Where Does It Hurt?

Perhaps it is only my perception but it seems to me that often showing any weakness, vulnerability, sensitivity, or pain can be misinterpreted in some business cultures.  A show of toughness is often required, instead, regardless of how you might actually feel.   And that explains why many executives find it so refreshing when I simply ask them, “OK.  So you want to make a change in your career?  Where does it hurt?”

This question is often met with a sigh, then a gush, and a release of tension. A feeling of pent-up anxiety is finally being unleashed.  Here are a few of the most frequent responses:

• “I have been with this company for years, But I’ve plateaued and I need a new challenge.”
• “I can see the writing on the wall.  The company is restructuring and I’m afraid my role will be eliminated.”
• “I was let go during a layoff and I haven’t looked for a job in more than ten years.”
• “My new boss and I do not seem to get along.”
• “I do the work but I’m underpaid and overdue for promotion.”
• “My industry is dying and I need to get out.”
• “I’m bored and burned out.”

Understanding Your Pain

Of course, there are many other responses and myriad nuances, but the pain generally arises from one of three primordial triggers:

• Fear (e.g., “I’m afraid my role will be eliminated.”)
• Dominance (e.g., ““I do the work but I’m underpaid and overdue for promotion.” 
• Gratification (e.g., “I have been with this company for years, but I’ve plateaued and I need a new challenge.”)

Acknowledging your own “emotional motor” may be key to really understanding your feelings of pain in the workplace.  Pretending that everything is OK, or that you have no pain and anxiety inevitably produces stress.  Stress undermines performance and even health.  Therefore, we suggest you deal with your career pain by asking yourself, “Where does it hurt?”  Answering this question with intellectual honesty is the first step in resolving that pain.

When Change is the Best Course

Many workplace issues can be resolved without changing jobs, of course.  However, if and when you decide that making a change is the best course, then comes the daunting realization for many executives that they actually have no idea how to pursue a change.  The market for executives seems monolithic and opaque.  Applying for jobs on the internet is rather like entering a casino and expecting to win.   We wouldn’t have casinos at all if the operators did not generally take in significantly more than they pay out.  And so it is with internet job postings.  In fact, only about 15% of our clients actually land executive positions through that channel—with the benefit of numerous tweaks and insights that we at The Barrett Group (TBG) have laboriously collected over more than three decades.

Many executives also turn to executive recruiters feeling that “with a background like mine, headhunters will be hungry to meet me.”   Unfortunately, most executive recruiters are seeking a candidate who exactly fits certain specifications, and if you as the candidate do not exactly fit those parameters, guess what?  You are simply not relevant to the recruiter.  That is why just 10% of our clients land through this channel.

That leaves some 75% of our executive clients landing through the mysterious unpublished market in roles so new that often no position profiles exist and even compensation options may still be quite fluid.  [Read more about the unpublished market.]

Are You Skeptical?

See the eight TBG executive clients who landed in the last week of September 2024—six of them through the unpublished market.  [Read the Front Line Report.] Who else do you know who is so confident of their clients’ successes that they publish them each week?  It is exactly our clients’ superior success rate that explains why Forbes continually lists TBG among the top executive recruiters—now for the fifth year in a row. 

Well, like a doctor, once we understand where it hurts, we can make a diagnosis and plan of treatment to help our clients recover and prosper professionally.  The Clarity Program© represents the first or “targeting” step in our five-step career change program.  Unlike cookie-cutter programs intended for the mass market, we take the time to help clients examine their own personalities including how others may see them, what holds them back, and what gives them joy.  Then we help clients assess their current life circumstances—an inventory of sorts—enabling clients to curate their lives so as to keep, acquire, and/or discard elements as they see fit.  Lastly, we help clients look ahead several years to where they want to be professionally, personally, and financially.  All of this pre-work goes into defining each client’s career program, because…

If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there.

Our clients know where they are going, if for no other reason, because of the Clarity Program©.    Over the course of the remaining steps in our career change program, with the support of their six-member team of experts clients will… 

• Repackage their skills and experience so as to be ideally suited for their targeted roles, 
• Learn to access all three major executive markets [read more about the Market for Executives], 
• Be coached to perform exceptionally during interviews, 
• Be supported in compensation negotiations to leave no money on the table, and 
• Enjoy support to on-board optimally in their new roles.

What is the bottom line?  

Don’t simply put up with pain at work. If you have decided that it’s time to change jobs, then you need not experience additional pain while struggling to find a new executive position.  There is a simple solution: call The Barrett Group.

As one of our landed clients [Matt Fretwell, TBG Success Studies] recently told us: “I wanted to make a shift and do it right, so I figured I needed a team […] The Navy SEALs have a saying: ‘If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go with a team.’ I chose longevity.”

Peter Irish, Chairman The Barrett Group