It only takes two lists to uncover your future.

If you’re considering a career change, but not sure when, there’s a simple activity I get clients to do that can help to uncover what the ideal next move might be.

It’s relatively simple and involves creating two lists. One list of the things that you’d most like to see the back of in your next role, another list of the things you’d love to keep.

Why do this? Simply put, after some work, these lists can help to form the blueprint for your ideal next role, as well as helping to uncover the values you possess, which your next role should align with.

These lists are relatively simple, I recommend the following approach to create them.

1.??????Have your CV/resume to hand, along with either paper and pen or two blank documents on your PC.

2.??????Go through your current role and go up to five years backwards on your CV/resume.

3.??????In doing so, create list 1 by listing all the things that you did in those roles, that you’d (ideally) never want to do again.

4.??????Create list 2 by listing all the things you did in these roles, that you’d (ideally) love to do in your next role.

5.??????Scan both lists and allow yourself to mentally re-imagine yourself in these roles, in doing so, add anything to these lists that you may have missed.

Once you have these lists, question each point until you zero in on the real motivator or value. An example from someone I recently spoke to:

Motivator

“I am regularly asked to man the emergency phone at work, I’d keep that if I could”

After questioning them as to why and digging deeper, it turned out that the reason this was so rewarding to him, was that he’s a natural problem-solver. His role had become repetitive and the only time a new “problem” arose that required solving, was when the emergency line rang. This enabled us to find other ways that his next role could tap into this skill.

Value

“I frequently try to rise to the top of the company hierarchy, but repeatedly find myself in roles that aren’t right for me”

After exploring this further, it turned out that what they really valued was to be on a path that represented progression in terms of personal development. With further questioning we realised that what they really needed, was support to have an ongoing professional development programme and the encouragement/incentive to stick to it. This turned out to be about growth and they had only expressed it previously by chasing more and more senior roles and incremental pay increases.

In these cases, finding the heart of each point and uncovering the underlying the motivators and values, allowed us to work together to set targets and form action plans that actually led somewhere they wanted to be and obtain things they would genuinely find worthwhile.

For me, I look back at phases in my career where I needed a change. I sought out something new and then landed it, only to realise I didn’t really want it. Having reverse-engineered it, I now use tasks like the above to help others realise what they specifically want, and not chase someone else’s idea of success.

I urge anyone considering a career-change to complete this activity. Even if the change is something for the future, this task can be perfect as you can develop the lists over a longer time period, using deeper scrutiny of your current role to help with them.

If you’d prefer to do this with a template, please let me know and I’ll happily share one.?