The 3 Ps of Pivoting Career

Recently I gave a talk to The Telly Mums Network. They have a Facebook sub-group called TV Switch Up, and its purpose is to tune into their dynamic, transferable, and varied skill set and see how they can be switched up!
​I am a telly mum who has switched it up and made a career pivot so they invited me to give a talk and some advice on how to go about it.

I’m not going to give the details of the full talk here because there isn’t enough time but these are the salient points, I think.

Firstly, change is all around us. Digital has disrupted so many industries and ways of working. So whilst many of us thought our careers would be linear where we started at the bottom and worked our way to the top, they’re not. They may well be squiggly, up and down, round and round and lead us somewhere completely unexpected.

I never thought I would end up as a Leadership Coach with my own company, but I couldn’t be happier, and it’s this work that I’m doing now that I believe will be the most impactful.

So we will need to be responsive to change, anticipate it coming and see it as a potential opportunity not a threat.
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Secondly, pivoting career is rarely instantaneous. It’s hard to walk out of one career directly into another at the same level of seniority or pay. For me, there was a lot of research, development, studying, getting new qualifications, trying stuff out, tweaking, mini-pivoting and that all takes time. And money!

Ideally, you would start thinking about pivoting while already in a role rather than when you are worried about where the next paycheck will come from.

And these are the 3 Ps I think it’s useful to think about:​
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A. The Underlying Passion in everything you do.

I spent many years in television production before moving into commissioning and senior leadership, but when I look back, the underlying passion I had through all of that was an intense curiosity about what makes people tick. That’s why some of my favourite moments making telly were in the back of a police car on Crimewatch, talking to South Wales detectives about the cases they’d worked on and the criminal mindset.
I loved television because I got to travel the world and meet people I’d never normally meet, from tornado chasers to cardiac surgeons to hostage negotiators. I was curious about these worlds and what made these people tick.
Now, as a coach, I get to work with that curiosity EVERY DAY! I listen to people, work with them, and unlock the deepest workings of their inner minds. I’m in heaven!
So what about you? What is the underlying passion in what you do? Because there will be other ways to use that.

B. My second P is Purpose.
What do you find purposeful, meaningful, a satisfying use of your time? What do you like to accomplish, what impact do you like to have and why? For me, I discovered when I started mentoring before I became a coach, that I couldn’t stand that there were so many talented women in the world who were full of self-doubt when really they could be bold and proud about their talents and achievements. Considering a Guardian report last week that said that there is no equality for working women in ANY COUNTRY IN THE WORLD, that makes me mad. I found it meaningful that I could help transform self-doubt into self-confidence and give others the tools and techniques to really own who they were, what they stood for and how to get what they wanted. That felt and feels like a very satisfying use of my time and my passion!

So how about you? What is the underlying purpose you are serving or drawn to?

C. My third P when it comes to Pivoting is Problem-Solving.

For you to have a viable career or business where you are paid, it generally means you are providing a service that solves problems for other people. So, for me, I work as a coach, and I help leaders become inspirational, which in turn has an impact on the success of their business. I help groups who hate networking - so I solve the problem of how to network effortlessly. I work with senior management teams on strategy, hosting days where they get clarity of vision and a route map to growth and success. All of this is helping others solve problems.

So think about this and listen to the people you meet. What problems does the world have, and how can you solve or support them?

If you can combine Passion, Purpose and Problem-solving, you will have a successful PIVOT!

Let me know if you have questions, thoughts, contributions.

Take care.

Tracy