It is that time when many reflect on the year gone by and determine what they may have done differently to change the course of their outcomes in matters of their career and job. In December I have unusually high requests for coaching sessions, most of which focus on clients’ Annual Performance Reviews and also a review of their careers. I am writing this blog to help those who make New Year’s resolutions and are serious about keeping them to improve their station in life:
- Make an honest assessment of where you are in your career and job and write down the ideal state and the actual state of matters on both fronts. Journal it, so that this becomes your ongoing work in progress. Be deliberate about each area. You may be happy in your job and feel secure with its future. This, however, can be bad for your career (see my blog early this month about Career Antifragility).
- Now that the year is almost behind you honestly review what avenues you may have pursued that entailed your taking risks to showcase your leadership, even if you were not sure that the outcome of pursuing that path would be a boon to your career. Often, people abandon pursuits when they realize that the risk of failure is not worth the effort. Actually, without taking studied risks there are no benefits in any endeavor. Focus more on learning and less on success.
- Make a list of your development areas. Many of these areas are a part of your everyday life and will be known to you as you consciously try to improve your effectiveness in your pursuits. Your past annual reviews (look for written areas for Development), feedback from encounters with people interactions (such a meetings with customers, peers, and superiors), and other occasions are all peering windows through which you can assess what those areas are. There is also that “unconscious incompetence” component of your development areas. So, try to seek some objective guidance from a professional (a career coach can help here). When making this plan DO NOT set objectives (e.g., 10 visits to a museum in a year), since such limits are arbitrary. Set goals, instead, and do the best to attain the goals. It is very easy to surpass objectives if the goals are truly meaningful.
- Make a concerted development plan for the key areas of your growth. Identify and prioritize three main areas that you can benefit from growing and make that plan specific and actionable. This also must be done in writing (back to the Journal) so that you can visit this document every week or so to remind yourself if you are on track or if the plan is gathering dust!
- If you end up with more than three areas of development defer the others to the next year and so on. At the beginning of the year when your resolve is at its peak it is easy to underestimate the change effort it will take to stay on track. This is the main reason why most people abandon their resolutions within the first month of the New Year.
- Seek professional help in addition to being open with the resources you already have within your ecosystem. These are your own boss, peers, and HR resources available at your place of work.
- Make some assessment of your progress as you navigate through the year, so that you have some way to gage your pace of development. Make these assessments every three months, so that you can make adjustments to your pace of development.
- Put yourself on the front lines in those areas of development that matter to you the most. For example, if public speaking is an area that scares you (and your identified growth area in the year), go out of your way to seek out public speaking engagements that pop up at work or in your volunteer work. In my early career I dreaded public speaking. So, I signed up for Toastmasters and gave all 10 speeches required to attain my first certification (CTM) in just a few weeks, often finding venues to speak multiple times at different events in a single day. Most take several months, even years to attain this certification.
- Find someone you can emulate in a particular development area. For example, if conducting effective meetings is an area of development, find someone you can emulate at work and approach them for guidance. Observe and learn as you see them at their best. Most people like the recognition of their superior skills in their area of excellence and are willing to provide guidance if you know how to ask it. It is often free.
- Make your development life’s ongoing work. It never ends. Do not seek perfection; perfection is boring and often impossible. Seek excellence, instead.
Good luck!