In today’s business environment the war for top talent is real and with a supposed 60%+ of people in US companies actively job-hunting, the challenge to build thriving, engaged teams is enormous for senior executives.

I have made the decision to move on to other roles a few times in my career and I am asked quite often for career advice around is it worth leaving a steady job to pursue something different or when is the right time to leave, etc. The topic for this Weekend Reflections for Leaders is focused on providing a few thoughts on what becomes a very complex and personal decision to move on from a company and/or a career.

The decision to move on. When someone feels that first itch to considering moving on, it is important to understand the reason for the search. Here are a few potential reasons people have shared with me:

• Limited opportunity for movement into new roles that can support growth and development (either the company is not growing, or an individual is not on the short list for advancement).
• A company culture (collective behavior of leaders) that does not align with an individual’s values. This is not simply a “bad boss.” This is a complete misalignment of values and an unhealthy environment for someone to build a career upon.
• A desire for a more challenging career to learn and grow. The career track within the company/industry does not seem as appealing as it once did for growth and development or after some genuine soul-searching, one’s true purpose or life’s desire is not aligned to a current career path.  

It is often difficult to simplify what is a complex, multifactorial decision to consider moving on, but it has been my experience that a most thoughtful and healthy rationale is when an individual’s desire to learn and grow exceeds the apparent opportunities in both the near and medium term in their current environment. The decision is most effective when it is based on the desire to continue to learn, grow and make a positive impact versus a decision based on fear or simply seeking “fame and fortune.”

Where to go? Once a decision to search is made, the next step is to figure where to go.

If the current industry, or sub-segment of an industry, still seems appealing, then searching for growing companies in the same field makes sense. An individual already has marketable skills and can hit the ground running in a similar position. This “fresh start” can often be an enabler of rapid individual growth that has been unleashed in a new environment without the limitations that were in place in a prior company.   

If the industry does not seem appealing (macro-factors driving consolidation, limited innovation, or the industry is ripe to be “Amazoned”, “Napstered” or “Uberized”) then it is time to look for new, growing industries or at least companies that seem capable of innovating their way out of an industry that is ripe for commoditization.

Assessing opportunities. There are books written on the various factors to determine whether an opportunity is sufficient to move forward. In my experience, it comes down to two factors (1) People: The leadership, the culture, and environment to participate must be trustworthy and well-aligned to a person’s values (2) Products & Services: Priority focus placed on innovations in product development, customer service, and operations must be well-appreciated otherwise a future of commoditization and outsourcing is not far away.

Corporate roles vs. the Entrepreneur: In today’s world where the marketplace and the media glorify, and reward entrepreneurs compared to the steady Joe and Jane leading great corporations on the world’s stage, it is important to consider the factors on making a major career shift of moving from a large company to an entrepreneurial venture. This decision is often on a whole different level than the process discussed above.

The mindset of an entrepreneur is different than the mindset of most corporate cultures.

If an individual prefers to work with familiar people, doing consistent processes within a steady organizational structure, and where the guardrails are firmly established, then the entrepreneur pathway may not be for them. However, if an individual wants to be on the hook for making decisions that impact the survival of the company, personally invest in work and products that are not a sure thing, and lead others to support a clear purpose without a high degree of certainty that it will succeed, then the path of entrepreneurship may be for them.

Today’s senior executives and top talent need to be intentional about building a career path that is focused on continual growth and development. The marketplace continues to accelerate the pace of change and the mindset of a steady, one-size fits all 30-year career plan will most likely end in an undesirable outcome. Those who expand their experience, development new skills, and adapt quickly to change are the most likely to thrive going forward. 

Are you facing a challenging career decision…or should you be and just have not yet accepted the reality?

What if I were to ask you, “What is the most difficult leadership challenge you are facing today?” What would you say?

Here are a few resources to help:

1. Download FREE resources at www.harvesttimepartners.com
2. Contact me. Email: david@harvesttimepartners.com (M) 269-370-9275

David Esposito

The intent of the Looking Back series captured in recent Weekend Reflections for Leaders is to share some learnings from my journey of leaving a successful career with a great multi-national, life science company to learn and grow in the high growth (and high risk) mid-stage and early-stage life science marketplace. Over the last decade, I led a few companies to successful exits and also experienced a few very painful failures.

This weekend’s writing is the final part of the series. Here is a summary of the last few weeks of Looking Back:

Part #1: Guiding Principles

Part #2: Risk Taking and the Value of Failure

Part #3: Teamwork   

Part #4: Inspiration

Part #5: Energy & Focus

Part #6: Leadership & Empowerment

The construct of any business, whether large or small, starts with an identified need or problem to be solved. The development of an idea for a product or service that meets that need gets the ball rolling with forming a business. However, we just have a nice research project, not a business, until we have someone willing to pay for the product or service…and we don’t have the potential for a successful business until we have those same customers coming back to buy more and inviting their network of friends and colleagues to do the same.

In companies both large and small, there is a consistent internal cultural risk that arises with an infatuation of the product and how great “we” are for developing the product, while forgetting about the original intent of meeting a customer’s needs and losing the discipline to consistently assess how customers appreciate and value the product or service.

We create a great deal of work on trying to achieve “perfection” with the product and spend very little time seeing how it will integrate in a potential customer’s current workflow, what logistics barriers need to be addressed and most importantly, if customers will actually pay for it. In many of today’s market segments, and certainly in healthcare, companies need to further assess a potential customer’s commitment to buy the product with the follow-up question, “If you are going to buy this new product, what product or service are you going to stop buying as a result.” No one has an ever-expansive budget to just keep purchasing. The economic offset and product/service trade-offs of buying something new must be well understood to manage expectations for the launch of new product or service.

In many ways, creating the product to meet a need in the market is the easy part. The logistics, the integration into workflows, the pricing structure, etc. is where the real hard work needs to be done to ensure there is a wonderful customer experience that is delivered along with our “great” product.

In one of my more painful leadership learnings, I was a key leader in a company that was overly enthusiastic about how great our product was and paid little attention to the product’s practical application in the real world of our target customers. As a result, the company slowly walked into insolvency. It was a 10+ year journey and a multi-million-dollar investment that did not end well for anyone involved. 

Successful entrepreneurs have figured out that product development really begins in the hands of customers and getting product #1 out the door and being used by customers is just the beginning to creating the next big thing. Whether it is the software analogy of “Version 1.0 & 2.0” or “New & Improved”, the construct is the same, the customer is at the heart of product development and the company’s focus is on evolving the product offering to address the ongoing learnings from customers using it in real life.

Creating the perfect product from the start is a pipe-dream.  Companies need to focus on getting to market quickly with a marketable solution and then systematically learn and adopt their offerings based on learnings gathered from customers.

Ensuring that a trustworthy, respectful, and thoughtful customer experience is delivered as part of the purchase of a product will be the foundation for customers’ willingness to remain engaged around version 2.0, 3.0, etc. in the future. In today’s competitive world, products are rapidly becoming interchangeable and it is the customer experience around that product that builds long term customer relationships that can develop into a sustainable business.  

Both large and small companies suffer from an unhealthy infatuation of the product and migrate away from the original intent of a passion for solving a large unmet need in the market.

For today’s senior executives and top talent, there is an important element in the journey of leadership to ensure the organization’s intent remains focused on solving the needs of customers and not simply adding more creative bells and whistles to our “great” product.

What if I were to ask you, “What is the most difficult leadership challenge you are facing today?” What would you say?

Here are a few resources to help:

1. Download FREE resources at www.harvesttimepartners.com
2. Contact me. Email: david@harvesttimepartners.com (M) 269-370-9275

David Esposito