3 Signs You May Be Facing an Executive Mid-Career Crisis

A mid-career crisis happens for an executive after many years of success when an executive hits a kind of plateau. On this plateau, it is abundantly clear their work as an executive is not meeting their deeper internal aims.  Also, the expectations they had for their career are not being fully met.  There is a deep-seated sense there is something more they are here to do.  More over, the current situation is not fulfilling more profound aspirations.  Of course, when we start our careers, we never dream of hitting such a wall.

It All Starts Innocently Enough

When we enter our careers, we tend to be highly motivated by the possibilities.  It is fun expressing and further developing our expertise and business acumen. As we do so, our intellects become sharper, and our reputation grows as we successfully navigate increasingly complex situations. For many, intellectual challenge becomes a kind of candy that seems to fulfill us. As we hone our mental capacity, our reputation grows for making a positive impact.  As we create value, our organizations promote us to engage even more complex problems. Before long, we are managing teams and taking on increasing responsibilities.

All of this is positive, and for a time there can be a sense the world is our oyster. We are rising in our profession.  We are earning good money.  And our personal lives are becoming full. During the next phase of our careers, we rise to higher levels of influence.  The proverbial carrot that we chase gets higher and higher up the chain.  And yet for many executives, there comes a time when we can grow tired of chasing the carrot.  For some, this can lead to the mid-career crisis or slump that I elude to in the first paragraph.  There are three primary ways this can manifest.

Sign 1: You Are Burning Out

Back in 2013, the Wall Street Journal cited research from Harvard Medical School that 96% of the executives in their study reported some level of burn out.  And one-third of their executive pool reported experiencing an extreme level of burnout. Burnout starts out as a slow fizzle that builds over time. At its peak, the executive becomes fried.   The result of this can lead to a deterioration in decision making and even worse major health issues.  Again, given the story I weave above, it makes sense.  As we chase the carrot, we are feeling energized.  That said, there comes the point when we emotionally and physically can’t keep up. We find that being the heroic lone ranger expert tends to backfire.

Sign 2: You Are Facing a Crisis of Meaning

A milder version of this is when one faces a crisis of meaning that may have you asking yourself – “what is all this effort adding up to?”  At this point, it is likely that you may feel a downgrade in your passion for what you do.  In addition, there may even be some flavor of boredom seeping into your day to day experience.  At this point, you did everything you were supposed to do to rise.  However, all of a sudden it feels less engaging or less meaningful.  In the back of your mind, you may be second-guessing yourself.  You may be feeling it is time to make a change.  However, you are not clear what that change is or how to make it happen.

Sign 3: You Are Facing an Influence Block

This influence block can show up in two primary ways:

• You may have received substantial feedback that you must shift your approach to working with others.  However, you are unsure how to make that shift, or you may not resonate with the need to make such a transformation. That said, the feedback is growing louder.
• You may be facing an interpersonal challenge with your boss, members of the board, senior leadership or your team. In the most intense cases, this type of influence block shows up as a significant breakdown in a vital relationship.  Many times this is with your boss or others in senior leadership.  All of a sudden you have fallen out of their good graces.  You may feel you have lost their confidence in some way.

How Most Executives Deal with a Mid-Career Crisis

In my experience, the way most executives push through such a mid-career crisis is to push through it. They may find a confidant or two to share their concerns. An executive may fall into the idea that the grass is greener someplace else and look for a new job. And some may leave the corporate world altogether, seeking something entirely new. Of course, this is how life moves sometimes, and there is nothing wrong with any of this. However, if an executive only changes the circumstances they find themselves in, they may miss the real opportunity a mid-career crisis brings.

The Silver Lining in a Mid-Career Crisis

Inherent in a mid-career crisis is life’s call to step up to a higher level of leadership as well as to seek authentic fulfillment.  Another way to say this is the bigger you is no longer satisfied with the status quo.

And while one can muster their way through there are ways to add velocity to the breakthrough process. This path requires one to slow down a bit and begin the process by gaining clarity on what is most important to them and why they want to show up to work each day.  I provide an outline of this process in my next blog post. However, if you are interested in learning how one executive used my system to move from crisis to breakthrough, you can follow this link for a video that shares a case study describing how one executive raised the bar.