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How To Successfully Navigate The Course Of Your CareerCopyright © 2007-2009 Terri KellyDo you know where your career is headed? Are you on track, implementing your plan, or waiting for someone else to tell you which direction your career should take next or just letting opportunities and offers come your way hoping they provide what you truly desire in your career? It is almost impossible to reach your goals without a destination. Just like you would use a map on vacation to find your way to a new location, having a map for your career is just as important. Without an address and directions, you'll end up lost. Navigating the course of your career should be an on-going active process, not an response when things are going poorly. Many people plan for their careers only when things get bad. Maybe a layoff is coming. Maybe their department is reorganizing and they are unsure of their future. Maybe they are unhappy or bored at their job and are looking for something more. Don't wait until you have to do something about your career before you start working on it. Put a plan in place that you can follow and implement on a regular basis. This way you are directing your destiny and will have the career of your choice. The best way to navigate the course of your career is to utilize a mechanism I call a "Career Strategy Tool." This tool can help you create a roadmap and a guiding system to insure your success. How Do You Create A "Career Strategy Tool?" Begin With These Four Steps: 1. Define Your Vision, Mission, Core Values, And Brand This is the forward thinking piece of your Career Strategy Tool. Ask yourself what's important to you. What are my strengths, knowledge, abilities, and personal characteristics? Do you want to work in a large global company, or a smaller, family run business? Do you want to give presentations in front of clients or work mostly at your desk? Do you want to lead big projects or only work on specific tasks? Where do you want to end up? In a corner office on the top floor or in a bustling room filled with colleagues? What title do you want? How much money do you want to make? What duties do you enjoy and which ones would you prefer to delegate? What do you do better and faster than anyone else? What makes you unique? There is no right or wrong answers to these questions, only what feels true to you. It's important to stay loyal to yourself and what will be satisfying to you in a career. You don't want to just go to work everyday because you have to. You want your work to be meaningful. Once you know your answers, you can create your destination. 2. Create A Position Statement About What Will Take Place In Your Career This is the belief piece of your Career Strategy Tool. What do you believe about yourself and your career? Do you believe that you will be able to achieve your goals, or you have no say in the matter? What you believe is powerful. If you believe in good things, good will come your way. If you believe you are powerless over the direction of your career, then you will be. Write down why you will be successful. Look at this statement every day until it becomes certain in your mind. What you believe, you can achieve. 3. Create Your Action Plan This is the planning piece of your Career Strategy Tool. Included are your goals, steps to achieve your goals, a timeframe for getting there, and specific milestones to ensure you are moving in the right direction. For example, let's say you want a new job making more money. That's your goal. A step to reaching your goal could be to call five people to tell them that you are looking for a new job. Another step could be to contact three recruiters. Your timeframe is the amount of time you believe it will take for you to reach your goal. Such as, you want a new job in the next three months. Your milestones are the smaller pieces of the larger pie. One milestone could be that you updated your resume and cover letter. Another is you had three interviews. The more specific you are with the actions you will take, the better your chances of success. Once you have your actions, open your calendar, and put them in, one-by-one. Your calendar is the structure you will rely on to make your plan happen. 4. Develop A Review Process This is the evaluation piece of your Career Strategy Tool. Decide how often you will check in with yourself to determine if you are still on track. Will it be every six months? Three months? Monthly? Select a number and put it into your calendar. Achieving goals are not momentary things you let go, drop, or forget once you reach the finish line. Your career is a work in progress and so is your Career Strategy Tool. Use your tool to aid you in obtaining your goals, while leaving room to expand once you reach these goals and are ready to create new ones. Over the course of your career, as you gain experience and discover more about yourself, your tool will change and grow as well. "The Career Strategy Tool" provides you the mechanism for developing a career strategy and the importance for documenting your strategy to create a guiding system for yourself. Your strategy needs to stay fresh and needs to be iterative, not static. As you gain experiences and discover what you do and do not enjoy you should update your map/guiding system/strategy accordingly. About The Author:
*** Digital Reprint Rights *** *** Author Notification *** We ask that you notify the author of publication of his or her work. Terri Kelly can be reached at: terrikelly@careerinsightsinc.com *** Print Publication Reprint Rights *** If you desire to publish this article in a PRINT publication, you must contact the author directly for Print Permission at: terrikelly@careerinsightsinc.com
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