Pivot: The Only Move That Matters Is Your Next One

by Jenny Blake

From the outside, it may have looked like we were all undergoing quarter-life or midlife crises. Onlookers might have wrongly assumed we were falling apart or going crazy for seeming unsatisfied with our current paths and leaving our stable jobs behind. However, on the inside we all knew we had hit a plateau, or pivot point, in our careers. We were talented, hardworking, and committed to making a positive impact—and yet we all felt called to do things differently than how we had been doing them. Tackling these massive changes felt disorienting but right. For whatever uncertainties lay ahead, each of us knew that staying in the same place would have been the greater risk.

means we are missing a huge opportunity to celebrate and support those who seek to make a greater contribution to their workplaces, society, and the lives of everyone around them.

The average employee tenure in America is now four to five years and job roles often change dramatically within those four to five years.

Among workers twenty-five to thirty-four years old, the average tenure drops to three years.

project-based economy.

Eric Ries, author of the business bible The Lean Startup, defines a business pivot as “a change in strategy without a change in vision.”

As Stephen Grosz writes in The Examined Life, “All change involves loss.”

It is natural to fear change when we know that we must grieve what we may leave in its wake.

Even the most exciting changes can be bittersweet, as they often involve let...

You will never see the entire pivot path at the outset, nor would you want to.

Certain events happen to us and they require space for patience, compassion, grief, and sometimes therapy or spiritual guidance in order to heal. These events demand a period of time to retreat, process, and regroup. Sometimes just waking up and making it through the day is an enormous accomplishment. Crises typically require more processing than planning, though not everyone will have the luxury to do those two things in sequence. It is likely that those in the throes of trauma need time to heal before embarking on the more proactive phases of pivoting.

the two I suggest for processing major life events are When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chödrön, and Second Firsts by Christina Rasmussen.

Coaches Training Institute

I expanded my platform to a website under my own name, JennyBlake.me, where I focus on systems at the intersection of mind, body, and business.

Steve Jobs said in his 2005 Stanford commencement speech, “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward.”

I encourage you to reflect on your work history and connect the dots looking backward to see how you have already pivoted from one related area to the next.

Plant, Scan, Pilot, and Launch—you

by planting your feet—setting a strong foundation—then scanning the court for opportunities,

piloting—generating perspectives and opportunities to make a shot—eventually launching in the new direction.

Plant by creating a foundation from your values, strengths, and interests, and your one-year vision for the future. The most successful pivots start from a strong base of who you already are, what is already working, and how you will define success for this next phase of your life. Scan by researching new and related skills, talking to others, and mapping potential opportunities. This is the exploration phase: identifying and plugging knowledge and skill gaps, and having a wide variety of conversations. Next, you will run a series of pilots—small, low-risk experiments to test your new direction. Pilots help gather real-time data and feedback, allowing you to adjust incrementally as you go, instead of relying on blind leaps. Eventually it is time for a bigger move, or launch.

Launch is when you pull the trigger on the remaining 10 to 20 percent.

apply the Pivot Method as a coaching framework for career conversations.

Your pivot timing will depend on the scope of your change, how far your ideal end state is from where you are now, your risk threshold, your savings runway, your expertise and reputation, and the complexity of what you are building toward.

results are the indicator of where you are in your pivot.

allow life to surprise you instead. The only move that matters is your next one.

shifting naturally within your role and from one position into the next, while remaining open to a wide variety of options along the way.

The most successful employees I know are skilled at creative thinking and innovating within the organizations they work for as intrapreneurs.

once people surpass $75,000 in annual net income ($82,000 in today’s dollars), they experience no statistically significant bump in their day-to-day emotional well-being.

money is nice to have, but not at the expense of soul-crushing work,

optimize for high net growth and impact,

the most successful people are those with a growth mindset.

boredom is a symptom of fulfillment deficiency—of

people see their work as a job, career, or calling.

They measure their quality of life by how much they are learning, challenged, and contributing.

The whole idea that you work for most of your adult life in order to eventually do the things you want is outmoded,”

How are you currently showing up in your day-to-day work?

Are you operating at your desired energy levels, creative output, and impact?

four primary Career Operating Modes among pivoters: inactive, reactive, pro...

Proactive: Seeks new projects; actively learns new skills; is open to change; improves existing programs; makes connections with others; takes ownership even within existing leadership structures; has a giver mentality, willing and interested in helping others. May not be fully using innate talents, but is exploring what they are and how to amplify them.

Innovative: In addition to proactive mode qualities, fully taps into unique strengths; focuses on purpose-driven work and making meaningful contributions; is energized by a strong vision for new projects with a clear plan for making them happen; does not just improve existing structures, but creates new solutions to benefit others.

Antifragile organisms do not simply withstand change and survive it; they become better because of it.

antifragile organisms “thrive and grow when exposed to volatility, randomness, disorder, and stressors,” and “love adventure, risk, and uncertainty.”

What did I stand for? What problems was I passionate about solving? How could I build a sustainable business that would help me make a meaningful impact on others’ lives?

examine my existing strengths.

What Is Working and Where Do You Want to End Up?

The primary goal of the Plant stage is grounding.

the most successful pivots start from a strong foundation of your core values, a clear understanding of your strengths and interests, and a compelling vision for the future.

the more stuck someone is, the more they tell me what is not working and what they don’t want,