Brian R. was an employee who worked for a prominent investment company, that for the purposes of this paper we will call InvestX. Brian was a junior fund manager who had spent the last five years developing himself as a biotechnology investor after his Harvard MBA. Throughout his time at InvestX, Brian found himself with varied successes and failures, and the rewards of his “big wins” were counterbalanced by the vicissitudes of his job. Being at a large investment company, Brian was attracted to the large bonuses when his calls were correct and by the potential for upward mobility in the firm, but he faced various obstructions, such as the senior fund manager, Tom M. who was always the star at the workplace and someone with whom he just could not get along. He also found himself increasingly dissatisfied with the “meaning” of his work. He longed for a greater sense of independence and a greater sense of conviction, but his company analyses and number crunching were getting to him.
At his last review, he was invited to stay on for another five years with the promise of shares maturing over the next five years at which time he would have a financial windfall of another 5 million dollars. Brian found himself caught between many of these rewards at work and the growing feeling that he could not stand being in this “trap”. He sought to understand his situation more intimately and to actually help himself make the change that he knew he wanted. The problem is complex and involves multiple components. For the purposes of this paper, we will focus on commitment.
Was Brian Committed to His Desire for Career Transition?
Although Brian said that he “wanted” this change, he was far from committed. Commitment is defined as “…the act of binding yourself (intellectually or emotionally) to a course of action…” Although Brian was committed to his wish, he was not committed to his action or any decision that would inspire this action. Commitment to a decision that inspires action is called “action-orientation”, and although Brian was able to acknowledge his frequent wish to leave, he had not made a commitment to leaving. He was effectively standing with his car keys in his hands, hovering at the door, but staying on for much longer than he wanted.
The necessity of commitment to the change that Brian wanted is based on the action-based model of dissonance which predicts that following commitment to a decision, there are a series of motivational factors that must arise to encourage approaching a desired goal in an effective and unconflicted way (2). These approach-oriented processes as a state of mind are referred to as “action-orientation”. Brian was all but “oriented”- in fact, he was quite disoriented by the stew of motivational and fear factors that swam about in his mind. One of the questions that he asked was: did it make a difference? His fantasy was that he would stay in this stew and that eventually, he would become so sick of being at InvestX that he would leave. Yet, when bonus time came, or when he considered his fear of leaving something he had invested so much energy into, the challenge of leaving escalated. Brian was not in fact committed to his desired action.
Reports
In this, our very first of many reports, Dr Pillay explores the challenges faced by individuals in career changes from a neuro-scientific perspective.
The First Step to Overcoming the Challenges of Career Transitions
Fewer than 1 in 3 employees in North America are fully engaged in their work and 19% are actually engaged (1). Furthermore, there is a correlation between degree of engagement in the workplace and retention. Despite this correlation, people on the cusp of career transitions often face multiple challenges and the actual transition to a new job can be time-consuming and oftentimes more of a “wish” or “hope” rather than action.
In this paper, we will explore the brain science behind commitment, which is the first challenge of career transition. We will also explore how brain science can help illuminate what is going on when people are challenged to make the changes that they actually want. Using the real-life case of Brian, a fund manager who worked for a prominent investment firm, we will explore the differences between “possibility of acting” and “intent to act” when working with people who are stuck in their transition points in their work lives.
Download the full report here
