Turning Point Alliance - Executive and Team Coaching >> Are You Read To Risk A Significant Career Move?

Are You Read To Risk A Significant Career Move?

You many be considering leaving success in one job for the possibility of greater success in another one. Or perhaps you are thinking of starting your own business, switching careers, or moving to part time work. A lot is at stake and it’s easy to get tangled up with pros and cons, leaving you unsure of what to do next. Some people hesitate until opportunities pass them by, or other people or circumstances force their hand.

Do you want to sort through possibilities and define your direction? Make sure you are asking the right questions.

Let’s take another look at the title question: “Are you ready to RISK a SIGNIFICANT career move?” Whether you focus on the word RISK, or on the word SIGNIFICANT, will make a crucial difference in both your approach and in the outcome.

When making a career change decision, most people focus on the aspect of RISK.
With this approach it makes sense to do a risk assessment and ask questions such as:

Should I stay or should I go?
What will I get and what will I leave behind?
How do I know things will work out?
What does the money look like?

But look what happens when you focus on the word SIGNIFICANT. Before, you were conducting a risk assessment, which is really based on avoiding something—pain. It’s hard to move life ahead based upon a negative. When you focus on the word SIGNIFICANT, you begin to focus on attaining a positive. With this approach it makes sense to ask questions such as:

What is significant to you? To your life plan?
What are your goals and core values?
What can you gain by moving on?
If you decide to stay, how will you make that worthwhile?

Consider the answers you’ve come up with. Use the perspective of what’s significant to you, to re-visit your skills, experiences, knowledge and abilities. Do you want to reconfigure them? Do you want to take them to a new level? If so, can you best do that by starting fresh in a new situation, or building within the framework of a known one?

If you’re still not sure whether you are ready to risk a significant career move, it’s probably because you have a lot at stake. At this turning point in your career, consider utilizing a coach or another impartial person to help you skillfully sort things out so you can move ahead with confidence.