The employee life cycle is the journey of an employee starting from the moment that they are recruited and onboarded until they exit an organisation. It is usually driven by various stages of development, recognition and retention.

As much as this cycle depends on the employer and the way in which employees are welcomed, onboarded, integrated, given chances and opportunities to develop, being trusted, promoted etc, it can be equally driven and influenced by you as an employee so that you can achieve your goals and lead your own development.

A courageous and confident employee life cycle within an organisation starts with a courageous and confident YOU. If we look at it in a holistic way, an employee life cycle starts way before the recruitment process. It starts with your reflection work and your decisions on how to move forward in your career. It starts with the choices you make out of your comfort zone or from within your courage zone or maybe from somewhere in between the two.

What happens thereafter very much depends on the role you wish to take on this journey. Obviously, there are many contributory factors.  It is not a one-sided process. Of course the role that your employer plays has a big impact on how the life cycle is designed and which experiences it can bring to you as an employee, but despite this it can be very much up to you to decide how you want to influence your journey.

Let’s examine how you could impact the employee life cycle from a courage and confidence point of view:

You know who you are and what you want.

You present yourself accordingly in the recruitment process.

You ask challenging questions.

You are a leading partner during the job interview.

You courageously negotiate the terms and conditions of your employment and make a confident and bold start.

You create, together with your employer, the first 60 – 90 days introduction plan.

You do your research and think of “what else” could be undertaken in order to make it an even more confident & courageous start, for example who else should you to get to know, which other challenging questions could you ask, which other perspectives could be considered.

You say NO in order to be able to say YES to bigger opportunities and projects.

You embrace calculated risk, look fear in the eye and seek the best option rather than the easy one.

You do not let things happen to you. You make them happen.

You embrace failure and transform it into a learning experience.

You learn, work hard and improve your competencies and skillset, but at the same time you remain vulnerable and humble and ask for help when needed.

You consider how to best make use of your entire resource pool and its potential within the organisation so that you and your employer both enjoy maximum benefit.

You set up a strong and trustworthy network.

You drive your next career steps, by making learning, unlearning and relearning a regular and natural process.

You perform, develop and contribute to your employer’s and your own success always with an open and courageous mindset.

You move forward courageously and in doing so you let others be part of your courage and success and help them to rise as well.

I could continue with this list...

A pro-active employee contribution to the employee life cycle, accompanied with courage and confidence, will certainly lead to higher levels of success, satisfaction and happiness to all parties involved.

What are your thoughts on this topic? What have you experienced so far with regards to the employee life cycle on your career path? In which ways have you been able to own it?

I look forward to hearing about your experiences. Remember that courage is like a muscle and can be trained and developed on an ongoing basis in the work place.

Let’s talk: Contact