To stay or not to stay? This question is often the inflection point that determines a great career. Never moving can lead to a stale career, while moving too often can lead to an unfulfilling career. It’s never easy to make this decision, so consider your next career move as carefully as a world-champion chess player.

If you’re facing a career change, here are seven things to consider as you evaluate new opportunities.

1. Will you grow?

   Work is a transfer of value. You contribute value to an organization, and in return you receive value. Part of the value you receive is the degree to which you’ll grow while doing that work. Ask yourself these questions to evaluate the value you could receive in a potential new position.

   • Will you develop your leadership and communication skills?
   • Will you learn about the latest technologies and how to use them?
   • Will you learn to be more effective at strategy, planning or execution?
   • Will you be challenged?

   Take Mark, for example -- he’d been a successful employee within a major hotel chain for over fifteen years but, by the time I met him, he no longer felt challenged in his position. He had an opportunity to take a job with a supplier to a number of hotel chains. In this new position, he would be traveling more while making only a small increase in salary. However, his desire for growth and challenges was so great, he took the new position and he flourished. He told me that he was constantly learning more about himself, his skills, his strengths, and ways that he could add more value to customers. He was exhilarated -- and he was promoted twice within 18 months!

2. Will you make more money, or have the realistic capacity to make more money?

   "No money, no mission." I actually learned that phrase from an executive at a not-for-profit organization. Seems ironic, huh? Well, every organization and individual needs a flow of dollars in order to continue to contribute value.

   So, as you consider this new career opportunity, find out as much as you can about what you will earn in the next twelve months, and how much you can realistically earn in the next five years. Don’t be shy when asking about salary. It doesn’t have to be a deal breaker, but you need to know what’s realistic.

3. Will you work with people you want to be around?

   The vast majority of your day will be spent with co-workers. Before you take a new job, spend a few days with the new group. See them in action, and watch how they treat one another. Ask a variety of the employees what it’s like to work there. Talk to as many of your potential colleagues as you can in a private setting, and see if any common themes emerge.

   Are these people you really want to be with every day for at least the next five years?

4. Will you be expected to behave in ways that are congruent with your values?

   Values are beliefs that determine behaviors. This is a very straightforward concept. If integrity is one of your values, then you will do what you think is the right thing to do each day. If honesty is one of your values, then you tell the truth. As I said, pretty simple stuff.

   Here’s the hard part.

   You’ve been offered a job with a great salary, great benefits, and exciting challenges. You tell a few key family members and friends about the job. Now more people are excited. And then you start to spend some time with the employees, and you realize their normal behaviors do not fit with your values. Do you take the job?

   Here’s my suggestion. Explore the position and company some more, and see if you uncover the same pattern of behaviors with other employees. If you do, walk away from the job. I know that sounds harsh, but once you let go of your values, you lose yourself. And that is a very expensive and painful journey to go on. It’s just not worth it.

5. Will you be allowed to use your strengths and passions the vast majority of the time?

   You can achieve greatness when you deploy your strengths and your passions into meaningful work that matters to your organization and to your customers.

   If you spend the vast majority of your day doing stuff you have no passion for, you’re going to produce passionless work. That’s certainly not the ticket to career acceleration, no matter how much you might be earning right now.

6. Is the amount of travel and the reality of relocation appropriate for you and your family?

   Some job specific circumstances go beyond just you to affect your family and other close relationships. Two of those circumstances are relocation and travel time. I’m not just talking about traveling back and forth from your home to your office, although that’s an important factor, too. I’m mainly talking about the amount of time you’ll be traveling around the country and the world with this job. Relocation is another variable to weave into the family situation. I encourage you to take those two items very seriously, and to talk them over with your family.

   A career with no travel would not be the right choice for a lot of people. On the other hand, too much travel can have a devastating effect on crucial relationships.

   The same is true with relocating. Relocating can generate great life experiences, but it can also sometimes have a damaging effect on your family. Consider these factors carefully.

7. Are you excited to take this job?

   Now that you’ve thought about this situation rationally and discussed it with your family, what are you going to do? Time for the old gut check. Do you want this new job or not? If your answer isn’t immediate and emotional, then hold off and take more time to think about it.

I recently met a CEO who turned down the job of COO four times before he felt he was truly excited to take the position. Once he took it he did such a great job that he was promoted to CEO when the former CEO retired!