Career Success Coaching

Secret #1: Manage Your Career like a Business

One of the best ways to manage your career is to think like an entrepreneur and manage yourself as though running your own small business. Spend sometime developing a business plan of how you are going to make YOU assuccessful as you can be!

Like any entrepreneur, you need to know the answers to the following questions:

1. How do my skills and experiences stack up against the competition?
2. What is the best way to present my strengths and aspirations?
3. What is my investment plan for keeping my current skills sharp and developing new skills that keep me at the top of my game?
4. What tools do I need to have ready at all times in order to market myself effectively?
5. What is my long range plan?
6. Where do I want to be in five years?
7. What will I need to do to get there?

Secret #2: Increase your value to your current employer

One of the best career strategies is finding effective ways to increase your value to your current employer.

One way to increase your value is to be pro-active and take on new tasks and challenges that can positively impact YOUR team, department, or organization in measurable ways. Do you see areas of waste, either in employee productivity or cost, which can be eliminated by applying some creative problem-solving? Go for it and make sure the positive results are visible to management! Is there a task burdening your manager? If so, offer to take it off her plate and run with it to a successful conclusion. Is there a way you can increase organizational morale by planning an outing, a party, a fantasy football league, or a lottery for something fun?

To the career entrepreneur, a happy boss or employer equates to the happy customer. When your time comes to move on in your career, you will want your current employer singing your praises to prospective hiring managers.

Remember – when it comes to your career, you own the company!

[This article is the second in a series. In it we discuss secrets three and four. (To review secrets one and two, please scroll down.) Stay tuned for more secrets which will be appearing in conjunction with future issues of My Career, YOUR Career Success Coaching newsletter!]

Secret #3: Maximize Your Performance Review

Although the thought of a performance review can keep you awake all night, good preparation can pave the way for a positive result, maybe even a promotion and a raise.

In addition to being a time to evaluate and reinforce good performance and improve unsatisfactory performance, a performance review is also a time to:

• Advocate for yourself
• Demonstrate a positive work attitude
• Enhance communication with your boss
• Establish clear expectations for the future
• Foster a spirit of cooperation and teamwork enhancing your chances of future success

Becoming familiar with the review process in your organization and approaching the review as a time for learning and growth will positively affect your attitude and quell those butterflies in your stomach.

Prepare, prepare, prepare

1. Do a self review of your accomplishments against the objectives that have been set. The Performance Self Test [http://swz.salary.com/selftests/layoutscripts/slfl-display.asp.] is a free online software tool that can help you evaluate yourself in advance of your review.
2. Review your daily journal of work activities for a list of accomplishments. If you don’t keep a journal, now is the time to start. Just five minutes a day to write up your activities, accomplishments and concerns each day will pay huge dividends at performance review time.
3. Underscore how your accomplishments have benefited the company, for example in increased sales, fostered retention, improved quality, etc.
4. Focus on what’s most important to your manager and the organization’s mission. When your contribution is shown to be aligned with the overall business strategy of the organization it is likely to be more highly valued.
5. Get feedback from a cross-section of the organization around your performance as an ongoing process to avoid surprises. Understanding how well you’re doing and how your contribution is valued by people who are familiar with your work will help you know what to expect at review time.
6. Discuss the skills you’d like to develop and create your goals for the coming year with your manager. This conversation can lead to a discussion of your short- and long-term growth path in the organization.
7. Do you deserve a promotion and/or a raise? If so, be well prepared to explain why you believe this is the case. If not, gain clarity on what you need do to move forward.

Respond to an unfair evaluation. If you feel you’ve received an unfair review you may wish to respond to it. However wait a day and take a second more objective look before responding.

• Was the criticism you received really off target or were you simply offended by hearing it?
• If it was truly unfair try to discuss the review with the person who wrote it.
• Acknowledge the points that were accurate and use clear examples of the criticisms that were incorrect and present information that supports your claims. (A paper trail or anything in writing can be very helpful. If you don’t have anything in writing remember this for the future.)
• At the end of the meeting reach consensus with your manager on next steps to take to improve your performance.

If you prepare well and if you approach you review with a positive attitude and clear goals that you want to achieve, you will increase your chances of achieving the outcomes you desire. No matter what happens, always remain the gracious, confident professional that you are when you are at your best, throughout the meeting.

Secret #4: Build your career around something you love.

Martin Seligman in his book, Authentic Happiness, tells us that in order to be happy in life we must be engaged in what we are doing, find meaning in it, and truly enjoy it.

After a decade of coaching executives and professionals who were unhappy and unfulfilled in their work, I have learned that only if these three elements are in place in our professional life will we feel fulfilled and motivated to be and do our best. Making more money, receiving better benefits, and gaining prestige are important, but only satisfy us temporarily.

What motivates most of us in the long run? Challenging, interesting work; the opportunity to be creative; a sense of connection to those we work with; a chance to make a contribution; the opportunity to learn and grow; and a sense of achievement and recognition for our achievements.

To help discover what motivates you, turns you on, and is the catalyst for being and doing your best, I suggest that you complete the following:

1. Think of five separate times in your life when you felt highly motivated to do something. It can be at any age in your life, in any place, and either at work or in your personal life.
2. Jot down a few sentences about each of these experiences describing the salient factors.
3. Now go back and explore what each of these times had in common by answering the following questions:
   • What were you doing?
   • Were you alone or with others?
   • Were you working with people, ideas, data or things?
   • Were you growing, contributing, and being creative?
   • What was the result of your efforts?
     • Did you receive external recognition and/or did you feel internal satisfaction?
     • What was the environment like, inside and outside – was it quiet, hectic, supportive, or competitive?
     • And finally, besides being motivated, how did you feel? -Were you excited, happy, challenged, proud, accomplished, relieved, or stimulated?
4. Now go back and identify the recurring themes in each of the situations you identified earlier and make a list of them. Think deeply and find the nuances. These themes and subtleties are some of the elements things that will need in your work to ensure you feel motivated, happy and fulfilled. If you don’t have a significant number of these elements in your work you will not feel satisfied for very long; if you do you have a good chance of expressing yourself fully and thriving.

Secret #5: Define what success means to you

What does “success” mean to you? Do you know what you really want out of your career – and out of life? Take your time to think about it. Don’t give a standard, “knee-jerk” answer to this question because your answer is critical to your happiness and to your long-term, well, success – in both your personal and business life.

Success means different things to different people. Some people equate success with having a lot of money. Others consider having the time to spend with their families as being successful, even though they may not have a lot of material things. For many people, their definition of success changes as they move through the various stages of their lives. What they considered success in their 20s is vastly different from their view of success as they approach their 50^th birthday.

What is your definition of success? Before you think about it in terms of your career, it’s important to define it from the three mile high perspective – what does success mean to you in life? Without a clear vision of success, how can you work towards achieving it?

Search and be true to yourself. Do you really know who you are? Being successful in your career takes some genuine soul searching and self-assessment. Look at yourself in the mirror and ask – what am I good at? What do I love to do? What motivates me? What keeps me awake late at night? Know yourself and you are on the path to success. This is THE #1 KEY to the 10 secrets to career success.

Laura Nash and Howard Stevenson, in their article called, “Success That Lasts,” broke enduring success into 4 components:

1. Happiness: Feelings of pleasure or contentment about your life
2. Achievement: Personal accomplishments that compare favorably against the results achieved by others with similar goals
3. Significance: The sense that you have positively impacted people you care about
4. Legacy: A way to establish your values or accomplishments so as to help others find future success

To the extent that your career helps you manifest happiness, achievement, significance, and legacy in your life, the more successful you are likely to feel and be.

Not sure how connected you are to your vision of success? Here is a worksheet to help you gain clarity. Complete the questions and tally your score. If you need help defining what success means to you, contact me. I can help you achieve greater clarity on the meaning of success for you and help you create a plan for achieving your definition of success in your life and at work.

Secret #6: Build Your Network and Work It – Carefully

It’s called by many names – the “Pareto Principle”, the “Principle of Imbalance”, and the “80/20 Rule”. But they all mean the same thing. This mathematical relationship indicates that 80 percent of all output comes from only 20 percent of all inputs. And this relationship holds true not only in the business world, but also in virtually every aspect of life.

So what does this have to do with career success?

Only some things are worth investing your time.

It means that certain activities, people, and thought processes are excellent investments. When applied to your network – those professionals connected to you by technology, industry, organization, personal interest and past experience – it means that only about 20% of those with whom you are connected in some way, will yield outcomes that contribute to most of your success. Only 20% of those relationships are really worth your time to cultivate.

No matter what profession you are in, there will be times when knowing the right people at the right time will provide you with significant advantages, including faster access to information, people and resources. Build connections with leaders from both inside and outside of your organization; these relationships need to be carefully cultivated and managed, overtime.

Build your network – purposefully.

As an executive on the rise, attend as many company events as you can. You will be exposed to more individuals across the organization and broaden your network. To develop your external network, attend industry conferences and trade shows and join a professional organization so that you can interact with others in your industry. In addition to building your network, you will be gaining a broader perspective of your profession and industry from those outside of your company, and gain a forum for exchanging ideas and gathering competitive information.

Identify the top 20%.

Identify and align yourself with those who are recognized as leaders, those who routinely deliver above and beyond the call of duty. These folks are usually plugged into senior management and have access to information before it becomes part of the public domain.

Also, become friends with informal and often less publicly recognized leaders. These leaders have a pulse on the organizational culture and can update you on the most recent happenings in the office. They can also assist you in understanding the cultural norms of the department.

Then focus on that top 20%.

Wise professionals identify these high dividend people and focus on them intently. They spend as much time as possible with those who are particularly inspiring. You can do the same thing! All people are not created equal. Find those who will provide a rich payback to your professional success.

And remember! Reciprocity is the rule when networking at this level. Be prepared to lend a helping hand at least as often as you ask for one. Those who take without giving don’t make it on anyone’s top 20% list.

Secret #7: Keep a positive attitude
Henry Ford said, “Whether you think you can, or whether you think you can’t, you are right.” If you want to achieve career success, you must be positive and believe in your ability to achieve success.

A positive attitude affects more than career success; it impacts our entire lives. Research shows that attitudes drive our behavior, our physical health and feelings of well-being, and our happiness. And if that doesn’t motivate you, perhaps the results of a recent research study will. After studying 1500 people, researchers discovered that those who maintained a positive attitude were significantly less likely to show signs of aging and to become frail, and were more likely to be stronger and healthier than those with a negative attitude.

Secret #8: It takes massive action to create positive outcomes
“Where focus goes energy flows” is a quote often used by Tony Robbins, a recognized authority on the psychology of leadership. His quote highlights the need to be totally committed to a particular outcome in order to make it happen.

Conversely, if we are focused on failure, then our energy flows to making failure happen. Feel stuck? Sometimes just taking any action will get us unstuck and make things start to happen. Robbins believes that you can never take a wrong action; even if we do not get the result we wanted, action is never wrong as long as you learn something from it.

Review Secrets one through six…