Making your own luck

I was recently chatting to a friend who is a PM is another scale-up. She was asking for some advice around what to do regarding an issue at work where her leadership team was not providing the support she needed to feel engaged and motivated in her role – to the extent she is willing to leave the company. I’ve thought about this problem around motivation and purpose at work a lot myself, having been in that situation more than once. It sucks, it really does – especially if you are someone who wants to feel like you are having a positive impact. Who wants to spend 40 hours a week (or more) doing something they hate?

In this article, I’ll explain how you can progress your own goals whilst finding the determination and resilience to work through some of the challenging patches we all face in our personal development.

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The advice I gave essentially boils down to this: seek out ways to make your own luck. To me, this can be defined as a willingness to show determination and resilience in order to progress your own goals in spite of boundaries that may be in your way.

This is not suggest my friend hasn’t been working hard or anything like that, I know she does. I worked with her, she has all the skills to be successful and deliver fantastic things. But there is a difference between working hard to progress the goals of the business you work for and your goals.

I suspect some of you would say to me that “my goals do align to what the company wants” – to that, I totally agree that in the right circumstances they can co-exist. I am lucky enough to feel this way about Chargefox and the role it plays around electrification of our transport. For me personally, this is also important as I care deeply about electrification of our transport industry. However, I know that many people don’t feel this way about their job. If you’re a PM at a B2B SaaS that sells software to other monolithic corporations it’s possible you don’t feel that connection to the business on a values level – that was also me at one point in my career. And that is totally okay.

So how does one ‘make their own luck’ and ensure that they do progress their personal goals, irrespective of whether they have a strong connection to the business objectives or not?

Make sure you hold your manager accountable for helping progress your career goals.

If they are not able or willing to do so, they are failing in the core competencies of their job. Too often, I hear from peers in the industry who have had managers who moved from an individual contributor PM role into manager positions and do not have the requisite skills to coach and mentor. I highly recommend Making of a Manager by Julia Zhou to all new people leads, as it is directly relevant to those moving from IC to people manager positions. You should not feel ashamed to tell your manager that 1:1 time with them (which you should have on a bi-weekly cadence at the very least) should be exclusively about your personal development and feedback. If there are questions or tactical discussions that need to be had, book a separate meeting.

If they are unable to provide a structured way to track and measure your progress towards your goals, seek out a useful template – I’ve provided an example of one here.

Do not expect anyone to hold you accountable for your personal development.

If you do not take responsibility and set your career objectives, do not expect that things will magically happen. Those who have been extremely successful in their careers have worked hard to identify where they need or want to improve. Remember: closed mouths don’t get fed.

However, I want to make a distinction between hard work and ‘hustle culture’ or ‘grit’ – hard work does not equate to no work-life balance or inevitable burnout. You should absolutely not tolerate behaviour or actions of those around you that actively detriment your enjoyment of work.

Somewhat paradoxically, many of us exist in this environment where things aren’t terrible but aren’t great either. ‘Languishing’ is a term I often hear to describe this feeling. It’s horrible and I don’t wish it upon anyone. We spend far too much of our lives working to feel this way.

When working with your manager on your personal development plan, you are ultimately responsible to ensure it is tracked. Bring it up every 1:1, talk about how you are progressing and what you need from them. As I said above, a good manager will support you in this circumstance.

You should not feel obligated to continue working somewhere where you are not getting what you need.

Although you are employed by a business, you are not obligated to continue working at that business just because they hired you if you are not getting what you need.

It is ultimately a contract between you and your employer for you to provide services in return for a salary. I highly recommend looking at your relationship with your company this way. I can promise you that this is ultimately how they see you, despite other things they may say.

This should feel liberating – you should feel no obligation to continue providing your services if you feel you are not getting the value you need to progress your career, monetary or otherwise.

I have made the mistake before where I have stayed in a role where I am not getting the personal development opportunities to grow my career and I was finding the work unfulfilling. This a dangerous combination that can definitely lead to that feeling of languishing. This can in turn lead to you feeling less motivated at work, impacting your performance and further stagnating your ability to progress in your career!

By all means, try to find your purpose and growth in an existing role if you can. However, if you can’t – seek opportunities elsewhere! I cannot emphasise the importance of this enough. You are responsible for your career and need to make difficult decisions. This sometimes involves putting yourself outside your comfort zone.

A note about privilege

I am very aware of the advantages I have had in my life as a white man in a developed country with a supportive and loving family, who provided me with the tools to succeed in life. There is unquestionably a correlation between my gender, socioeconomic status, where I live and the opportunities that I have been presented with. However, for folks in this situation it is even more important to not waste the chances that have been given to you. Many will never be as lucky as you are.

Finding your own luck during redundancy

It’s difficult to talk about opportunity and luck without putting it into the broader context of what is happening in the industry at the moment – redundancies.

I want to say that it’s almost certainly not your fault in almost all cases. In the tech industry particularly, there has a been a shocking amount of ruthless job cuts that are frankly unacceptable. I could write a whole other article about this – unfortunately, folks who work hard are losing their jobs because their leaders have failed them.

The reasons for this aside, this is why it is so important to invest the time in defining your goals and progressing towards them whether you are employed or not. As I mentioned above, the contract between your business and you is just that – a contract. You are not expected to stay there forever and they certainly have no obligation to do so either. So do the work now to ensure you have some forward thinking in your career growth so no matter what you have a north star you are working towards – despite setbacks that we all face in our lives.

I’ve been there, so I know how hard it is to find the motivation to look for work, take care of all your other responsibilities in your life and deal with the emotional trauma that comes with unexpectedly losing your source of income. So most importantly, look after yourself. Work is secondary to your health and happiness – do not let anyone tell you otherwise.

If you ever find yourself in this situation, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I am always happy to help.

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If you only take one thing away from this post, remember that you are ultimately responsible and accountable for your own career growth. You are the majority stakeholder and investment in your growth is like compounding interest – the more you put effort into your personal development, the more likely you will yield the rewards of that investment.

As best you can, take setbacks in your stride, find the support you need and continue to focus on your north star – whatever that may be.