The Nature of Leadership and Career

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The Nature of Leadership and Career is a weekly newsletter where I provide 1 illustration and ~3 ideas to help you connect to your career, leadership, or work journey more naturally.

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Today at a glance

• Illustration of the week

  - From linear to infinite - a new career mental model

• The Nature of Career

  - Reframing Going Backwards

  • #1 - From linear to infinite

  • #2 - Change your viewpoint

  • #3 - Busting biases

Illustration of the week

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The Nature of Career

In the previous issue, Why we don’t like going backwards in our careers, we discussed the 5 cognitive biases that may explain why, and broader culture dynamics that have shaped our view that career progress = vertical or forwards.

As promised in this edition we discuss how to reframe career progress as multi-directional.

Reframe #1

Change the mental model of career from “linear backwards” to “infinity backloop”

It’s time to change our mental model of careers from a ladder or a messy squiggle moving forward to the Adaptive Career Cycle™, i.e. an infinity loop.

This is a concept I have been working on for several years. It is the logo and the heart of “The Nature of Careers and Leadership.”

The Adaptive Career Cycle™ is based on nature’s adaptive and panarchy cycles by Gunderson and Hollings.

In nature, the adaptive cycle made up of four phases;

• Growth and Conservation are known as the “front loop”, and

• Release and Reorganize are known as “the back loop.”

A simple example from nature are the seasons – Grow (spring), Conserve (summer), Release (autumn/fall), and Reorganize (winter).

I believe our careers follow the same pattern.

Sometimes we go from the conservation phase to the release phase out of choice (e.g. new career direction, new organization) and sometimes the choice is made for us (e.g. redundancy).

It is my opinion every time we feel like we are going backward during periods of transition we are progressing “forward” but through the backloop, like a slinky:

As we go through the backloop it is paramount that we address this shift at a heart (emotional), head (strategic), and hands level (tactical).

This is the holistic approach I specialize in, helping Women in Tech to confidently move through the backloop and drive toward their next phase of growth.

I will keep sharing more on The Adaptive Career Cycle ™ in the coming weeks and months e.g. rigidity traps in the conservation phase, and more on alpha, omega, r, and k strategists.

My hope is to start a movement of courageous career transitions inspired by nature.

Reframe #2 – Change how you view “going backwards”

I didn’t think about some of the beautiful metaphors of going backwards until I read the comments to the previous issue.

The only one to be cautious of is when people say going backwards was one of the best things they did. The potential issue here is that comments made after the fact can be prone to hindsight bias.

The best way to overcome hindsight bias is to have a methodical way and evaluate your decisions on career options and direction.

Reframe #3 - Bust your Biases

The final powerful reframe, is rewriting the cognitive bias most affecting you in relation to “going backwards” (see last edition).

Let me know if you have any questions or contributions to The Adaptive Career Cycle™ or reframing biases.

🤝 Of course, reach out if you are going through your own backloop transition and would like to discuss coaching support.

Find out more about me here.

Catch up on recent issues of The Nature of Leadership + Career

• Amplify or Unravel? The 3 types of leaders shaping your leadership

• How your scarcity mindset impacts your decision making and empathy + 3 ways to override it

• 3 career X-factors that most generalists ignore

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