Why I Fire Myself Every Year
There are 3 areas I look at to determine why I fire myself every year
When To Assess
I do this every December, because this is the time of year that there is a lull in the consulting world. And the last couple of weeks of the year and the first week or two in January is very slow, and I take that opportunity to look at three areas. The three areas as assess my skills, my role and the organization and the market and industry.
One: My Skills
The first area is I look at my skills.
Self Assessment
I do a self-assessment. I see areas that I might want to improve, and/or areas that where I want to be for the next one or two years, if I need to beef up those skills so I’m there.
Input From Trusted Sources
Second place is to listen to your trusted sources, or resources, such as a mentor or a coach. Sometimes that can be your manager in an organization. And it depends, it’s always hit and miss. But I always look for coaches or mentors or my trusted resource.
Inventory Wins and Accomplishments
Then what I do is I also update my resume with my skills I improved and updated for the year. I put in there some wins, or some updates to my portfolio. And the portfolio, for you, might be clients or projects or sales. Whatever that means for you, make sure you update your resume.
Look For Opportunities
And then I look at opportunities. I want to make sure I am in the right role, in the right organization, and in the right industry. So, I reach out to my network. I reach out to my peers. I reach out to the recruiters. I get a pulse; I see what’s going on. Are my skills current? Do I need to beef up on other areas, in those core areas? And I just want to get a feel for the industry.
Would I Hire Me?
I also look at if I would hire me for the current role? Why or why not? Would I fire myself? Would I see myself in a different role?
And when you’re reaching out to that network and those peers, I also assess if I’m in a current role.
And, one year, I even looked at consulting or non-consulting roles. I was traveling; I think at that point; I was about 10 years in, and the travel wasn’t too bad. But I said, okay, let me take the opportunity to really look at all options out there. And so I did. So I looked up non-consulting roles and consulting roles. And it’s sort of funny how it works out, because I naturally started going to the consulting roles because I like the variety. And for me, and doing the same thing, it didn’t appeal to me. And so, I even took that opportunity and continued with consulting.
Two: My Role And Organization
After assessing my skills, the next thing I do is I look at my current role or the current organization. Would I want to stay in the current role, but maybe switch departments, organization, business units, depending on the size of the organization?
Fresh Look At Role
I did this one year, and it took me quite a while to complete. I moved from the very technical side to the finance and accounting side. And that was a big move. I liked my technical role, but I was tired of traveling to multiple cities every week.
And the other thing is that I wasn’t creating relationships with clients. In the technical role, I was one to three clients a week. In the finance role, they had one client for three to six months.
And I switched over and was much happier. Another way that you could look at is if this is a way to change your role in the organization, is, do you want to stay in the organization or department, but maybe switch roles? Maybe you wanted to do it as a promotion, or maybe you want something with more responsibility.
Fresh Look At Organization
I also look at the organization, and if I was a brand new employee looking in from the outside, would I want to come to this organization and stay there? And I can definitely say that I probably didn’t do this decision very well along the way.
There were probably many times I was ready to move on from an organization and I should have done it sooner, but it’s okay. It all worked out.
Make sure you’re looking to see, you know, if you were coming in and you were applying to places, would you apply to that organization? And then, that’s the second one.
Three: Industry and Market
The third one is industry and the market. And part of this will come in when you check with your peers and the recruiters, and when you get that pulse.
Also, you know what’s happening in your industry. Is this an opportunity for you to do a lateral move, or change complete industry? Or do the same role, or same type of group? And making sure that industry is relevant, and it’s not stale. We want to make sure it’s growing and you have plenty of opportunities.
Reach Out To Your Network
The last thing I’ll say about firing yourself every year is to reach out to your network. Hopefully, you’re not doing it just once a year. But it’s one of those things that is much easier to do regularly. Even daily, weekly, monthly, and figuring out what cadence works for you.
Reach out so it is ready for when you need it. Nurture your network so that when people reach out to you, you can help them. And then when you reach out to them, you can leverage that similar experience.
Actions
- Inventory current skills and compare to where you want to be in the next 1-3 years
- Update resume, and look for opportunities, see what’s out there
- Check out opportunities in your organization or other areas that are worth moving too
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