#598 How to understand and take action with your ambition

0:00Hi, it's Helen from the Squiggly Careers podcast and you are listening to one of our Squiggly Career Shortcuts weekly episodes designed to be deliberately short so they are specific and full of lots of ideas to help you to take action. And today I want to talk a little bit about ambition. Yes, I'm going to try and cover ambition in five minutes. I am also going to talk about a matrix because Sarah is not here so I'm allowed to talk about as many matrices as I like. but what I would say is sometimes it can be hard to bring a matrix to life through audio so we'll stick a picture of the matrix on our squiggly careers page on LinkedIn so make sure that you are following us there if you want to see what this looks like this is also going to be a video on our YouTube channel as well our squiggly careers YouTube channel so if you want to see me talking the matrix through you can either go to LinkedIn go to YouTube but I will do my best to describe it for you.

0:50So this matrix is a way of you understanding your ambition. And in squiggly careers, we are always trying to recognise that people's ambitions look different. Seniority is not the only way to succeed in your squiggly career. And what you want now from your work might not be what you want in the future. So we're trying to sort of reflect that in the way that we're thinking about ambition. And I was reading an article and it made me think, how can I apply that way of thinking to how people might be thinking about their ambitions at work. So this is my matrix for you. So there are two dimensions to the matrix to help you understand your ambition.

1:26The first is what level of change do you want right now? Do you want a really big change or actually just want a small change? Like you're kind of happy where you are, you just want to do something, you know, a little bit of change. And do you want to do something that is dramatically different from the job you're doing today? Or actually, are you quite happy doing what you're doing. So these are the dimensions that we're talking about. And it leads to four different ambitions that you could explore right now. So I've drawn my matrix up. And so we're going to start with the bottom box. So this is where you've got, you're thinking about what you do right now.

1:59So you're like, I'm quite happy doing what I do right now. And you only want a little bit of a change. So you don't want to do anything kind of dramatic right now. Maybe you're kind of stable, but you just want to do a little bit of something different. So this strategy is going to be called the build ambition. Let me just stick this on my matrix. Okay, so the build ambition, this is to start where you are and think about how could you maybe build a strength? How could you build a relationship? Small things that you could do slightly differently from where you are right now. So it's going to give you a sense of ownership and momentum, but it's not going to feel like you're doing anything dramatically different.

2:39It will, however, make sure that you are not stagnating in your role, which is always the thing that we are trying to avoid. So if this is you, small change, kind of happy where you are right now, think about what could I build better in my career over the next three months. So you're giving a bit of a focus area, but I would start with build a skill better. And I would definitely start with build a relationship. Both of those are in your control and relatively easy to do. They're not going to be a huge investment of your time, but it will help you to feel like you're taking control, which is always, always what we want and always what kind of helps people fuel their ambition.

3:14Let's start to look at the next bit of our quadrant then. So this is where we're thinking about you are, you want a small change, but you do want something that's quite new, something you've not done before. So maybe you're starting to think beyond the job that you do today. And this is where the ambition really becomes about testing. So when we're testing, we're trying to put ourselves into some slightly new work or some slightly a slightly new world I think this is where sort of side projects or and that side projects can be inside or outside the organization so for example when Sarah and I started Squiggly Careers it was a side project we were we didn't want a huge change right then and so we just started this as some evening courses that we were running way back in 2013 but you could also do side projects in an organization so there are lots of employee resource groups or internal networks.

4:07You could even set one up for yourself. But this is not a huge change. Nothing dramatically different is changing in your work or your life. But it does give you the opportunity to do some new things in new ways and new places with new people, which is often what we're looking for when this is where our ambition is. So this is more of a test approach for you and your ambition. Next, we're going to go top left in our quadrant. So this is where you're happy doing what you're doing, but you do want quite a big change. You're kind of ready to do something different. So maybe you love your company that you're in, you love the profession you work in, but you've been doing it for a while, you really want to push yourself.

4:45This is your grow strategy for you and your ambitions. And what you really want to look for here, if this is where your ambition feels like it is right now, is you're looking to grow your responsibility. You're looking to grow your impact. So I would be looking for who are the most high profile people or who are the what are the most high profile projects that you could put yourself forward for. So build those relationships, put yourself forward. You really want to talk to people about how your strengths and experiences can solve their problems, can support their priorities. You're going to have to promote yourself and your skills in quite a useful way for you to get into those positions and places that you want to.

5:27Another way that you can grow in your role if you're really ambitious in this way is to talk to your manager about how maybe some of the things that they're working on you could take a little bit more responsibility for sort of in the area of them delegating to you so that you can do more of the things that are going to give you more impact and influence. So that one goes up there and then last but not least is the probably the most dramatic ones this is top right of our quadrant this is big change and new new this is you going beyond the work that you do today and this is uh this is like super squiggly i would say in ambition and this is the explore strategy so if this is where your ambition is right now you want a big change you want to do something that's dramatically different before before you leap into that we would suggest that you learn a little bit from it because it will help to set you up for success with that sort of super squiggly move.

6:21So what do we think you can do here? I would suggest that you spend time with people outside of the world that you work in today. The research shows that these kind of moves are best enabled by what's called weak ties. So people you have some sort of connection to, but they are outside of the world that you work in right now. Community groups can be really useful for this. So spending time with communities where you'll meet lots of new people. So think about the area you want to work in, what communities might exist around that area, and how you could spend time with people in those communities.

6:56The other thing that can be really helpful here is move mentors. So who are some of the people who do some of the things that you would like to do? How can you spend time with them and talk it through? But you're really going to have to build relationships beyond the ones you have today, if this is the thing that feels most important for your ambition right now. So what's important here, two things really. First, recognise that all of these ambitions are okay. They are all equally successful strategies for you and your career. We just all want different things at different times. And the second is, once you kind of sort of reflect on which one of these ambitions feels right for you right now, maybe it's build, maybe it's test, maybe it's grow, maybe it's explore, then it's all about taking the action that aligns with the ambition.

7:40We will summarise this on a pod sheet for you so that you've got the matrix and you've got the strategies and the actions. But hopefully that has helped you reflect a little bit on where your ambition is today and what's the best action for you to take next. Sarah and I will be back next week with our Borrowed Brilliance episode on a Tuesday. So make sure you're subscribed to Squiggly Careers wherever you watch and listen so that you don't miss out.