Mid career crisis as Spring is sprung

Mar 26 2008 by Tony Charles, Western Mail

Cardiff-based careers consultant and executive coach Tony Charles offers some advice about avoiding the mid career crisis

TODAY, more than ever before, people have high expectations of life. Consumerism, materialism and the desire for immediate access to all that life can offer is the new way of living.

But why is it that, in the same way that many people have a mid life crisis when they start questioning their lifestyle, many of us have a mid career crisis too?

Many people at their mid career point start looking for new meaning both inside work and in their personal lives. This can happen for a number of reasons, including:

Bad career advice (or perhaps not seeking or listening to advice) when choosing a career at the start of working life;

An event in personal life that causes a re-think on vocation, such as a bereavement, breakdown of a relationship, children leaving home, or financial commitments;

An upset in working life such as a new boss or colleagues that causes discord;

A major change in work such as acquisition, merger or redundancy;

A change in the values of the organisation or a change in personal values;

A change in values that result in one being out of tune with the current work scene.

Businesses and organisations need to maximise their performance by recruiting, developing and retaining the right staff.

Employees need to be in the right careers in roles which suit their qualifications, skills and experience, personality and match their values.

When these two needs meet and the needs of the business are synchronised with individual needs, this makes for very powerful work performance.

So what should we do to avoid the mid career crisis?

In the same way that we take time to explore buying something new as consumers, so we need to take time to regularly review our careers which fund our lifestyle. Questions to ask include:

Am I still in the right role and the right business?

Does the job I’m doing reflect my level of skills, experience and personality?

Should I do any re-training?

Have I changed, or has the organisation changed to such an extent that there is a mismatch in needs and values and I should no longer be there?

What new options are open to me and what businesses and organisations should I be talking to about new opportunities?

Should I be looking at re-negotiating my salary with my existing employer first?

As nature gives us new growth this spring, this is the ideal time to question whether we are truly maximising the talents of those in our organisation, and also our own careers. Beware, the mid career crisis could be just around the next corner!

Tony Charles runs a Cardiff-based career management and executive coaching consultancy, Tony Charles Associates.