Don’t Let Fear Derail Your Career
How Finding Comfort in the Familiar Can Roadblock Job Advancement
"Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway." Susan Jeffers, PhD., knew what she was talking about with her book title. It's often what holds an employee back from career success
It’s an age-old issue.
After years with the same organization, an employee becomes comfortably entrenched in a department or position and because it is easy to do what is familiar, any thought of career advancement falls by the wayside.
Whether this is good or bad is obviously a personal choice. However, some might wonder why an employee stays with an organization for 10, 20, even 30 years doing the same thing day in and day out. Surely she must be bored or at least a little bit curious about opportunities outside her current realm of responsibility.
There was a time early in the twentieth century and into the sixties when the Protestant Work Ethic was valued and it was a natural part of life to stay with the same organization – often in the same job family – for an entire lifetime.
However, as the newest generation of employees has grown up with technology, the idea of staying anywhere – let alone the same job or company – for any length of time has quickly faded.
So for employees to stay put nowadays, it is more an anomaly than commonplace. That’s why it is important for workers to routinely question their own career drivers, and whether or not their career stagnation comes from a personal fear to move forward.
For employees who find their careers derailed due to complacency, consider these possible reasons for slipping into that comfort zone.
Fear of Failure
One of the biggest reasons employees – and people in general – have a difficult time moving forward is due to a fear of failure. It’s just so much easier to keep on keeping on with the same routine. There's no risk.
There may be a couple of reasons for this fear. Either they have set unrealistic expectations – raised the bar too high even for them to reach it – or they are concerned they might somehow lose something – self-respect, the option to return to their comfort zone or something else.
Fear of Change
Change is a normal part of life. However, sometimes the thought of making a change can cause anxiety or discomfort.
This fear may have to do with ambiguity – not knowing what may occur or what they want. Facing the unknown and being okay with whatever the outcome is can be difficult. On the other hand, fear of change may just stem from the old 'why-fix-what-ain’t-broke’ mentality.
Fear of Success
Since the whole idea behind career achievement is to be successful, this final road block can be difficult to face.
Often people who are afraid of success are that way because they secretly feel they are a fraud, that somehow they have achieved their success under false pretenses. In addition, the ongoing concern that they have to demonstrate continued success stymies them even more.
For employees who face some type of fear that prevents them from moving their career forward, they should consider if:
- Laziness is a factor or if their limitations are influenced by fear.
- They can take smaller steps by asking for one new responsibility or a small, yet challenging one-time project.
- Talking about it with a close confidante or family member can help them to see their roadblock.
- Their organization has an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) where they can avail themselves of professional counseling services.
- They do fail or succeed, what’s the worse case scenario and how they can move past this?
On the other hand, sometimes a job is just a job. Many people can be happy doing what they do because it pays the bills. Their personal satisfaction comes from other sources like family, friends and external activities. That's why understanding personal motivation is key.
