Step four
The 5 Ps
Five things a job has to give you. Most roles deliver on some and not others, and which ones you can live without changes over the course of a career. Knowing which is which is how you stop evaluating jobs on instinct alone.
The five
Purpose
Whether the work means something to you, and whether that lines up with what you actually believe.
People
Who you need around you. What you need from the person you report to. What good looks like when it is working.
Passion
The work that makes you lose track of time. What you would spend your week on if you got to choose.
Progression
Where you are going. Whether your current path excites you or feels closed off.
Pay
What fair means to you, and where money sits against everything else right now.
How the session goes
We start at Purpose and work through all five. I have a set of open questions for each one, but I follow your energy rather than the list. If we spend forty minutes on People because that is where the real thing is, that is the right use of the session.
I do not send the questions ahead of time. They work better in conversation than as homework, and prepared answers tend to be the answers you think you should give. But so you know the kind of thing I am asking:
- When did you last feel your work really mattered? What was going on?
- Who brings out your best, and what is it they actually do?
- What kind of work makes you lose track of time?
- Does your current role have a path that excites you, or does it feel closed?
- What would enough look like for you?
Usually one session. Sometimes it runs into a second, which is fine.
Bring your values with you
By now you will have worked through the values exercise. Have your three to five in front of you for this session.
Purpose is where they earn their keep. It is much easier to say what makes work meaningful when you have already named what you will not trade away.
What you walk away with
A written summary with the themes that came up and detailed notes under each P, so you can see where your priorities actually sit rather than where you assume they do.