Forget the typical yearly review!
Instead of doing a public yearly review of my own goals, results, wins and losses, I want to talk about the challenges I’ve heard from my coaching clients and high achievers I’ve interviewed, who work in Tech.
The harsh reality of working in Tech over this past year? It’s been a bumpy ride.
The challenges that kept coming up in coaching and other conversations were:
- Layoffs and restructuring. High achievers felt worried and stressed about the possibility of being laid off.
- Workloads made 9-to-5 look like a myth. Because of restructuring, people who remained in the company had a higher volume of work to juggle. That created fatigue and left some people feeling demotivated.
- Steep learning curves and technology changing fast. These two elements made clients feel like they needed to “run full speed” and that “time is running out”.
- Navigating a difficult relationship with one’s manager. Communication was a big pain point for specialists who needed to learn to manage up, communicate assertively and for leaders who needed to learn to listen more and give their team members constructive feedback.
These issues affect mindset & wellbeing in multiple ways like:
- More stress and poorer sleep.
- More energy consumed ruminating and staying stuck in a mental loop, creating mental scenarios, rather than taking action.
- More negative self-talk, less self-confidence.
- More restlessness, more procrastination.
- Stuck in “one way” type of thinking.
Throughout the year I noticed and heard multiple ways in which people working in Tech self-sabotage:
- They pushed themselves to over-achieve. They worked more, rested less and were overall feeling more tired. They might have made more mistakes because of it.
They had thoughts like:
“Rest gets in the way of performance.” “I’m worthy as long as I’m successful, others see it and think good things about me.” “I won’t rest until I do it perfectly.”
- They felt anxious constantly, and doubted themselves.
They had thoughts like:
“If I make a mistake, I fear everyone is going to accuse me or dislike me.”
“What if I get fired today?”
- They said yes to most things, even if it was too much for them. They needed frequent reassurance from others and could not express their needs directly or set limits.
They had thoughts like:
“If I don’t help people, who will?”
“I’ll take care of myself later.”
- They avoided conflict and procrastinated on what they imagined to be unpleasant or difficult tasks. They felt anxious about the tasks they avoided.
They had thoughts like:
“This is too hard. Maybe if I let it go it will take care of itself.”
“It’s too much for me. I’ll do it later, next time.”
- They juggled multiple tasks and found themselves easily distracted.
They had thoughts like:
“I have to do something more interesting, I can’t bear this discomfort.”
But here’s what happened when we worked together. When my clients tackled these patterns with me, the results were quite amazing:
✅ They clarified what they wanted in a role (identified the criteria they’re looking for) and landed jobs that suit them and their new career direction.
✅ They improved communication with managers and (bonus!) their personal relationships.
✅ They became aware of their assumptions and negative thought patterns and stopped the self-sabotage cycle.
✅ They built healthy habits that actually stick and help them learn for exams or for an important goal in their professional life.
✅ They prepared for their first leadership role with confidence.
✅ They felt mindset shifts from self-doubt and procrastination to ‘“I’ve got this”, “I’m actually doing it” and “I feel much more confident.”
What can you do if these challenges sound familiar?
- Connect with close people, talk to them. You might find others are going through similar struggles and you will not feel alone.
- Reach out to your network and ask for help. You might know someone that can share knowledge, give you tips on how to improve specific aspects or refer you. People are open to help and they get to feel better about themselves too.
And if you’re a high achiever who works in Tech and struggles with any of the things I talked about and want unbiased, non-judgmental support, in order to find solutions to your current career challenge, message me and let’s talk.
