Seasons of Growth

Our career journeys, like anything, come in seasons.

We go through each of these seasons- maintenance and growth- at various points in our careers. It’s natural.

Often when we start a new role we’re in a growth season- we’re unsure, we’re learning, we’re facing new challenges, we’re applying our skills and experiences in new ways and we’re gaining new skills and experiences that help us in this new season.

Then, as we get more comfortable with the role, more practiced in our skills, more knowledgeable about the challenges and what needs to be done to address them, we move into a maintenance season. We know more or less what we need to do to be successful and we do it. We might be still learning, but the growth rate has slowed substantially.

Each of these seasons comes with trade offs:

• Growth Season:

  • Pros: High growth, lots of learning, rapid skill development

  • Cons: Takes more mental or energetic bandwidth, can be more stressful, might feel less stable

• Maintenance Season:

  • Pros: Generally lower stress, higher perceived competency (you feel like you know what you’re doing), takes less cognitive load so can create space for other priorities

  • Cons: Slower growth, might feel boring, can be less innovative

It might be tempting to over-anchor value on a Growth Season, but being constantly in a growth season can take a lot of bandwidth, be exhausting, and drive burnout. Similarly, staying too long in a Maintenance Season can lead to apathy, loss of innovation, and staleness.

Seasons Exist in an Ecosystem

These seasons of work don’t exist in isolation- myriad factors, including our lives outside of work, impact which season is best aligned for our goals and needs and where we are right now. The right season for us depends on a constellation of factors.

Maybe you have your hands full with a lot of demands outside of work and want to anchor in something that you know and are comfortable with. At other times, you might find yourself with extra time and energy and feel driven to learn and grow and step into uncharted territory— or maybe that’s precisely how you handle high stress outside of work, by throwing yourself into something you can control- your own work and career. Maybe you’re okay with being in a maintenance season because it allows you the freedom and energy to get that yoga certification, or spend more time with your small children or aging parents, or volunteering in your community. Maybe you’re okay with being in a high growth season because you have a clear goal in mind and a steep trajectory to get there, or because you are excited by the work that you’re doing, or because you’re surrounded by a group of energizing friends that are in a similar season in life and are encouraging each other along.

Any of these options are okay but it is worth periodically checking in with yourself to ensure that your desired season is aligned with the season and space that you’re in.

The Pumpkin Patch

Imagine you’re a farmer who grows pumpkins. When you first started growing pumpkins, you faced a bunch of challenges: pests, drought, which fertilizers give you the best results, how much to give, or how little, understanding when they’re ready to be cut and how long they can go before they start to rot on the vine. In those early days, you’re in your growth season. You are learning all about pumpkins, facing new challenges. You’re excited when the pumpkins grow bigger and bigger, when your solutions work, when you can see the real progress you’re making and the impact of your labor.

You eventually get really good at this. You know just how much water and fertilizer is needed, based on your experience, and you start to grow prize pumpkins. You’re really good at this. You take your pumpkins to the county fair and you start to build a community with other pumpkin farmers and you share tips. You look forward to seeing each other at the fair and marvel at each others’ crops. In a way you’re competing, but you develop good relationships and mutually encourage each other and help each other be better. Life is good. You might not be learning as much but maybe you have a rich community and you’re engaging in some other hobbies. You know what you need to do to be successful and you do it. You’re in a maintenance season.

Over time, though, you find yourself less excited about growing your prize pumpkins. After all, you’ve gotten it down to a science now- it’s not even a surprise that you’re getting ribbons at the fair. When a problem arises, you usually know just what’s needed to fix it. Beetle invasion? Just sprinkle a little herb around the pumpkin patch. Fungus encroachment? Remove the infected plants early and treat the soil. You still learn a bit here and there, but not like you were. And maybe your friends are feeling it too. You start to see fewer of your friends with their pumpkins at the fair because they’ve moved onto other things, so your community changes as well. You’re losing the excitement and energy you once had. It’s time for something new. Time to transition into a new season of growth.

So you start looking around for other potential areas of investment- maybe you could try your hand at another squash, or maybe you could try cucumbers, or tomatoes, or corn. So you start looking for other fields for growth, with new challenges where you can apply your knowledge and skills from your successful pumpkin ventures. What’s the next field to till where you can find new challenges and something else you can learn and impact with your own hands?

Maybe you’re finding it hard to find the time to investigate future fields, or maybe you want to grow and change how you do your pumpkin business, so you start bringing on other folks and share your knowledge. You look critically at the work you have to do yourself and what could be taught to someone else. You gradually teach your new farmhand more and more- you guide them through their own growth season- and you gradually free up more of your own bandwidth to spend in your own growth season, whatever that looks like for you. Maybe you get that field for cucumbers, or maybe you scale your pumpkin crops so they can ship to far-flung destinations. Or maybe, wildly, you use that extra time to learn the accordion and record your first album- it’s a lot, but it’s exciting. You do you. Growth looks different for everyone.

Checking for Dissonance

When our circumstances are no longer aligned with our desired season, we experience dissonance. This misalignment can have significant negative consequences over time- both to you and to the business. Misalignment or dissonance between your current situation and desired season can lead to apathy, frustration, unhappiness, demotivation, depression, or burnout.

Check in:

• How much of my work energizes or excites me? Or, what % of time do I spend doing work I enjoy?

  • While 100% might be an unreasonable expectation, low % should be a warning sign. Companies who ask similar questions in employee surveys may have standards they hope folks are meeting in % of work they enjoy, but as a bare minimum baseline if you are less than 50%, this should be a warning sign that you are in misalignment with your current role.

• What skills or experiences do I want to have in the near to medium term? Am I on track to gain those through my current role?

  • You are in charge of your career. If you are not on track to gain the skills or experiences you want in your current role or position, it may be time to consider a change or shift that positions you to be able to obtain those skills or experiences.

• How often do I feel overwhelmed?

  • If you find yourself in a state of overwhelm frequently, it may be a sign you need a change to a season with less growth or fewer challenges. This doesn’t mean it has to be forever; even soil gets maxed out and needs to rest a season to replenish sometimes before it can bear fruit.

• How often do I feel bored?

  • If you find yourself bored, you might be ready for additional challenges, or a pivot to a more growth-filled season?

• How would I rate my overall satisfaction on what I’m doing and where I am right now? (1-10)

  • You can be bored, or overwhelmed, or unmotivated, but also potentially okay with that— or you can be completely dissatisfied with that. Everyone is on a different journey. Maybe you’d rather be bored than overwhelmed because you spend a lot of time elsewhere being overwhelmed and you welcome the boredom. Maybe you would rather be overwhelmed because that makes you feel like you’re growing and productive and making a difference. Or maybe you just really love the team you’re working with at the moment and that makes all those trade offs worth it. Everyone’s path looks different. What’s important is how satisfied you are with where you are at the moment.

Pro-tip for managers: You can ask the questions above to your folks to see how you can align their work more closely with their journey and goals.

Course Correction or Route Change?

Not every dissatisfaction, or overwhelm, or un-energizing element requires a wholesale role change, job change, or career change. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t. Once you’ve done your self-evaluation, consider if the dissonance you see requires small course corrections, or if there is a significant misalignment, which might require larger scale changes.

Talk with your manager, if you can, about small shifts you can make in your existing role to give you more energizing work or more satisfaction— maybe a small portfolio shift would give you more of the experience you’re seeking. Or maybe there are experiences they can connect you with that will get you closer to your goals.

If larger scale changes are in order, start devising a plan for what you can do to make the shifts you need. If you have a supportive manager, you can enlist them in this process. Otherwise, talk to friends, colleagues, mentors, to identify opportunities and pathways to find a space where you can operate more in alignment with your season of life. Maybe you have been doing a lot and just need to dial it back for a while. Maybe you’re ready for new challenges and rapid growth, and need a space with a runway for that. Wherever you are is okay. The more folks you can bring into your circle, the more potential advocates you have for helping you find that next right thing.

We all have seasons of stability and seasons of change. We have seasons of growth, and seasons of grounding. We have seasons where work seems insanely busy, and seasons that are a bit slower. Some of these seasons we have control over, and some we don’t, and it is all too easy to rest in a space that feels comfortable and known, even if it’s a space that doesn’t suit us anymore. When we stop to check in on ourselves, our current state, and our alignment with our life season, we can more quickly identify when and where we need to make necessary changes— and it can give us the strength to do so.

What season are you in? Are you anchoring in your prize pumpkins? Or are you exploring new fields and new challenges?