The Harsh Reality of Professional Success
Success in your career isn’t a random event.
Without a deliberate strategy, your chances of achieving it are nearly zero.
However, success is within your reach if you understand and manipulate the laws governing career advancement. In fact, you could easily argue that career success is as deterministic as water flowing downstream; it’s a matter of actions and consequences…
Understanding the True Nature of a Career
A career is defined as “an occupation or profession” as well as “a person’s progress or general course of action through life or through a phase of life”.
In other words, a career is a process, or perhaps even a vehicle that helps you get from one condition of work to another.
And just as a car requires fuel and ignition to run, your career needs the right resources and strategic actions to progress. Success hinges on recognizing and utilizing these essentials effectively.
Here are the 4, crucial steps that help you gain control of and progress your career.
Step 1: Define Your Objective
Begin by explicitly defining your career goal.
Do you want a job with a $250,000+ salary? A C-level title? To lead a billion-dollar project? Complete autonomy as your own boss? To become the top authority in your field?
Clearly articulate your goal. Vague aspirations lead nowhere, you must be specific.
Actionable Tip: Write down your career goals in precise terms. For instance, “I want to be the Chief Financial Officer of a Fortune 500 company within five years.”
Step 2: Aim in the Right Direction
Once your goal is clear, ensure you’re headed in the right direction. Misaligned actions can derail your career.
This means, identifying positions, entanglements, and type of work that you want to dissociate from as much as it means identifying roles, responsibilities, and relationships you want to cultivate.
Actionable Tip: Conduct thorough research on your desired role. Identify the necessary qualifications, experiences, and skills. For example, if you aim for a C-level position, map out the typical career path, required educational background, and relevant industry experience.
Actionable Tip: Create a career map detailing each step required to reach your goal. Include short-term and long-term milestones.
Step 3: Take Strategic Actions
With your goal and direction set, focus on taking strategic actions. This involves understanding the specific steps that lead to your desired outcome.
Do you want a career as a successful leader? You need to detach from low value or failed projects, and associate yourself with growing projects.
Do you want a career as a technology expert? Stop working with old technologies and make sure you get the shiniest credentials, or get involved with projects demonstrating your experience with the newest technologies.
Ultimately, you want to make sure your day to day work is aligned with the direction you want to head in.
Actionable Tip: Identify the key skills and experiences valued in your target role. Enroll in relevant courses, seek mentorship, and gain hands-on experience.
Actionable Tip: Build a strong professional network. Attend industry conferences, join professional associations, and connect with influencers in your field.
Step 4: Find The Hidden Steps to Success
The steps to success are often counter-intuitive and hidden from the majority of professionals.
For instance, on the surface, it may look like someone’s degree got them the executive position, but perhaps it’s not the degree but the institution they got the degree from that made the real difference.
Or… Someone might claim that becoming the CEO was possible only after 10 years with the firm, whereas in reality, it may be a consequence of an amicable relationship with the board.
There’s always a deeper story behind the carefully “public relationed” and polished story… Learn that story. And learn to avoid common pitfalls by focusing on strategies that truly matter.
Actionable Tip: Seek out industry insiders and mentors who can provide guidance on the unspoken rules of your field. Their insights can reveal critical steps that aren’t widely known.
Decent Advice to Follow
This is the kind of mainstream advice you’ll find online for becoming successful at work. It’s concrete, tangible and reasonable advice that you should know about.
These items may not singlehandedly change your career trajectory, but they are part of the way the game is played and you should at least be competent with them.
- Understand Your Employer’s Expectations: Clearly communicate with your manager to understand performance metrics and expectations. Your performance reviews are colossally important, gain control over them.
- Actionable Tip: Don’t get blindsided by detrimental feedback once a year. Request a quarterly review to align on goals and receive feedback.
- Be a Team Player: Collaboration is key. Develop strong working relationships with your colleagues. “Quid pro quo” is fine.
- Actionable Tip: Volunteer for cross-departmental projects to build rapport and showcase your teamwork skills.
- Take on Extra Duties Strategically: Seek additional responsibilities that align with your career goals. Avoid additional responsibilities that detract from your career positioning.
- Actionable Tip: Identify projects that will help you develop skills pertinent to your desired role and volunteer for them.
- Be Professional: Treat colleagues with respect and professionalism. (This should go without saying, but if you only knew… )
- Actionable Tip: Practice active listening and empathetic communication to build strong interpersonal relationships.
- Be Punctual with Meeting & Deadlines: Reliability is critical. And when it comes to career development, the appearance of reliability is more important than reliability itself.
- Actionable Tip: Use project management tools and great task tracking habits to keep track of deadlines and manage your time efficiently.
- Pay Attention to Good Career Advice: Seek advice from successful professionals in your field as well as insiders who have demonstrated a track record of achievement. Stop listening to people who are not successful.
- Actionable Tip: Join a professional mentorship program or attend one of our events to receive tailored advice and support.
- Maintain a Positive Attitude: Resilience and a positive outlook can differentiate you from others. This doesn’t mean cope and suffer under a false smile. But it does mean get your emotions under control and express a positive attitude strategically – to cultivate the types of relationships that get you ahead.
- Actionable Tip: Develop a growth mindset by regularly reflecting on challenges and how you overcame them.
Bad Advice to Avoid
There’s also a lot of terrible advice floating around on the internet. You need to be aware of these and learn to avoid them.
- Coping Strategies That Offer No Real Advancement: Avoid actions that don’t contribute to your long-term goals, period.
- Example to Avoid: Constantly working late without strategic outcomes.
- Generic, Non-Strategic Advice: Ignore advice that doesn’t align with your specific career path.
- Example to Avoid: Following broad, unspecialized tips that don’t consider your unique career trajectory.
- Example to Avoid: Managerial careers follow different rules than rank-and-file careers. Executive careers follow different rules than managerial careers. What got you here, won’t get you there. You need to learn when to switch gears.
- Self-Sacrificing Approaches: Prioritize strategies that serve your long-term interests.
- Example to Avoid: Accepting additional work that hinders your career growth rather than facilitating it.
“Insider” Advice for Career Success
Understand Power Dynamics
Recognize who holds power in your organization and industry. Build relationships with these individuals and learn from their experiences.
Actionable Tip: Identify key decision-makers in your company. Schedule regular check-ins and offer to assist with high-visibility projects to stay on their radar.
Develop Leverage
Increase your leverage by acquiring rare skills, building a robust network, and positioning yourself as indispensable.
Actionable Tip: Focus on developing expertise in niche areas that are highly valued but not widely possessed. For example, mastering a specialized software relevant to your industry, or cultivating key relationships with external clients.
Pursue and Generate Optionality
Maintain multiple career options to give yourself flexibility and bargaining power. Remember, your ability to walk away is one of your superpowers as an employee, especially if you control the timing of your exit.
Actionable Tip: Regularly explore job opportunities, even if you’re not actively looking to switch roles. This keeps you aware of market trends and opens new opportunities. (We teach a process that automates the generation of optionality in the Launch Your Career program.)
Conclusion
Achieving career success requires a strategic, deliberate approach. It’s not random. It doesn’t happen on its own.
Define your goals, aim accurately, and take the right actions. Use the tactics laid out above. Only apply proven, validated strategies to navigate your career path effectively.
With the right approach, you can reach your desired career destination. No doubt about it…