Redefining the Climb Up the Corporate Ladder

Written by Steven Urban and Kat Cox

Listen to Steven’s talk with Nicole Colwell on The Corporate Expat™ Experience podcast here.

Over the past few decades in America, we’ve been given a picture of what success looks like: a college degree from a top school that leads to a good job in a solid company with regular promotions until you’ve climbed the top of the corporate ladder. It’s supposed to be a straight line of progress that means a fulfilling career with good pay and benefits along the way and a sunny retirement at the end.

But this narrow view of success isn’t what most people experience in their careers. And it doesn’t take into account our individual personalities, desires, or values, let alone changes in the economic environment like the Great Recession or the COVID-19 pandemic that we don’t have any control over. When our lives don’t match up with the picture-perfect ideal society has fed us about success, we can feel like failures, internalizing our inability to hit external milestones as if that points to our personal flaws.

Today, people are finding other ways to define success and sharing their experiences with others, helping redefine what the corporate experience looks like for individuals and organizations alike. There are more tools than ever to free people from self-imposed or cultural expectations of how life is supposed to go, allowing them to improve their lives and spark innovation in the corporate world and beyond.

Speaking From Experience

One of the reasons I am a career coach today is because of my experience climbing up and off the corporate ladder. I know firsthand how sacrificing your body and your deep-seated needs can cause you to literally shut down physically, mentally, and emotionally – otherwise known as burnout.

I worked for 21 years at a large management consulting firm and made it my entire identity. I worked with amazing team members and clients, but I always felt that something was missing. Boundaries and “no” were not words in my vocabulary, and as a managing director, I worked 60 hours a week. This led to a nervous breakdown in November 2019 – my body’s way of telling me that something needed to change.

After working with a therapist and taking time to recover, I was able to see my needs and values more clearly. I was able to redefine what I wanted out of a career and establish boundaries, as well as set goals that were more in line with my values and desires. Several years later, everything aligned for me and I was able to leave my full-time day job to establish Build Your Alliance and help others redefine success for themselves, without having to go through burnout to find it.

Redefining Success and Identity

For some people, success might mean climbing the corporate ladder just as society prescribes. But for others, it can mean something entirely different. For example, I have a client who was on that traditional trajectory for success but decided to have a child and raise a family. Suddenly working overtime and closing deals lost importance to her. While she still valued her career and her work, she had new priorities.

Now when we talk about what success looks like to her, we have new parameters. Success for her is making a meal for her family on a Friday night or putting away the laundry in time to spend Sunday evening relaxing. These may sound simple, but in her new life as a mother, these goals help her appreciate and spend time with her family, which she has identified as one of her main values.

Her understanding of herself has evolved. She’s had to find a place for her role as a mother and family member alongside her identity as a corporate worker. I’ve had the pleasure of helping her map out her path through this change, watching her find ways to navigate the changes while still being honest with herself and her relationships. Her work life has changed, but her workplace also benefits from an employee who is more available creatively.

Human Resilience and Changing Workplaces

We live in an era of layoffs and work instability. Many people are finding it difficult to adjust when their job – which is a major part of their identity – is taken away from them. It takes rewiring and work to reframe our identities, especially when we’ve spent so much time building them around our jobs. It’s often these big life changes that force us to consider our values and determine what matters.

Since the pandemic, companies have had to rearrange their priorities as well. People and organizations were both forced to face enormous changes in a short period of time, causing an identity crisis for employees and employers alike. In my previous job as a managing director, I worked with leadership and culture managers to develop practices that focused not only on how an individual performs but on how to navigate their careers and manage their stress. With the right coaching and training, individuals can use these skills in their jobs as well as their personal lives, which can give them resilience and self-assurance when unexpected events occur.

Getting Help Before It’s a Problem

Many people don’t think they need career coaching or even know that it’s an option. But defining your values, articulating your boundaries, and navigating your personal journey through career coaching can prevent burnout and lead to more fulfillment, whether it’s on or off the corporate ladder. Corporations are seeing more benefit from giving employees tools to develop their skills both at work and in personal matters. Individuals are beginning to recognize the value in defining their own goals, especially as they feel less secure in the viability of their day jobs.

Career coaching and development, like Build Your Alliance offers, helps individuals define their success, know their strengths, and take their future into their own hands. This allows them to find what they want out of both their careers and their lives and move toward it. Having this kind of game plan can prevent burnout, empowering individuals to listen to their guts. Whether they decide to set boundaries at work, stick their hand up for a different assignment, or leave to start their own company.

The goal of career coaching is to create self-awareness, which allows individuals to tap into their values. From there, they can articulate these values, empowering them to set boundaries, communicate better, and determine their goals. These values and self-awareness provide a roadmap for individuals to navigate through changes and evolve over time.

Define Success for Yourself with Build Your Alliance

Leverage my experience to find your own purpose through Build Your Alliance’s career coaching programs. Whether it’s becoming a better leader, climbing the corporate ladder without burning out, or finding your true purpose to start out on your own, our certified coaches use proven assessment tools and coaching methods to guide you to your goals.

Schedule an initial consultation today to learn how Build Your Alliance can help you define your success, avoid burnout, and navigate career changes with confidence.