Notes:
We all reach a plateau in life and in our careers. Some we recognize, others we don’t. Some we want to break through, and others we’re ok staying within. And this is the main topic of today with Chris White.
Chris is a friend of the show. He’s been on several times so far, and you can find links to his previous episodes below, but today is all about being in a rut, recognizing it, and then doing something about it. Chris shares the ruts that he’s been through in his career, how he overcame them, and how he thinks others can overcome their personal struggles.
Key Takeaways:
- How do we define a career plateau?
- Sales engineers who have been in the role for 2-5 years, will inevitably hit some sort of plateau
- Recognizing we’re in a rut
- The career ruts/plateaus Chris went through and how he overcame them.
- Why having goals is important
- Goals can change
- Investing in coaches
- Chris explains that each of the 6 habits was the result of him hitting a plateau
- The manager’s role in getting past a rut
- Taking ownership of our own career
- Falling back into bad habits could happen when you’ve been in a role for 2-3 years and start to feel that your job is routine
Quotes:
“We become complacent, we become less motivated and we’re not really sure what’s driving us. To me, that’s a [career] plateau, where I’m not sure what it is that I’m striving for next in my career.” – Chris White
“When our job starts to feel routine, that’s when we fall back into bad habits.” Chris White
“We have to recognize that we’re in a bit of [rutt], you have to be patient with yourself, you have to allow yourself to experience the emotions, and then we need to be creative in considering what can we do to challenge ourselves” – Chris White
“There’s, there’s a certain comfort that comes with being in a plateau or being in a rut, but there’s also a certain level of dissatisfaction” Chris White
“You have to have a starting why, because if you don’t have that, how are you going to know where to go?” – Ramzi Marjaba
“I achieved the very goal that I was after. And realize that I was unhappy” – Chris White
“you have an end goal, but you don’t know if it’s the right goal until you get there.” – Ramzi Marjaba
Links from the show:
- The Six Habits of Highly Effective Sales Engineers
- Path finder Career Design
- Aslan Training
- unReceptive: A Better Way to Sell, Lead, and Influence by Tom Stanfill
- Selling Is Hard. Buying Is Harder: How Buyer Enablement Drives Digital Sales and Shortens the Sales Cycle by Garin Hess
- Chris White Linkedin Profile
- Tech Sales Advisors – Chris’s Website
