Making Career Lemonade from Project Issue Lemons

For the past year, I have been coaching a high-potential leader. Over the past few months, we have been talking about the concept of a pro forma resume. This is a resume you would like to have in the future, which allows you to chart your career movement and experiences to make the pro forma resume a reality.

In this leader’s case, we have been talking about what he wants his resume to look like in 10 years. His pro forma has given him a north star to strive for in his career and is providing a roadmap to help him get there. In a recent meeting, he brought up a benefit of the pro forma that I hadn’t considered, but one that makes perfect sense.
He is currently leading a particularly complex project involving both employees and volunteers, and has exposure at the very highest levels of the organization. The work is particularly stressful, and he is facing a number of new challenges.

In our meeting, he was feeling a bit overwhelmed and stressed due to the project and its issues. As we talked about the project, he made an interesting observation. “You know,” he said, “there are a lot of tough things I’m working through, but knowing I can include some of these things on my resume is really going to enhance my marketability.”

His comment caught me off guard, not because it was in any way wrong (in fact it was a brilliant observation), but because I had never articulated like he did the link between navigating thorny issues and how they enhance a resume. He later told me that the idea of having a more robust resume as result of the project and its challenges energizes him to address the issues head on.

Now that’s a “making lemonade out of lemons” perspective.

Read more at ProjectManagement.com.

---