Date · Wednesday, 6 May 2026, 19:00 CEST
Hosted by · UNESCO and United Nations Headquarters (DOS)
Session page · UNOG learning
Speakers
- Dawn Straiton Mullin · Chief, Staff Counsellors Office, UN Secretariat (DOS) · Bio
- Adina Forsstrom · Head of Learning, Performance and Development, UNESCO (Paris) · Bio
- Margaret Jones · Learning Officer, UNESCO · Bio
Career development is often assumed to be a source of motivation and growth. However, when poorly structured, unclear, or inequitable, it can become a significant psychosocial hazard — contributing to stress, disengagement, and reduced wellbeing. In this session, we explore career development through the lens of psychological health and safety and organizational learning to reframe career development from a risk factor to a driver of engagement, wellbeing, and performance. Using real-world examples from the UN system, we examine how career pathways can either undermine or enhance wellbeing.
Key takeaways
- Career development is a documented psychosocial hazard in virtually every UN setting assessed — from HQ to hardship duty stations — appearing consistently in the top two to three hazards alongside work overload.
- The critical variable is not the system but how you interact with it. The same conditions that push Carlos toward disengagement leave Linda engaged, because she has chosen to act within her circle of control.
- The circle of control exercise is a practical grounding tool: when you are feeling overwhelmed, map your concerns to the three rings and redirect energy toward the inner two. Thriving professionals allocate roughly 80% of their energy to what they fully control.
- Thriving does not mean being promoted. It means active growth, a sense of progress, and maintained agency. Small wins matter more than arriving at a final goal.
- Micromobility strategies — task forces, shadowing, cross-functional projects, acting for your manager, stretch assignments — are the practical bridge between where you are and where you want to be. They do not require a new role.
- When requesting a career conversation with a manager or mentor, come prepared: a specific, reasonable ask, a connection to team benefit, and solutions alongside the problem. Do not arrive apologetic.
- Know your personal warning signs: the daily “I’m stuck” feeling, withdrawal from opportunities, presenteeism, and negative cynicism are early indicators that the hazard is becoming a risk. Intervene early — journals, counselors, mentors, and peers are all valid entry points. ---
Dawn Straiton Mullin
Dawn anchored the session in the concept of psychosocial hazards, explaining that a hazard is any aspect of work that can cause harm — physical or psychological — while a risk is what that hazard does when you are exposed to it. Career development, she noted, consistently appears in the top two to three psychosocial hazards identified in every UN setting she has assessed, from headquarters to hardship duty stations. The conditions that make it hazardous include stagnation, lack of transparency around advancement, absent or unhelpful feedback, mismatched role expectations, underutilized skills, and a pervasive sense of being stuck. She was direct about the physical and mental health consequences: anxiety, depression, sleep disturbance, cardiovascular risk, and presenteeism are all documented outcomes of sustained career-related stress.
Her most practical contribution was the circle of control exercise. She asked participants to draw three concentric circles: the innermost for things fully within your control (your actions, decisions, behaviors), the middle for things within your influence but not your control (what you advocate for, who you interact with), and the outer ring for things you worry about but cannot affect (organisational finances, donor decisions, whether a post will be cut). She cited research suggesting that thriving professionals direct 80% of their energy to the innermost circle, 15% to the influence ring, and only 5% to the outer concern ring. When you notice that most of your mental energy is living in the outer circle, that is the moment to pause and redirect. Dawn also provided stage-specific advice through a career self-advisory toolkit, covering early career (micro-visibility, lateral moves, boundary-setting), mid-career (job crafting, career calibration conversations, burnout monitoring), and late career (legacy opportunities through mentoring, avoiding quiet quitting, finding meaning beyond the grade).
Adina Forsstrom
Adina made the session’s core argument concrete through a contrast between two fictional colleagues, Carlos and Linda, both in the same team with the same passive manager and the same absence of feedback. Carlos withdraws, stops applying, and slides toward disengagement. Linda makes an active choice to take control: she asks for feedback on her applications and interviews, initiates quarterly career conversations with her manager, volunteers for cross-functional projects, activates a self-found mentor, and keeps her peer network live. The gap between them is not the system — neither controls it — but their relationship to it.
From this contrast, Adina introduced three modes: hazard (stuck, withdrawn, giving up), coping (going through the motions, minimal engagement but not collapsing), and thriving (sense of agency, growth mindset, finding meaning in small progress). She was careful to separate thriving from promotion: the strongest factor for motivation at work is a sense of progress, not arrival at a goal. She then outlined a career mapping exercise — identifying your current role and actual responsibilities, where you want to go, and the gaps between the two in terms of skills, network, and blockers — and paired it with micromobility strategies: task forces, cross-functional projects, acting for your manager, stretch assignments, shadowing, and interagency loans for those with access.
Margaret Jones
Margaret opened with a reflective exercise that challenged the default assumption that career development means an upward ladder. She invited participants to draw or imagine a symbol for what career development means to them — a deep dive, an unravelling thread, a network of lateral and diagonal connections — as a way of broadening the frame before any practical advice was given.
Her main contribution was a guide to having a career conversation with a manager or mentor. She identified three components: preparing with intention (clarify your goal, think through what is a reasonable ask, what has worked for you before); creating a positive environment; and maintaining a constructive frame. The frequent failure mode she described is arriving in the conversation already apologetic, as though the ask is unreasonable. Instead, she encouraged participants to come with a specific, prepared request — something that is an easy yes — and to link it to the team’s benefit, not just personal growth. She also clarified what a mentor actually is: not your line manager, not necessarily someone more senior, and not a long-term formal commitment. A mentor can be someone with a different type of experience, engaged for a specific purpose over a few months, with a clear ask from the mentee.
Frameworks and models
| Name | What it stands for | How to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Circle of Control | Three concentric circles: things you control fully, things you influence, things you only worry about | Draw the circles; plot 3-5 career concerns; notice where your energy is concentrated; aim for 80% in control, 15% influence, 5% concern |
| Engagement-Performance Matrix | 2x2 grid with high/low engagement on one axis and high/low performance on the other, producing four profiles | Identify which quadrant you occupy for each major project or responsibility; use this as the starting point for a career conversation with your manager |
| Hazard, Coping, Thriving Modes | Three states describing how a person relates to career development as a psychosocial risk | Identify your current mode honestly; use the Carlos/Linda contrast to diagnose what shifts are within your control; aim to move incrementally toward thriving |
| Career Self-Advisory Toolkit (curated advice, no framework page) | Stage-specific strategies for early, mid, and late career professionals | Apply the relevant stage: micro-visibility and lateral moves (early); job crafting and career calibration conversations (mid); legacy projects and mentoring others (late). (Considered for promotion to a framework page but not promoted: this is a curated set of stage-specific advice rather than a single tool with operational steps. Its components are absorbed into Hazard-Coping-Thriving-Modes and Micromobility-Strategies.) |
| Career Mapping | A structured gap analysis between current role and desired destination | List what you actually do day-to-day, define where you want to go, identify skill and network gaps, and name the blockers; use the output to set small incremental steps |
| Career Conversation Playbook | Three-part structure (prepare, environment, frame) for initiating and running a career conversation with a manager or mentor | Use before any deliberate one-to-one about career, growth, or future moves; arrive with a specific, prepared “easy yes” ask |
| Micromobility Strategies | A menu of small career moves you can make without changing roles (task forces, cross-functional projects, acting roles, stretch assignments, shadowing, interagency loans, coffee chats) | Use after Career Mapping has surfaced specific gaps; pick the smallest move that addresses the gap and time-bound the commitment |
Resources
| Resource | What it is / What it’s for | Link |
|---|---|---|
| UN Secretariat Staff Counsellors Office | Generic inbox for staff seeking counselling support or referrals across the UN system | Mentioned in session; contact via your organisation’s HR or DSS if counsellor unknown |
Last updated 2026-05-10.