If you are a manager, aspiring manager, leader or aspiring leader, I am guessing that you are always on the lookout for your next career progression opportunity.

On the other hand, you might find that you are not getting promoted to the next level even though you think you are ready.

So what might be stopping you?

You are applying for the wrong roles
• It is tempting when you are ready to progress to the next level to apply randomly for posts. A much better strategy is to be highly targeted with your applications.

You are not showing the relevance of your experience to the job

• Employers are seeking evidence as to how your experience fits the role. Try to use examples to illustrate this.

You are not highlighting achievements

• Too often I see CVs that talk a lot about the job and very little about achievements. Focus on highlighting your achievements.

You don’t sell yourself

• Most of us don’t like to blow our own trumpet, especially us folks in the UK. At the same time, if you don’t sell what you have to offer, how can you ever expect to land the job?

You don’t prepare enough

• Having interviewed hundreds of people over the years, what surprised me most was that people are so ill prepared. If you are not willing to invest a sizeable block of time in preparing for your next role, it may be that you just don’t want it enough.

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to achieve success and realize their professional potential through being highly effective leaders and managers. For more information and to sign up for his free audio e-course click here

When it comes to career, you obviously want to try and get as much clarity as possible about where you are heading.

At the same time, before you can start to make progress, you need to be clear about where you are starting from.

So how can you find out where you are starting from?

1. Review your career to date.
2. Identify what experience you have got so far and what’s missing.
3. Look at the feedback that you have received from appraisals or performance review meetings.
4. Think about the type of work that you are usually seen as the go to person for. This is an indication of an area of real strength.
5. Ask for some feedback from those you work with now or have worked with in the past.
6. Do some form of self-assessment.

The Bottom Line

If you are going to get choices in your career, you need to get clear on the start point.

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to achieve success and realize their professional potential through being highly effective leaders and managers. For more information and to sign up for his free audio e-course click here

If you are reading this post, I am guessing that progressing your career might be important to you. So what barriers might be stopping you from moving to the next level?

1. You are great at working alone on activities but struggle at managing.
2. You have not kept your skills up to date.
3. You don’t believe in yourself and what you have to offer.
4. You are more afraid of failing than trying to succeed.
5. You are not clear about what you want from your next role.
6. You don’t sell yourself effectively in your resume or CV.
7. You struggle to sell yourself at interviews.
8. You understate your achievements.
9. You won’t ask for help to get to the next level.
10. You are not willing to invest in acquiring the skills, training or mentoring to make it to the next level.

Truth is every step in your career brings with it new challenges. So what do you need to focus on to get to the next level?

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to achieve success and realize their professional potential through being highly effective leaders and managers. For more information and to sign up for his free audio e-course click here

Often when I am contacting by someone to work with me on a one to one basis, they say to me that they are really well rated professionally but are really finding it a struggle to progress their career.

Sadly this is all too common.  When I was working in Finance Departments in a range of organisations I had the opportunity to work with people who have since gone on to very senior level roles.  However, there were far more who quite simply got stuck at a very junior or middle management level.

So why do professional people who are clearly bright and capable find it a struggle to progress their careers?

1. They don’t work on the wider skill set that is essential at the more senior levels.  The reality is that at the more senior levels everyone being interviewed can do the technical part of the job.  It is the ability to be part of a team and contribute outside of your area of expertise that makes the difference.
2. They don’t have a plan that sets out what they want to achieve and the skills, experience and attributes that are necessary to achieve what they want.
3. They don’t evaluate opportunities as effectively as they could so end up taking jobs that offer short term benefits like salary.
4. They don’t invest sufficiently in their CPD even though the professional bodies of which they are members offer a range of CPD events most of which are low or no cost.
5. They fail to understand the fundamental differences about leading.  I once heard someone say that leadership is all about influence, impact and human interaction which in my book describes it in a nutshell.

So if you want to progress your career in 2010, take some time to stand back and get clear on what you want to achieve and put some plans in place to move forward.  You might also want to check out my Career Accelerator Workbook

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to become highly effective leaders and managers so that they realise their real professional potential.

If you are a professional who is seeking to secure a leadership role there might be the temptation to rely totally on your technical expertise.  Yet in truth, if you are applying for a senior level role, your technical competence will almost be taken for granted.  So if it is not your technical competence that you need to demonstrate what is it?

Self awareness

Being aware of what you do best and what needs developing is essential for success as a leader.  In addition, you need to be aware of how your behaviours and style impact on others as your ability to influence is a huge contributor to the results you achieve.

What makes you different from everyone else?

If all of the candidates can do the technical aspects of the job to a broadly similar level, what is it that you bring to the table that sets you apart from everyone else?  Spending time thinking about the 3-5 things that you believe are unique about you is time well invested.

You are a team player

Chances are, unless it is a start up company is that you will be joining an already established team.  Those recruiting need to be comfortable that you are going to successfully integrate into the team and build relationships with colleagues.

Strategic thinking

As part of the leadership team you are no longer just the expert in a particular discipline.  You need to be able to see the bigger picture and maybe even break down some prejudices that you have about other professional groups. Remember that a big part of your role is to drive the organisation forward so the ability to think creatively and come up with innovations and ideas is vital.

Long term potential

Few people will be able to tick all of the boxes in terms of skills, experience and attributes but you need to be able to show that you have long term potential to grow and develop.

You will be a good ambassador for the organisation

You need to be able to represent the organisation well internally and even externally, particularly if you are working in a public body.

Bottom Line – Breaking through the career glass ceiling is less about technical competence and more about your ability to inspire and influence others.  So where do you need to develop to achieve your professional potential?

In the fast moving and every changing world of business, continuing to develop yourself is extremely important.  For many people it is way down the priority order.  Lack of time is often one of the key reasons for not making the investment that we all know we should.  Cost, particularly in financially stretched public sector organisations, is another factor.

Yet in truth, with progress in technology, it is now possible to continually develop yourself without the need to take 3 days out of the office.   This article highlights 10 potential opportunities for developing yourself that are both time efficient and cost effective. 

1. Podcasts

Podcasts are basically short audio clips that you can access, listen to or down load.  Most offer the option to subscribe so that you are notified when a new one is added.  Many are free or low cost.  When I first explored podcasts, I was amazed at the range of topics being covered.  A good starting point is Podcasting News where you can access a directory of podcasts.

2. Google Alerts

Google Alerts are another simple way of accessing articles, announcements, etc about areas that you are interested in.  Imagine for example you were interested in developing your influencing skills.  You could set up a Google Alert “Influencing Skills” specify how regularly you want to receive them and have relevant content sent to your e-mail.

3. Professional Journals and Magazines

You can buy a subscription to your industry magazine on your own or share the cost with a few colleagues interested in the same subject matter.  Many professional magazines now deliver content on-line with links to articles.  Two examples are Accountancy Age and Health Service Journal.

4. Subscribe to Newsletters and E-Zines

Until about 2 years ago, I was not even aware of newsletters and e-zines.  Now I subscribe to a host of them and pick up great tips every day.  No matter what area you are trying to develop, the chances are that there will be a free newsletter or e-zine out there to get access to great content.

5. Teleclasses

A teleclass is essentially training over the phone.  You sign-up and dial into a conference line at the specified time.  The great thing is that they are packed with great content but typically last no longer than 90 minutes.  Most last about 60 minutes.

Even if you cannot attend because of time zone differences, you generally get access to a recording and sometimes a PDF file of what was discussed.

6. Audio Books

More and more of the best self development books are becoming available in audio format.  What this means is that you can be developing yourself when you are stuck in traffic, driving to meetings or sitting relaxing at home.

7. Read a book

Another cost effective way of developing yourself is to buy books on leadership, management, marketing, etc and commit to reading a chapter a day.  This is excellent for increasing your knowledge.  It is also very easy to get new and second hand books through Amazon very cheaply.

8. Go to a seminar or workshop

There are more and more free or low cost seminars out there that you can attend.  If you are a member of a professional body, chances are that they have free events happening at least monthly where you get to network and broaden your knowledge.

9. Go to a conference

Most industries and professions have some sort of conference.  Typically, once a year, they give you the opportunity to keep up to date and learn about leading edge thinking.  While at the higher end of the spectrum cost wise, they do tend to attract high profile speakers.

10.  Get a mentor or coach

A mentor or coach can help you to get into action and start achieving results quicker than you imagined possible.  What makes this different to other forms of development is that it is tailored around your specific needs.

As you can see, developing your self need not be a major commitment in time or money.  What it can do is ensure that you continually strive to reach your true potential.  So what’s stopping you?

Everyone spends a significant amount of their life at work.  To get the most out of your career you need to manage it.  So what are key steps that you need to take to manage your career.

Tip 1: Know what you want to achieve 

When you have a career as opposed to a job, you take a long term view.  Those who achieve most will generally have a very clear vision of what they want to achieve.

What’s your vision?

Tip 2: Set out a plan

Once you have clarity on your vision, the next step is to develop a plan.  Your plan needs to clearly set out:

• Where you currently are

• Where you want to get to

• The steps to move you to where you want to get to

In setting out your plan, think about skills, knowledge, experience, education and personal attributes.

Tip 3: Find a coach or mentor

Most people have 10-15 years to reach their vision so you need support and accountability to make it happen.  A coach or mentor can help you:

• Get clarity on your next move

• Make the right moves that contribute to your overall vision

• Avoid wasting time and effort going down the wrong path

Tip 4: Deliver outstanding performance

If you want to progress and reach the top, you need to build a reputation of being someone who consistently delivers outstanding performance.  One of the ways of delivering outstanding performance is to be clear about what you are measured on and make sure everything you do contributes to success.

Tip 5: Don’t move out of a job because you are disgruntled

Sometimes people move jobs because something short term annoys them.  It might be that they are not feeling valued, that they are not supported or whatever they do it will never be good enough.

If you find yourself in this situation, speak to someone more senior before taking action or to you coach or mentor.

Tip 6: Discuss you career with your boss

Employees are sometimes reluctant to discuss their career with their boss.  They worry that their boss might misinterpret this.  The truth is that the best bosses want to have people around them who are motivated and have a desire to get on.

How could you create a relationship with your boss that allowed you to openly speak about your career?

Tip 7: Avoid job moves that only offer short term advantages

It is easy to be lured in the short term by money.  Keep the focus on your vision and test job opportunities in terms of what you need to progress rather than short term financial gains.

Tip 8: Leave jobs on good terms

You might be working with someone today who pops up at some organisation you want to work with in the future.  This is more common than you think so always leave on good terms.

Tip 9: Speak openly to superiors about internal positions that are of interest to you

Managers often form a completely wrong impression about individual’s career aspirations.  If there is an internal post that would help you closer to your goal, speak to your superior about it.

Tip 10:  Be open to lateral moves

It is easy to think that every job change needs to be a move up the ladder.  Sometimes it might be useful to move at a similar level to get new experience.  For example imagine all of your experience was in subsidiary companies and you wanted some head office experience.  A lateral move might be the best way to do it.

Tip 11: Plan moves in advance

When you have secured a position and have got some clarity about some of the skills and experience you are gaining, start thinking about your next couple of moves.  Why?  The main reason is that it keeps you alert for new opportunities that might be ideal for you as you move towards your vision.

Tip 12: Keep your CV or Resume up to date

Make a habit of regularly updating your CV to capture new experience, skills or attributes that you have developed.

Tip 13: Record achievements and successes

In every interview you will always be asked about achievements and successes.  If you record achievements on a weekly or monthly basis you will have a bank of successes available to draw from when faced with this question.

In addition, you will also have the drive and motivation to do even more.

Tip 14: Don’t stay in a job too long

If you want to reach a senior level, you need to find the right balance.  Move too regularly and your loyalty will be questioned.  Stay too long and your ambition and desire will be questioned.  Three indicators that the time might be right to move on are:

• The excitement has gone from the job

• You are not getting any new experience

• The job is too easy

In my experience moving every 2-4 years is about right, but be aware of industry or sector norms.

If you want a career rather than just a series of jobs, you need to take control.  What’s your first step?