If you listen to the continuous pessimist reports about slow job growth you may think that the best way to develop your career will be to always say yes when you are offered and assignment. You’ll even find career advice to suggest this strategy. However, this is a career strategy that could slow your career advancement. In fact, the best career advice on this issue is to know when you need to say no and pass on the assignment.
There has never been a more critical time to take an active role in your planning career advancement than now. With hundreds of thousands of top salary jobs left unfilled due to lack of qualified candidates having both the hard and soft skills to fill them, yet millions of people out of work, it is clear that there was a lack of career planning on many fronts. Keep your career ahead of the curve and develop and implement an intentional career advancement plan. Here is a quick list of some of the things you should consider when developing your career advancement plan this month.
Your workplace has changed radically during the past five years and will continue to change during the next five years. It may seem that the best thing to do is sit back and wait until things settle to plan your next career move, since long-term planning seems futile. The truth is that this is the best time to examine options, plan career advancement, and take control of your own career success. Not doing so may lead your career to obsolescence.
If you don’t feel connected at work you are less likely to receive a promotion and more likely to leave the organization within one year. As a result, developing relationship skills – the ability to work with a variety of personalities, active listening, and openness to other’s ideas – can yield great results on the job. The same elements you use to develop relationships off the clock are the same that relationship management, networking, and social interaction skills you use to develop your career relationships.
Candid feedback and discussions have given way to political correctness by most to avoid offending and alienating others. Most remain quiet to be seen as a team player or to avoid criticizing the idea of someone held in high regard or someone who has presented an idea with great confidence. People don’t speak their minds because it’s easier not to.
In the workplace, soft skills are essential for career advancement. It is easy to determine how to gain the hard skills for career success, hard skills being education, experience and training. Soft skills, however, are more often personal attributes, traits and characteristics that are less likely to be formally taught, though they can be learned. These are essential to accelerate your career success.
This is the season for seminars and conferences. These are eight tips for starting and continuing a conversation at these events. Plus a bonus.
During rapid change we seek comfort by falling back on what is familiar to try to make sense of events, reverting to fixes from the past to try to regain control. But a closed mind narrows the view of what is really going on. We lose perspective.
It is safe to say that your company is looking for leaders who encourage innovation. Be the one to encourage a switch to a culture of innovation accepting each new idea as an exciting opportunity to take one step closer to the next big idea. Play your part to ensure that your company adopts values and a culture that encourages presentation and develop of new ideas. Become a catalyst for innovation and promote values to support innovation. Taken from an article in the issue Discover How to Avoid Career Stagnation, here are 4 values that encourage innovative thinking.
Given the positive impact that collaboration can have on an organization’s ability to get things done and to launch innovative products and services, there can be no argument against building effective collaborative networks and teams. Taken from a article in a recent issue of Positively Successful magazine, here are 7 things you can do to foster collaborative relationships in which all parties are willing participants ensuring successful outcomes.
