Do you have a career growth strategy that maximises your potential? (It’s now time to intentionally create and not react to your future)
Job shopping is getting more strategic, intense and difficult. There’s now a vast pool of unemployed job seekers, including professionals, who are competing on price, not on value.
When job seekers compete on price (like a commodity), older or more experienced workers will naturally feel ‘discriminated’. Rightly so. Employers will inevitably hire the cheapest or fastest person. A younger person can do the same job to keep the payroll cost low.
Employees naturally want to be paid more for their accumulated years of work experience. But if those working years cannot be effectively translated into tangible value and accomplishments for future employers, then they will not be employable at their asking price in the future. They have, unfortunately, reached their peak of the performance bell curve. Eventually, they will ‘die’ off. That is, unless, they can reinvent, upskill or upgrade themselves. They have to keep growing and creating more value!
The ability to create value for employers is vital for the future of work.
We need a strategy or plan for everything
People do not plan to fail. They fail to plan for the future and implement their strategies and plans.
Here’s the thing.
If you were planning to build your own house, would you forgo drafting up a detailed house plan? Would you randomly build your house with different building materials and any colour scheme that comes to mind? Are you hoping or praying that it will become a beautiful home?
Likewise, as a professional or expert on your field or industry, would you forgo developing a career growth strategy as a roadmap where you can systematically but intentionally build a meaningful career, job-by-job? Or is your professional career a random collection of jobs and experiences that does not tell a good career story or narrative?
Hence, the need to develop and implement your career growth strategy.
Generally, there are two key career growth strategies people will think about:
- Staying at one organisation for many years and getting promoted from within regularly.
- Constantly moving from organisation to another organisation, gaining a more senior position or title with each organisation you join.
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Mistakes professionals make
The #1 mistake professionals make is spending too much time performing their current work.
They do not make time to:
- Think about their future.
- Plan out their career (or even their calling).
- Implement their career strategy.
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Carve out 5% to 10% of your time daily to intentionally implement your career growth strategy.
The key is to network your way into your next job
As many executive or professional jobs are not publically advertised, professionals must also be networking themselves into their next job.
Networking takes time. It takes effort. This is the only way to get ahead of other job seekers. You have to work on it daily!
Networking is very important in strategy because it’s all about relationships. The vast majority of career opportunities come through networks.
The landmark research on how people find good jobs was conducted in the early 1970s by Mark Granovetter. It remains very relevant today despite the big changes in roles and recruitment.
Studying professional, technical and managerial job-seekers, Granovetter found that most jobs (and especially good ones) were attained not through direct application or other formal means.
That is, good jobs were NOT found by submitting a resume in response to a job listing.
Instead, good jobs were only found through personal contacts. These are jobs that someone inside the organisation told the applicant about or recommended him or her to.
Is it a job, career or calling for you?
There are three work orientations:
- Job orientation — Individuals tend to view their work as a means to an end. They work to receive their salary or pay. The money they receive supports their hobbies, family, or life outside work. They are not as likely to have a strong connection to the workplace or their job. This is where their job only serves as a basic necessity in life.
- Career orientation — An individual with a career orientation is more likely to focus on elements related to success or prestige. This individual will be interested in their ability to move upward in his or her career. They want to receive pay raises and new promotions and titles. It may even include a social standing which comes from their career.
- Calling orientation — Individuals with a calling orientation often describe their work as integral to their lives, purpose and identity. They view their career as a form of self-expression and personal fulfilment.
So, which orientation are you seeking to adopt in your career growth strategy?
Six dimensions of career growth
There are six career growth dimensions that you need to cover in your career growth strategy to maximise your potential — career goal progress, professional development, promotion speed, remuneration growth, promotion equity and job rotation.
Intentionally cover one or more of these career growth dimensions over a one-year, two-year or even a five-year timeframe.
Ask the following questions when developing your career growth strategy.
(1) Career goal progress — My current job:
- Moves me closer to my career goals? (A career goal is a well-defined statement explaining the profession that an individual intends to pursue throughout his or her career. Look for careers that match your interests, skill set, and salary requirements. Explore the job market and look at the lists of growing or in-demand careers.)
- Supports my short-term and long-term career goals including my professional growth?
- Sets the right foundation and direction for the realisation of my career goals and professional growth?
- Provides me with good opportunities to achieve my career goals?
(2) Professional development — My current job encourages me to:
- Work in different departments in the organisation to gain new job-related skills and knowledge?
- Accumulate richer work experiences and in-depth understanding of the organisation?
- Improve my professional capabilities and competencies — internally and externally?
- Network with different colleagues within the organisation? (This will be good for your future networking.)
(3) Promotion speed — My current job increases:
- The probability of being promoted within the organisation?
- My promotion speed especially when compared with my colleagues?
(4) Remuneration growth — My current job:
- Have grown my salary quickly when compared with my colleagues?
- Will allow my salary to grow quickly in the future?
(5) Promotion equity — My current employer::
- Fairly rewards me for the responsibilities and accountabilities I have?
- Has fair and objective policies and processes for internal promotion?
- Makes fair and objective promotion decisions?
(6) Job rotation — My current employer:
- Encourages me to rotate my jobs or work within the organisation?
- Has broadened my knowledge and skills in other fields and areas through many job rotation opportunities?
Professionals need to be growing continuously
Professionals and experts need to grow continuously to command a higher salary. They will go through three phases of growth:
- Phase 1 — The exploration and mastering phase occurs in the first ten years of service. This is where budding experts and professionals start their professional career as a generalist. I always tell my clients to absorb any experience like a sponge and intentionally create opportunities for doing so. Unless you try things out, you would not know what you like and don’t like.
- Phase 2 — The specialisation phase occurs during the period of 10 to 15 years of service, depending on the industry. This is when professionals focus on particular areas of specialisation or expertise. When this occurs, they are promoted and rewarded. The speed at which these occur will depend on the organisation they are working in. It also includes the opportunities they intentionally create for themselves, in and outside the organisation.
- Phase 3 — The expert phase occurs when professionals become competent experts in their field or industry. The end product would be a versatile expert who is also knowledgeable about and familiar with the subject matter. As experts in their field, they intentionally create opportunities to teach or train others — a good expert is also a great teacher!
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Professionals must constantly preserve and increase their value to others by intentionally accumulating their skills, experience and competence over time. Otherwise, they will become worthless and unemployable.
Using a wine analogy, we have to preserve wine that turns into a priceless vintage, rather than into vinegar. There are techniques for preserving wine.
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The benefits of developing and implementing a career growth strategy
Benefit 1
The strategy sets a general direction of where you want to go in life.
The strategy is your roadmap. It articulates your career goals and intentionally builds a successful but fulfilling life.
The roadmap helps you to become financially secure and to do the things that you want to do in life. It is your foundation upon which you can fulfil your vision and purpose in life.
You can become more secure in yourself. Your identity is made known through the strategy.
If you do not know your identity and purpose in life, then it is time to find that out. There are tools and coaches to help you. Reach to me and let us have a chat.
Time is a precious commodity that you cannot afford to lose or squander. It is something that can never be replaced. Once spent, it can never be recovered. So, don’t squander your time. Focus its use on productive or meaningful things.
Benefit 2
The strategy helps you tell a compelling human story about yourself and what you have done.
We spend roughly one-third of our lives working, another one-third sleeping and the rest doing other things.
Hence, it is common for people to ask, “What do you do?”
This is a modern-day question. It’s our preoccupation with work and naturally so. Humans have a habit of tying our identity to our careers rather than to a broader — and often more interesting — sense of self. But it is a starting point.
The reality is that our work is how we socially set ourselves.
We, therefore, need to intentionally curate our life story. Our career growth strategy gives us that practical outline for us to intentionally write out our life story!
Benefit 3
The strategy helps you to intentionally acquire the right skills, experiences and qualifications for professional growth
Just like a builder building a house brick-by-brick according to a house plan, you must intentionally acquire the right skills, experiences and qualifications to build your career, job-by-job.
Let us say that you like helping people solve their problems and achieve their business goals. The profession that does this includes an accountant. To be an accountant, you need to intentionally:
- Get a business or accounting degree.
- Get qualified and be part of a professional body.
- Acquire key skills like analytical skills, communication skills, math skills, and organisational skills.
- Work with a diverse set of clients to gain experiences across all aspects of the business world.
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These are considered leading indicators of success, especially if you want to be an accountant.
Your career growth strategy leads you through the right path. This may include doing stepping stone jobs that will lead you towards your ultimate career goal.
Benefit 4
The strategy helps you to identify and close potential gaps in your skills, experiences and qualifications
Knowing where you want to go, you can identify potential gaps in your skills, experiences and qualifications. Your strategy helps you with the all-important gap analysis.
For me, I wanted to have operational experience when I was working as a consultant. Having theoretical knowledge without hands-on operational knowledge would not add much value to my future work. I intentionally sought out an employer-mentor who taught me everything I needed to know about managing and running budget hotels. The experience was invaluable. I acquired experience in human resource management, engineering, strategic planning, revenue maximisation, customer service, etc. Being an expert in HR, I even taught budding HR practitioners in their craft!
You may need to attend courses or enrol in a university to enhance your knowledge in particular areas. This is where you need to invest in yourself financially.
Benefit 5
The strategy helps you answer interview behavioural questions and secure that future job
The richness and depth of skills and experiences can only be acquired when there is a career growth strategy that is executed well.
Your strategy can help you answer behavioural questions like, “Tell me about your greatest accomplishment on the job” or “Tell me about the difficult situation you encountered at work and how you overcome it”.
Until you have experienced something, it will be hard to convey with confidence, answers to behavioural-type questions that are commonly asked during job interviews.
Therefore, reverse engineer the answers to these behavioural questions. If you are struggling with answering these questions now, then it is time to intentionally seek out experiences and accomplishments that will enable you to answer these questions effectively in the future. This will put you in the driver’s seat when applying for future jobs!
What career goals do you want to achieve?
Life balance is one of the greatest outcomes people should aspire to achieve in life. At the same time, this can be very tough to reach.
There are seven life areas that we need to balance and spread our actions:
- Social and family relationships.
- Career and educational aspirations.
- Money and personal finances.
- Physical health, recreation and leisure.
- Life’s routine responsibilities.
- Giving back to society and contribution.
- Mental, emotional and spiritual health.
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Here are some questions that you need to consider when developing your career goals:
- What do I want to achieve in my career or business?
- How do I achieve what I want to achieve in my career or business?
- What are the measures of my success?
- What is going to stop me from achieving my measures of success?
- What must I do now to achieve my career goals?
- What studies must I undertake now?
- What experiences must be planned now to achieve my career goals?
- What sacrifices must I make to achieve my career goals?
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Sometimes it is easier to start with what you don’t like with your current job and general direction in life. Understanding what you don’t like will led you to identify the things that you would want to do.
Self-evaluation career questions
Evaluate from 1–10, your current situation and where you would like to be in one, two and five years from now.
- How important are career achievements for you?
- How satisfying are your career accomplishments to date?
- How fulfilled are you in your current work environment?
- How much do you look forward to going to work each day? (Or do your work remotely.)
- Does your career stimulate and develop you as a person?
- Do you have a healthy and rewarding work-life balance?
- Is your career moving you forward in advancement and reward?
- Is your career moving you forward in fulfilling your vision and purpose?
- How important are strong working relationships for you?
- How satisfied are you with your current working relationships?
- Is your working environment positive and supportive?
- Are you empowered to do your work?
- Do you find contentment and fulfilment in your current career?
- How urgently would you like a career change?
- If you died, are you happy with the legacy you will leave behind?