Strategy #22: Set The Height Of Your Bar

You’re looking for a better job so that means you’ve got some big choices to make, and there’s one that comes head and shoulders above any other. The choice I’m thinking about concerns the height you decide to set your bar. How high do you want to fly and, conversely, how low are you prepared to fall?

This decision is profoundly important and represents a core aspect of finding the best-possible work opportunity. Most job hunters scoot over this activity without giving it due consideration so I want to explain why I think it’s the single most crucial choice you’ll ever make and why you need to be clear about its effects on your future, right from the start.

If you’ve followed my job-search strategies from the beginning, or even if you’ve only dipped in to a handful of them, you’ll know by now that this is a decidedly alternative method of looking for new work that I’m telling you about. There are plenty of differences between an old-style, reactive job hunt that most people use and the fresh approach that I take which features a transformative, proactive work search. One of the biggest differences comes right at the start of the process, when you consider the vast array of possibilities that lie before you.

There are practical choices to make. You have to think about who your preferred employer might be, which particular job you want to target and you need to be aware of the reasons these things are important to you. Why do you want to move forwards, perhaps sideways, or even head in another direction altogether? How can an employer help you achieve these aims, what can you offer the employer in return by doing a specific job for them, and how will this enhance the quality of your life?    

Answering these sorts of functional questions is an essential part of the planning process but they can wait until you’re clear about something that’s even more important and that’s the scale of your job, career or vocational ambitions. I think that clarity about this is absolutely crucial because it feeds directly into the next stage of your job-search project.

Depending on your working style and personality, you might be an ultra-planner or you could more of a broad-brushstroke sort of person. You might be pretty flexible or possibly you’re a rigid, no-compromise character. Wherever you sit on the spectrum, you have to come up with some answers to fundamental questions if you aspire to doing high-quality work with the best-possible employer.

Old-school job hunters might get away with a superficial, seat-of-the-pants approach to a work search, but only if they set their bar exceedingly low. Elite job changers set their bar high and do things differently by making sure that they’re clued up on precisely what they want and why. They also know what they don’t want and why. They’re completely unambiguous about what they want to achieve in life. They know what they’re prepared to settle for in certain circumstances. They also have red lines that they won’t cross, no matter what else happens.

Compared to average job hunters, the 95% who make up the vast majority of the working world, the elite can afford to set their bar as high as they want. They’re able to do this because they recognise an almost limitless number of potential opportunities that they can consider. Typical workers who are on the look-out for new work can’t be as picky because the jobs that are available to them are severely restricted in volume, scope and depth.

Ordinary people limit themselves to a handful of advertised job openings that usually sit well inside their career comfort zones, vacancies that invariably reflect their narrow ambitions. This is typically characterised by a fixed mindset regarding job hunting which commonly leads to severely reduced options in how their lives unfold.  

Proactive job hunters, on the other hand, construct a work-search strategy that exposes them to a gigantic number of potential job opportunities. They adopt a growth mindset that offers up an immense range of work choices, and this affords them the luxury of becoming super-demanding about what they’ll accept and what they won’t.

So, how do make inroads with the practical application of what I’m talking about here? How do you know how high to set your bar and where do you start painting your red lines? Well, perhaps you already know what some of your parameters are, in outline at least. If so, you’re ahead of the curve. If not, I suggest you concentrate on the essentials to begin with, starting with things that are of central importance to you before moving on to their effects on your work and your life. Toss a pebble into the middle of the bar-setting pond and watch the ripples flow outwards from there.

Before I get on to details, a friendly warning for you. I want to stress that this is one of the most important parts of your job-search project and not something to rush or skim over. Lob a hefty rock high in the air so that it lands with a mighty splash in the water, rather than skimming a flat stone across the surface which disappears into the distance. It’s deep thoughts that are crucial at this point, not shallow ones.

Incidentally, one of the most fruitful activities I conduct with my personal coaching clients is a comprehensive bar-setting analysis. A lot of job hunters benefit from this kind of support when they’re clarifying their ambitions, which sets the strong foundations for everything that proceeds onwards and upwards. This applies to entry-level workers right through to anyone who’s at the top of their career ladder. If you think you might do so too, just get in touch with me to discuss the options.

Anyway, let’s think about the specifics of this activity. If I was in your shoes, this is what I’d do. As a preface, I think some isolation from normal, day-to-day activities is critically-important. You can’t assess how high you choose to set your bar with the noise and bustle of work and family life going on in the background. I’d spend a whole day or weekend away from my usual schedule. In the past, I’ve disappeared for a week or more, all by myself, to give my mind enough bandwidth to allow ideas of the highest quality to germinate.

I’d start high, cut loose from as many self-imposed limitations as possible and think about what hits every one of my hot buttons. What would I like to achieve if there were no limits on what work I could do, no practical restrictions and no chance of failure in whatever I chose to do? I’d apply this holistically, to my personal life and to my end-of-career goals. I’d then break this down into shorter-term aims.

Remember that the opening phase of a setting-the-height-of-your-bar activity is being really clear about what excites you, without thinking about what might put a brake on these things. That can come later, although there’s a linking stage that comprises a hybrid theory and practice phase. To do this, I’d zero in on what my work ideally needs to include in conceptual terms, and in a way that promises me a better life as a result.

The structure and working style of a perfect employer is a good launch pad. I’d include specifics of company culture such as whether they’d offer a facilitating or bureaucratic operational format. Does a large network of colleagues and clients suit me or do I prefer a smaller, more compact way of doing things? Do I want to be a big fish in a small pond, a small fish in a big pond or even a very big fish in a lake, sea or ocean?

Note that none of these things focus on business sector, geographical location or any similar practical fundamentals. That can wait for your detailed opportunity research which comes later and which I talk about in the strategy that’s coming up in article 24. However, this bar-setting process is all about getting excited about what’s possible, not what’s practical.  

I’d next shift towards my deal breakers. What am I simply not prepared to countenance, come what may? These are my red lines. There’s a danger in getting too rigid by throwing out possibilities that might actually be acceptable, provided that there were appropriate compensations. Most people I work with find that their deal breakers are much clearer than their deal makers, possibly because they’ve lived a life of compromises for far too long. That’s understandable, but a little dangerous as the point of this activity is to open yourself up to the previously-unimagined potential of a much better future. 

To conclude, the takeaway from this very brief introduction to assessing the height at which you set your bar is this. The method of looking for work that I advocate offers a massively-expanded range of work openings compared to what’s usually on offer with a conventional job search. You’ll only fully exploit this potential if you open yourself up to what’s now possible in your new world, not what you were conditioned to believe was possible in your old world. Believe in the truth of this maxim and you won’t fail, I promise you.  

If you prefer to watch training materials rather than read or listen to them, follow this link to my YouTube channel where you can access the video version of this article;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vm3rN3k2-k0

And finally, if you have any questions about the issues I raise here, or if you'd like to contact me personally, please get in touch via LinkedIn;

https://www.linkedin.com/in/vocationmaster/