Ready to Grow?

by Neil I. Clark

If growth is what you want, here is something to look out for. It’s an easy way to tell when you’re truly ready for growth. It’s called the "plateau effect".

When you first start in a job, it’s all new and unfamiliar. As you settle in and begin to produce, most of your attention is still on learning the peculiarities of the new environment and overcoming the challenges associated with that newness. A results-oriented person loves a challenge and when the job is still new, there’s more than enough challenge involved with simply getting it all together.

During this learning phase, your production may be a bit spotty. You may do well one week and not so well the next. It may take some time to get the whole thing under control.

Pretty soon, however, your results start to take off. If you graphed them (which is not a bad idea, by the way), you’d see a steep upward climb that takes you well above the general area you were operating in whilst learning. That rise will eventually settle down into a new, higher level.

As you operate at this new level, you get really good at doing what you do. It’s almost effortless. It’s like the aircraft that takes off, climbs through the clouds, then eventually reaches cruising altitude. An awful lot of fuel is expended getting off the ground and going through the climb, but once there, the pilot can throttle back and relax. A good performer will eventually reach their "cruising level" and thereafter, the job is a breeze.

This is the "plateau". It may take a long time to reach it (in some jobs it could take a year or two), but an effective individual will eventually reach this stage. The only trouble is, when you have been at cruising level for some time, you may get bored.

You only got to that level because of your effective performance. By definition, if you are a good performer, you like a challenge. Getting from ground zero to cruising height was, indeed, a challenge. Handling the day-to-day activities once at cruising level is nowhere near as demanding. What does the pilot do when the aircraft levels off? He or she generally puts it on autopilot and takes a walk through the cabin. Flying at cruising altitude doesn’t require much effort.

Now, some may think that this is the time to look for another job. Well, that’s certainly one option, but it’s not necessarily the best one. Instead, look firstly at how you might expand your current responsibilities. Also, work out how you could increase production if you had better tools to work with, or more support in what you do. Working all this out can be quite challenging in itself.

If you can really see how your productivity would improve by expanding your current role, or adding support, write it up as a business case and present it to management. Growing within the current job can actually add more challenge to your world than starting a new one. And, if you’re really good, your initiative may earn you a promotion one day.