Use the following development planner to define what success means to you and identify ways to achieve it. You will need separate pieces of paper to complete your planning activities.
On a separate sheet of paper, write down your career success goal(s) in a one-sentence statement. What would success look like to you?
Based on your results from your career success skills selfassessment and your success goals, list the success skills you need to develop. Do not start with the skills that you scored lowest on, but focus on those that are most critical to success in your particular position. Also note your strengths.
Create development plans for each career success skill as follows. Identify development activities, support needed, due dates, and tracking methods for each skill. Prioritize your development activities based on the order of development needs you established in Step 2 above.
Identify any gaps or deficiencies in job-specific skills and knowledge for your current position or for a position you want. Use the process in the “Building Competencies” section of this Infoline to help you identify critical skills.
List the skills or knowledge that would have the greatest beneficial effect on your career success if you were proficient in them today (limit to three to start). Then, on a fresh sheet of paper, write the following headings along the top of the page:
skill or knowledge gap
learning activities
support needed
due dates or deadlines
tracking methods.
For each skill or knowledge gap you listed, create a set of learning activities to fill the gap, identify the support you may need (for example, time from your manager to attend training), set due dates, and identify tracking methods.
To work with your boss effectively, think about his or her:
What are his or her preferences for reporting? Does he or she want a formal or an informal relationship? Does he or she want a lot of data before making decisions, or not?
What does your boss's boss want from him or her? What targets or numbers is he or she expected to hit? What pressures or deadlines arise on a regular or periodic basis?
Who does your boss have influence with? Who competes with your boss for resources? What kind of access to information and resources does he or she have?
After you have developed a picture of your boss based on these elements, identify a set of specific strategies to work with these characteristics. For example, if your boss is highly data driven, establish a habit of providing a weekly report of your activities and progress. Or if he or she strives for power, identify and suggest high-profile projects that can have a major effect on the organization. How can you support your boss?
To build relationships and visibility, ask yourself the following questions:
Other than your boss or manager, who should you try to build a relationship with?
In the operating culture of your unit or organization, what skills or talents of yours can be leveraged with other people or projects to enhance your visibility?
How can you read other people's work goals (priorities, targets, deadlines, and pressures)?
How can you determine other people's work needs (career goals, rewards, new skills, and advancement)?
Who can assist you in the role of coach or champion?
Can you acquire a mentor in the organization?
Are there opportunities for you to be a coach or champion to another junior colleague?
Based on your answers to these questions, identify the steps you will take to build relationships and visibility. Make sure your plan of action is specific and includes due dates or deadlines. Also, avoid the perception that you are playing politics by ensuring that you bring value to relationships and projects.
Based on your analysis of your organization's operating culture, answer the following questions to help you strategize behaviors that are likely to lead to success:
Who are the people that are important for you to learn from?
What rules should you follow strictly?
What rules can you bend a little?
What values are of key importance in the organization?
How do decisions get made (differentiate between major and minor)?
What are the key business priorities of the organization?
What are the key priorities of your boss or unit?
What are the most effective methods of communication with others in the organization?
What are the best ways to contribute in meetings?
How can you influence others in the organization?
When should you speak up about something, and when is it best to be silent?
General business knowledge is important for most employees to succeed. To gain a different perspective on how your work matters, go through the following checklist:
□ Describe your organization's industry or sector.
□ List your organization's top three competitors.
□ Describe any other environmental pressures (for example, heavy government regulation, environmental rules, rapid technological innovation).
□ Identify ways you can keep up with what's going on in your industry (reading trade magazines, and so forth).
□ Describe how your organization differentiates itself from its competitors.
□ Identify three ways that the way you work could support the organization's strategic positioning.
□ List the top numbers on the radar of your organization's executive team.
□ Identify how your work affects those numbers.
□ List the major concerns of your boss.
□ Identify how your work supports the goals of your boss for his or her group.