Are you wanting to advance your career but not really knowing how to go about it? Do you feel, perhaps, as if you are just settling for what you have got at the moment? Are you feeling more fearful than hopeful about the prospect of any career change and advancement?
First and foremost, ask yourself,
“Why do I want to advance my career?”
If you have allowed yourself to cruise in your career for a while, it may be time to move to a more positive plateau. Each of the tools listed below will push you to reach for even more from your career. You can use all of the tools, however, you may find that one of them strikes a stronger chord for you than the others. But they will all help you to review your career desires and thereby make some internal and external changes. Are you ready to make a start?
Beyond the Job Description: Navigating Work Satisfaction Like a Pro
5 Top Career Tools to Advance your Career
- Set your Intention
- Be Detached
- Go Beyond your Goals
- Focus on your Legacy
- Make choices of Courage
1. Set your Intention
Do you have a clear intention for your career? Having a rough idea or plan of where you are heading is not really good enough. It means that you may be tempted to put up with things that are not in your best interest or fall prey to bouts or even years of unhappiness or demotivation. It is advisable, therefore, to have a clear intention of what you want to achieve or where you want to be heading.
For example, Angela felt a bit put out when a colleague of hers was promoted at work. She never intended to be nasty or ignore her colleague but she was over-run by her own feelings of jealousy. She had also started to gossip about her colleague with other co-workers. Even though Angela was pleasant to the newly promoted colleague she seemed surprised when the colleague was cool and aloof towards her.
Intention whether hidden or not is picked up by other people. Therefore, make a point of getting very clear about your work intention as what you focus your energy on will in some form come true for you.
2. Be Detached
Set your intention and then it is advisable to get out of your own way. Sometimes people become so fixated on what they want that they can´t see any other way forward. In effect they become attached to a certain result which has to happen otherwise their whole world will fall apart.
Your way is not the only way forward. If you set your intention and then step aside it is much easier for you to see all of the different options and paths that lead towards your goal.
For example, William had been planning to ask his boss for months for a pay rise. He was feeling increasingly worked up about it and his anger was coming across in his explanations. As we talked through his feelings of deserving and what options he had if things didn´t quite gone to plan, William felt ready to set-up the meeting. As it turned out, the boss was pleased that William had brought the subject of salary up as he was creating a brand new role that he felt William would be perfect for. Not only would this new role involve a substantial pay rise but it involved William working on a different business aspect. The offer was more that William could ever have expected but at the time of the meeting he was in a totally different mind-set and open to new possibilities and outcomes.
3. Go Beyond your Goals
Goals are great but they are like L plates on the car. They keep you in a certain state but eventually you have to let them go when you pass your test and drive along the road without them.
Goals are very much the same thing. They help you to focus your mind and keep you motivated but it may be time for you to let go of them. You have got to learn to trust yourself and to believe that if you have set your intention and let go of how you think it should turn out, you are going to make real progress. Once you start to relax, you will realise that you had no need to worry at all.
Things may happen out of sequence or be more challenging that you perhaps first thought but before long they will get better. All you have to do is to hold the vision of where you are heading and keep your feelings in check along the way. Everything is unfolding in the way that it is supposed to and by increasing your sense of trust you are guaranteed to avoid anxiety and burnout too. You may even enjoy the results of being without goals more than you could ever have imagined.
For example, Simon was feeling the pressure of running his business. Everyone seemed to want or need something from him and there never seemed enough time in the day to do or achieve what he actually wanted to do. He, therefore, agreed to set his intention for his business and didn´t try as hard as he had been doing. He didn´t work as many hours, he didn´t chase after business and spend instead more time talking to his clients and he even stopped trying to sell to them. He merely engaged and educated them and before long Simon found that the business he had wanted all along was coming his way naturally.
4. Focus on your Legacy
Try and move out of the state of survival and do something to make the lives of other people better.
Everything you do at work has an impact on other people´s lives anyway so why not take part in this process consciously? Your first legacy is to be an example to the people around you that your life at work is going well. Then you may want to take things to the next level and be a ´light´ or an inspiration´ to other like-minded people
For example, Martin was a successful software programmer who felt a bit bored by what he was doing. He, therefore, decided to enlist help with building online digital assets to transform other people´s work lives. What started initially as a hobby soon turned into a massive passive income of selling tools, eBooks, digital systems and consultancy services via his website. By focusing on helping other people, it is easier for the ´Expanded You´ to surface.
5. Make Courageous Career Choices
Every choice you make at work is either based upon a fear response or a courageous response. Fear choices come from feelings of lack, jealously or pessimism or needing to feel important or powerful. Choices of courage are based on what is best for you, feelings of optimism and showing support or compassion towards other people. Even if you choose the courageous option, you may still feel a bit nervous or unsure of yourself but you are making this choice in order to give yourself and others the best chance of a successful outcome.
For example, Nick sought help when he was put in charge of a new department. He has tended to keep the things the same as the departing manager to avoid any difficulties during the changeover. However, Nick started to feel overwhelmed and out of control as his old boss´s management style was not his natural way of doing things. By working with Career Consultants Nick soon realised that he had to make some changes. He streamlined his responsibilities and focused on implementing new systems, training his staff in new sales techniques and introducing new communication systems. What had held Nick back was fear – the fear of not being good enough in his new role and living under the shadow of the departing autocratic manager.
In addition, Nick had to get used to listening to his own needs and intuition and actioning what he felt was in the best interests of all parties concerned.
If you need any advice or help about how you can start to make more positive choices so that you create what you want work-wise, do get in touch by filling in the form.
If you are not working in the right place, don´t be afraid to change. You can make a special impact on the work world and benefit as a result. It is all about you being ready to put yourself first and allowing the bigger YOU to naturally evolve.