Career Advice / Statement found on LinkedIn by a “Thought Leader / Practice Leader, Digital Transformation / MBA Career Success Mentor”
“It is a well established and accepted fact in professional circles that remaining in your comfort zone will derail your career growth.”
Why this is wrong:
Based on 40 years of research and the consequently developed Career Model by Decision Dynamics, we know that there are 4 main “Career Concepts”:
The Expert Career Concept is the most stable and historically dominant view of a successful career as being a lifelong commitment to a profession with which one identifies. Success means to be the best, i.e. the expert in one‘s area.
The Linear Career Concept is instead focused on rapid movement upward the “corporate ladder”. Success is measured in the level one has reached, which can be translated in responsibility, power and influence.
The Spiral Career Concept is a less traditional view where one rather discovers one’s career through periodic (5-10 years) lateral changes of occupational fields. Success means frequent opportunities to widen one’s competence base and get new experiences.
The Transitory Career Concept is the most change-oriented and least conventional view, even to the extent that many consider it as not even a career. The more different and frequent the changes, the better.
Every professional is differently motivated by each concept and as a result there are combinations that in return may suggest ideal career paths.
To give you an example: somebody who is equally motivated by the Expert and the Transitory Career Concept, will enjoy being a freelancer. Or a combination of Spiral & Linear will hint at a potential fit to general management positions. And so on.
In other words: good advice for one person, can be bad for the next person.
Putting it now into context of the initial statement “remaining in your comfort zone will derail your career growth”: staying in your area & specializing is actually the best career advice for anybody who is strongly motivated by the Expert Career Concept.
We believe that everybody shares career advice with their best intentions at heart. But, we often do it from our own perspective only, without considering that it might be counter-productive or even harmful to its recipients.
Would you like to find out more about yourself? And what drives you? What motivates you? Your ideal career path? Your next steps? Let’s talk! Schedule an initial career consultation by email to Bichl.Sandra@CareerAngels.eu / Subject: Career Path. To save time, send you CV and availability.
