About a decade ago I was fortunate enough to be listening to the Olympic Gold rower Ben Hunt-Davis who shared the extraordinary story of the 1998 GB Men’s Rowing Eight team. After, a period of consistently failing to win medals they acknowledged the need to adopt a different approach, recognising that their methods were not giving them the results they wanted. At the heart of their new strategy was the question; ‘Will it make the boat go faster?’ This question was used as the determining factor for every action they took in the 18 months leading up to the 1998 Olympics in Sydney, it became their test. If they couldn’t answer the question with a positive response then they didn’t do it. This focus and determined approach resulted in them winning gold.

Why am I sharing this with you? Well, the same strategy can be applied to our careers. If we aren’t where we want to be in our careers, if it’s not giving us what we need then we have to make changes. If we are feeling dissatisfied in our careers but continue to do the same then we can’t expect things to change. From personal experience, I know this too well. I had fallen out of love with my job in HR; I was going through the motions. I would make slight tweaks, like changing the part of the business I supported, would get involved in projects, but nothing significant that changed the activities and skills I was using. If we continue to do the same we can expect the same results.