Posts Tagged ‘progressing your career’

We spend more time during our life working than just about any other activity.  Many professional people are keen to get to get on in their career but struggle to make the progress they would like.

So what are 7 things you could do to progress your career straight away?

Make It A Priority

Anyone can talk about wanting more success in their career but like anything worth having it requires an investment of time and energy.  If career progress matters to you make it a priority.

Get Clarity

Before you can embark on any kind of career progress you need to get clear about what you want in both the long, medium and short term.  The clearer you are the easier it is going to be to make progress quicker.

Speak To Your Boss

People often wrongly assume that the only way to progress your career is to move on to a new job.  Sometimes you can get a secondment or involved in a project to broaden your experience.  On the other hand you will never get this unless you are willing to ask.

Do Your Own Self Assessment

Sit down and do an honest assessment of what you do really well and what are your weaker areas.  Chances are your strengths will far outweigh your weaknesses.

Get Some Feedback

Others can often see qualities and attributes we don’t see ourselves. Asking a group of people for feedback is the fastest way to get these insights.

Create a CV or Resume That Markets You Well

At the end of the day your CV or Resume is your personal marketing document.  How good a job is your document doing in effectively marketing you?

Use All The Job Search Options

Up until a few years ago the options around job search were quite limited.  These days there are so many options at your disposal yet many people fail to utilise them.

Take A Long Term View

A career is more of a marathon and less like a sprint.  Make decisions with the long term in mind.  Remember too that the more senior you are the longer it is going to take to find the right opportunities as there are fewer opportunities around.

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps professional people to climb the career ladder and achieve the career success and rewards they desire.  He invites you to sign up for his free audio masterclass at http://www.goalsandachievements.co.uk/careers-main.html

What Accountants And Professional People Need To Move Forward In Their Career

As an accountant by profession and through working exclusively with professional people at Goals and Achievements, I see a lot of people who are fantastic within their area of professional expertise but really struggle to get ahead in their career.

It would be easy to say that it is simply a case of mastering the interview process and all will be different. The reality, from working with clients and having personally climbed the career ladder from £30 a week Payments Clerk to Finance Director of a major organisation, is very different.

So here is my list of what I see as key to moving forward in your career and achieving the results and success you desire:

Ability To Manage A Team

Many professional people get promoted on the basis of their technical competence. They then find themselves managing a team, projects, processes and systems and often find it a struggle. It is easy to dismiss this as the soft and fluffy stuff but in my experience being able to manage is not optional.

Ability To Lead

By that I mean the ability to drive things forward, get buy-in and support and contribute beyond your area of direct expertise.

Ability To Build Relationships

These days it is key to build relationships within your own area, across the wider organisation and even with people in client or partner organisations.

Ability To Make The Complex Simple

This is essentially about providing expert advice in plain and simple ways to the lay person.

Strong Communication Skills

Successful professional people can get their message across easily verbally and in writing. They also are great listeners too.

Ability To Work With People At All Levels

You need to be able to get your message across and create relationships with people at all levels across the organisation.

Be Able To Run and Lead Projects

These might be related to a new system implementation or integrating an acquisition.

Able To Influence

Quite often that means being able to adapt their style to fit the person or the situation they are dealing with.

Create and Deliver Change

Challenging economic times necessitates innovation from everyone, including professional people.

Build And Maintain A Network

A network is not just a source of job opportunities but a group you can call on for advice and support or simply to bounce ideas off.

Selling Skills

Vitally important if you are working in a professional services firm that makes its money selling services to clients.

IT Skills

How to utilise IT to facilitate efficiency, effectiveness and cost reduction.

Market Yourself

In particular, create a CV or résumé that gets you noticed.

Interview Skills

Whether people like it or not, a lot of the decision about recruiting comes down to how well people perform in interviews.

A Good Understanding Of Business

You don’t need to be an expert in every area of business, but you do need to have a good understanding of different areas of the business and the dependencies.

Confidence And Self-Belief

This is what will ultimately drive you forward even when the going gets tough.

The Bottom Line: Being highly competent in your professional field is no longer a guarantee of long term success in your career.

To learn more about getting ahead in your career check out my audio masterclass at www.goalsandachievements.co.uk

Most people see their career as important yet many get stuck. So what steps can you take immediately to accelerate your progress?

1. Take some time to self assess what you do well and what needs developing.
2. Get some feedback from others who you have worked with.
3. Make a file of your key career achievements.
4. Draw up a 90 day fast track personal development plan where you do one thing, no matter how small, each day to build your skills, knowledge or competency.
5. Stop making money your motivation for progressing your career. If you deliver, money will follow.
6. Step up and volunteer for special projects.

The truth is doing some simple things can make a huge difference. So when will you get started?

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to achieve success, realize their professional potential and maximise their earnings.  If you are ready to climb the career ladder, sign up for his free audio masterclass here

Habit 1
• Not knowing what to stop doing.

Habit 2

• Not pushing yourself and simply cruising.

Habit 3

• Not giving recognition to others.

Habit 4

• Making excuses more than delivering results.

Habit 5

• Passing the buck and not taking responsibility.

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