Lessons of the basketball (career) pivot

Apr 4, 2016
3 min read

Being extremely tall and coordinated athletically, it only made sense that I play basketball growing up. Since the age of nine, I have been dominating the basketball court with my mad skills.

Truth be told, I have never really been much of an athlete. Where I lacked skills, I made up in spunk. One of my favorite coaches nick-named me, “Happy Feet.” Now a famous movie about penguins, I take this as a precursor to my success in life so far.

If you are a basketball know-it-all like me, then you know that there is a specific skill that players must do with their feet: the pivot.

The Pivot

In this extremely complicated maneuver, one holds the ball in a sporty way while spinning on one foot; ballet meets basketball. It’s not just spinning for style, though. The pivot is all about changing direction.

Warning: This blog post is now going to shift gears and not be about basketball anymore.

It’s been awhile since I performed the pivot on the basketball court (a major loss to the basketball community, no doubt), but I put it to practice in my career this week.

See what I did there?

According to The Career Experts, a career pivot can be described this way, with my editorial comments interspersed for effect:

“A pivot is a shift in direction. In sports, such as basketball or martial arts (WHAT! I thought of that before I read this, I promise), a pivot takes place with one foot rooted in place as the other foot moves into a different space. The pivot cannot be executed unless the planted foot provides stability.

Think of the anchor foot as your foundation of values, accumulated experiences and achievements, which provides balance and strength as your other foot moves into a new area. Both work in concert (remind me that I need to use “work in concert” in a later blog post) to achieve change, as well as stability.

When you pivot in your career, you are not throwing away what you have accrued in skills and experiences; rather, these are the underpinnings that help you shift in a new direction (my emphasis added, because I want you to remember this part).”

So why does that lengthy quote matter?

It perfectly summarizes what I want to say about pivots. My most recent pivot: I accepted a new position as Director of Marketing at a large law firm.

Major change of direction up in here.

I previously didn’t have “marketing” in my position titles. And, “marketing” wasn't in my job description. And, I have only taken two marketing classes in my entire life.

But here I am with a new job with “marketing” and “director” in the same breath.

Were the lawyers that hired me crazy to do so? Maybe.

But here’s the important part about a pivot. It is not a 180 jump where both feet leave the floor; during a pivot, one foot remains anchored in order to provide balance to the other that is changing direction.

My planted foot is the reason I could pivot.

The planted foot is my experiences leading a team of people whose job it is to market the idea that donating blood is awesome (it is.). The planted foot is my experience writing my own blog and contributing to blogs like this (and getting my mom, dad, and husband to read it).

And the planted foot is countless other skills and points of reference that allowed me to get my resume to a place where I could submit it without seeming like a job candidate that was out of touch with reality.

The biggest difference between basketball pivots and career pivots is the pace. On the court, it’s quick and usually reactive. In the court we call Career Land (ok, no one calls it that), pivots should be carefully planned and executed. Standford’s School of Business said this about career pivots:

“When people pivot, they must remember three keys: be realistic, patient, and willing to work incredibly hard. Changing careers is uncomfortable … you may fail. You must give yourself enough time and space.”

The same Stanford article cited that the average time that a millennial stays at a job is 2.5 years. I am proud that I stayed at my previous position, a blood center, for double that.

Beating that average allowed me to grow and develop my skills, while also helping me figure out what I liked and what I didn’t about the working world. I wouldn’t have known where to pivot had I changed any sooner.

Am I making the perfect move? Maybe not.

Will I pivot again in my career? Only if the WNBA knocks on my door. Until then, I’ll keep both feet planted for awhile.