I was out to dinner recently with a work friend and our conversation turned into a career advancement discussion. She was wondering what she needed to do next in order to continue to progress forward. I found myself doing some thing that I love to do: mentoring and supporting a fellow colleague and friend.
I thought about our conversation afterwards because I want to continue to help her reach her leadership goals. As I reflected, I decided to share this list of strategies we discussed. These are important steps to consider in order to keep one’s career moving forward.
- Try to figure out what your goal position is, and consider what is the next position you need to strive for that will put you on the path to getting there. I think it’s important to know where you want to go. Once you have that set in your mind, every move you make, whether it be consciously or subconsciously, will move you towards that goal.
- Assemble your personal development team. I have always felt that all of us need a personal team around us: a sponsor (someone who puts you forward; if you have a fantastic boss who is active and invested in your development, that’s your person!), a mentor (someone more career-seasoned who holds up the mirror and makes your face yourself), a confidant (not a coworker, with whom you can unwind and unload without fear), a reverse mentor, (you need to be a go giver and share your gifts) and a fellow traveler (to share your journey and develop together).
- Identify strategic relationships and nurture them. Leadership is about relationships, and nurture means you need to keep paying attention to them. Remember, the grass is greener where you water it, and unwatered grass dies.
- Expand your frame of reference in alignment with your goal position. There is a wonderful book by Malcolm Gladwell called Blink. It is about how people are able to make quick decisions – and it’s not because they’re super smart: it’s because there are experiences in their frame of reference from which they can draw to make decisions – in a blink! Figure out where you need to build your frame of reference, and read this book too.
- Join a professional society in alignment with your goal position and take advantage of educational and networking events. Learning is a lifetime endeavor. Being able to share information and experiences with people in the same line of work will make your professional development journey more fulfilling.
- Pursue certification in alignment with your goal position. Establishing yourself as an expert through certification makes you stand out and also demonstrates your dedication to your craft.
- Become a go-giver and help other people succeed. Leadership is about serving others. Leadership is about contribution. Leadership is about generosity of spirit. There is a great book you can read about this. It is called The Go Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann.
- Take a personal inventory. Make a deliberate effort to self reflect on your strengths and opportunities, consider those things that are essential for your growth, and work to enrich yourself. There are many books and programs for this purpose. I like to use The Leadership Architect leadership competency sort cards by Lominger – these describe several leadership competencies, illustrate what it looks like when each competency is in place; as well as what “over” and “under” expression of each competency looks like. I am not sure if these cards are still available but you can obtain them second hand on EBay.
- Make a plan. Use the above to build your personal action plan for growth and success that will help you to achieve your goals. Select your “team”, build your reading list, be professionally involved, work on your development, and give back! Make it formal plan, set dates, and journal on your success.
- Be excited. You are taking this important step to advance your future! In addition to having a plan and following it, there is research proving that enthusiasm results in a higher likelihood to practice creativity, teamwork and innovation. In that space, your weaknesses turn into strengths and your obstacles become the way (another great book: The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday).
Thank you, my friend, for your trust in me to share your journey with you, and for being my inspiration in writing this article!