I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it. Good idea Pablo Picasso. I spent 38 + years in my career in management and leadership of employees very interested in a successful career.
This included coaching, mentoring, and assisting in employee development plans. My ultimate goal was to build future leaders who could take over my job. And replacing me did happen on many occasions over those years.
Check out our thoughts on team leverage.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery, a famous French writer, once said, “A goal without a plan is just a wish.”
Achieving career success requires more than luck, more than hard work — it requires a plan. And the great part is that your plan doesn’t have to be difficult to create or complex.
Here is my (simple) advice for creating your very own career development plan:
When it comes to improving career success, here are my 18 ways to build the best opportunities for success in a corporate career.
‘Stand for’ principles
Stand for something that has significant meaning for you and use it as your growth mantra. Grow but don’t waiver in it.
Successful career … belief relevance
Make sure what you stand for is relevant to what’s going on right now and will be relevant in the future as well. Keep it in your headlights consistently.
Continuous learning
Know what your skills are and what they are not. Keep adding to it all the time – with both your own development and surrounding yourself with others who complement your talents.
Remember to focus on your strengths and set your weaknesses aside.
Related post: 10 Extraordinary Ways for Learning to Learn
Successful career planning … know lessons learned
Become recognized as a corporate historian, remembering what’s been done, what’s worked and hasn’t and why, where ALL the bodies are buried, and who was responsible for putting the bodies where they were buried.
Avoid relearning old mistakes.
Be low maintenance
Make sure you are low maintenance and represent minimal overhead. Know what tasks to take on and which ones to avoid.
This will create more value to be freed up and let you do more valuable things.
Successful career … have a vision
Invest time to imagine what the future is going to look like and how you’ll need to adapt to fit into it. Remember though, vision without action is a daydream.
No matter how big your plans and dreams, they’ll never become reality until you act on them.
Maintain a positive attitude
Learn what attitude is, what aspects of your life are controlled or directed by your attitude, and how to determine your attitude at any given moment.
Know what specific strategies make a positive attitude a permanent habit in your life.
Use initiative
Always be on the lookout for actions that have been overlooked and show initiative to get them done.
Strong relationships
Build beneficial relationships with many people. Networking and making friends is the name of the game.
Focus on results
Deliver objectively unmistakable value that transcends opinion.
This should be your number one priority.
Know when to change
Always know where a door is and what situations will make you want or need to use it.
Develop lots of self-confidence
Understand the nature of human potential through a simple process of identifying your personal talents and abilities.
Remember to develop strengths and personal interests to create fulfillment and economic opportunities for your future.
Build solid habits
Understand the process of how habits are created.
Learn to identify and remove self-defeating habits and create habits that will make all aspects of your life easier and more successful.
Try one new thing at least weekly
Your life will be in constant change mode, and that is a good thing if you lead change in direction of your success goals.
To do that most successfully, you should try lots of new things continually.
For things you like, get very good at them from lots of practice. But keep trying new activities.
Practice new skills
One of my most favorite quotations about aim and goals is one from Michelangelo:
The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.
Michelangelo knew a thing or two about high aim and goals didn’t he?
Need we say anything more?
Successful career … set goals
Recognize the difference between a wish and a goal.
Make a commitment, plan and take action, and recognize completion.
Put creative imagination to work
Extend your physical ability to accelerate creative problem solving and goal achievement in all areas of your life.
Be persistent
Develop the focus and determination required to succeed.
Create an attitude of gratitude as the access to fulfilling your dreams.
Those are eighteen career success principles I tried to follow in my career development and use with my employees.
Not all apply in every situation, but if followed, they will not lead you astray.
Key takeaways
As you progress in your continuous learning and development, keep in mind growth is a long-term, not a short-term endeavor.
In reality, it should never end. It should be pursued consistently throughout your career, day by day.
Don’t settle for less than you know you can achieve.
And remember; keep your happiness and a balance of work and life at the top of your list. Everything will pivot around them.
