137: The Seasons of Your Career: How to Stop Burning Out and Start Being Strategic This Summer

SPEAKER_00: Hey Lady Leader, welcome back. Or if you're new here, I am so glad that you found us. I'm Dr. Nicole Bryan, your host and your biggest cheerleader.

I'm a leadership coach, a psychologist, and a former Fortune 500 Human Resources Executive. And I created this podcast specifically for you, the ambitious, introverted black woman who knows she's meant for more. Here we talk about getting you promoted to the executive level, growing into the leader your title requires, and building a team that actually performs. And we do all of it without you having to shrink yourself to fake extroversion or hustle yourself into the ground.

If any of that sounds like what you need, then definitely stay tuned. Now, before we get into today's episode, especially for anyone who is new here, I want to take a moment to share exactly what we do and who we do it for. I work specifically with ambitious Black introverted women leaders. And the work I do with them centers around three core problems.

Problem one is getting you your executive level promotion because that path is not always clear and it is almost never handed to you. We build the strategy to get you there together. Problem number two is closing the skill gap between being a strong manager and being a true executive leader. Those are two very different jobs, and the transition requires new capabilities, new thinking, and honestly, a whole new leadership identity.

And problem number three is setting up your new team or your new department for high performance. Because getting the seat is only the beginning. What you do once you're in that seat determines everything that comes next. If any of those three things describe what you're struggling with right now, you are in exactly the right place.

Now, let's get into today's episode. We are coming up on June 21st, which is the official day of summer. And I want to do something a little different today. I don't want to teach you something.

I want to invite you into a conversation, a real conversation, the kind we actually should be having more of. Because here's what I know about the women who listen to this podcast women like you and women like me. You're ambitious. You have big goals.

You are not here by accident. You're here because something in you is hungry for more. And that hunger, that is one of your greatest assets. But I also know this that same hunger, when it's not managed well, it can work against you.

It can drive you into burnout, into work addiction, into a kind of relentless pushing that leaves you depleted, disconnected, and somehow further away from what you actually want, even as you're working harder than ever to get it. So today, as we approach the first day of summer, I want to talk about seasons, the seasons of your career. And more importantly, I want to ask you a question that I think you need to sit with for a minute. What season are you in right now?

And is it a choice? Here's something I want you to think about. Everything alive on this earth grows. There is nothing living that does not grow.

But growth doesn't always look the same at every moment. Growth is not constant, it's not linear, and it's not always visible from the outside either. Think about a tree in winter. From the outside, it looks like nothing is happening.

The leaves are gone, there is no visible output. If you didn't know any better, you might think the tree was dead or it was dying. But underneath the surface, the root system is actually deepening. The tree is resting, it's consolidating, it's preparing for what comes next.

That winter stillness is not absence of growth, it's a different kind of growth, and it's necessary. And then spring comes, and that same tree explodes. Your career kind of works the same way. There are seasons where you are in full bloom, you're visible, you're producing, you're expanding.

But then there are seasons where you are going deep underground, building roots, doing the invisible work that makes the next explosion possible. There are seasons of harvest where you are reaping what you already planted. And then there are seasons of rest where the most productive thing you can do is stop. None of those seasons are wrong.

All of them are necessary. The problem isn't the season. The problem is when you are in one season, but telling yourself and everybody else around you that you're in another. Let me give you some language for this because I think one of the reasons we get into trouble is that we don't have a framework for naming what is actually happening to us.

In my experience, working with women across industries, across career levels, and having lived my own corporate career, there are four primary career seasons. The first season is the lean-in season. Now, this is the season where you are fully pressed in. You are energized by the work.

You're excited about what you're building, you're raising your hand for the high visibility projects, you're showing up early, you're staying late, not because you have to, but because you genuinely, genuinely want to. Your long-term goals are at front and center in your mind, and everything you are doing is in service of them. This is a growth season, a planting and building season. And when you're in it, it can feel almost electric.

The second season is the positioning season. Now, this is a more strategic version of leaning in. You're not just doing great work, you're making sure that the right people know you are doing great work. You're building, you're deepening relationships with decision makers, you're having the conversations that need to happen, and you're building your business case.

This is the season you go into when you're preparing for something specific, maybe a promotion or a salary negotiation or a role change. Everything you do is deliberate here. Everything is intentional. You're playing chess, not checkers.

The third season is the lean back season. Now, this is the season where you pull back, you do what is required of you. You meet your obligations, you show up, but you're not going above and beyond right now. Maybe you're recovering from something, or maybe something is happening in your personal life that requires your full attention.

Or maybe the company is going through something and you have already made a conscious decision not to pour your best energy into the environment or into an environment that is in chaos. You're not quitting and you're not quiet quitting in the way that phrase gets used pejoratively, but you are being intentional about your energy and you're resting the field. And the fourth season is the pivot season. This is the season where you are actively reconsidering your direction.

Maybe it's a career change, or maybe you're thinking about a company change, or perhaps it's a function change within your current organization, but something is shifting. And this season requires a different kind of energy. It requires exploration, reflection, honesty with yourself about what you actually want, and the courage to start moving in a new direction before you can fully see where you are going. Those are four seasons.

And at any given point in your career, you are in one of them. The question is, do you know which one? Now, here's something important that I want you to understand. Sometimes you choose your season.

You look at your life, your career, your goals, your energy, and you make a deliberate decision. You'll say something like, This summer, I'm gonna lean in. This season, I'm gonna position myself for that promotion. This quarter, I am pulling back because I need to rest.

That is agency. That is self-leadership at its highest level. But other times, and this is the part that nobody wants to talk about, the season chooses you. Maybe you're having a baby.

Maybe you are caring for an elderly parent. Maybe there is an illness in your family, or you yourself get sick. Perhaps there's a leadership change at your company and the new direction does not inspire you. Or maybe they were layoffs and your closest colleagues and allies are gone, and you are grieving that even as you are still showing up every day.

Maybe your boss is making your life miserable, and you've decided, consciously or unconsciously, that you are not giving them the best of you right now. Life happens, lady leader. And when it does, it moves you into seasons you did not necessarily plan for. And that's okay.

That is human. Neither is right or wrong. Both are real. But, and this is the key point, you have to know which one is happening.

Because whether your season is chosen or imposed, awareness is everything. I also want to talk about what happens when you're in a season, but you're not aware of it. Or when you're in one season, but you're pretending to be in another. This is where misalignment lives.

And misalignment, not ambition, not introversion, not even a difficult boss. Misalignment is what I see derail more careers than almost anything else. Here's what misalignment looks like in real life. You are in a lean back season.

Your energy is completely depleted. Life has demanded too much. You are running on empty. But you keep telling yourself and everyone around you that you are fully committed, you're fully available, fully pressed in.

So you keep saying yes to things you don't have the capacity for. You keep showing up to rooms where you are physically present, but mentally you're not there. And the people around you, your boss, your team, your peers, they feel that. They can't name it necessarily, but they feel it.

And it slowly erodes the trust and the reputation you spent years building. Or maybe you're in a positioning season. You know what you want, you want that promotion. But you are behaving like you're in a lean back season.

You're not having the necessary conversations, you're not raising your hand, you're not building the relationships. And then Q4 comes and your name does not come up in the room, and you're blindsided. But were you really? Because the season you were actually living in told a different story than the outcome you said you wanted.

Misalignment between what you say you want and how you are actually showing up, that is the recipe. That's the recipe for stress. That is the recipe for burnout. It's the recipe for demand, it's the recipe for damaged relationships.

It's also a recipe for a career that feels like it's moving in slow motion or not at all. And the antidote is not more hustle. The antidote is more honesty. So let me bring this back to right now, to today, to the approachment of the first day of summer in 2026.

Most people treat summer like a soft season for their career. Things feel slower, people are on vacation, the office energy is lighter, and so they match that energy. They pull back, they delay decisions, they give themselves and their work longer timelines and further out deadlines. And look, if you have made a conscious decision that this is your lean back season, great, that's valid.

And that is a real and legitimate choice. Rest is productive and recovery is strategic. There is nothing wrong with protecting your energy for a season. But if you are in a positioning season, if your name needs to be in the rooms by Q4 because you want to get promoted or you want to negotiate your compensation, or maybe you want to change roles by the end of this year, then summer is not a soft season for you.

Summer has to be your secret weapon. Because while everyone else is checked out, you can be doing the quiet strategic work that sets you up for success. You can be deepening the relationships that matter. You can be having the conversations that need to happen.

And you can be getting clear on your business case, your narrative, your next move. You can be doing all of the invisible positioning work that nobody sees in the moment, but that shows up as results in the fall. The people who get promoted in Q4 did not start working for it in Q4. They started in June, maybe in May, definitely by July.

So I want to ask you a real question, lady leader. What season are you in right now? Not what season you wish you were in, not what season you think you should be in, but what season are you actually in? And does how you are spending your time and energy right now reflect that?

Now, I want to leave you with something practical today, my an invitation. This week, maybe this weekend, maybe tonight, after you finish listening to this episode, I want you to sit down somewhere, somewhere quiet, and answer three questions honestly. Question number one, what season am I actually in right now? Not what season do I want to be in?

Not what season would impress people? What is the honest truth about where my energy and my attention and my capacity, where is it actually? Question number two, is this season chosen or is it imposed? Did I choose this for myself or did it choose me?

And if life chose it for me, do I have any agency to adjust it? Or do I just have to accept it and honor it for now? Question number three, is what I'm doing every day aligned with the season I am actually in? Where's the gap?

Where am I saying I'm in one season, but behaving like I'm in another? And what needs to shift? Those three questions, if you're able to answer them honestly, will tell you everything you need to know about why your career feels the way it does right now. And they'll show you exactly where to start.

There is no wrong answer. I want to say that one more time. There's no wrong season to be in. The lean back season is not failure.

The pivot season is not giving up. Rest is not laziness. Choosing yourself for a season is not a career ender. What is a career ender, or at a minimum a career slower, is pretending to be in a season you are not in.

That is where the real damage happens. Over the next few weeks on this podcast, we're gonna go deep on some things that sit underneath career seasons, the emotional and human realities that influence which seasons you're in and how you show up within it. We're gonna talk about why you cannot separate your personal life from your professional one, even though we all try to do it, and what it costs you when you try. We're also gonna talk about the patterns of self-protection that look like professionalism, but are quietly holding you back.

And we're gonna talk about reclaiming your joy in your work, because joy is not a luxury, it is a true leadership asset. But it all starts here with this question, with this moment of honesty. What season are you in? And is it a choice?

Sit with that, and if you want to go even deeper, if you want to understand not just your season, but exactly where you are on the full journey to the executive level and what you have to focus on next, I have a free quiz, a free assessment that takes about three to four minutes. And it's gonna give you more clarity than most conversations you've had about your career. Because the conversation, the question that I keep getting from black women in particular is I don't know what I need to do to get my next promotion.

And this quiz answers that exact question for you. If it sounds like it's something that you're interested in, then definitely come back because we're going to be releasing it as part of this series. Happy first day of summer, lady leader. I'm rooting for you as always.

And in the meantime, keep leading your introvert way.