Drive your career, or someone else will
God, I love December! It’s the time of year where I can slow down, breathe a sigh of relief, and take stock of the year that has been. At its more relaxed pace, December tends to be when I listen to new podcasts – to hear new perspectives – while I’m out for one of my many 2-3 hour walks along New Plymouth’s coastal walkway.
The Greg McKeown Podcast caught my ear this year – in particular, an episode by Greg that led me towards one of his older essays; If You Don’t Design Your Career, Someone Else Will. Considering the frantic year I’ve had, Greg’s words have given me pause for thought (and you may note, have influenced the title of this post).
The tiniest bit of bias
The tiniest bit of bias towards a chosen direction will get you very far, very fast.
“It is well known the drunken sailor who staggers to the left or right with n independent random steps will, on the average, end up about √n steps from the origin. But if there is a pretty girl in one direction, then his steps will tend to go in that direction and he will go a distance proportional to n. In a lifetime of many, many independent choices, small and large, a career with a vision will get you a distance proportional to n, while no vision will get you only the distance √n. In a sense, the main difference between those who go far and those who do not is some people have a vision and the others do not and therefore can only react to the current events as they happen.” ― Richard Hamming
I’ve chosen thia quote from Richard Hamming as the lead-in to this post, as it complements Greg McKeown’s observation; being deliberate about your career almost always leads to better long-term outcomes than leaving things to chance.
So, what practical steps is Greg recommending we take in order to be more deliberate about our careers? I’ve captured them below for future reference. Whilst frameworks of this nature are par for the course, I’ve found Greg’s to work well for me this year – maybe next year I’ll look at something slightly different.
Greg’s 8-step annual career review
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Review the last 12 months ― Review the year, month by month. Make a list of where you spent your time: include your major projects, responsibilities and accomplishments. No need to overcomplicate this.
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Ask, “What is the news?” ― Look over your list and reflect on what is really going on. Think like a journalist and ask yourself: Why does this matter? What are the trends here? What happens if these trends continue?
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Ask “What would I do in my career if I could do anything?” ― Just brainstorm with no voice of criticism to hold you back. Just write out all the ideas that come to mind.
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Go back and spend a bit more time on Step 3 ― Too often we begin our career planning with our second-best option in mind. We have a sense of what we would most love to do but we immediately push it aside. Why? Typically, because “it is not realistic” which is code for, “I can’t make money doing this.” In this economy – in any economy – I understand why making money is critical. However, sometimes we pass by legitimate career paths because we set them aside too quickly.
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Write down six objectives for the next 12 months ― Make a list of the top six items you would like to accomplish in your career this year and place them in priority order.
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Cross off the bottom five ― Once you’re back to the whirlwind of work, you’ll benefit from having a single “true north” career objective for the year.
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Make an action plan for this month ― Make a list of some quick wins you’d like to have in place over the next 3-4 weeks.
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Decide what you will say no to ― Make a list of the “good” things that will keep you from achieving your one “great” career objective. Think about how to delete, defer, or delegate these other tasks. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “The crime which bankrupts men and nations is that of turning aside from one’s main purpose to serve a job here and there.”
My annual career review
The short version
The past 12 months have been a whirlwind of change, growth, and moments of intense ― possibly self-induced ― pressure. Its pace has been frantic, more so than I would have liked, but my team and I got to where we needed to be.
Looking ahead to 2026, I’m thinking more about how the business can become more productive ― whether it’s by automating tasks we’ve just never bothered to automate, stopping low-value work, or finding smarter ways to operate ― I’m open to, and will be actively looking at everything.
As an avid learner, I’ll be starting my Master’s in Business Administration in 2026, after deferring it in 2025 due to workload and family pressures. Now more than ever, I believe the knowledge, connections, and perspectives an MBA will offer can help me deliver on my commitments over the next two to three years.
Finally, 2026 is already shaping up to be a big year. My priority will be helping the business ― as lead of the Systems and Technology workstream ― deliver one of Powerco’s most strategically significant projects in the past decade: a merger with another New Zealand electricity distribution business (EDB).
The longer version
2025 has been an incredibly busy year for all. I noted its pace was often frantic, and this was a sentiment shared across much of Powerco’s extended Senior Leadership Team (xSLT). We mostly achieved what we set out to achieve, but it came with deliberate sacrifices ― sacrifices that will require attention in 2026.
Key Higlights
We did some amazing work this year, all of which I’m incredibly proud of. Key highlights from my year include:
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Delivered a strategic project that brought Powerco’s fault-dispatch (i.e. electricity outage management) function back in-house. This change enabled our business to scale fault management across multiple field service providers and introduce an element of comparison (competition?) between them, which is leading to better outcomes for our customers.
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I stepped into the newly established Operational Technology Manager role and unified two previously separate IT teams under one Operational Technology banner. My new Team Leads and I did this while maintaining each team’s already high eNPS score, which is a huge achievement ― one that I’m deeply proud of.
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We re-aligned our Operational Technology roadmap with stakeholders across electricity operations ― particularly important as both our business context and priorities changed throughout 2025. This review was a fascinating insight into what the future may hold for the electricity sector and included challenging some “must-haves” that in reality were more “nice to haves”, given Powerco’s already ambitious roadmap through to 2030.
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Had a barrel-load of fun with my team while delivering our work. They’re an amazing group of folk, each passionate about what they do. I really value the fact that we’ve found a good balance between staying focused when it matters but keeping things light-hearted. Personalities have clicked well, and I’ve enjoyed the style of humour each person brings.
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Alongside four other workstream leads, I started laying the foundations for a strategically important merger in 2026. This merger will bring Powerco and Firstlight Networks together as a single, unified organisation, and is my core priority (and the business’s) in the coming year.
Priorities
Priorities often shifted in 2025, became conflicted, or at times were simply not clear, each of which came at a cost to reorient the team. Toward the end of the year, I felt I had little time to pause and reflect on the bigger picture. Looking ahead, one trend is clear: we’ll need to accelerate the pace at which we deliver new digitally-enabled capabilities ― indirectly, our customers are pushing for it. The challenge will be:
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We need to move faster without reducing quality where it counts or increasing the cost to serve our customers. It’s going to be a tightrope act that’ll require leaders (myself included) to rethink how we work and what’s important.
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If we continue prioritising digital growth without strengthening our existing business processes (i.e. layer new processes on top of old), frustration will build, likely eroding culture, our resilience, and ultimately slowing the very progress we’re aiming to achieve.
If I could do anything
If I could do anything, it would be exactly what I’m doing now: working in the electricity distribution sector, contributing to New Zealand’s net-zero goals ― but with less friction, fewer competing priorities, and ideally without materially sacrificing team harmony and eNPS.
My next move
For 2026, I’ve set my primary objective: to meaningfully begin my MBA studies ― but recognise objectives two through six will also carry on as time & priorities permit. Starting an MBA has been a personal growth objective of mine ― it will help me grow as a leader, bringing clarity to how I think about innovation, execution, and leadership. To support this, my immediate actions in January include:
- Sharing all six objectives with my manager and team, inviting their feedback and support.
- Reviewing those MBA enrolment options available to me and starting the enrolment process.
- Maintaining work-life balance by taking every second Friday off to spend time with family, like biking to and from school with my daughter.
What will give
I’ve also committed myself to saying “no” a little more often, especially to projects that don’t align with our 2026 strategic objectives. This will be needed to protect capacity for myself and my team, ensuring we can deliver quality work on our current priorities.
Lastly, 2026 is about regaining control over my career and building the foundations for sustainable success ― both professionally and personally.