This year marks 20 years of work for me (including five years of building & running Protagion), so is a natural point to reflect on the journey so far… Two decades ago, I completed my actuarial exams (in the Investments, Pensions, Life Insurance and General/P&C Insurance specialisms) and started my first job in the finance team of a large financial services company, valuing the insurance liabilities of its business operations across Africa. I’d worked in that team previously as a vacation student / intern, so was aware of what I was getting myself into, and it proved a helpful first role. 

Of course, my university classmates started their first roles around then too. We’d made it through a demanding 4-year business degree (or 3-year science degree plus honours for some), and arrived innocently into our first jobs. It was around 20 of us who survived, as the programme was notorious for forcing people to evaluate what they really wanted career-wise and weeding out many (60%-80% of the naive teenagers who began – they mostly shifted to other degree streams).

​A number of the survivors had bursaries, and perhaps extra impetus to see things through until graduation. So, fast forward 20 years, and what has happened to our group of survivors? Read more to find out… 

Isn’t it amazing how words change their meaning (or acceptable use) over time? Going ‘viral’ is a famous one, although the original meaning has made a comeback! Another popular one these days is ‘impact’… When I was growing up, impact conjured up more of an image of a collision as in ‘brace for impact’ or the late 90’s movie about an asteroid heading for Earth: Deep Impact.

Nowadays it also refers to the effect we have – what we might have referred to before as ‘making a difference’, ‘making a mark’ or ‘leaving a legacy’. It’s closely related to purpose & meaning and self-actualisation (in Maslow’s hierarchy). Purpose has become far more important over recent decades! 

Last month, I asked my LinkedIn connections what drives them in their careers, and the response was unusually vigorous, with some questioning why the LinkedIn poll only allowed them to choose one option?! Around 40% chose ‘having an impact’ as their top driver (more than I was expecting!), with the other options being ‘earning a living’, ‘making more money’ and ‘growing my expertise’. And, as ‘impact’ can mean very different things to each of us, I thought it would be good to explore it in more detail – hence this article. 

​Thanks to those of you who shared your perspectives with me. Without your views this article wouldn’t have been possible. Read more to see the wide-ranging reflections on impact from various professionals globally, at different career stages too. Would you add anything? 

Time for another real-life example. Something that comes up often, which can be an internal barrier to people seeking career support. A conversation with a protege brought it top of mind… 

Spoiler alert: at Protagion, our focus is on helping you achieve your career ambitions, whatever those might be i.e. from where you are now to where you want to be. We do encourage you to reflect on your route to today, yes, and this is useful information to prompt your thinking. But, please don’t feel that your past should dominate you or hold you back. Concentrate on your goal(s), and the steps/improvements you can take iteratively from here to get there. And, where the past has a particularly strong hold on you, some of our coaches have specific skills in helping you move forward to acceptance. 

Back to the story… This specific conversation was with a mid-career professional who had previously shifted industries, and is looking to make another shift. Theoretically, this second shift should be mentally easier for them (having transformed themselves once before already, and expressing a preference for the ‘non-traditional approach’). However, they are conflicted with a complex set of emotions which are weighing on their mind: a lingering sense of ‘unfinished business’ when they think of their first industry and the qualifications important in it, regrets about not seeking help earlier, and stress about how these feelings are holding them back from their next shift.

Firstly, kudos to them for reaching out for support - you are very definitely not alone! The mixture of emotions has led to an ongoing cycle of anxiety, and feelings of personal disappointment and helplessness, prompting them to want to blot out these negative thoughts and further ignore the underlying challenges… Incredibly tough to deal with on your own. The great news is that they are now taking steps to get support from others who’ve walked this path before, who can act as sounding boards, and who can support them to get to where they want to be.

During our conversation, we touched on the work of Brene Brown, who they are also a big fan of. They referred regularly to having been in the ‘wilderness’, and they recognised that they have been stuck on their own, unsuccessfully trying to make progress. Towards the end of our initial conversation, they shared that they had been very apprehensive about having the chat, and I did my best to reassure them that all of us at Protagion are here to support them: career challenges are much easier to face with support from fellow professionals. A board of mentors and coaches can provide diverse angles of support needed. They used a reasonably graphic (but memorable) analogy about their distress being a boil that just keeps getting bigger because of reluctance to acknowledge it, but it takes personal courage, and perhaps medical support, to prick it so that it can heal. Here’s to helping you heal! 

There are many professionals who deep down know they have an unresolved challenge or issue which is holding them back from achieving their personal goals. And, the older we get, the more ‘unfinished business’ and/or regrets we might accumulate. Exam misses, burnt bridges, seemingly irreparable corporate relationships, feelings of failure, and more. You may even have tried for years to address things on your own. If you are one of these professionals, please reach out to others for support: existing coaches you work with, your support network, or us - we’d be delighted to explore with you how our professional mentors and coaches could support you!