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The most thorough way to do this is to list each job role or activity you’ve carried out in the past and analyse each in turn. Think about the skills you used as well as any knowledge you gained. You will probably identify certain skills that you use consistently more than others.
case study The first job Sally had was in insurance. She had to deal with numbers and information all day long. She was bored and constantly passed over for promotion. Sally spent 10 years thinking she would never have much of a career. Then her company went through hard times and her job was made redundant. Sally took the opportunity to take a hard look at her skills and experience. She took a psychometric test, which confirmed that she needed a job focused on people. Now she works in a small company doing direct sales. “My biggest skill is in talking to people,” she says. “I feel much happier and I have been so successful that I was promoted after a year!”
Next, look at the broad areas below. How do you rate your own skills in each of the areas: above average – good – average – below average? Write down the results.
• People. For example, influencing people, persuading, supporting, helping, negotiating with, selling to, entertaining or teaching them.
• Ideas. Being innovative, experimental, visionary or creative; being able to think well in the abstract, about future possibilities; how to change things for the better or improvise, design.
• Things. For example, manual work, dealing with machinery or equipment, using tools, having practical skills.
• Data. For example, handling details of numbers or information, interpreting and presenting data, IT, organizing and administrating.
Compare your list of the skills you have used in the past to the list of what you are good at. You can then make a new list combining the two: what you are good at and what you have experience in. This gives you an inventory of the strengths you will be selling in your career.
Find out whether you are naturally better with people, ideas, things or data.
1.3 Discover your STARs (#ulink_d38c11e9-8f3d-5214-be08-69334ba7b24a)
What have you done in your career so far? What have you done that you are proud of? An achievement is something you have undertaken with a result attached. If you know what’s worked for you in the past, you can create more of the same type of achievement in the future and form a focused vision for your career.
The word achievement can sound quite scary to a lot of people. They tend to say, “I haven’t achieved anything” because an achievement sounds as if it should describe something huge like climbing Everest or becoming CEO of a company. But of course you have achieved lots of things, in your work life and in your personal life.
one minute wonder Gain insight about what you value through your achievements. Look at each achievement and ask: “What is it about this achievement that is important to me?” If there isn’t anything important, then decide not to do more of this type of work. If all your valuable achievements are in your personal life then maybe your work is lacking, so stop and pay heed.
An achievement is simply an action you have taken with a successful ending. There is a very simple way of remembering it: the STAR format. Try writing this down.
• S = Situation. Think of a situation you have been in at work. Describe it in detail on your piece of paper.
• T = Task. What was the task you were given to do in this situation or what was the responsibility you chose to take on?
• A = Action. An achievement isn’t something that is passive. What was the action you took to carry out this task? Did you organize? Lead? Administer? Calculate? Sell? Persuade?
• R = Result. What was the positive result or benefit? Did it save money? Help people? Support a team? Make things more efficient?
Use your career achievements to work out your skills (also known as competencies). Take an achievement and write down what skills you used to get the result e.g. communication, leadership, teamworking. Which skills do you use most?
To understand yourself better, start making a list of at least one achievement from every part of your career so far. It will help you to develop a list of your key skills. Remember, you can always transfer your skills from one job to another.
Use the STAR format to write down your achievements and work out what you do well.
1.4 Discover your three Ps (#ulink_4a93462a-c25c-5d35-a771-efbf7fc8684c)
It’s no point being fantastic at your job if you hate it. You may make a reasonable career but you will lack any joy in what you do. The ingredients that make a career both fun and successful are Passions, Purpose and Principles. Get to know what yours are and make sure you include them in your career plan.
Your Passions are the things you love doing, that interest you and bring joy into your day. The quickest way to discover your Passions are to make three lists:
• A list of the activities you need to have on a daily basis to make you feel satisfied.
• A list of the activities you ideally like to have on a daily basis but which aren’t essential.
• A list of the activities you definitely don’t want if you are to keep passionate about your career.
one minute wonder Here’s a quick career check. List all the different roles you have had in your career. What worked for you in each role? Check out where you fulfilled your passion, purpose and principles and where you lacked these.
Your Purpose is the sense of fulfilment you get from your career when you are on track. You know you are fulfilling your purpose when you feel you are ‘doing the right thing’, and what you are ‘really in business to do’. Think about what really gives meaning to your career to discover your purpose.
Your Principles are the third p. These are the ethical and moral standards that you need to abide by to feel ok about your career. For example if you are a vegetarian but forced to work with meat then you won’t be working according to your principles. When you honour your principles you feel good about your career and feel it fits into how you want to live your life as a whole.
“You know you are on the road to success if you would do your job, and not be paid for it” Oprah Winfrey
The three Ps are Passion, Purpose and Principles. Identify yours.
1.5 Carry out your own 360 (#ulink_8323e96d-f3e4-5706-a96a-4d200d25739c)
A 360-degree report is a tool used in business whereby an employee gets feedback on their performance from a variety of colleagues and clients, ranging from their boss to people below them. It is called a 360 because it gives a full range of views and a rounded sense of your performance 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.
Dare to dream (#ulink_6e94b172-e8b7-5aae-8d99-76c23a1ed82c)
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.
2.1 Be visionary (#ulink_c111cd8e-bc15-531d-bffa-9ce87be96930)
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.
2.2 Be SMART (#ulink_c2d518f9-1a3e-5fe6-964a-b7ad7bc9fa53)
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 them? It takes effort to take action over a long period of time. Are you willing to make sacrifices in other parts of your life?
Remember that goals have to be really desirable and compelling, otherwise you are more likely to give up early.
Make sure your goals are SMART, which means specific, measurable, achievble, realistic and timed.
2.3 Step forth (#ulink_1db71a06-2375-547b-8adc-a65a0c02d1ba)
A plan is great, but nothing can happen unless you take the first step, and then another. What are some things you can do today, this week, this month, this year to produce the results? Every journey, however long, starts with a single step.
Having set yourself some goals, the secret is to start taking action as quickly as possible on them. Identify your first steps.
1 Ask yourself, what is the gap between your current situation and what you want to achieve? Will it take training, discipline, study? What would you have to do first to accomplish each goal?
case study Ben decided on a 10-year goal for his career. The first actions he took were to write down details of what he wanted to achieve in terms of his qualifications, job title and degree. He also made a list of the skills, attitudes and beliefs he would need to have in order to achieve what he wanted. Then he made a list of how he had sabotaged himself in the past and what he could do to solve these patterns of behaviour. Because the job he wanted was in a different work area, he also asked his boss if he could do some work shadowing in another department in order to gain some new skills. This gave him valuable experience with direct relevance to his long-term goal.
“Strong, deeply rooted desire is the starting point of all achievement” Napoleon Hill, author of Think and Grow Rich
2 Now decide on the smallest action that can immediately commit you to your plan. Is it applying for a course? Ringing a friend for information? Writing your CV?
It doesn’t matter if you don’t have a complete plan and some of your later steps are a little hazy when you start out to achieve your new career vision. You can fill in the later steps as you go on in your career. The important thing is to commit to heading off in the right direction. If necessary, you can always revise some of the milestones along the way.
Think of a first step you could take immediately for each goal.
2.4 Commit 100% (#ulink_45dc33b9-f5e4-5cb6-b05d-5fc8aa647542)
Nobody can make things happen by being passive. It is no good setting wonderful goals without doing anything about them. Equally it is pointless just doing one thing. Spending a lot of time getting to know what you want will help you commit 100% to going after what you want to achieve.
To grow your career you will sometimes need to move a little or perhaps a lot outside your existing comfort zone. This is because you need to be experimental and try new things in order to create new experiences and new successes in your life.
• An attitude of total commitment. Prepare to be flexible, take risks and stick your neck above the parapet.
one minute wonder Bear in mind the saying: “There is no failure, only feedback.” If you stretch yourself you will make some mistakes but these don’t matter. When you don’t get the result you want, use what you learn to make better choices next time that will move you towards your goals.
“The victory of success is half won when one gains the habit of setting goals and achieving them” Og Mandino, author of The Greatest Salesman in the World
• The will to change. Committing to goals may mean you have to be the person who is willing to go out and learn a new skill. It may make you the person who is willing to shoulder the responsibility for a task or who gets up early and works an extra hour to achieve what you really want.
Think through what you really need to do to get your goal. If you aren’t willing to do what it takes (and I mean whatever it takes), you may achieve something but probably not what you originally intended. You won’t be managing your career as such and you’ll be back at the effect side of the cause > effect equation.
Of course you are allowed to change your goals. So if you get halfway to your promotion or to setting up a new company or retraining for a new job and think, “No this isn’t right for me anymore”, then it’s ok to have a different goal. But if you do want your goal, you need to commit to it, not 99% or even 99.95. It’s going to take 100% focus and energy to see you through.
But remember if you have the right goal, the rewards at the other end will be worth the wait.
Only 100% commitment will put you in control of achieving meaningful goals.
2.5 Find a role model (#ulink_066e7b4d-bdcc-5788-91a2-6ba9bf76c7f4)
No one is going to have exactly the same goals as you, but there may be people who have taken a similar path or who you can regard as role models. Even if you don’t know them personally, you can still take inspiration from what others have done.
What resources do you have now? What resources do you need for your projected outcome? Perhaps you have a certain amount of knowledge but you know you lack other skills.
For example, suppose you want to get a promotion. Have you ever had or done this before? What skills did you use? Networking? Negotiation? If you have done something before, you have a reference point for what works and what doesn’t. If you take similar actions you will probably get similar results.
But supposing you have never had the kind of career success that you want to achieve now. How can you identify and gain the skills you need? Well, you can either start from scratch or you can learn from what has and hasn’t worked for your role models.
