Driving with Platinum Handcuffs: How to Sustain and Accelerate Career Success
By Dan Coughlin
Assuming you earn at least $100k a year, and I bet I'm not far off, you're in the top 10% of all income earners in the U.S. and the top 1% of everyone in the world. No matter how you slice it, you're a world-class income generator.
I'm also assuming that you not only want to maintain that income, but also want to expand it substantially in the years to come. In some ways, your future is more complicated than your past. The great challenge faced by all top-earners is learning how to keep driving your career forward while not letting the "platinum handcuffs" keep you from turning the wheel when needed. You must gain the knowledge to both sustain an already successful career while also constantly progressing, even accelerating forward.
Here are five keys to career acceleration.
1. Take Calculated Risks
The best professional racecar drivers take well-calculated risks to win highly competitive races. However, they avoid doing crazy things that could ruin their cars or endanger their lives.
In order to accelerate your career you must continue to think bigger and bigger, not safer and safer. The successful driver knows that over the course of hundreds of laps there are specific moments when he has to make his move if he wants to win the race. But he also knows the other key to success is to stay in the race. Avoid career blowouts while consistently investing your time and energy in projects that can accelerate business results.
What wise risk can you take right now that could have a significantly positive impact on your organization's most important results?
2. Be Rested for the Big Races
I've noticed that people usually perform career-destroying maneuvers when they're working unbelievably long hours. In a state of near exhaustion, they simply have a very expensive brain freeze.
The most effective top performers, on the other hand, maintain consistency by getting rest and having enough energy not to get caught up in the dramas of the workday. They stay calm and consistent, which helps their group move steadily forward, particularly in the critical moments that drive business results, and careers, forward.
What can you do today to recharge your batteries?
3. Stay Courageous at Decision Time
In every professional race, there are key moments when the best drivers have the courage to choose the path to victory.
To get into the top 10% of all earners in the U.S., you've been courageous throughout your career and, I'm sure, have found yourself in many difficult situations. It's very difficult to stay courageous when the next decision you make could cost you the income you've built up over many years. But remember courage is what you got here. You can't stop being courageous now and expect to win the race in front of you.
Don't worry about pleasing your boss. Worry about improving business results in a sustainable manner. You want a long-term successful career, and that goal can only be reached through generating both short-term and long-term improvement in key business outcomes. Keep the courage that drove your career success forward in the first place.
Watch closely how the great drivers make their moves in the most difficult situations. They attack when others don't expect it. Remain courageous during the most intense business situations.
Think of a situation in your past when you acted courageously. How can you repeat that attitude today?
4. Maintain the Capacity to Walk Away from Your Job
To be able to walk away from your job, emotionally and financially stable, is the most powerful path to long-term career success. When you can do that, you're driving your career rather than the other way around.
I'll never forget when Joe, the VP of Finance for a multi-billion dollar division, told me, "Dan, if I lose this job, I'm done." He had wrapped his entire self-esteem around his title and his income. Not surprisingly, when he lost that job, he never bounced back. He forgot the skills, nerves and self-confidence that it took to build his career back when he was winning the early races.
Remember, you drove your career to your current height. It wasn't just handed to you. If you lose your title or income, you can drive your career forward again because you still have the skills, drive, and experience that got you here in the first place.
If you left your job today, what would you do?
5. Keep Your Engine in Good Shape
Highly successful drivers have a great pit crew. This team makes sure the car is ready to perform its very best when the race starts.
You bring a lot to your organization and to your customers. Keep yourself ready mentally and physically so you're able to build the relationships, make the tough strategic decisions, and say no when necessary to generate the results that justify your championship salary.
Exercise, study your craft, and know your customers. This formula is the fuel that keeps the best career drivers winning consistently. Carve out 45 minutes a day to exercise, read books for personal and professional development, and seek out mentors who have been down the road you're on right now.
What can you do today to enhance your career's engine for success?
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