Leading Through Change: The Go-To Career Development Framework for Organizations
Scalable Pivot Programs to Support Your Team in Navigating What’s Next & Mapping Their Growth for The Year Ahead
If change is the only constant, let’s get better at it.
High net worth individuals are those who have accumulated significant financial resources; but those who shine most in organizations are high net growth, independent of financial worth. They know money is important, but it is not everything. They don’t just ask, “What am I earning?” but “What am I learning? How am I growing, even within my role? How am I serving, and making an impact?” Leaders asking these questions are impacters.
The Pivot Method boils down to four key questions: What’s working? What does success look like? What’s out there? What can we try?
The Pivot Method is a four-stage framework to help individuals and organizations map what’s next. When a basketball player stops dribbling, one foot stays planted (their foundation) while their pivot foot steadies them as they scan for passing options.
Or consider plotting your desired destination in Google Maps: only when you know where you’re starting, and your general destination, does it make sense to consider timing, routes, modes of transport, and potential obstacles (such as traffic, accidents, or road closures). The mistake most pivoters (and leaders) make is jumping to problem-solving too soon, with no grounding in what's already working best and envisioning what success looks like.
Reflect on these four Pivot stages for your organization (and ask your team members to do the same): for the entire company, for specific mission-critical projects, and as individuals.
Plant: What’s working? What are your biggest strengths? What makes you unique? What does success look like one-year from now? Or whatever interval makes most sense: during times of intense change you might focus on one month, 3 months, or 6 months—too far beyond that and most plans become irrelevant.
Scan: People, skills, and projects related to your strengths and vision. Who is thriving? Who can you talk to? Who do you admire? Who has already been most helpful? How can you grow to meet your one-year vision for success? Based on your strengths, how can you serve?
Pilot: What small experiments can you run as a team or organization? Both short-term and long term? What smaller career pilots or stretch projects can individuals run to test the waters of a new related direction, even within their current role?
Launch: What one next step would make the biggest impact? What one small step can you take today or this week? What does a bigger launch look like for pilots that develop momentum and traction?
The Pivot Method® is a cycle, not a one-and-done linear process. You can apply this to your team dynamics, the broader organization’s strategy, and as a coaching framework for 1:1 conversations.
During times of upheaval, your team is already more stretched and stressed than usual. Your employees, colleagues, friends and family need you more than ever during a crisis. There is no need to have all the answers. Now is the time to have conversations (and empower managers to do the same) about change, anxiety, uncertainty, and the daily pivots large and small that you are navigating together.
Facilitate these conversations by doubling down on what is working. Narrow your success cone of vision to one week or one month from now, as businesses and the surrounding milieu continues to shift rapidly from one day to the next.
If your team is feeling frazzled or stuck from the daily snow globe shake-up of work and life shifts, try asking (or having them journal) the following reflection prompts:
How are you doing today?
How have you already adapted?
How are you growing during this time? How are you being called to evolve?
How can you serve based on your strengths?
Reverse engineer past pivots: How have you successfully navigated change in the past? What was the pivot that brought you to this organization? What pivots have you already made within your role or within the company?
Ultimately, the Pivot Method® is about listening more than talking; exploring more than solving; and experimenting more than having all the answers — and that goes for leaders too — especially during times like these, when it's tempting to comfort others by jumping straight to problem-solving and providing answers.
Every day is an opportunity to grow stronger and help others do the same, so long as we drop our expectations about neat predictable paths along the way.
Pivoting as a Mindset and a Method for Navigating What’s Next
For those worried about “having 2,500 (or 250,000!) employees trying to Pivot tomorrow” as I often hear from leaders on the cusp of bringing a program like this into their organization, rest assured!
The Pivot Method® is a simple, practical, four-stage framework used by forward-thinking organizations around the world to guide career development and career conversations — it’s a straightforward, powerful process that guides employees toward mapping their growth for the year ahead, starting within their current role.
Managers can apply this shared framework for conducting transformational career development conversations (with a strong emphasis on listening first, not jumping straight to advice-giving).
At one point during my tenure at Google we had over 15 personal development templates—clearly, templates were not the issue!
It’s the uncertainty of what might resonate most, and creating the time to step back from day-to-day tasks to reflect, understand what’s working best, what energizes each team member most, and then working together to design small, resonant experiments to pilot what’s next or take on stretch projects to foster greater growth and impact.
With Pivot programs in place, managers and employees have a shared language for navigating pivot points, and an even stronger jumping off point for more detailed personal development plans (if you offer that internally) and annual performance reviews.
Did you know . . .
When training is reinforced by in-the-field coaching, ROI increases 4x
46% percent of employees say coaching by their manager is one of the best ways to reinforce new skills
More than 60% of employees are more likely to leave their job if their manager is a poor coach
The average manager devotes only 20% of their time to coaching
The new reality is career as a smart phone, not a ladder—dynamic, and customizable to each individual.
Careers are not linear any more, but they are not random either.
WE CAN WORK TOGETHER TO CREATE strategies to:
Foster agility within employees and leaders and create a culture of adaptability and fluidity, helping employees pivot and plan next moves within their existing roles, while exploring additional small project experiments outside of their teams (if desired)
Keep high performers engaged: learning, growing, and involved in career development programs. If they are going to Pivot it’s important to show it can be done from within the company, even if it means a rotation program, 10% or 20% project or horizontal move.
Provide tools for managers, mentors and coaches to hold transformative career conversations with their team members; to better align individual goals and career aspirations with the team and company metrics and performance expectations — these do not have to be mutually exclusive — and help people Pivot, stretch, and grow even within their current role.
How We Can Work Together: Virtual or In-Person
Kick-off Keynote: Interactive reflection-based workshop for employees to Map Their Growth for the Year Ahead (even within their role)
Manager Sessions on Best Practices for Holding 1:1 Career Conversations
LinkedIn Learning: One-hour Pivot courses for Individuals and Managers
Strengthscope Team-Building: A half-day session to measure individual and team energy-strengths, drainers, and strengths in overdrive.
Train-the-Trainer: To scale Pivot programs throughout your organization as you improve career development capabilities, with additional resources for participants
If you are interested in working together, please submit an inquiry here »