic and personal, leveraging your strengths, your successes, and what you're able to do right now.
Change Starts with Why
People have a greater ability to change their circumstances and more power to control how they work than at any other time in history. Both individuals and organizations can benefit when they understand how to embrace a future of work that is less homogenous and more fluid.
Bryan de Lottinville is the founder and CEO of Benevity, a global leader in corporate social responsibility and employee engagement software. And in creating a greater force of social good in the world, he's realized (and in some ways, quantified) the transformative power of culture.
“There is absolutely little question that we would have a better shot at solving some of the complex social issues that we have been pouring billions of dollars into for many years in a principally top-down sort of high net worth and corporate grantmaking model,” de Lottinville says. “If we can add the power of individuals to that, that collective army of one, if, if you will, we have a much better chance of solving [complex social issues].”
The same is true when it comes to redefining success: finding clarity for yourself is important. And as we’ve heard again and again through conversations on this podcast and results from our State of Work and Career Success survey, this shift in perspective can completely change your personal levels of happiness and fulfillment. And that fundamentally starts with understanding your Why.
“One of the lessons I learned early on was how the most important word in the English language is probably Why,” says Bryan Stolle. “Understanding why something is being done, why somebody has this idea, why they're trying to accomplish this... Because too often, we're presented with what, here's what I want, but if I knew why you wanted it, what you were actually trying to accomplish, I might actually know something you don't and have a completely different way to approach the problem. That might be much cheaper, faster, and better.
“Because why is so fundamentally important to everything.”
Connie has always been intrigued by the Why behind companies and careers that thrive because, in the end, she is trying to figure out what it would take to help reach her own growth potential. Connie knew if she could figure out this Why — not just for her, but for others — it could help clarify their What, When and How.
Like Bryan de Lottinville shares in this episode, Connie has a lofty goal: she wants to help individuals bridge the gap within themselves to achieve the meaningful fit we are all seeking. She wants to help cross that chasm between people and organizations so they can get aligned on common goals and real traction can be made together.
We want our organizations and society to start embracing the unique multifaceted people we all are.
And we firmly believe that doing so won't just make us happier — it'll make our organizations more successful and resilient in the long run. We also think there has never been a better time for us to start this process, as individuals and as a collective.
2020 and 2021 have been rough for most of us, like nothing we have ever experienced as individuals or as a society. Gallup's 2021 State of the Global Workplace report found that 45% of people globally say their own life has been affected a lot by the Corona virus situation, with nearly one billion adults across the planet losing their jobs or business.
Gallup concluded, “As employers rethink their workplaces in 2021, they have lessons to learn from 2020. Most importantly, leaders need to recognize the influence of employee wellbeing and employee engagement on workforce resilience.”
There's no going back to normal. We each have a choice to go forward into something better — and we think a great place to start is examining your definition of success.
Key Takeaways:
The traditional, sequential, and rigid definitions of career success don’t yield fulfillment in today’s non-linear world. People understand this, but our organizations and culture haven’t adapted yet. This gap is creating tension between people and the organizations they work within.
Creating meaningful work-life fit in today's ever-changing world requires redefining success as progress.
Modern careers are like a smartphone, not a ladder. There is no upward climb or linear path. Your career is a mashup of different skills, education, experiences, hobbies, and side hustles — a unique selection of apps that best serve you, no better or worse than anyone else’s.
When you can get clarity on the Why behind your career journey, it can help you figure out the What, When, and How of your career mashup.
