How to Stop Playing Safe With Your Career

Women tend to play safe when it comes to work. That’s the consensus of the literature, research, and my own experience when coaching. There are a lot of reasons as to why this is, not least a society which gives women a lot of mixed messages re childcare etc, pays women less, has few very visible role models. I could go on…

It doesn’t have to be that way. In my series of career tips for women I’m asking women to fully own their careers, not to react to events but to take back some control. We can’t change centuries of ingrained attitudes (on our own at least) but we can change the attitude we take towards to our own development.

Seven Questions to Ask About Your Career

Answer these seven career questions as honestly as you can:

• Do you play safe when thinking about your job?
• By which I mean set yourself targets that you are pretty confident of reaching?
• Do you aim for what you think you can easily achieve for fear of failing?
• What constitutes a failure for you?
• Do you wait until you know your current job really well before applying for the next level?
• Have you ever thought about applying for a job two, or even three levels above your current level? If no, why not? What’s the worse that can happen?
• Do you aim to be the best in your business or profession, or are you happy in cruise mode? If the latter, look ahead a decade or so. Do you see yourself being happy with where you’ve reached?
  

  Woman climbing UP, courtesy of Unsplash and DannyG

What is the Highest Role You Could Aim For?

Have you ever thought through that questions? Seriously ask yourself, what is the pinnacle of my chosen career? Try setting yourself a target well beyond what you think you can reach at the moment.

Take a moment to think what that would be. What would be a HUGE achievement for you workwise?

If you set yourself a mediumish target you’ll probably achieve it. And be mediumish. You’ll certainly hit small targets, and it’s true that a lot of small wins will take you some of the way upwards. But do you want to be a woman of small wins?

Set yourself a really high target, of course there’s a chance that you may not quite reach it but you’ll definitely go higher than mediumish. You will stop being average and start excelling.

Ambition for Women is a Good Thing

Do you, deep down, think that ambition women are ghastly? Unfeminine? Unfriendly? Scary? You may well be battling against some long ingrained tropes about ambitious women being awful and no one liking them. (There are some famous examples that get trotted out ad nauseum. Just think about the opprobrium that Hilary Clinton got, far in excess of anything meted out to ambitious men (see this article on Forbes: The High Cost of Ambition). It can be tough. But just imagine if Hilary had got in. At the very least she paved the way for Kamala Harris and that’s some legacy.

I have known lots of very ambitious women, (I’ve coached quite a few) and they are just the same as the rest of the us and come in all types of personality. The difference is they have been very honest with themselves and others about what they want. Wield your power and ambition wisely and ignore the naysayers.

There is a theory abroad that women are risk averse. I don’t believe that we are in general. I think, in general, men take too many uncalculated risks and there is evidence to support this view. We’re always benchmarked against men. Seriously considering what you want to achieve in your professional life is taking a calculated risk. It’s planning, it’s motivating. It’s also actually incredibly liberating to own your own career path.

If you had no fear what would be your big thing? Once you can articulate it, describe it, you can set about working out how to achieve it! Go on, aim high and be above average.

RenewYou, My Tried and Tested Career Booster!

RenewYou has helped thousands of women make positive and lasting change in their lives. I deliver it one-to-one as part of a bespoke coaching package for women looking to move into leadership, to progress their career, or who wish to be the absolute best version of themselves.

Posted on February 24th, 2021 by Jane