Part 1 of 4 – High Potential Blog series
You have been identified, added to a high potential list, and told that you are awesome – so why aren’t you happy and excited about the future at your firm?
Through my interactions in my current and past roles as well as my involvement with the Leadership Learning Circle I have the opportunity to meet and learn from high potential leaders from across the Canadian Specialty Insurance industry. One surprisingly common theme in these discussions is the sense of career anxiety that many wrestle with. This anxiety often manifests as wondering what their next big role should be and how to acquire the skills needed to succeed at that next level assignment.
As you contemplate your career growth potential, consider how prevalent these dynamics are in your organization:
- Limited or no development planning that identifies skill gaps and next steps to grow
- A lack of coaching, feedback and recognition
- Flat management structures and company-wide expense constraints
- Organic growth rates that aren’t conducive to creating new larger roles
- Managers who believe that staff need to earn their next promotion by staying in their current role and processing an ever increasing volume of work
- Managers who talk about the potential for promotion, but are not clear about skills required or timelines involved
- Small (or no) year over year salary increases
When you examine these factors, are you left wondering how you can grow your skills and expand your responsibilities with your current employer?
You probably don’t want to leave. You are loyal to your teammates and appreciative of being identified as a rising star. But you likely want to be having an ongoing dialogue about growing your skills and seeing evidence that real growth opportunities will be available over the next 12 to 36 months.
Let’s recognize that if this dialogue and skill expansion is not happening at your own firm, the inclination grows to hear what others (former peers and recruiters) are saying about different opportunities at other companies. And those conversations are happening frequently – often multiple times per month. When these discussions fill a career development vacuum, you are more inclined to believe that your next big opportunity will have to come from a new employer.
Written by Andrew Steen
Coming Soon…
Part 2 of this series will examine how to activate a development conversation with your boss
