Be the CEO of Your Career

When you think about or talk about your career, what comes to mind?  You might say, “I do xxx for a living or I have xxx job at this company, and I make $$ a year.”  It’s a snapshot of your current situation.

So how are you measuring up?  Do you like your job?  Are you happy with the money you make?  Are you just happy to have a job?  If you’re like 80 percent of people in the world, the answer to the question do you like your job would range somewhere between “meh” to “no, I hate my job.”

If you’re not happy with your answer, it’s possible that your inner CEO is not doing it’s job; you’re only operating at the CFO and COO level.

CFOs and COOs (Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer) are senior-level and important positions in any organization. What makes a successful CFO and COO?  These positions are measured by looking backwards at numbers and results such as profits, earnings growth, cost reductions, and efficiency gains. Annual reports are filled with content from the Finance and Operations executives.

If you’re concerned about what you’re doing (or not doing) and how much money you’re making (or not making), you’re operating at the CFO and/or COO level.  Not bad, but there’s room for growth.  The top dog, the big kahuna, the uber boss in any organization is the CEO. 

What makes a CEO successful?  How are they measured?  Profits, growth, and those other CFO-ey/COO-ey things count, but what separates the successful from the unsuccessful CEO, is something else – it’s their forward-looking vision.  At the CEO level profits and growth are results created by how successfully their vision is being realized and how it resonates in the market with customers and investors.

How are you doing as the CEO of your career?  Are you getting the results you want?  Do you have a vision for where you’re going, and is your vision being accepted and supported by your market aka your employer?  Do you have a longer-term vision?

Many people, myself included when I worked in my corporate job, didn’t have goals beyond the coming year.  I didn’t know where I wanted my career to go. I was operating at the CFO/COO level in my career.  If you find yourself in this same boat, here are some questions to begin clarifying your career vision. 

Why are you working?  Don’t just say to make money.  OK, start there, but dig deeper.  Are you providing for your family?  Is it because that’s what’s expected by your parents, by society, or even by yourself?  Are you scared to not have money coming in?  Get real about your motivation. 

If you had mucho money and didn’t have to work, what would you do with your time? Go beyond the first six months when you’d sit on a beach and read.  Get to the heart of the matter.  If you come up with a blank page, think about what you’d miss about your work.  Would you miss the people, would you miss feeling productive, would you miss the challenge of solving problems or providing a service?

How did you end up in your current job?  Are you happy with where you are or did you get on a career escalator in your 20s and just progressed to this point?  Is your current situation the result of decisions made by others; e.g., a layoff or reorganization? 

Again, how are you doing as your CEO?  If you’re doing great, congratulations!  It’s likely that you’re also making good money and growing.  If you don’t like how your CEO is performing, it’s time to invest some time digging deep to find your underlying vision and ‘why.’  

The good news is that the clues and patterns are already in your life.  Here’s one thing I did to find mine:  for one month I kept track of activities that made me feel great (brainstorming solutions, mentoring people) and those that sucked the air out of my tires (arguing with audit, writing 8 versions of the same status report).  At the end of the month I sorted them into two piles and looked for the patterns.  Try it!