You're Worth It! - Navigating Your Career in Corporate America

Training to Compete in The Career Race

Have you ever woken up in the morning to get ready for work and thought, “Why am I doing this? Why am I working for a company that doesn’t truly value me?” These feelings are somewhat universal and creep up in most employees at some point—usually due to a series of events and realizations. Perhaps you accidentally learned that one of your co-workers makes more money than you, even though you are both doing the same job? Or did you suddenly realize that one person on the team seems to consistently have the support of senior leaders—regardless of their performance—and you don’t? Do you feel like you have to put in “face-time” at work, while others seem to be able to show up whenever they want and still get all the praise and benefits? Is there a boss who never acknowledges your accomplishments? Or worse, is there a boss who takes credit for the work you’ve done and never acknowledges your accomplishments? These situations are common in a corporate environment and, over time, they evolve from isolated events to a pattern that affects an employee’s sense of worth and value. As routine as these situations may be, they do not necessarily mean that you don’t have what it takes to build a successful corporate career.

If you have found yourself in any—or a combination—of these situations, I wouldn’t be surprised if your reactions didn’t include thoughts about getting out of the environment and moving on. Frequently, when we feel underappreciated, unvalued, and stuck in a situation, we begin to think of idealized ways of making a big exit that might immediately restore our individual value and feelings of worthiness. How many of us play the lottery for the prospect of leaving our current circumstances? It’s not uncommon to think, “If I won the lottery, I would leave this situation” or “if I won the lottery, things would be different.” But we do ourselves a disservice if we do not ask what these feelings—and associated fantasies—are trying to tell us. These feelings shouldn’t be ignored; when we refuse to recognize the reasons that we’re feeling certain things, then we can’t use the feelings to create change. The reality is that very few of us will wake up one day to suddenly changed and improved circumstances. What we can take away from those fantasies is that something in our career needs to change, primarily, that each one of us needs to do a better job when it comes to navigating and managing our own career.

If any of the scenarios above are familiar to you, it’s likely there have been times you’ve felt stuck, underappreciated, and undervalued in your career. Maybe you feel that way right now, and you’re looking for help to understand why and how to change your circumstances. What if I told you that, despite all of the pitfalls and obstacles that you’ve faced, you can have a successful career? What if I told you that you’ll continue to face challenges across your corporate career, but that understanding them and becoming better prepared for what they will be, are actually crucial to long-term success? In this book, we’ll explore the fundamental truths about working in Corporate America, and then uncover the critical insights that will position you for success across your career.

How many times have you heard Corporate America described as a “rat race”? There are many reasons, positive and negative, that description exists. The key word is race. In many ways, your career is like a race. There is a beginning and an end. You are running against other people. Performing well usually ends in recognition of some kind. When we recognize that we feel underappreciated and undervalued in our career, it can feel akin to competing in a race where the other runners got to start with a thirty-meter advantage. Running hard, but not placing, sometimes leaves you with nothing.

Unlike a normal race, your career may have obstacles placed discretely around the course or terrain. There may be someone pushing another runner ahead or pulling you back to the point that you fall behind. The rules of the race may change mid-way through, causing you to have to adjust your strategy—if you even realize what’s happened.

None of us want to run in a race where the odds are stacked up against us. No one wants to engage in a game where the rules aren’t clear or even shared with the competitors. No one wants to feel undervalued. No one should have corporate, or team culture erode their sense of worth. All of us want a career that gives us a sense of purpose and contributes to positive self-worth. I think it’s fair to say that most of us want to wake up in the morning feeling excited about what lies ahead of us! It’s not very sustainable or fulfilling to wake up and go to work every day if you feel like you are running a race that you are just going to lose.

What if I told you that no matter what you are feeling right now, or what you might have felt in the past, you can still win the race? All you need is a coach by your side to keep you engaged in the competition. Well, your coach is here! I’m here to help you train for both short-term and long-term success. I’m going to help you learn the signs that indicate the race’s rules are changing around you. You need to know how to catch up when you’re behind; you need to know when it’s time to slow down and rest; you need to learn to determine if you should even worry about the person who appears to be in front of you in the race. Those subtle clues and the rules of the Corporate America race are crucial for managing a successful career—and that’s why I’ve written this book.

Within this book, I share key truths and insights that will help you manage your career. The training I share across these pages is information that I have shared with hundreds of employees over the last two decades as a “coach” who helps people better navigate their careers. Once you learn these truths and insights and begin to practice them as part of an approach to career management, you’ll find they help you compete better in the “corporate career race.” The principles we’ll cover in this book will help you shed the morning dread. Instead of asking, “Why am I doing this again?”, you will find yourself exclaiming, “I’m worth it!”

Your Coach Knows You’re Worth It

As we get started, let me admit that I’m not a magician. I don’t have the ability to foresee or control the future. I can’t tell you that things will always be perfect for you, nor can I tell you the precise steps to take for a perfect career. All careers have ups and downs. As a coach, my goal is to help you learn how to manage in the midst of challenges—and learn from them.

What has prepared me for my role as a coach? You might not like my answer. I work in Human Resources! Yes, HR! I work in the same part of your organization that is responsible for exit interviews. I am one of the people who advise managers on how to approach and deliver performance improvement plans, and I work in the part of the company that hands people termination papers. That’s right; I sometimes deliver the message that a job has been eliminated and have to hand a person their severance. Human Resources (HR) isn’t always a department that’s thought of in a positive way. In fact, because of some of the responsibilities we oversee, I know that there are times HR could benefit from some positive spin, messaging, and marketing. Some good PR, in other words. This is something I’ve frequently discussed with a friend of mine—a colleague who is also in HR. In the midst of some particularly tense months at work, he had an idea for a T-shirt that would help people remember what we were there to do. The T-shirt would read, “I’m HR, and I’m here to help!” We were in the middle of a corporate restructuring, and the idea was that we would wear these shirts daily to try to tell people we were there to do more than deliver bad news. Do you know that we laughed for a good fifteen to twenty minutes after he shared the idea? Believe me; it wasn’t after having a few cocktails either! We laughed not because the message on the would-be shirt was wrong; we both just recognized that most people do not view HR professionals in such a positive light.

It is precisely the things that lead HR professionals to be seen in such a challenging light that also leaves us uniquely positioned to help people navigate their careers. When do you end up seeing your HR partner? Prior to or in the midst of a crisis? At the very moment of significant change or organizational realignment? During the interview and hiring process? When it’s time to check-in and assess? There’s a common thread to all of these moments: They involve career management. With this book, I hope to change the perception—if even just a little bit—that HR simply oversees the doom and gloom moments of Corporate America.

When I started writing this book, my career had spanned more than twenty years, fifteen years of which were focused on HR. During that time, I’ve had the opportunity to work at three of the largest revenue-producing companies in the world. Two of those companies were Fortune 40 companies, and one was considered part of the Fortune 1151. Across my HR career, I’ve seen nearly 100,000 resumes, conducted thousands of...