Take the Leap | 120 Seconds to Better Leadership

*Video Transcription*

It's also probably time for a blooper reel because I have a whole phone full of them. I want to touch today; I don't talk very much about personal stuff in my videos because our work is all corporate, and it's focused on strategy. But I have noticed we're in this time where I'm noticing many executives are reconsidering their paths and considering alternatives.

People are bouncing around a lot in jobs. They're considering leaving careers and doing something completely different.

And that's been interesting for me because I have not seen that trend historically, in my practice at least. And what I notice is people can really hang on reasons to stay in a position in an attempt to avoid letting other people down.

They don't want to let their boss down. They don't want to let their family down. They don't want to let their teams down. And all of those things are wonderful, right? It speaks to their integrity and their sincerity in wanting to do a good job, and those are all wonderful things.

But as someone that's been doing this for 22 years and I get to sort of see how things play out, what I can observe is that when people make career decisions because they should, and the should is usually a sign that it's for somebody other than themselves, I'm not saying people should be selfish, but you do need to think about the impact that you want to have, the life that you want to live, the career that you are going to get up in the morning and be excited about like that stuff counts too.

So for folks that might be considering changing roles, I'm seeing more of that than I've seen in my career. People wanting different things, considering making changes, the desire to make change has to come; it sounds so cheesy, right?

It has to come from within you.

And the desire to avoid making a change because of "the shoulds" and disappointing other people - I haven't seen that lead to tremendous happiness and fulfillment in the career. So for folks who are in that boat, I'm not in that boat; I love my job. Everyone that knows me knows I love my job.

I have the best job on the planet. But for folks that might be doing some soul searching and figuring out, "Should I take a leap?" "Should I not take a leap?" In my experience and observations in others is that typically if you listen to your heart and take the leap, if it feels like the right thing to do for you, it tends to work out okay.

And people that stay in roles or situations because they should tend to not be as happy or fulfilled.

So if anybody needs a push today, there's your push.

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