Chutes and Ladders

This message brought to you by the Ghost Writer while Marti prevents the Grinch from stealing Christmas, or Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa, or Ramadan, or whatever holiday you're into or not into this month.

 

    Chutes and Ladders -- the climbing, counting and sliding fun children's game no longer enjoys the same popularity it did in my 1970-something childhood, but it does serve as a metaphor for careers and quite possibly life in general.  For those of you unfamiliar with the game, a player starts in the lower right hand corner of the board and slowly but surely works toward the upper left corner where the person who executed a better strategy, and/or experienced less bad luck, beats the opponents. 

    So I started my career at the lower right hand corner of the board with a peer group that started about the same time and about the same age.  We saw ladders everywhere and start climbing.  Focused climbing.  Trying to beat out our peers to the next ladder or, in more competitive work environments, choking back a smile when the competitor hit a chute others strategically avoided. 

    Fast forward 10 or 15 years.  It feels suddenly like the strongest of the peer group converged on a single ladder, and there are chutes EVERYWHERE.  Where did those come from?  A career that started with a seemingly limitless supply of ladders and a solid floor now feels like a shaky platform with one way up and a field of ways down. 

    And the player is left with a lot of questions at this point.  Is that ladder worth climbing?  Do I like where that ladder leads?  Do I care if I win this game anymore?  Do I want to do what it takes to climb that ladder?  In my case, all of these questions resulted in a resounding, "No!"  Climbing that last ladder would have meant amputating my limitless energy and becoming a sheep in a herd of them.  (Not to mention a sex change might have helped in that company.)  The other dawning realization is the fact these questions deserve a thoughtful answer.  In our early careers did we ever even pause to think, "I won't do that to climb a ladder"?  It was never a thought.  Welcome to mid-career.

    As HR Leaders, and those who read People Platform regularly know I'm all about that label, what are we doing with our mid-career employees to help them ask and answer those questions?  Not in the heat of the moment when the employee isn't performing or creating a poor life quality performing quite well, but what are we doing pro-actively to help people look at the ladders and chutes available and choose among them?  

    My direct reports enjoy a space of frank conversation.  I ask a lot of questions.  I listen.  I offer options.  I never endorse a ladder or a chute, but I certainly am happy to analyze the ladders and chutes and help them answer their own questions.  Confronting the option not to climb can be scary, but with a compassionate HR Leader, this might be a better career mid-life... and possibly not a mid-life crisis.

    Reach out to your mid-career employees!  You could be the next professional Chutes and Ladders coach.