Guest view: How to set a career compass

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But I suggest our careers also require such a compass rooted in the core of who we are and want to be. Yet our educational systems and corporate world emphasize career-building based on outward skills and experiences that, while crucial, do not alone provide an adequate axis for our careers. This is especially so in this day and age.

Careers and life are intertwined

I’ve had the privilege of speaking recently to numerous local executives in various stages of their careers, and I’ve sensed a common thread. It seems to me that career and life success are inextricably connected. After all, careers encompass a majority of our waking hours and much of the very best energy and talent we have to offer. In fact, many executives fall trap to a self-image and self-worth defined solely by their careers, only to be shattered by the unexpected job loss or inevitable retirement. It’s time we define career success as not just the height of the organizational chart or W-2 dollars, but inclusive of the degree to which our career underpins our own unique view of a life truly well-lived. I’m not saying abandon the former, but rather simply intertwine and balance it with the latter.

Values are our compass

The time for this definition, acquiring your career compass if you will, is now. We can do this by assembling our own short-list of character attributes to aim our lives at work and otherwise — a simple yet effective compass of sorts to serve us routinely and also when the going gets foggy and rough, as it assuredly will at times.

In this age of relativism and political correctness, many seem to have lost the plot. Character seems to have become an esoteric and unimportant focal point, not to mention often stymied by political correctness. But we need not get constrained by attaching our career/life compass to any particular faith or philosophy. Rather, I suggest we simply each decide what basic character principles we want to be defined by as a person when we tally the sum total of our time here on Earth. After all, careers and lives are comprised predominantly of the small choices made every day. The executives I met who are not only successful, but also happy, content and authentically appreciated by a long trail of colleagues, reflect this sense of character at the core of their daily career navigation. Both their careers and lives reflect balance — and they’re synergistic.

Compass creation simple

I propose that each of us list five basic character attributes that we will commit to daily as strongly as we do our desire to achieve work promotions and obsessively check our Facebook. My compass would be: integrity, growth, giving, compassion, and humility. Mine are just an example. But imagine how much better the corporate and political world would look with more professionals committed to living by these five simple traits while they climb the professional ladder and live their lives — and imagine the authentic satisfaction and peace they’d have upon retirement as they reflect on both a career and life well navigated.  

Having the clarity of our career compass doesn’t make work and life easier, but it does help ensure trajectory which, by the end, is arguably more important than anything. Living by your career compass will necessitate tough decisions at times, and often preclude your taking the path of least resistance. It won’t mean you avoid conflict and are liked by everyone (in fact, some will resent your virtue, which will foster conflict). And it will likely require sometimes putting your pride aside and choosing virtue over short-term reward. But it will help you with the discipline and courage required to ultimately achieve true success in both career and life — delivering on whatever you defined it as.

Create your personal career compass today, commit to being mindful of it as you navigate your career each and every day, and your career (and life) will never be lost at sea.

Tim Strickler is principal of Strickler Consulting LLC, a professional services firm based in Springettsbury Township, York County, offering interim CFO and strategic project services. A former finance executive at The Bon-Ton Stores Inc., he can be reached at [email protected] or 717-870-8547.