Understanding Career Dynamics

As a junior lawyer, I had to piece together information on how to get promoted. In case it helps somebody going through the process for the first time, here’s what I’ve learned going through 4 rounds of promotion cycles (most successful, some not): 1️⃣ Most people start the promotion process too late. The best time is 6-12 months before the application date. This gives you enough time to gather evidence of your achievements, work on any shortcomings in your promotion application and align with your manager / stakeholders before budgets and resourcing are locked in. 2️⃣ Promotion policies can contain 10+ criteria to meet, but trying to address them all in an application with a word limit will dilute your message. Instead, choose 3-5 criteria that you can craft a strong narrative around. 3️⃣ It's hard to remember and quantify your accomplishments if you aren't tracking them throughout the year. Setting up an ongoing tracker early is helpful (I use Microsoft Planner), especially around those 3-5 criteria you've chosen. 4️⃣ It’s okay to try for a promotion before you feel completely ready. Even if your first attempt is unsuccessful, you'll learn things from the experience that will make it harder for them to say no the second time (like I did). Better to apply a year early than a year late. 5️⃣ Understand that there are things outside of your control in determining whether your promotion will be successful or not (e.g. budget and resourcing constraints, stakeholders who aren’t fond of you for non-work reasons, economic conditions etc). The goal is to focus on the things that are within your control and maximise your chances as much as possible. Here’s what the timeline / process can look like using these principles: 🔹 1 year out- Learn about your organisation’s promotion process (deadlines, forms to submit, promotion criteria, stakeholders in the approval process) 🔹 6-12 months out - Have a discussion with your manager to let them know that you intend to apply for the promotion, identify any areas you may need to improve on, and agree on goals to achieve that would maximise your chance of success in the application. 🔹 6 - 12 months out - Choose a few promotion criteria to focus on and set up a system to track and quantify your contributions towards those criteria in your current work. 🔹 1 month out - Write up a draft promotion application (ask your colleagues if they can share theirs) 🔹 2-4 weeks out - Remind your manager and ask if they could review and provide feedback on your draft application. 🔹 Submission before the deadline. 🔹 If unsuccessful, follow up for feedback and agree on a plan for improving your application for next time. Anything else you’d add? ----- Next week, I’ll be sending out a step-by-step guide on how to apply for a promotion with practical examples to the 7,782 people on my mailing list. If you're interested, I hope you'll subscribe via my website or the link in my profile and give it a read.

With graduation season approaching, I’ve been thinking about the advice I’d give new grads entering today’s job market. One lesson from early in my career has stayed with me ever since: Don’t just prepare for the role you expect. Build the capacity to handle the one you don’t. When I was a cadet at United States Military Academy at West Point, the geopolitical context was post-Cold War peacekeeping operations. I hoped I’d get a chance to lead a mission in Bosnia after graduation. Then 9/11 happened. Almost overnight, the trajectory of my class and our careers changed. Instead of peacekeeping, many of us found ourselves leading platoons in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. The training we’d had at West Point mattered. It gave us a foundation but it didn’t fully prepare us for what came next. What mattered just as much was being able to operate beyond what we had prepared for — thinking under pressure, making decisions with incomplete information, and leading through uncertainty. Most new grads today won’t face that kind of literal battlefield. But they will enter a world where industries shift, technology evolves quickly, and the job they were trained for may look very different just a few years from now. I’ve seen that in every transition I’ve made since — from the Army to government to tech. I didn’t train specifically for most of those moves but what carried me through was confidence in my ability to learn quickly, ask better questions, absorb new contexts, and adapt. Early in your career, employers may hire you for your skills — what you were trained to do. But they’ll promote you for your capacity to learn. So for new grads: prepare seriously for the role in front of you but also invest in the kind of education that expands how you think. That doesn’t just come from a classroom. It can come from reading widely, seeking mentors, and saying yes to unexpected opportunities. That’s what will help you handle the role, the industry, or the challenge you can’t yet see coming. What advice would you add for this year’s graduates? #GradsGuide2026 (Photo from my United States Military Academy at West Point graduation where I had the honor of receiving my diploma from then Vice President of the United States, Al Gore.)

At first it might feel awkward to use new words or switch specialties. But over time, the words & presence of the new iteration will flow effortlessly. Two years ago, it was hard for me to not bring up job search examples because that was my former specialty. I intentionally stopped myself from sharing that kind of content, and sharing those stories. It was hard. Things that helped: - Make a list of words that the new specialty/sector uses. Hang the list near where you write and have calls. Once a word becomes natural for you to say, cross it off the list. - When you notice yourself wanting to share stories about the old work, pause. Let the story be in your head and then let it escape with your breath. Be gentle, this is hard. - Look for stories from your old work that connect with the new specialty. Update words as needed, and use these until you have more success stories. For example, I started sharing job search related stories that involved leaders. Instead of highlighting resumes, I zoomed into leadership presence work we did for interview prep. It was a subtle change. - Self-kindness. It takes 3 years for others to recognize you in the new work. You have to believe in the new work more than anyone else, and show it with stories and actions. The praise may take a long time to reach you, so what are you doing to take care of yourself as you wait for others to see the awesome you are? #careerstories #careertransition #leadershipdevelopment

Many senior leaders I speak with share a common frustration: despite their accomplishments, they feel completely drained by their work. The instinct is often to lean on quick fixes like long weekends, exercise, even extended vacations. While these can provide temporary relief, they don’t solve the real issue. Because the truth is: if your role is no longer aligned with your strengths, values, or vision, no amount of “self-care” will restore your energy. It’s like patching a deeper issue with surface-level solutions. What actually creates change at the executive level is clarity. Clarity around the type of work that energizes you, the leadership challenges that excite you, and the values you want reflected in your organization. Clarity around what season of life you’re in and what you want your career to enable outside of work. Once that clarity is in place, decisions about your next move become easier and opportunities that once felt out of reach start to align naturally. I’ve seen leaders go from burnout to balance, not by “working harder” or taking more breaks, but by making intentional career choices that match who they are today. The result? Renewed energy, meaningful impact, and often, a step up in both responsibility and compensation. If you’re feeling exhausted despite all your efforts to “manage the stress,” maybe it’s not your resilience that needs fixing. It’s the alignment of your work.

WHAT BURNOUT TAUGHT ME – TWICE. I thought I understood burnout after experiencing it in my early 30s. I was wrong. Because when I faced it again in my early 60s, it looked different. It felt different. And recovering from it required a whole new playbook.   The first time, in my 30s, I ignored the warning signs. I was in social services, managing high-stakes responsibilities, and the line between my professional and private life had vanished entirely. Work wasn't just something I did—it consumed me. I believed pushing through was the only way forward—until my body forced a shutdown in the form of arrhythmia. Recovery wasn't a well-thought-out process; it was a flight response. After months on sick leave, I changed jobs. It was far from   📌 actively redefining productivity, 📌 setting boundaries, or 📌 recalibrating 'high performance.'   I was escaping survival mode.   The second burnout came decades later. This time, it was about relentless speed.   As a self-employed professional, I had no imposed structure or external limits, and 80+ hours a week was the new normal. The momentum felt unstoppable. In hindsight, it was speed blindness—an addiction to productivity that masked the exhaustion beneath it.   Then, a drastic change in the business environment. Suddenly, work wasn't consuming all my time. The truth slowly crept in: the burnout had been hidden behind the pace, waiting for a forced stop to make itself known. The diagnosis? Moderate depression.   Recovery took two years of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), a slow recalibration of priorities, and a complete shift in how I defined work. Instead of rebuilding the same career machine, I embraced something new. Work became more intentional: coaching, concept development, and writing books became sources of meaningful "second life."   What I learned from burnout – twice?   1️⃣ Burnout is a chronic imbalance that takes different forms at different life stages. The real issue is not just workload – it is the lack of intentional recovery. 2️⃣ Recovery depends on where you are in life. Escaping may provide an immediate BandAid, but burnout left unprocessed sets you up for the same pattern later. 3️⃣ The warning signs change – but ignoring them never works. They may be physical (e.g., arrhythmia or exhaustion) or more subtle (e.g., decision fatigue, inability to feel rested, and eventually, depression). 4️⃣ Burnout never happens overnight; it accumulates. The problem is, when you're inside it, you're the last person to notice. Burnout prevention is about regularly stepping back to ask: Is this pace sustainable?   Burnout reshapes how we think about work, ambition, and balance. If you've been through it, what changed how you approach your career now? If not, how do you ensure you're not running on empty?   (Original photo by Tangerine Newt on Unsplash) #CoachRisto #CareerPerceptions   #Burnout #CareerMoment

Through years of guiding professionals in career and business transitions, I’ve learned this: 👉 The ones who thrive don’t control more. They control differently. Most people waste energy trying to control the uncontrollable - market timing, restructures, client decisions, hiring freezes. The ones who land faster, pivot smoother, and stay resilient? They know exactly what belongs in Control, Influence, and Accept, and they anchor themselves with resilience traits that keep them steady in the storm. 𝗠𝘆 𝗴𝗼-𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸: 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗖.𝗜.𝗔. 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹 Control → What’s 100% in your hands. ✔ Updating your LinkedIn profile. ✔ Sending that proposal. ✔ Practising your interview. Influence → What you can’t control, but can shape. ✔ How a recruiter perceives you. ✔ Whether a client trusts you. ✔ How your brand lands. Accept → What you must let go of. ✔ Hiring freezes. ✔ Market downturns. ✔ Budget cuts. 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗹𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀: List your current challenges. For each one, ask: Control, Influence, or Accept? Put 80% of your energy into Control. (Daily actions, skill building, consistency). Dedicate 20% to Influence. (Relationships, reputation, storytelling). Release the Accepts. (They free you to move forward instead of staying stuck). 𝗔𝗻 𝗲𝘅𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗿𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗻𝗰𝘆: Map your situation. Write down everything that’s on your mind. Label each: Control, Influence, Accept. Double down on Control. (Daily actions → profile, outreach, interview prep). Play the long game with Influence. (Relationships, positioning, visible thought leadership). Release the Accept. (You don’t need to carry the company’s decision with you). 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗶𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 Transitions are when this mindset is tested most. ➡️ Into a new role: You can’t control when the perfect job opens. But you can control your preparation, influence how decision-makers perceive you, and anchor yourself with resilience traits that keep you steady in the wait. ➡️ Into a business: You can’t control every market force. But you can control your clarity of offer, influence your audience through consistent visibility, and rely on resilience anchors to keep you moving when progress feels slow. P.S. If you’re in a transition right now (new role, new business, or both), where are you putting your energy: Control, Influence, or Acceptance? P.P.S. And see comments for 6 resilience anchors needed during transitions - which do you lean on most? ♻️ Repost if you found this helpful

Long before the exhaustion shows up, there’s a pattern at play – pushing past signals, normalizing urgency, confusing worth with output, mistaking resilience for self-abandonment. Work often gets the blame because it’s where the symptoms surface. But the root usually runs deeper…into how we relate to rest, approval, safety, and success. Many high-achievers aren’t driven by ambition alone. They’re driven by a nervous system trained to stay alert, to prove, to perform, to keep going even when the body is asking for something else. Healing burnout isn’t just about taking time off or setting better boundaries. It’s about relearning what enough feels like in your body and letting satisfaction replace striving. Allowing pauses without guilt and remembering that your worth doesn’t spike or drop based on productivity. When the nervous system feels safe, work becomes clearer. Ambition becomes grounded instead of frantic. Burnout isn’t a personal failure. It’s a signal asking for a different relationship with effort, rest, and self-trust. #burnout #career #leadership #wellness Image credit: I Am Jen Mann via Instagram

What I Didn’t Learn in Medical School - #17 Burnout Doesn’t Look Like the Textbooks (And that’s exactly why it’s so dangerous.) In med school, burnout was a bullet point. A syndrome. A risk factor. But in real life? It’s the colleague who suddenly stops speaking up. It’s the surgeon who’s technically perfect but emotionally checked out. It’s you, reading this, wondering why the work that once inspired you now just drains you. Burnout doesn’t always look like collapse. It often looks like quiet detachment. Numbness. Irritation. A sense of going through the motions, without meaning. It’s subtle. And that’s the problem. As physicians, we’re trained to notice the signs of illness in others. But not always in ourselves. I’ve learned this the hard way: You don’t fix burnout with resilience webinars. You fix it by listening. Early. Often. Without judgment. Some things I wish more of us said out loud: “I feel disconnected.” “I don’t care like I used to and that scares me.” “I’m tired in a way that rest doesn’t fix.” These are not weaknesses. They are vital signs. Burnout isn’t a personal failure. It’s a signal that something - in the system, in the workload, in the expectations - needs attention. We must stop waiting for people to break down before we offer support. So today, one simple question: How are you, really? And maybe even more important: Who around you hasn’t been asked that lately? Let’s normalize care not just for our patients, but for ourselves. Follow #WhatIDidntLearn for weekly reflections on leadership, medicine, and everything in between. #WhatIDidntLearn #FutureOfMedicine #CMOReflections #gehealthcare

Mid-career collapses because you were so busy succeeding unquestioningly, that you didn’t notice the rusty ends quietly taking over. You played the game, followed the rules, climbed up the ladder. Only to realise one day that your ladder was leaning against the wrong wall. The real preparation for mid-career isn’t another certification, job change, or side hustle. It’s the work most people postpone as it questions identity, challenges comfort, threatens the version of success they have been living. Real mid-career readiness looks like this: - questioning the version of success you inherited instead of choice - embracing the courage to disappoint others instead of betraying yourself - accepting that ambition without meaning eventually feels like punishment - admitting that titles may have replaced identity and rectifying it early - noticing when fear has started to hide behind loyalty - recognising when money has become the only reason to stay - understanding that burnout is not workload, but inner resistance - letting go of “being impressive” and choosing to “be impactful” - building self-worth that isn’t negotiated every appraisal cycle - preparing for reinvention before resentment forces it Mid-career asks a brutal question: “If everything stays exactly like this for the next 10 years… will you be happy with it?” I hadn’t prepared for that question. And it cost me clarity, energy, and time. Your career is always a reflection of your INNER ALIGNMENT. Your being aligned will not eliminate disruption. But it will transform a mid-career suffocating crisis, into a delightful reset!

What if burnout isn’t burnout at all but… Bad gardening? 🌱 Hear me out. Traditionally, we treat careers like a factory line: Input hours, output results. When that factory breaks down, we call it “burnout”. But what if the way we build a sustainable purposeful career is to treat it like a garden and not a factory? Here’s what I mean: Just like a good gardener knows that you can’t keep taking from your soil, we can’t keep extracting from our careers. Instead, treat it like a garden, where we plant, nurture, prune, compost and let rest. If you’re stuck in a “perfect on paper” job that looks great externally but quietly drains you, this concept will change everything. Welcome to Career Gardening. Here’s how it works: Stage 1: Planting If you’ve spent your whole life doing “the right thing,” it’s no wonder you don’t know what you’re interested in anymore. Planting is how you rebuild that muscle. Try new projects, write a blog, talk to different people - use these as test drives to rediscover what lights you up. Stage 2: Pruning We often think that growth means adding more. But the most powerful growth in nature comes from pruning. Letting go of parts of you that no longer serve you this season - old definitions of success, societal expectations… So you can finally become the person you were meant to be. Stage 3: Rotation Farmers rotate crops to keep the soil fertile.  We must do the same for our careers. Because doing the same job year after year depletes curiosity - the very nutrient that fuels innovation. In my case, pivoting industries from finance to fashion wasn’t about starting over. It was about keeping my soil fertile. Because a squiggle career isn’t a setback. It’s how to stay relevant in this ever changing world. Stage 4: Composting In nature, every decay feeds new life. In careers, no experience is ever wasted. Every ‘failure’, every ‘wrong’ turn are just compost. When I left Wall Street, it felt like burning my old life to the ground. Then I realised that it was compost - nutrients needed for my ultimate career as a career coach to soar! Stage 5: Resting Rest is the most underestimated form of growth - even the best athletes know they can’t always be at their peak! But for the longest time, I saw rest as a weakness. It wasn’t until I was forced to thanks to COVID - the fashion startup I was working in then had slowed down. And I hated it. Because rest didn’t feel like relief; just failure. But eventually, I stopped fighting the stillness and in that quiet, a tiny spark ignited. That spark turned into a podcast - community - my life’s work at Ctrl Alt Career today. My lesson: Stillness isn’t the absence of growth; it’s space where growth takes root. P/S: And if you’re ready to start investing in your career garden, DM me “GARDEN”. I’ll help you replant and rebuild your garden from the ground up.