and strengths and skills.
You don’t have to wait until your company offers you this opportunity. Carry out your own informal 360 to understand how other people see you in a work situation. It’s easy to do, and you can do it whether you are currently working or not.
one minute wonder A very effective question to set people thinking on your behalf is, “If there is one thing I could do to improve my chances of progressing my career, what would you advise?”
“A successful life is one lived through understanding and pursuing one’s own path, not chasing after the dreams of others”
Chin-Ning Chu, Business Author
• Pick a handful of people. They should know you well and come into contact with you on a regular basis. Up to ten is enough and ideally more than five.
• Ask for honest opinions. Ask if they would be willing to answer some basic questions for you. The key is that you ask them to be honest and that you stay open and don’t be defensive so that they feel they can say what really needs to be said.
• Keep things objective. A good way to extract objective and honest advice is simply to ask if they have any specific examples of what you do well already as well as any areas you could improve. The more specific they are, the easier you will find it to act on their advice. If you are not clear what they mean, ask them, and again be open. Remember this is feedback, not criticism.
Take the feedback without being defensive and you will become aware of your potential weak areas as well as your strengths.
Ask people who know you well for feedback on your strengths, weaknesses and what you could do to be more effective.
Career success is sometimes attributed to luck. But like any journey in life, you won’t get where you want to go without both a goal and a plan. The secret of career management is knowing exactly what career suits you in the first place. Take what you know about yourself – your strengths, character, passions and principles – and match them up with a vision for your future.
Having a long-term vision for your career gives you focus. It helps you to come up with short term goals and plan your longer term career as well as respond positively to opportunities that come your way.
A study in the 1970s in America asked students about their future goals. Only a tiny percentage had a vision of their future over the coming years and an even smaller percentage had written their goals down. Years later the researchers returned and discovered that those students who had written down their goals had achieved more material and career success than all the other students put together.
Goals start with a big vision. What are the things you want to do, be and have in your career? Let your mind roam free and brainstorm some ideas.
one minute wonder Look to the past for clues to the future. Come up with three to five times in your life when you felt totally successful. Write them down. Describe what you did that made you succeed and what made you feel successful. What could you add into your vision?
“The future you see is the future you get”
Robert G Allen, author of One Minute Millionnaire
• Do a ‘brain dump’. Write down all the job options you have ever considered. Now rank them in order of desirability.
• Think about the skills and knowledge you enjoy using. What industries and jobs use these?
• Create your ideal day. Who would be involved? What would you do? How would it begin? Where would you go?
• Design your perfect environment. Where would you be? What people would you have around you?
• Consider lesses and mores. What could you do in future to create less of what you don’t want and more of what you do want in your life?
Spend time doing this and ideas start to flow. Think way out into the future. Where do you want to be in your career 20 years from now or 30 years from now?
Don’t censor yourself when you first want to do this. Think about all the things you would be proud to achieve in your career. The only limitations are ones you’ve created in your mind. Ok, you can’t be an Olympic champion diver at 80 probably, but many other visions are feasible and therefore potentially achievable.
Give yourself a vision and it will provide a focus point for you to guide your whole career.
Having set a big vision for your future, you can start breaking it down into goal or outcomes. Decide your short and long term goals and make them SMART.
Breaking your vision down into smaller goals means that you can use them as milestones over the coming years. This makes your goals achievable. SMART goals are:
• S = Specific. What you want specifically. Be as detailed as possible. Where, when, how, and with whom do you want this?
• M = Measurable. How will you know when you have reached your goal? What is going to be your evidence of success?
• A = Achievable. What actions will you need to take to achieve these goals? Give them more time? Gain more resources?
one minute wonder A great starting point when you first set your goals is to ask. “How is it possible that I don’t have it now?” If you want it so much what is it that you need to do or change to get it? This question will throw up very useful answers.
“Think not of yourself as the architect of your career but as the sculptor” BC Forbes
• R = Realistic. What makes these goals possible and probable? Do you need to change anything?
• T = Timed. If you attach a time to your goals it will make you much more focused on taking action.
Have a guess at when you would expect to reach those outcomes: six months, one year, two years, 10 years, 20 years? The ideal situation is to end up with a balance of long and short term goals.
Pick out the four most important goals for you this year. Write down why you absolutely will achieve them. Be clear, concise and positive. Tell yourself why you’re sure you can reach those outcomes and why it’s important that you do.
What will your goals allow you to do? Think about what purpose they serve. What will you gain or lose if you achieve
