Christopher (C3) Croteau’s Post

A colleague and I were having a 1:1 today when they mentioned to me that they were having a bit of an existential crisis. I admitted that I had been having my moments lately too (full disclosure) and asked what was driving theirs. The response was they had been reviewing LinkedIn and were questioning where they went wrong in their career. In the case of this person, their career has been long, interesting and something many other people would envy. We talked at length about the "social media lens" and if you don't have at least a fair bit of cynicism about what you read online, you'll eventually think everyone is doing better than you are. As LinkedIn has developed well beyond a contact database to a full blown social media tool, albeit at least professional in it's intent, many of the same issues we see on more traditional personal social media sites (you know who you are) have emerged here. I'm posting this both to tell my friends and colleagues that I do enjoy watching you thrive in your careers and missions and revel in the impact you have in the world so please don't stop posting, cheering and celebrating. To the people who aren't as adept at celebrating their own individual successes, your work matters too. Remember that titles are just shorthand for a business taxonomy that allows us to quickly understand a person's role in an organization, it's not what they do. Deeds are measured in results and impact. One thing that's always helped me in staying focused in my career is to reflect on my friend Dr. Maslow and his hierarchy. So many of us transcended the lower levels of safety, love and belonging and are squarely in the self actualization of our development. Revel in your good works, celebrate your small (and large) victories and note that how you change the world is so much more important than how often you change jobs, companies or titles. #career #development #change #work