Five Year Plan: Friend or Foe?

One area I think needs to change is the conversation around the “five year plan.”

Millennials have changed the game when it comes to their careers. Baby Boomers often stayed at the same company their entire life. Now, the younger workforce is moving more often with it becoming more commonplace for people to switch jobs every year or so. These changes require a new way of thinking and managing people early on in their career. One area I think needs to change is the conversation around the “five year plan.”

I used to work at several large corporations and without a doubt, when goal setting came around, my bosses would ask, “Where do you see yourself in five years?” I was a little bit of a punk in my younger corporate career. Four months into my first role after undergrad, I had the courage to tell my boss that I networked in the company and found a new role because I didn’t like my current one. So, when they asked this question, I never let them see the panic I felt inside. Instead, I would confidently talk about managing a team and moving up in the company.

Now, in my 30s (and no longer working for large companies), I can more clearly see this question for what it is and call BS (and I’m not a swearing kind of gal). The question of what you want to do in five years is well intentioned in trying to help people think beyond just what they are doing today (which is a skill that takes time to develop). However, I think it does more harm than good for a few reasons.

If we focus too much on what we said we would do in five years, we don’t give our goals the opportunity to grow with us.

First, it forces young people to take the limited exposure they have early on in their life and determine how they best fit into jobs or opportunities. Second, it limits growth because we are wired to approach the question thinking about what we could accomplish with who we are NOW, instead of who we will be in five years. In turn, if we focus too much on what we said we would do in five years, we don’t give our goals the opportunity to grow with us. Lastly, it’s too big to be effective. Even if the plan contains smaller goals on how to reach an ultimate goal, the plan needs to be shorter term for us to want to work towards it (see this blog post on setting effective goals). While it is productive to have an idea of where you might want to go in your life, getting too specific sets you up to fail as no one can predict five years into the future.

So, instead of sending younger people into a tizzy, which I’ve heard time and time again from folks I mentor, I think we should focus on “What do you want to change or develop yourself in over the next year or two?” Don’t ask about five years in the future directly, help them to think big picture by focusing on the shorter term. Create an action plan to open up their world to new opportunities. Manage or mentor people on what they are facing now and how their decisions now impact their potential options. Help them think about what paths are an option based on what they have developed and could develop. And if you are a millennial and still do get asked this question, don’t worry. Answer the question the best you can at the moment, but remember it’s like what Kate Hudson says in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days: “Bulls@#!”