KEY POINTS:
If you're looking to take your career to the next level and break through your own glass ceiling, psychotherapist Alan Froggatt says you need to look back before looking forward.
"If you want extraordinary results in your life, you've got to know who you are and what motivates you and what you're doing," Froggatt says.
Froggatt is a senior partner and methodology developer for the coaching firm, Genratec.
He says that whether you've reached a plateau in your career or have achieved everything you could have imagined and still aren't satisfied, you should look at the foundation of who you are.
"We lead an enquiry for the person into what motivates them.
"For most human beings, that's not too far away. The problem is we're often distracted by other conversations, other situations in our life."
Froggatt says we need to take the time to tune out the rest of the world and do some reflection.
He says it's our fears and doubts in the quiet of the night which might be what's holding back our professional development.
Some people simply don't want to know about it, much less confront their internal doubts.
"How much honesty can your self-image afford? It comes down to how willing you are to take yourself on," Froggat says.
In our fast-paced consumer oriented world, Froggatt says it's much easier for most people to take the "No payments till 2009" approach to their careers.
He says we can coast through for now but just like 2009, we'll have to deal with it at some point.
"Professional development and career development is no different. If you really want to be great as a professional - a sought-after talent, then put in the yards."
Some of those hard yards might include facing issues from our childhood which influence how we interact with people at work.
Our ability to communicate and lead, for example, might have been influenced by any number of things we experienced as a child. For instance, if someone had a domineering parent they might find it difficult to speak up and get their opinion across at work.
"If somebody has grown up with a parent who was dominating or whatever else, then it's possible that they would play out that scenario with bosses or colleagues."
Froggatt says that whatever the issues are, it's important to identify what's operating in the background and running people so that any negative patterns can be cleared out.
Genratec does this through repeated coaching sessions over time so that a new pattern of thinking can be ingrained. But Froggatt says there are no shortcuts involved here.
"Everything else is candy floss. It'll taste good, but provide you with no real nutritional value."
Since people spend so much of their waking time at work, Froggatt says it's important to ask what it means to you. You're better off to ask the delving questions about your work rather than just drudge your way through it.
"That enquiry can make a very big difference to somebody's career. They can then say,'Well actually you know going for the pay rise just really isn't worth it. What this company is up to just isn't really aligned to what I would really like to be doing."'
Froggatt says to ask yourself questions such as:
* What could I do?
* What is it that fulfils me?
* How would I feel about going to a job that I care about?
"Take on the challenge of beginning to look at where you're going, where the company is going, what motivates you and what's really valuable to you," Froggatt says.
Just taking the next promotion or switching jobs might not solve what's really eating you.
"What looks like the short way is most often the long way," Froggatt says. In order to build on our capacity for future growth and develop a sense of resilience, he says we have to put in some serious effort.
"We're all hoping for the quick fix. We all want the tips and tricks. But ultimately we know that we have to build that capacity."
To build more capacity for growth, Froggatt says we have to let go of the sense that we've got it all together. But in exposing certain insecurities, most people tend to have similar self doubts.
"What we think is most private is really most common. All those fears and doubts that any human being has about, 'Am I doing the right thing? Is this going well? Do these people like me?' are often what's going on when we begin to reflect."
But some people can be frightened by this process.
Froggatt says other people simply don't consider it worthwhile.
"It takes some courage and it takes some honesty. It's not for everybody. For some people, they haven't sat down and thought, 'What do I really want? Who am I?'
"They don't see that as an important enquiry to undertake."
But most good leaders have at some stage gone through some type of self-reflection period. Often it can be brought on by a crisis. Either a relationship has broken down or a business is headed toward bankruptcy.
If certain issues from the past aren't cleared, Froggatt says they can have a detrimental effect at work.
"Things from the past are projected into the situation and they then begin to dominate the way that people make assessments about that situation. They're no longer thinking clearly and on behalf of the organisation. They're protecting fiefdoms."
Froggatt believes there aren't that many people in New Zealand who have the internal personal development to lead effectively. "When the going gets tough, there are very few people who can step up and lead."
He says people can get hung-up on skill development and just start to focus too much on not getting things wrong rather than actually getting things right.
"With the political correctness at the moment, there is a lot of self protection against things that could go wrong. What often happens at that point is that honesty breaks down.
"We're more and more hamstrung about not telling the truth," Froggatt says.
But when it comes to an issue in one's past which is impending on the way someone interacts with their co-workers, Froggatt says we need to identify it in order to move on. Someone's individual glass ceiling might be caused by something in their past which they didn't even realise was influencing their behaviour or performance at work.
Froggatt says that clearing out these deep seated behaviours and thought patterns isn't something done at a weekend workshop.
He says doing it alone is the hard way. He maintains that it's best to go to a qualified professional who can act as an independent third party and can assist you on an ongoing basis.
"You're going to be doing like the Tibetans which is 20 years sitting on a mountain having a look on the inside.
"That's the really long path in my view. Zen masters aren't made in weekend workshops."
