The robot vacuum
For nearly 20 years, the robot vacuum cleaner has delighted its users and their guests by -- I suppose -- bringing a little unpredictability and intrigue into the mundane: vacuuming. I don’t own one, and I remain surprised that there is enough of a market out there among people who prefer to avoid vacuuming manually. But the indefatigable giant hockey puck contraption is really useful to me for another reason: it’s the perfect analogy for my own career and that of many others I’ve coached.
What’s your career path? What’s your vision? What’s your 5-year plan? I haven’t had good answers to these questions in decades. If I had followed my original thinking on this front, I might have ended up a car designer, an astronaut or the Generation X answer to Bill Kurtis or Peter Jennings. None of these things happened.
Instead, I followed my gut from opportunity to opportunity. I found success in discovering where I could learn and grow, and how this growth could carry me along to the next thing. This is how I went from television reporter and anchor to executive coach over the course of a couple of decades, with many stops along the way. It was definitely deliberate. It may have been strategic. And it was definitely not a path, a line or an arc.
My career squiggle is where the robot vacuum comes back into our conversation. It does what it is supposed to do, happily bopping along on its assigned mission of removing dust and cat hair from the floor. Then it hits an obstacle. It changes directions and repeats the same set of steps. After a number of minutes or hours, it has succeeded in the task of vacuuming the place. It hasn’t followed anything resembling a straight line or even a series of straight lines.
I believe there is value in foresight and value in planning. The best leaders are able to do this for entire organizations, and their ability to do so sets them apart. Sticking devoutly to a plan that follows a straight line, on the other hand, can hamper creativity and stifle innovation. It’s not a good way to make the magic happen.
I’ll never retire with a gold watch after decades of service with the same employer, let alone in the same occupation or industry. But I wouldn’t trade my career squiggle either.
Coaching prompts:
In what way might following a pre-determined path be holding you back?
What can you do to equip yourself to recognize opportunities in the future, especially unconventional ones?