7 mistakes high achievers make when choosing their next career step (part 1)
Last week, we kicked off my series 7 mistakes high achievers make when choosing their next career step.
Today, let’s dive into Mistake #1 :)
Mistake #1: Thinking in terms of jobs and roles…
Instead of thinking in terms of applications of their craft.1
What do I mean when I say “your craft”?
The distinction between your craft vs. your job is like the distinction between clay vs. a bowl.
A bowl is just one shape that can be made out of clay.
You can also make clay into a plate, or a mug, or a figurine.
And you can also have bowls that are NOT made out of clay.
Some bowls are made of wood, or metal, or plastic.
In the same way…
A job is just one shape that can be made out of your craft.
Aka: A job is just one application of your craft.
And the same “job shape” can be made out of different “craft materials.”
Aka: The same job can be done successfully through the application of different crafts.
I’m going to tell you how to identify your craft in a second…
But first let me tell you why thinking in terms of jobs and roles instead of applications of your craft is a mistake.
Let’s take two management consultants with the same level of experience.
If you think of them in terms of jobs and roles, you might say:
They have the same type of experience in the same company.
So they should probably be looking at the same kinds of next career steps.
And that next step should be something that logically follows from their consulting background.
But if you think of them in terms of their craft, you might notice…
The WAY that Consultant A is successful as a consultant is that:
They deeply study the topic they’re working on and strive to become an expert
They develop original perspectives based on what they’ve learned
They communicate their knowledge and perspectives as effectively as possible through visuals, metaphors, good slide design, and thoughtful sequencing of meetings
In contrast, the WAY that Consultant B is successful as a consultant is that:
They ruthlessly prioritize what matters and what doesn’t matter — and they only do A+ work on the stuff that matters
They know exactly who to contact within the firm’s massive network of resources to find an answer or get an analysis done for them
They are very savvy about the answer the partner or the client wants to see, and they get that answer on the page fast, and they make sure it’s defensible
Consultant A and Consultant B are practicing two very different crafts.
Either craft can make someone a successful consultant — just like a bowl can be made out of clay or wood.
But the “base material” each of them are working with is quite different.
And the most important thing about each of their next steps is NOT that it “logically follows” from consulting.
The most important thing is that each of their next steps should play to the strengths of the “base material” they’re working with.
Their next steps should be a highly-value-creating application of their respective crafts.
And it shouldn’t be a MIS-application of their craft.
Don’t try to to make a chair out of clay — it’s going to fall down pretty fast.
Consultant A should do something where deep expertise, original perspectives, and clear communication are key to solving high-priority problems.
Consultant B should do something where prioritization, delegation, and a savvy understanding of stakeholders’ needs are key to solving high-priority problems.
We’ll talk more about how to find high-value applications of your craft in the next article.
But for today, let’s talk about putting your finger on what your craft is.
So what is “your craft”?
When I say “your craft” what I means is…
Your MO.
Your way of doing things.
The habitual way you approach problems, find solutions, and bring things from “unsolved state” to “solved state.”
Your way of moving through the world — which you couldn’t stop doing even if you tried.
Everyone has a craft.
Everyone has a natural, habitual way of moving through the world, solving problems, and doing things.
But you probably don’t know what your craft is…
For the same reason that fish don’t know what “water” is.
When you’re born in water, live in water, die in water, and know nothing but water…
You have no idea what “water” is because you’ve never known anything BUT water.
Consultant A and Consultant B probably have NO idea what their crafts are.
Because to each of them, it’s “just obvious” that everyone would approach the consulting job in the way that they do.
And if they ever talked to each other, they would probably be very surprised to hear that each of them approach the job so differently.
So here are 3 exercises you can do to articulate your craft to yourself.
Exercise 1: List 5-7 times you were in flow, in the zone, loving what you were doing and producing great work.
These could have happened at work, in school, or in your personal life.
It could be a project you crushed at work, or a club you ran in college, or that time you planned your friend’s bachelorette party.
It doesn’t matter what realm of life it was in — in fact, looking across the different realms of your life might actually be quite instructive.
What matters is that you were locked in and in the zone.
Once you’ve listed those 5-7 examples, step back.
What are the common themes between these examples, in terms of HOW you tend to operate? What’s the common MO?
Exercise 2: Contrast how you approached a problem vs. how someone else approached a problem.
It’s often easier to know yourself through contrast with others.
Consultant A and Consultant B might have trouble identifying their own crafts in a vacuum…
But if they talked to each other and compared their approaches to the job, they’d get an idea of their crafts pretty quickly.
So go talk to your friends or colleagues.
See how they approach different problems or challenges.
You might be surprised how your “obviously, everyone does this” approach to things is actually quite specific to you.
Exercise 3: Cross-check your insights from Exercise 1 and 2 with a career assessment test.
I personally like CliftonStrengths (it costs $65 to take as an individual), but there are tons of these assessments out there.
If you just do an assessment, the results are often too broad to be meaningful.
You’re like, “Okay, I’m a Communicator. What does that mean?”
But when you pair the broad terminology of a strengths assessment with the specific examples from Exercises 1 and 2, a clearer picture starts to emerge.
You start to be able to name and articulate your craft with a bit more precision.
Use these exercises to get to a rough 50-60% understanding of what your craft is.
You do NOT need 100% precision here.
A “rough pencil sketch” is fine — don’t spin your wheels trying to create a “photorealistic oil painting.”
Because your understanding of what your craft is — AND what its highest-value applications are — is going to get further sharpened by hanging out in problem spaces.
Which we’re going to talk more about tomorrow, when we cover Mistake #2 :)
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And have me analyze your particular situation and just tell you what to do…
Come talk to me, and I’ll give you my custom suggestions today.
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It’s not a sales pitch.
It’s just an opportunity for us to discuss whatever’s on your mind…
And I’ll offer some one-off coaching and brainstorming about your situation.
Or you can book a consult call, and we can map out a full coaching engagement.
So we can not only get clear on your next step…
We can also fully flesh out the roadmap for getting there…
And execute it step by step until you’re where you want to be.
⬅️ Intro || Mistake #2 ➡️
What my clients have to say…
“I was worried the advice I’d be getting would be very general or something that I could just have Googled or seen on Twitter.
But that quickly fell away.
The advice, the connection, the unique frameworks and analogies Pooja has were like nothing I've ever seen before, outside of her social media.”
—Client | VP at Major Financial Institution
I help high achievers build their careers around flow.
This requires…
Internally, learning how to access your flow no matter what’s going on around you
Externally, designing a career strategy that angles your flow at a high-priority problem that someone will pay you good money to solve
Tactically, navigating the transition from where you are right now to where you want to be
Today’s article focused on #2.
For more writing on all 3 of these, check out my table of contents.
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My “your job vs. your craft” idea is heavily influenced by Simone Seol’s concept of “your profession vs. your artistry,” which she elaborates on in this podcast episode.