I consistently get asked two questions in these sessions – How can I decide if I should quit my job and find something new? And I have worked at my job for X years, and what do I need to do to get a promotion.Chances are that if you are listening to this episode, you are probably trying to figure out one of those problems. While these two questions may seem worlds apart, I have found that they share the same approach to getting you the answers or action you need. In this episode, we will go through a simple process you can use to define your issues, talk about the things you will need to think about, and lay out the process you can use to get your answers.

The goal

While trying to get promoted or trying to decide if you should quit is at VERY different stages in your career journey, they do share the need for clarity, action, and a way to know what the way forward will be. They also share the fact that in both cases, you might be the problem, and you have a blindspot to that barrier.

So what we want to look at today is how to do you have a conversation that lays out your problems or career goals, lets your company know you are committed to the process, but also lets them know that you know your value and that inaction will be seen as an action you will respond to? And you have to do it all in a way that gets the action you want or fixes your problem but doesn’t burn down your work relationship or reputation.

None of this is an easy trick to pull off. Before we get into how I have found success in these moments, if you are at a company that is abusive or toxic, then you can just skip this episode and know that you need to leave as soon as you can. There is a line between needing to work the system to stand up for your value and knowing when the system is so broken, abusive, or toxic that no outcome will be worth the damage it will do.

Frustration blindness

When you are in either of these positions, the biggest thing I have found you need, and often the hardest to come by, is perspective. I think this is an important approach because there has been a time in my career when I was so frustrated, and I was so certain I knew what leadership was thinking that I gave up and quit or almost quit.

Sometimes that was 100% the right move, but twice I later realized that I was too in my head, too blinded by what I wanted or by what was wrong, that I would have left something great. I think this happens because after you have been in a job for a while, the positive normalizes, and you don’t feel as positive as you used to when you first started. While the negatives start to stand out more and more. I refer to it as frustration blindness.

I think you have to be aware of this and that the longer you are in the role, the more your vision narrows, and it is a lot of work to keep a broader perspective and see the positives for what they are. Many times in my coaching session I point this out to and often surprise people to help them see all the good things they have that might be rare elsewhere. This process also hopefully helps overcome this.