What are the proactive approaches to take charge of your career?
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What are the proactive approaches to take charge of your career? Aggressive Career moves to take charge of your career.Dedicated strategies to take charge of your career for better growth.
Career development is the driving force and lifeline for many people around the world. They will continuously be looking to move up in their current firm or advance their career in another company.
Why career growth is important
Career advancement is one of the most critical elements that drive employee satisfaction within a company. Employees no longer work for a firm their entire career. They often find themselves hitting the ceiling in their current organisation.
Employees of today jump around to make the growth happen. In fact, non-linear career tracks are becoming the new norm. Fresh out of college, you may have had a clear idea in your mind about your first job role and work for a few years before promotion and the dream job.
Actually, you need to take charge of your own career, outline growth possibilities, and forget about leaving things to chance. Then only you will get to see things come together with the way you want them to. So, adopt a proactive approach and growth plan.
Proactive approaches to take charge of your career
- Become the lifelong learner
Are you really good at your job? Then, your employer may want to keep you right where you are. As a workaholic, you bring a lot of value to the firm. If you get promoted or taken out of your current position, it will leave a gap in the team. So you can see how this develops.
Just as your employer gets into a comfort zone regarding his team, you must always be looking to new horizons. Be a lifelong learner rather than becoming complacent. It is the nature of the human being to become bored or disengaged due to repetitive work. Sometimes you may find that your mind goes on autopilot. That is not a good scenario for career growth. It happens to most of us.
Think about your new interests, job functions, or any skills you can acquire. Or you can think about that next leadership opportunity you are looking for, and think about the ways you can find and develop your inner leader. Self-reflection and having an in-depth knowledge of your true motivation and passion will guide you. Growth will also earn from building on your current strengths. It will quickly shuttle you into promising areas.
- Create your own growth path and increase your exposure
If you take a scientist who is curious about business, working at the bench all day simply will not expose him to these new areas of interest. Growth will come only by being exposed to the new work.
When you ask a director of business development how they got to where they are today, many will tell you how they fell into any small position by accident. However, they took proactive actions to create their own growth via incremental steps or transitions from one business area to the next. So, figure out what you are naturally good at so you can capture growth opportunities.
- Dedicate your valuable time to new areas and projects
In a world that is continually doing business, an estimated 90% of the day is consumed by the ‘daily grind’ tactical activities of your job. It can bog down the time you dedicate to the ‘tomorrow’ activities, such as strategic planning. So, it is wise to spend at least one day in a week focusing on these other activities. If you only focus on the ‘now,’ it will only stifle your chances to grow.
Identify at least one leadership activity, strategic skillset, or new area of growth per month that you will like to dive into. Work with your employer or team members, and see where you can contribute value. If you have someone to take you under their wing and teach you the ropes, it will be great. It creates growth on the side, without losing the focus on your daily job responsibilities.
- Re-evaluate growth and get feedback
You will surely discover your career path as you go through various stages of growth. Things may get more evident as you continue to advance and take on new cross-functional roles, or expand into new areas.
Revisit, reflect, and get feedback often. If you still feel at a standstill or your manager is not ‘enabling’ or advocating for you, it may be the time to look for growth. Find new opportunities in different areas, or in a new company culture that promotes growth.
You will figure out that once you have put yourself into the lifelong learning mode and seek out new skills and challenges, you will uncover new opportunities on the horizon that will truly take your career to the next level.
