Consider the following statistics from the Conference Board's recent research: 

 

1) One-third of the highest potential people in your company intend to jump ship within the year

2) One in three high-potential employees admits to not putting in previous levels of effort in their job

3) One-in-four believes they will be working for another employer in a year

4) One-in-five believes that their personal aspirations are quite different from what the organization has planned for them

5) Twenty-one percent of employees rated themselves as highly disengaged at the end of 2009 - up from eight percent in the first half of 2007

6) Seventy percent of today's high performers lack critical attributes essential to their success in future roles

7) Mandatory training programs (compliance focused) have made recorded e-learning programs a negative - not a positive!

8) Personal investment in positive development of high potential leaders is the most powerful way to retain and re-engage!

9) Cost cutting measures have forced the replacement of positive, personal investment in talent with recorded e-learning programs  providing little to no impact on retention, engagement or skill enhancement

10) At least one-third of managers are unable to assist in the retention or re-engagement of their employees as they fall into one or more of these statistics as well.

 

The first question to answer now knowing these statistics is "where do you fall in them"?  Is it your intention to leave your current employer?  Have you already "left in place" based on your level of effort or engagement?  You must first answer these questions for yourself before you can even begin to think about the people who work for you.  If your truth is that you are a "statistic", then the most critical question now is "what are you going to do about it?"

 

For the sake of your career, success and happiness, you really only have two choices: 

1) Actually jump ship by "going to" versus "running from" something

2) Take accountability for your self-motivation and self-development and re-engage right where you are

 

Any other option will result in career stalling, stopping or total derailment.  The key is to proactively choose to be fully engaged in whatever you are doing - whether that is focused on staying or leaving.  If not, know that it is your career, brand, success and happiness that you are sacrificing.  And if it is your intention to jump ship, do so with your "eyes open wide" and do it quickly!  

 

"Eyes open wide" means to be sure that you are going to something that you know will serve your great life and career better versus give up all of the professional "equity" you have built where you are only to find that the culture and opportunities with the new employer are pretty much the same as with the "old" - only now you have to build your "equity" all over again from scratch! 

 

"Eyes open wide" also includes having a clear sense of whether your disengagement or desire to leave is caused by your employer or by your not taking full accountability for your own career thus falling victim to how well your employer is developing it and you for you.  Staying engaged in what we do is a conscious choice that we have to wake up and make every day just as it is a conscious choice to wake up and stay in love with the people in our lives. 

 

Others cannot motivate or grow us. Only we can motivate and grow us. This is both true for you and for those around you. What we can do for others is inspire them to want to motivate and grow themselves!  And we can only do even that once we are motivated and take accountability to continually develop ourselves.  Figure out what success looks like to you.  Take whatever actions you need to start creating more of it in your life today. 

 

Take accountability for your own development versus let your engagement and skills fall victim to reduced development budgets.  That is exactly why I launched "Your Corporate Success" making the most powerful development tool, executive coaching, available and affordable to all who choose to take accountability for their growth and their careers. 

 

The greatest determiner of how much success and happiness you have in your life is your mojo or "farfegnugen" - the experience of your spirit as you are in the drive of your life and career.  That positive spirit for what you are doing starts on the inside and radiates out to create your brand, your impact and your success!   Start taking full accountability for your mojo now!