Another thought from my stay in Chicago at the ACHE meeting. Over the years, I have discussed this situation with many candidates and interestingly it has come up several times over the last month.
When you are with an organization and you’ve reached the crossroads. The crossroads being “I’m not getting out of this position/job what I have in the past, I am no longer enjoying the journey.” You have three choices… But let me preface this by saying, usually when you are thinking in this direction, your work situation has already become somewhat more stressful. So choice one becomes continue on and put up with stress. Not typically a good decision and why? This situation will eventually lead to both mental and physical challenges because it doesn’t support or meet your needs or desires. Choice two; Make a decision to leave and transition to a new organization. Not a particularly bad choice, but not always the best choice depending on the situation. We often leave before we should or we leave too late. There is a great deal to be learned by working through these types of situations before you make a decision to leave. I’ve seen people negatively impact their own stability because of their inability to adjust to these types of situations. And choice three (always the best); work on your own perception of the situation and change it in order to make it work. Will this always be the case? Absolutely not, some situations require a change.
The point I’m trying to make is this – we have three choices but we tend to carry on living with the situation or leaving the organization. Both of these have the potential for negative impact. We are not spending enough time on adjusting our perception and looking at ways to grow within our current organization. Why do we not do this? Because we don’t understand the process, we’re afraid or apprehensive about asking the tough questions, we may not like what we’re hearing or we may be unwilling to change. But you can learn more from taking this path than you will ever learn from choosing the other two. This choice will force you to be introspective and get a better understanding of who you are and how you’re viewed within your existing organization. And even if you still decide to leave, you will do it, knowing that you made the right choice.
