"Stuck in a job"​ ?

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 When I say "stuck in a job" I mean people who feel that they’re not learning much and are not happy with their career progress. Let us look at reasons why people get stuck in a job. Think of the initial few years after taking your current job. You joined a new company. There are so many things to learn about: products, people, processes, tools, and culture. In fact, it is overwhelming. You don’t know where to start. Your learning pace is high because of the new environment. It takes some time for you to be productive in a new environment.

After a few years, you do a pretty good job in all aspects of your job. You are very productive! After continuing in this phase for some time, you may start feeling that your job is routine and there are not many challenges to accelerate your learning curve.

This is where management plays an important role in creating interesting work to retain critical talent. There are two types of leadership styles. One is the "conservative" leadership style, and the other is the "growth-oriented" style. Conservative leaders emphasise much on stability & operations, less on growth. Hence, there are not enough dynamics in the organisation to continuously create new opportunities for team members. The tendency to keep the same person in the same job for too long because they are good at it hurts both the individual and the organisation in the long term. An individual is not learning much by expanding their skills, and organisations are not getting new perspectives.

"Growth oriented" leaders are willing to take risk, emphasize more on organisational growth. They encourage teams to look at new ways of doing things and proactively support them. They are willing to change assignments and restructure teams for growth. This will create new opportunities for the team members.

One of the reasons (not the only reason) why people get stuck in their jobs is because of their environment. They have been in the same job for too long, and the learning pace has decreased. Conservative leaders are not creating continuous new opportunities for team members. What do you do in this scenario? The first step is to have a discussion with your leader to explore different opportunities within the team or organisation that can provide new learning. This is the least risky option. If you are unable to find good opportunities, it’s time to move on. Putting yourself in a new environment will automatically create new learning opportunities. When is the best time to look outside for opportunities? when you are not happy with the "learning pace" and you feel that you are not growing.

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