{"id":4542,"date":"2013-11-20T08:02:41","date_gmt":"2013-11-20T06:02:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mymbloo.com\/cyhrma\/what-you-should-never-compromise-on-while-building-your-career\/"},"modified":"2013-11-20T08:02:41","modified_gmt":"2013-11-20T06:02:41","slug":"what-you-should-never-compromise-on-while-building-your-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cyhrma.org\/el\/what-you-should-never-compromise-on-while-building-your-career\/","title":{"rendered":"What You Should Never Compromise On While Building Your Career"},"content":{"rendered":"

by\u00a0Kathy Caprino<\/strong><\/p>\n

As a career coach to mid- and senior-level professionals, and in my former work as a therapist, I\u2019ve come into contact with thousands of questions, concerns, mistakes and crossroads that emerge in people\u2019s personal and professional lives.\u00a0 Observing the long arc of many careers, I\u2019ve noticed that the worst missteps \u2013 the ones that make us feel deep pain, regret, sorrow and remorse \u2013 are mistakes reflecting what people have chosen to compromise on or to give up in order to be \u201csuccessful.\u201d\u00a0 These compromises don\u2019t feel like \u201cchoices\u201d at the time, but they are, and they lead to common crises and challenges that are disastrous for the individual. Below are the top five things you should never compromise on while building your career (or you\u2019ll regret it deeply):<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0Your Standards of Integrity<\/strong>
\nI view \u201cstandards of integrity\u201d as core principles and values that guide our behavior.\u00a0 Integrity is a choice, and while it is influenced by a myriad of factors (your culture, upbringing, peer influences, etc.), it can\u2019t be forced.\u00a0 (If it is, you have played a part in that.)\u00a0 One who has strong and well-defined standards of integrity behaves with wholeness, integration, honesty, and does right by himself\/herself and by others.\u00a0 Standards of integrity involve values and virtues such as honesty, kindness, trust, wisdom, loyalty, transparency, objectivity, acceptance, openness, empathy, and graciousness.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve seen so many people in midlife awaken as if from a long stupor to realize that they\u2019ve compromised their most core values in order to get ahead in their work or keep jobs they hate.\u00a0 It hurts them to find that they\u2019ve walked away from who they are, and what they value and cherish most.<\/p>\n

People mistakenly believe that in these tough recessionary times they have to give up on their values and integrity to stay employed, but that\u2019s simply not true.\u00a0 Those who are guided by a strong sense of integrity fare much better in professional life, and will be successful where others fail.<\/p>\n

2.Your Self-Respect<\/strong>
\nI\u2019ve personally lived through the heartache of compromising my self-respect to stay in a job. Years ago when I was a corporate marketing professional, I knew that how I was behaving (because I felt pressured to), was beneath me.\u00a0 I wasn\u2019t the leader or manager I longed to be, because I couldn\u2019t manage and navigate through the toxicity, stress and overwhelm I felt in my job or in the organization.\u00a0 I tried to speak up about what I saw around me that wasn\u2019t right, but I got crushed down.\u00a0 In the end, I completely lost my self-respect, and felt that I was \u201cprostituting\u201d myself in order to keep my job and maintain my high salary.\u00a0 I knew literally in the first week that the job and company were wrong for me.\u00a0 What should I have done?\u00a0 Find a new job fast.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0Your Soul for Money<\/strong>
\nMoney \u2013 and our relationship with it \u2014 is a topic that\u2019s spawned millions of books, articles and seminars.\u00a0 Many of us struggle each day with maintaining a healthy balance and appropriate power dynamic with our money, and most of us fail.\u00a0 I\u2019ve seen countless professionals give up their souls for money \u2013 not because they are struggling to pay the bills, but because they\u2019ve become enslaved by their lifestyle and their need to impress.\u00a0 These folks have forgotten that they\u2019ve come here at this time on this planet to do more than pay the bills, acquire things, and keep up with the Joneses.\u00a0 I\u2019m not saying that fulfilling your financial obligations isn\u2019t important \u2013 it is.\u00a0 I am saying that you are much more than your paycheck or bank account.
\nYou know if you\u2019ve sacrificed your soul for money \u2013 it\u2019s a painful, debilitating state that you can\u2019t pretend your way out of.<\/p>\n

I know I\u2019ll hear from many of you who will say, \u201cKathy, you\u2019re nuts.\u00a0 I have to stay in this job I hate because I\u2019m financially responsible for my family and it\u2019s the only job I can get.\u201d\u00a0 Not knowing your situation, I can\u2019t say for sure, but my guess is that you absolutely do not have to work in ways you despise in order to do what\u2019s necessary for yourself and your family.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0Your Health and Well-being<\/strong>
\nIn my corporate training and seminars, I see hundreds of high-level professional women who are brilliant, achievement-oriented and accomplished, but at the same time exhausted, depleted, depressed and demoralized.\u00a0 In the pursuit of a great career, they\u2019ve compromised their health and well-being.\u00a0 Much of this has to do with the ever- complicated issue of work-life balance and how to stay competitive and ahead of the curve.\u00a0 But to me, it\u2019s much more.\u00a0 Sacrificing your health and well-being demonstrates your lack of prioritizing yourself as important, failing to understand that you must care for yourself \u2013 and yes, put yourself first \u2014 before you can be of true service to anyone else, your organization, your family or your employer.\u00a0 If your body is shutting down, diseased or broken down from the way you work, rapid change is needed.<\/p>\n

5.Your Legacy<\/strong>
\nFinally, the saddest professionals I know have sacrificed their legacy in the process of building their careers.\u00a0 What is your legacy? It\u2019s what you will be able to say about yourself when you\u2019re 90 looking back \u2014 what you\u2019ve stood for, given, taught, imparted, and left behind. Not what you dreamed of being, but what you have been.\u00a0 It\u2019s the impact you\u2019ve made on the world, your family, and your community.\u00a0 This is not a dress rehearsal, but the real thing here, and so many professionals forget that they have this one chance to build a life that\u2019s meaningful for them.\u00a0\u00a0 Instead, they compromise their legacy in a vain effort to grasp \u201csuccess,\u201d accolades, security, or power. (If you want to clarify your legacy, values, standards of integrity and more, take my Career Path Self-Assessment).<\/p>\n

If you think you have to compromise on any of the above in order to be employed or build a successful career, I hope you\u2019ll think again.\u00a0 I\u2019ve lived and witnessed the pain of giving yourself up in the processing of creating a professional life, and despite all your best efforts, it will never bring you the success, fulfillment and reward you long for.<\/p>\n

Biography:<\/u>
\nKathy Caprino, M.A. is a nationally-recognized women\u2019s career coach and work-life expert, executive trainer, writer and speaker dedicated to the advancement of women in business.\u00a0 Author of Breakdown, Breakthrough, and Founder of The Amazing Career Project, Kathy is President of Ellia Communications, Inc. — a leading career and executive coaching and training firm helping professional women build successful and fulfilling careers of significance, and reach their highest potential.\u00a0 A former corporate marketing VP, trained marriage and family therapist, and seasoned coach, Kathy is a Forbes and Huffington Post contributor and top media source on career issues and trends, and has appeared in over 100 leading newspapers and magazines and on national radio and television.\u00a0 For more information, visit\u00a0<\/em>www.elliacommunications.com<\/em><\/a><\/u>\u00a0or write to\u00a0<\/em>Kathy@elliacommunications.com<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0 Connect with Kathy on: Twitter, FB, LinkedIn<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by\u00a0Kathy Caprino As a career coach to mid- and senior-level professionals, and in my former work as a therapist, I\u2019ve come into contact with thousands of questions, concerns, mistakes and crossroads that emerge in people\u2019s personal and professional lives.\u00a0 Observing the long arc of many careers, I\u2019ve noticed that the worst missteps \u2013 the ones […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3863,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-el"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyhrma.org\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyhrma.org\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyhrma.org\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyhrma.org\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyhrma.org\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyhrma.org\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyhrma.org\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyhrma.org\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyhrma.org\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyhrma.org\/el\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}