Posts tagged career growth

Career Development Tactics

Meandering Genius 1 Comment

Career Development

Sometimes it’s good to confirm that you’re doing the right things.  I just attended a seminar from Walden University during my Residency where they talked about career development.  here is a short list of some of the key tactics that you should be doing:

  • Get published
  • Present at a conference
  • Assume a leadership role at work
  • Improve business processes
  • Volunteer for your professional association
  • Serve on a non-profit board
  • Develop a training manual

Getting published is pretty easy today with programs like CreateSpace and Smashwords.  You don’t even have to write a lot to publish something–just put together a short book on something you are good at.  Additionally, getting published can mean writing a blog like this.  WordPress is only one types of blogging sites that you can use for free.  Of course, getting published with short articles can happen with Yahoo or even magazines, to include professional journals if you follow the appropriate formats.

Presenting at a conference can be a bit difficult, but many local associations and organizations are often looking for presenters to share knowledge and experiences.  Building your skills through involvement with Toastmasters and college speech classes can help you become confident to speak in front of large groups.  After all, fear of speaking is the most predominate fear in humanity.

In regards to leadership at work, even if you are not in a leadership position, you can find opportunities to lead.  Many organizations have side organizations and special events that need leaders and those that don’t should–opportunity.  Step up to run the next office event, like holiday party, and look for opportunities to lead or at least participate on organization-wide cross-functional projects.  Doing this builds your skills as a leader, but also introduces you to many people at work that you may never interface with normally.

Everyone in their organization should have the mantra to improve the job your currently doing.  I have always focused on leaving my job better than I found it.  If you haven’t figured out that your job–I don’t care what it is–is a process, then you need to reexamine what you do everyday.  Everyone–even leaders have processes that they follow.  It’s understanding that you work in a process, detailing the process flow, and measuring the process is what leads you to improving the process.  If you haven’t improved what you do everyday, I would suggest that you don’t look elsewhere to improve other processes.

I am always a strong supporter of volunteering with both professional and non-professional organizations.  Again, like volunteering at work, this gives you opportunities to lead.  I would imagine that every profession has some type of professional association.  If there simply isn’t anything in your field, then now is the perfect opportunity for you to step up and create something.  A friend of mine and myself, even though there were other organizations related to our work, started a local professional organization called Continuous Improvement Professionals, which is now run by and aligned to University of Texas, San Antonio.  There are always ways.

As I said with volunteering, many nonprofits have senior-level boards that run the organization.  in many cases, you are not required to be an active member of the organization.  This can be a very rewarding experience.  I have served on the AFSA boards for many years as well as on a Parish Council and with a Make-A-Wish Board of Directors.

If you really want to leave a lasting memory in your organization, consider writing non-existing policies and training guides or manuals.  These tools last the test of times.  I have talked to people years later that still use training guides that I have built for different organizations and teams.  Additionally to providing much needed knowledge to your fellow employees, you also obtain a deeper level of understanding f what you are writing about.

These recommendations are all very good and ones that I have used for many years.  I definitely recommend anyone following them.

Do you know where you want to be…strategically?

Meandering Genius

Where are you in your career? Are you happy or is there somewhere else you would like to be? Would you like to make more money, have more responsibility, or have a specific job title that you don’t have today?

If you answer yes to these things…have you given thought on how to get there or are you just waiting for it to happen?

Obviously doing good work in your current job will get you noticed, but it won’t definitely get you where you want to go. You need to think about how you will strategically achieve what you want.

In the Air Force, time in grade and time in service were two of the primary factors that drove your promotion timeline. Once you made it to E-4, you had to start testing for the next rank. Even with the test, time added points to your overall promotion score. If your score met or exceeded the cut off then you were promoted. My first two times testing for E-5, the cut off was so high that it didn’t matter if I aced the test, I wouldn’t have enough points to get promoted because of high cut off scores. Once you start testing for the senior enlisted ranks, they introduce a board score that takes in account many additional factors than just time, test, and evaluation scores.

The reason that I explain this system is to provide an example of how one might strategically achieve a senior rank in the Air Force even when first starting out. Obviously, you can’t jump from E-1 to E-9, but you know when you are eligible for each promotion and you are in control of studying. With proper planning, you can be prepared to move to the next level. Ten years before you start testing for senior NCO ranks, you start planning out your career with special duty assignments, volunteering, and trying to get key jobs and assignments. This way, your board score, which is based off the last ten years of service, reflects well. If you apply this same mindset from the start of your career, you open yourself up to the possibility of below the zone promotion to E-4 and potential STEP to E-5 or E-6.

If you know where you want to be, or how much you want to make, what are the steps that it will take you to get there? What experience will you have to gain, what education and training do you need, what line of promotions do you need to get there?

When you have someone sitting at the bottom of the pile and they want a corner office, they simply don’t apply for those positions and expect to get them. If you look at the qualifications of the position and say to yourself, “I meet these,” that doesn’t necessarily mean you are really eligible for that role.

What are the promotion steps between where you are today and where you want to be? You need to navigate these promotion steps one at a time, with the emphasis of building your experience, credibility, and capability along the route. If you are coming into an organization with a career under your belt, there is a possibility of hopping more aggressively, but you need to learn the business and be respected.

Things to think about when strategically planning your career path:

1. Write down each promotion step to your desired level.

2. At each level, list out position requirements like education, certifications, training, and experience.

3. As these positions rise the ladder, consider the level of management and leadership they have–the span of control they have. Think about how you can gather this type of experience through something like volunteering.

4. Build a network within your company that will help you as you grow. Look for mentors and contacts that can provide advice and guidance along the way.

5. Develop your business acumen based on where you are headed.

6. Plan your route and specifically look for opportunities elsewhere in your organization that will broaden your skills and challenge your capabilities.

7. Understand the time requirements or expectations for each step along your career ladder. Plan for that and work in things like appropriate education and training along the route.

8. Look for opportunities to excel in your current job, like special projects and assignments that show your willingness to be challeneged.

9. Every day, try to do the best job you can in the job you are in today.

10. Don’t get discouraged. Just because you have a plan doesn’t mean that it’s going to happen the way you planned it. Mike Tyson said, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” Life will punch you in the face…learn to roll with the punches.