Donald Super and Prioritizing Your Life Roles from The Career Peer

Donald Super is one of those individuals who finds his way into my work every so often, and usually appears from completely different places, like a mystic or mysterious character.

When we created The Career Peer episode focused on Super, role conflict was really the bulk of what we were trying to highlight. That said, here is one of my favorite quotes by Super, that I worked into the episode:

“It's more important to have a good path and several alternative goals than to have a good goal.” I really, really like this idea for a couple of reasons.

First, there is often a lot of attention in organizations on goal setting and organizational goal achievement. I’m in favor of that attention, and even preaching the importance of more attention towards goals! However, I’ve also noticed that there is a tendency by some leaders to put on the blinders when comprehending organizational goals. The attention is too linear. Yes, there are specific numbers to hit, and there is likely accountability for not hitting those numbers. We also know that goals are meant to be adjustable, given the number of outside factors that play a role in goal success. And while the employees of the organization share a dedication towards a common larger-level goal, it’s likely that goal isn’t as singular as we break it down to be.

Second, John Holland and Donald Super talked about successive approximations, this idea that we’re able to work towards a particular objective but then adjust based on experiences. The critical element is to prepare yourself, to be developmentally ready, for when opportunities emerge to follow a branch that alters your path. Executives often share that they are tasked with doing things they have never done before, and that they have to figure it out. I’m fully in favor building CEOs, executives, and other leaders to have the skills and experiences to enable oneself for potential paths. And, in this renewed age of talent mobility, direct goals and singular paths may be lessening as an option for most people.

Here is a link to the episode and additional resources on The Career Peer website.

Below is the embedded audio, if you wish to listen without a click!

Enjoy!