Eleven years ago my career plan was to become a Vice President.
I had just returned to work after welcoming my first child. I knew when I returned that I would face some additional challenges as a parent, but I wasn’t ready for how many people treated me like my career was over.
People who were in positions of authority and influence over my career growth genuinely thought it was their role to “protect” me as a parent…by limiting my career.
I’ve always been an ambitious human and I knew I could be both a loving parent and an amazing professional. (Dear gentle reader, I was and remain right on that one!)
So I decided my next career growth goal was to become a VP, full of the “fuck ’em” energy I felt each time my career and my parenting was brought up as if either limited the other.
But I was wrong.
Yes, I could be a VP. I still can. So can many other people who are also parents and caregivers.
There was and is just one problem with me becoming a VP: I don’t like the work a VP does.
I enjoy – and thrive – in that middle space of leadership and getting the hands-on work done. I enjoy collaborating with experts to design and implement. That spot from “where are we going with this…” into “we’ve are moving along…” energizes me.
Planning, budgets, headcounts, compliance, governance, etc do not. And that’s the core work of a Vice President.
Because I didn’t really want to be a VP, I want to show people that their limited mindsets weren’t going to limit me.
It took me time to get that clarity – and working with one of my best coaches, Andreas – and then put it into action.
Many, many (many) people are baffled when they see my former fancy title and my breadth of global travel, and know that now I coach global women in tech and contract as a lead/principal/senior with cool organizations on interesting problems statements.
I get it. We have been told that the only interesting growth is up: more impressive titles, with more employees, and bigger budgets, and impact.
We have been told a lie.
The most interesting growth is brave growth. The growth to turn down the VP role when it did arrive (true story). The bravery to identify that a mix of strategy, leadership, coaching, and implementation work is my sweet spot … titles be damned.
The brave growth that lowers stress, reduces overwork, and, over time, creates more financial space and freedom.
My guest this week on Build Your Brave Career is a role model for brave growth.
Rebecca Walter shares her brave career story of redefining career goals, career growth, and skill-building phases. Her story showcases a career path that is more dynamic and rewarding and demands that you shift and claim what success means to you.
Rebecca’s story includes transitioning from her reliable, long-term career in education into exploring her many skills and goals to arrive at the surprising choice to craft a multifaceted career phase of solopreneurship.
She shares her unique experience and process, based on trying and building new skills, exploring her assumptions in decision making, and choosing to develop a new mindset balancing self-permission and real-world constraints.
Listen in and reflect on the stories that you were told about what career success and what you actually desire for your brave career: Multifaceted Career Journey: Finding Your Definition of Success with Rebecca Walter