Last week I delved into a question that crosses most people's minds throughout their careers: whether or not they should stay with their company. My own journey involved a lot of inward reflection and forced me to take an honest assessment of my career. I asked myself some key questions during this time, and these questions may be helpful to you if you are tackling this issue yourself. These questions will likely be a good starting point for any career question your grappling with, and I encourage you to try to answer each one for yourself:
• What do I need to do more of?
• What do I need to do less of?
• Who needs to stay on the team?
• Who needs to leave the team?
• What are my expenses (for real)?
• What's our profitability?
• What is our cash flow?
If you don't have these key questions in check you can go anywhere and still not get ahead. And I never would have seen this if I didn't expose myself to my two mentors http://www.keystothevault.com/about/index.htmlKeith Cunningham and Tony Robbins.
It's easy to blame and look outside (ie: blame your current company for your career stagnation), when I really think sometimes it's about looking within -- and making the real changes in ourselves that make a difference in our business, our lives, the culture we choose to be a part of.
I arrived at honest answers for all of the above questions, and I chose to improve inwardly rather than blame my company: Prudential Douglas Elliman certainly wasn't holding me back. Did you know that 90 percent of the people start their real estate searches on the web? Well, Elliman will come up just about every time. The company has been around for over a hundred years and has the legacy I wanted behind me. The need for growth, I realized, was an internal issue that I could sort out through honest reflection and the implementation of measurable goals.
So needless to say I decided to stay at Douglas Elliman and I feel really great about going through a very thoughtful process and coming to this conclusion. I took the legacy of the company into account, while at the same time realizing that creating the outcomes I wanted in my career was ultimately up to me. You have this power as well and if you are at a crossroads in your career, I wholeheartedly hope you take the initative to ask yourself some difficult questions.
I would love to hear about what some of you are experiencing and what decisions you have made and how did you come to those decisions. What are your major career questions right now? And who are your mentors? Leave it in the comments and let's discuss!