Vision Needed for Career Growth

A vision of the future is necessary to be able to sustain a career today. I know this sounds ridiculous but as I reflect about my own career, had I done this, I could have avoided some career pitfalls. The recommendation I have is try to prognosticate a few different things to help you increase your marketability, achieve future success, and enhance your career. Time should be spent reviewing;

The organization-Spend some time looking at your own organization. Review things such as past performance. Ask yourself what was their claim to fame? What products or services did they provide to increase their revenue? Review how many employees work in the organization. Has the organization become to large? Have they started to lay off employees regularly? Take a look at whether or not the company has filled staffing holes left by recent attrition. At times organizations may not which can indicate that there is a cash problem, or maybe they are looking to re-organize how they operate. Some satellite offices can be in jeopardy, or maybe branches merged which can result in job loss for those employees.

     Competitors-Write down all of your company's competitors. Ask yourself if your organization is still the pace setter in the industry or are your competitors gaining steam and even producing some better services and products. Are processes in the organization smooth or outdated? An indication that your current company is struggling is if it is being reactive, consistently, to what the competition is doing. A proactive approach means it is healthy and innovative. 

     Products and services-These two things are the life line of all organizations. People want a variety of products being offered, that have evolved with the times. There have been many companies that have not survived because there was no adjustments made to the things offered as time passed by. The other thing consumers want is excellent service. Providing a high quality service today is desired more sometimes than actual products being offered. Offering excellent service can negate lower prices being offered on products. People know they are paying for excellent customer service and are willing to do so.

     Delivery Systems-Do products and services get to consumers consistently, without errors made or damages done? Has the organization changed how products and services get to its customers? Can they physically pick up packages or get it delivered? Is delivery done in a reasonable time? Are service agents available? Learning organizations offer service via in person, phone, instant messaging, text messaging, and on the Internet.

Yourself-Take an inventory of yourself. Ask yourself what are your short and long term goals? Do you enjoy your work or is it hard to get up in the morning to go to work? Measure whether the skills you offer still are of value to the organization or if they become outdated. Try to get a sense of whether or not you have a solid connection and support network at work, or have those dissipated. Some specific things that should be done are;

     List goals-Ask yourself what you want to accomplish in the future. List out all personal and professional goals. Is there a family and children that you want? Do you want more education to enhance the skills you offer? All of these questions will help determine where you want to head in your career or if a makeover is needed.

     Perform a SWOT analysis-This stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. List each of these things out on a sheet of paper. Be honest with yourself when listing these to help you paint a picture of the relationship you and your employer has. This analysis can be performed at the organizational level too.

These kinds of personal and professional exercises need to be performed because all organizations have a life span. You want to get a grasp of where the company is in their life span. Taking a glimpse of the business landscape can help you determine what the future may hold for you and your company. So take a moment, what does the future say about you and your company? 

Training is a Path to Improved Marketability

Please remember that as you undertake the process of starting a career makeover that there are two paths a person can take. One is to look at a career or organizational change to maximize your earnings potential and increase your responsibility. Sometimes it is necessary to move to a new company to jump start your career.

If you decide to take the other path, which is to increase marketability, in your current company it can be a fruitful one. At times employees become disconnected from processes, or the type of work being performed. At times there are changes to key management positions and you may feel off balance with a new leadership team.

One thing that can help improve marketability and add depth to the skills you possess, is to seek out training. It takes courage and gumption to step out of a comfort zone and look for training on topics you don't have a lot of knowledge in. It will pay off and you can be used more often to complete departmental projects.

Here are some training topics you can look into;

1) Time management-This class decreases bad stress and increases good stress. It will help show how to prioritize tasks, multi-task, and complete assignments in a timely fashion. Time management training will teach you to minimize distractions which can prevent you from completing important tasks. This topic shows you ways to schedule typical office distractions. Things like answering e-mail and voice mail can be scheduled which will maximize your individual effectiveness.

2) Communication-Effectively learn to communicate with internal and external customers. Learn key methods of communication in today's office including consensus, negotiation, managing conflicts, and being concise and succinct. Learning to communicate verbally, non-verbally, using e-mail and instant messaging, blogging, sending proper text messages, using social media, and using the phone with proper etiquette should be covered because these are specific ways communication is handled today.

3) Sales-Learn the art of selling. This is an uncomfortable topic for people because not everybody is comfortable trying to get a sale out of customers. Selling a service or product effectively to help increase revenue is necessary to increase an organization's life span. This class will show that sales involves more than receiving orders. It is also alerting customers to new industry trends, standards, processes, and events like conferences. Uncovering opportunities is another piece of selling. Asking the correct open and closed probes is key in guiding a customer to a sale or uncovering needs clients may not even know they have.

As this topic of career makeovers continues some time will be spent reviewing the types of technological classes available. In the meantime show initiative and seek out training to help balance your career to avoid prolonged ruts.

DecisionTime-Do I Need A Career Makeover?

Why do I need a career makeover? I'm happy, I have job security, I can go to work daily, do my thing, and go home. Aren't those things enough? All of these questions and statements are good ones but sometimes being honest with yourself after some reflection is a necessary step in deciding if the need for a career makeover is there.
Take inventory of your job, ask yourself what specific things make you happy, and what things drive you crazy. Make a list of all of the responsibilities you like and which ones you can do with out. Make a list of the training you recently received and which events you missed. Ask yourself if your company seems to be investing its time and money toward you to help keep you relevant and knowledgeable or is that being distributed elsewhere.
After taking stock of your individual, departmental, and organizational role in the workplace and you still can't decide if a career makeover is for you perhaps ask these set of questions. If you answer yes to any of these items then maybe its time to explore a career makeover. Personally I was guilty of all of these but one. Here they are;

·         Are you willing to take a lateral position in another company for less money?

·         Are you willing to try and work for an undefined department in your current organization? Are you a department of one in this new role?

·         Have you been paid to stay away from a company? (Severance)

·         Has your mind lapsed into monotony sleep?

·         Do you listen to a crowd of group thinkers telling you that failure is inevitable, or that change is impossible?

·         Willing to interview for a position that pays less money?

·         Have you interviewed for a position even after you were told that you weren’t a candidate?

·         Have you ever cried tears of mental surrender before walking into work?

·         Have you called in sick just to avoid the work day and specific tasks? Did you call in on back to back days? (A two for one)

·         Have you ever had to interview for the job you held a week ago because you were let go officially and told that all employees have to re-interview for their old positions?