When Stability Starts Feeling Like a Cage

2015 likely held as many life changes as we had ever experienced in a single year. Shortly after taking a week-long vacation to celebrate our fifteen anniversary, which may have been the first full week we were away from our jobs at the same time since our honeymoon, I completed the SHRM prep course and certification then jumped immediately into the licensing process with Maxwell Leadership. I registered what I thought would be a sole proprietorship right after; if I’m being honest, I didn’t expect it to be more than a hobby and Cindy had no intention of going down that path with me. Just a few weeks prior to me accepting the Safety & HR Manager position with the commercial construction company, Cindy accepted a new role too. Like mine, her new position involved basically the same work as she had done for a year or so leading up to it but for a brand new organization; she was their very first hire.

I’ll share more about the amazing results she delivered next. Before that, I need to provide more context for all I was juggling. About a month before starting my new job, I hosted the first of what’s since become a fairly large annual public leadership development, mainly to provide my start-up business with local visibility. I did that on a whim but began planning a similar event for the following year immediately after that initial one ended. That was the primary driver for me being so candid when I first spoke with the owner of the construction company; if he had concerns about me doing that and accepting his offer, we didn’t need to move forward. In discussing it, I assured him that I would always deliver all he needed from me and more, and my personal business would not interfere. He had no concerns, so away we went.

As I shared some of the ripple effects of scarcity, I mentioned that I learned the importance of going the extra mile very early in life. In Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill calls that “The Habit of Doing More than Paid For.” That was definitely the approach I was taking as I started my business in 2015 (I wasn’t charging for most of what I was doing initially), and that’s been our goal ever since: to ALWAYS deliver far more than any client expects. I had also been very intentional about applying the same approach in every role I held in any other organization, which opened doors to more opportunities than I can count, and I practiced the same thing from the day I started with that construction company in late 2015.

I remember my long-time human resources manager’s comment in early 2012, before I moved completely into that space from safety. He cautioned me about it being heavily tied to compliance, and that I could expect quite a bit of monotony for the remainder of my career. I heard him, but I didn’t really listen well enough to take that guidance to heart. I was so busy through the final two years in manufacturing that I rarely had time to reflect on his comment. In each small company, though, I had enough bandwidth to recognize that monotony. Being one that’s never enjoyed idle time, that’s where I started involving myself in every other aspect of each business I possibly could.

Once I had my feet under with the construction company, I learned that they had been working with a consultant of sorts, specifically focused on process improvement opportunities. Having been heavily involved in that for so many years in a manufacturing environment - through 5S, Lean, Kaizen, SIx Sigma, and just about any other flavor of the month you can imagine - I was naturally interested in seeing the approach they were taking in the construction industry. That also gave me exposure to other aspects of the business, which helped me do my primary job more effectively. Had I stuck with just HR and safety, I would have grown restless in that role within a few months.

Soon after involving myself in the continuous improvement initiates, I noticed that the company had a very limited marketing presence. They had been in business for decades and had a strong reputation, but had huge opportunities to increase their visibility and market share. (I had been studying that fervently for my own business and was more than willing to share what I was learning to benefit them.)

While getting involved with each of those things helped, and that position provided me tremendous stability, I wasn’t making as much of an impact as I wanted to and that stability soon started feeling like a cage. Even after reclaiming stability after a few major career transitions, bad situations can still emerge as quiet dissatisfaction; opportunities can feel safe but limit greater impact. More on that after we look at what drove the biggest change of Cindy’s career. First, I’ll challenge you to reflect on a time when a “stable” situation began feeling restrictive. Note your immediate emotions and one early sign of misalignment.