To advance your career you need to do certain things including a regular stock-taking to assess what you are achieving, where to get back on track if you’ve strayed and where to raise your game. Here are some others;
START A BRAG-LOG: Brag-logs are short pithy statements of information about who you are and what you’ve done, positive things you can say about your work which together show what you are capable of. If you don’t have one already, create a journal in which you keep track of your achievements with a small note explaining why they are important; even better if you can show where possible how your achievement helped your company or made a difference on a broader level.
SHORE UP YOUR CONSISTENCY: You will hardly get your ‘’big break’’ from a one off brilliance. You need to be seen as a safe pair of hands delivering the required top standards day in day out, that you come through when it really matters even if you drop the ball occasionally. Check in with yourself from time to time how you’re doing, how you’ve addressed any obstacles in order to keep doing your best work.
ATTRACT INFLUENTIAL SPONSOR: Solo success is near impossible. A sponsor is someone who knows your work, your potential and your work ethic and therefore willingly vouches for you sometimes even without your knowledge. Sponsors are not friends in high places who may put in a word for you as a favour but people who are prepared to stick their neck out for you because of your track record. Where such a sponsor is well regarded, their word on your behalf is likely to carry a lot of weight.
GET MORE RIGHT EXPERIENCE: Long experience alone will not open doors, it has to be enough of the right experience. That’s why it’s important that you clarify your career aspirations early on, have some concrete goals and develop experience that fits those goals. Based on your goals you must work out the experience you need to transition quickly to the next stage of your working life. Get others to tell you strengths that you might be taking for granted so that you can use them more and develop them further.
Now take action: Based on your goals how can you get more ‘right’ experience’
Saturday, October 20, 2012
When you are in over your head
Deep down we all know when we have bitten more than we can chew; too many unfinished tasks, having an important piece of work to do but no clue where to start? If you find yourself in that situation what can you do?;
GET HELP QUICKLY. Don’t drown thinking you have to do everything yourself. You are not expected to know everything but must know where to get the help you need to deliver. Focus on what the result is that you must achieve and solicit the help and resources you need to achieve it. Never underperform because you personally do not know how to do something you are responsible for.
OWN THE EXECUTION: Find help and learn from others so that you are able to do the task next time. The more you learn from others, the more you increase your capability and discover things that you might not have thought of on your own. Seek out people who can bring value to your work so you can call on their help and receive it when you need it. To do this you’ll also need to invest in other people too and go to their aid when they need support too.
BUILD AN EXTENDED TEAM: Sometimes you may feel you are not qualified or not doing a good enough job. Take an inventory of the skills you bring to your role and build a targeted list of people who know things you don’t know and ready to assist you learn what you need. Don’t think of people who can help you only as your peers or those above you. People have skills beyond their job titles so look for able and willing individuals rather than rank.
BE SYSTEMATIC IN LEARNING: Set some priority learning goals. For example; what do you want to be able to do in the next 3 months that you’re not able to do now? What are you gaping weaknesses that you need improve significantly? Then develop a plan to skill up. Don’t ever fail because you buried your head in the sand!
Now take action: Where in your job are you average but need to be high performing?
GET HELP QUICKLY. Don’t drown thinking you have to do everything yourself. You are not expected to know everything but must know where to get the help you need to deliver. Focus on what the result is that you must achieve and solicit the help and resources you need to achieve it. Never underperform because you personally do not know how to do something you are responsible for.
OWN THE EXECUTION: Find help and learn from others so that you are able to do the task next time. The more you learn from others, the more you increase your capability and discover things that you might not have thought of on your own. Seek out people who can bring value to your work so you can call on their help and receive it when you need it. To do this you’ll also need to invest in other people too and go to their aid when they need support too.
BUILD AN EXTENDED TEAM: Sometimes you may feel you are not qualified or not doing a good enough job. Take an inventory of the skills you bring to your role and build a targeted list of people who know things you don’t know and ready to assist you learn what you need. Don’t think of people who can help you only as your peers or those above you. People have skills beyond their job titles so look for able and willing individuals rather than rank.
BE SYSTEMATIC IN LEARNING: Set some priority learning goals. For example; what do you want to be able to do in the next 3 months that you’re not able to do now? What are you gaping weaknesses that you need improve significantly? Then develop a plan to skill up. Don’t ever fail because you buried your head in the sand!
Now take action: Where in your job are you average but need to be high performing?
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