Get in line. There are many looking for these secrets to fast-track careers, aren’t there? I spent 38 + years in my career in management and leadership of employees very interested in a successful corporate career. And while I stumbled onto the entrance to fast-track careers, I wasn’t specifically looking for it.
Don’t get me wrong. I wasn’t disappointed to find it. But I likewise would not have been unhappy with an average career pace.
Every business knows it needs to develop employees. What isn’t so clear is how to go about it. There is no shortage of pundits, blogs and conferences that preach the gospel of agility, talent, or whatever else is currently in vogue. It can all be overwhelming.
The reality is that there is no one path to grow employees. Organizations of all shapes and sizes can be great at this development. Some are lean and nimble, while others are large and bureaucratic. Some have visionary leaders, others don’t. No one model prevails.
However, there are common principles that we can apply. While there is no “right way” to grow employees, there are plenty of wrong ways. So perhaps the best way forward is to avoid the pitfalls that can undermine efforts in your organization and kill promising new ideas.
I spent over 40 years of coaching, mentoring, and assisting in employee career development. And I got the question about the fast track career development many, many times.
More than one employee wanted to set goals for senior management/ executive positions with timetables attached.
I always frowned on these plans. And my answer never changed for a successful career. I believed (and now more than ever) that employees should pursue jobs for maximum job satisfaction and not worry about the advancement rate.
Why you might ask? My answer was always that such rapid career advancement always depended on a high degree of chance. So why fret and stress about it.
That does not mean you should not focus on career development, however. This is especially true today more than ever. Why is that you may ask? As Clay Shirky describes the digital internet age, it is far from minor and not optional.
Right on the mark isn’t it? This description is particularly relevant to the need for continuous learning and personal development for long-term success.
The amount of new technical information is doubling every two years. EVERY TWO YEARS. The top 10 jobs that were in demand in 2013 didn’t exist in 2004. We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist, using technologies that don’t yet exist.
All this in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet. Scary, isn’t it? So development planning is more relevant than ever for career success.
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.
When it comes to improving career development, here are my 18 tips to build the best opportunities for rapid corporate career growth:
Secrets to fast track … use initiative
Always be on the lookout for actions that have been overlooked and show initiative to get them done.
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.
Secrets to fast track … focus on results
Deliver objectively unmistakable value that transcends opinion. This should be your number one priority.
Fast track medical careers … 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.
Strong relationships
Build beneficial relationships with many people. Networking and making friends is the name of the game.
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.
Secrets to fast track … 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 the 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 with lots of practice. But keep trying new activities.
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?
Develop self-confidence
Understand the nature of human potential through a simple process of identifying your personal talents and abilities. Believe in yourself, you are stronger than you realize.
Remember to develop strengths and personal interests to create fulfillment and economic opportunities for your future.
Secrets to fast track … know the 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.
Secrets to fast track … build good 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
Set and manage goals
Recognize the difference between a wish and a goal. Make a commitment, plan and take action, and recognize completion.
Be persistent
Develop the focus and determination required to succeed. Create an attitude of gratitude as access to fulfilling your dreams.
Be relevant
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.
This will create more value to be freed up and let you do more valuable things.
Secrets to fast track … know when to change
Always know where a door is and what situations will make you want or need to use it.
Put creative imagination to work
Extend your physical ability to accelerate creative problem solving and goal achievement in all areas of your life.
Secrets to fast track … dedicate yourself to learning new things
I am a big believer in adaptation and change. You should always seek to be flexible and keep several alternative paths in front of you.
Always be on the lookout for ways to reinvent ways for self-improvement. Our most favored quote on change and adaptation is from Charles Darwin:
It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.
Just remember to substitute success for survival and you will have a very valuable tip.
Increase your reading
Let your curiosity take control and take you where it may into new information. Read for many reasons, but most of all to be entertained and learn new things. In today’s world of infinite access to information and knowledge, the sky is definitely the limit, isn’t it?
Secrets to fast track … be persistent
Develop the focus and determination required to succeed. Create an attitude of gratitude as access to fulfilling your dreams.
Those are twenty 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.
The bottom line
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.
All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.
Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.
Do you have a lesson about making your learning better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?
Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find him on Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.
More reading from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:
