Wondering when is the right time to leave a job or organization entirely?
Not sure at what point you should make that decision? It’s not one you should make overnight.
It’s a question I’m often asked about so I’m going to walk you through a couple of points to consider before you do anything. But before I go on, everything I’m about to share is about selling your value and marketing yourself.
What projects are on the horizon?
Are you clear on what opportunities there are at your current organization, for you to showcase your potential? Do you still have the ability to learn and grow? It’s a key factor. When you have a sense of what’s out there, even if there are future programs with a 5-years life span that you learn about, you can then frame up your pitch and sell yourself appropriately.
Now, a great time to do that is during your performance review, when you’re sitting down with your boss but you don’t have to sit on ceremony. You can call your own performance review and create a meeting to check in on upcoming projects, maybe after a program or project closes. That’s actually a great opportunity for you to segue into new projects that are potentially on the horizon and how you would make a great fit, then lean back and hear what your boss’ feedback is.
Now, if you’ve discovered that there are no exciting projects coming down the pipeline due to budgets being tight for example, then I would find out if there are any opportunities for you to get training.
Before I forget, I want to be sure you know about my leadership audio mini course (it’s free) that’s designed to help you own your authority in your career by applying 5 top strategies and it works. It’s based on two decades of leading in Corporate America, (I’m a former Wall St. Executive) and professionals I coach here at In Our Shoes.
Back to you getting training or even a certification. For example, we work with a lot of training facilitators from various industries that reach out to get the Everything DiSC certification. Why? Because their company will pay for it and it’s something that they get to keep with them. So if they move jobs, that credential stays with them.
Are there opportunities for you to get training or become certified?
What type of skills or training can you get that would add to your core competencies? This kind of training can be done online and something you can take in the evenings or at your own pace.
If you have some ideas, I’d absolutely consider having that conversation with your manager.
Tap your Business Partners to see how you can support their projects
Now, another thing I want you to look into are projects that are led by your business partners.
What projects do they have in the queue?
And how can you potentially bridge so that you become an extension of their resources supporting them in a program or project?
So there’s the conversation with your direct manager but there’s also looking around and seeing what business partners you can meet with as well.
Look for roles that are outside of your domain
Also, consider what roles that are outside of your domain would you qualify for? And if there aren’t that you match the credentials for, what would have to happen for you to make a pitch to expand your role and responsibilities and get your foot in the door?
Now, it could be something for example where you pull up a role that intrigues you yet you feel like it would be a challenge and you say to me, ‘Marisa, you know what, I’m not 100% ready for that. So I’m not even going to go for it.’
Well, if you’re just getting to know me here, I’m a big fan of recognizing that if you’re not 100%, ready, let’s just say that you’re 60% ready, that 40% gap is the growth gap. And that’s why you want it. So go for it.
Now, let’s just say that there are certain skills that you absolutely need to have before even pitching those other roles or coming up with your own definition of a new role, then work backwards. What do you have to do right now in order to get skilled up and sell it?
This is a marketing approach. All of this is about selling your skills and communicating your value. Now, we talked about skills, we talked about projects, but what about leadership?
Consider a career advancement opportunity that requires people leadership skills
Now what if advancing your career means simply having more leadership and more people to manage? Maybe you’ve never had an official manager role and now you want to the managerial leadership experience. So this could be an opportunity with a people leadership component.
Take a look at a new role from every angle, in terms of skills, experience and people leadership. You define what that looks like. People leadership could mean being a team lead that steers the projects to fruition.
Lastly, where does your role fall on its current pay scale?
Does it pay to wait it out and stay where you are, if there’s room for a compensation increase? In other words how much growth is there in your current salary range?
You want to have an understanding of whether you are limited to the pay band based on your title. You can find out if you are on the low end or you’re on the high end of your pay scale. If you’re on the high end, and you don’t really have too much wiggle room based on your current title, then you’re probably not going to get too much of an increase. Leaving your organization to go somewhere else you can command at least a 20 to 25% increase and that’s something that I do recommend.
Thinking about a career change or career transition?
Now, with that said, I work with a lot of professionals that share ‘Marisa, I’m thinking about a career change or I’m thinking about a career transition’ and I get that. So I strongly encourage you (if you’re going to stay put where you are), to take on some sunset work, meaning after hours and weekends doing things outside of your day job, doing even unpaid work, to explore different paths before you make any job change.
I do not promote anyone leaving their job to try something new, even if they know that they’re going to love it. Resigning to go build up again is not what I advocate. Everything you do should be done in very small chunks, which we call micro-ambitious goals.
So if you’re going down that route, I highly recommend you do everything in parallel and you make it happen while you’re still working in your day job. The day job funds the side hustle, that’s just how it works. Anyone that tells you otherwise is in my view irresponsible. It’s also not the path I took. I’m a former tech executive. I moved from technology and leadership to corporate leadership training and coaching.
It’s doable but you don’t have to make any overnight decisions. Lean into the future that you want.
When you think about your future, at the end of the day, we don’t want to retire, looking back and saying, ‘You know what? The nature of my job felt hollow. I didn’t feel like I had any meaning in my career.’
So whatever you’re going to do, whether you stay in your organization, you skill up, you move on to new projects, you go to a different company, you start a side hustle or you look for something that is creatively fulfilling.
At the end of the day, you need to feel fulfilled and that you are doing meaningful work that makes a difference and where you are in service.
Thanks for stopping by and as always make it a gutsy week, following your instincts and being uncomfortable.
Your gutsy action item this week is begin your outreach to see what opportunities there are in-house before you make any move. Don’t let the hybrid work model stop you! Relationship management is key!
Join our free Leadership audio course to Own Your Authority at work.
p.s. If you haven’t yet checked it out, CLICK HERE to receive our newsletter. I hold Q&A calls, share career guidance and business strategies that will move the needle in your career.
Grab a notebook, sit back with a cup of tea, coffee or glass of wine and listen in! Learn more below.
