Riding Your River: Unlock your next career move with this key question
If there’s one theme that comes up most often in my career chats, it’s this: people wondering where they should move next, and how they can get there.
“I have wanted to leave my job for a very long time, have applied to dozens of positions, and have not really gotten anywhere. Meanwhile I’ve become skilled in a lot of different things but sort of feel passionless about all of them! I’d love to hear your perspective about how to find what it is that I really want to do and what steps I might take to get there.”
There is a key question you can ask to find a fulfilling path forward in your career. Before you can set your course, you need to understand where you are focusing your energies, and whether that connects to what you need at this stage of your journey.
The Ride Your River roles: Understand how to approach your next move
Answer this question to discover your current approach to your professional journey, and see how well it connects to the role you need to take on at this moment:
Below are four different approaches to riding your career river. Consider whether the way you are focusing your energies at the moment is serving your interests. If not, what needs to change so you’re in the right role for this moment?
The Provisioner is focused on stockpiling resources for the journey ahead. This could mean pursuing education or a specific certification, learning a new skill or expanding their expertise. They may be a full-time student or be focused on building skills while working.
You may be a Provisioner if you’ve assessed what you need to acquire to move forward in your career, and you’re taking action to build your resume and network to land that next role.
A successful Provisioner:
Understands what they need to gather
Can explain how it will be useful
Sees investment as essential for opening up opportunities
The Paddler is actively putting their skills to use in their role. Rather than primarily focusing on acquiring what they don’t have in order to move forward, as a Provisioner does, they are deploying what they already possess in order to propel themselves forward.
You may be a Paddler if you’re focused on the concrete outcomes of your work and can clearly see how what you’re doing now relates to the roles you’d like to move toward.
A successful Paddler:
Can connect their effort to meaningful outcomes
Deploys those skills they are most interested in using
Sees progress as a result of their work
The Navigator is looking to understand where the next phase of their career could be. They are examining the ecosystem they’re in to see how it could flow into something new. While there may be elements of Paddling or Provisioning in their work life, most of their energy is devoted to exploration.
You’re acting as a Navigator if you spend a good deal of time asking questions, talking to connections and reviewing job postings to understand how your current skills could translate to a new role. Based on the results, you may decide to move to Provisioning or Paddling to better position yourself for your next chapter.
A successful Navigator:
Understands that finding the right fit is a process and takes time to explore
Examines how their current phase of the journey compares to where they want to go next
Seeks opportunities to better understand what a career shift would require
If none of the above Ride Your River roles describe your current approach to your career journey, you may be Adrift.
This means you’re not certain what you need, how you can put your skills to use, or where you’d like to head next in order to move forward. There may be forces outside your control that put you into this situation.
Don’t be too hard on yourself: instead, recognizing you’re Adrift is a crucial step to asking what you need to get back in control. Do you want support to become a Navigator and evaluate your options, or is it time to take stock of your Provisions? Is the problem that you’re not in the right place to deploy your skills as a Paddler and you need to find the right company or role that will reward your efforts?
I was Adrift after spending years paddling along, moving up the management rungs in the newsroom. I knew I no longer wanted to work at the newspaper but I didn’t know what other jobs I could get that I would actually be interested in doing.
I decided it was time to figure out where I could go next. As a Navigator I learned about a master’s program that would allow me to build on my journalism experience with best practices for connecting with customers. Once I’d fulfilled my Provisioner role by earning that degree, I immediately saw a dramatic increase in the impact and meaning of my work by turning to consulting. I’ve worked in journalism support ever since, and now I can’t imagine a career where I only Paddled along and didn’t stop to consider where I could go next and what I might need to get there. Adding the various stages of these Ride Your River roles to my career river map clearly shows this Adrift phase was essential to every career move I made from then on.
Any of the four approaches to the career river can be useful at different times (yes, even the discomfort of finding you’re Adrift). It’s important to note that just because you’re focused on one role right now, that doesn’t need to be your approach forever. In fact, a rewarding career journey will include Provisioner, Paddler and Navigator phases (and more than likely will require you to recognize when you’re Adrift). You may take a look around as a Navigator and realize you need to switch to Provisioner mode to get where you want to go, and then happily Paddle away for a while.
Understanding whether you are taking the right approach for what you need at this stage of the career journey is a powerful, productive way to unlock your next move.
If you need credentials, then provision
If you need outcomes, then paddle
If you need direction, then navigate
Let’s revisit the quote from the top of this post with these Ride Your River roles in mind, and see what it reveals about how the person can move forward:
“I’ve become skilled in a lot of different things but sort of feel passionless about all of them! I’d love to hear your perspective about how to find what it is that I really want to do and what steps I might take to get there.”
What does this person need? Direction.
But how are they approaching their career? Provisioning.
What should they do? Move to a Navigator approach to better understand what they need, before stockpiling skills for a job that may not fit their interests.
Does this framework speak to you, and has it uncovered some new possibilities for moving forward? Send me a note or sign up for a one-on-one career chat to explore further.
Happy navigating/provisioning/paddling,
Bridget