What do Kawhi Leonard and I have in common?

Got your attention didn’t it! We are both debating change. He will hopefully choose to stay in Toronto but you never know. At my company people are encouraged to keep growing and push themselves to not stay in a role too long. I’ve been resisting forming even a plan for the last six months since I love my current role so much. Gentle prodding from my bosses/mentor/coaches and encouragement at a leadership training class forced me to look at why I was hesitating. In my last company I did the same role for well over ten years. I was “beyond comfortable”. I did not push myself at all. I am determined to change that habit and stay in the growth mindset. 

I took some time over a weekend to truly think about what parts of my job I love the most and what might be even better if.  I had to think deeply about what parts of my week I enjoy the most and what interactions were the most motivating for me. There was an easy path, back to the Kawhi Leonard analogy, maybe this is his version of staying with the Raptors. Most people moving up to executive at our company take this path. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that doesn’t quite suit me. I saw another path that I think will end up in the same place, eventually.  We could call this path, Kawhi goes to the Lakers path – it’s not clear how it will go, but there are potentially some great pieces to it that better match up to my motivations. I think the key to the introspection was to do it somewhere quiet outside of work and actually force myself to think about it from different angles. One factor I thought about a lot was where could my skills make the most impact.

I share this because I see many folks comfortable in their roles. Especially when people get over forty, there’s even more unconscious motivation to stay put where you know you can deliver. However, according to the growth mindset – we need to keep pushing ourselves. I’m now still in the discussion phases of this new role – but I can feel the motivation gene kicking into gear. I don’t have a free agency day coming up like Kawhi does on Sunday, but I think in the next 6 months or so I’ll be taking on something new. 

One great thing that Kawhi does not have is the luxury that my current company is so big there are a lot of different roles/paths to take. For him, he has to leave his team, city, and teammates for a new challenge. For me, I get to keep all my favourite teammates but just take on a different role. I feel for Kawhi – but then again – he is making millions of dollars a year to play basketball so…..!