What Behaviours Do You Need To Change To Move Forward In Your Career?
If you are an accountant or indeed a professional from any background, I have no doubt that you want to be successful in your career.
You probably invested a lot of time, energy and effort in getting professionally qualified.
You may even have worked on your post qualification development.
Yet you are still struggling to make any real progress.
Frustrating to say the least.
Interestingly people sometimes look to external events to rationalise their lack of progress. It’s natural to do so. It means that you can feel contented.
Now don’t get me wrong, sometimes the external factors can make things difficult or more challenging than you would like.
On the other hand have you ever really considered whether your behaviours are actually are getting in the way?
Let’s consider a few examples.
Your day to day approach at work
Do you turn up, do what’s required to a good standard?
While it’s important to do a good job, these days it’s just not enough if you want to move up.
Contribution and what you are willing to do over and above the boundaries of your job description will increase your chances of progression.
Your approach to job search
It’s never been easier to apply for jobs. On one hand this is positive. On the other hand it encourages a spray and hope approach. In other words applying for lots of jobs at the same time.
All the clients I’ve worked with have seen the value of applying for fewer roles where they are a really good fit.
Your approach to writing your CV
The common approach goes something like this. Open up Word or your favourite word processing software.
Start typing, copying and pasting from an old CV and your job description. Fixing the formatting and you are done.
The problem. You have missed out the importance stages of reflecting, gaining evidence and thinking before you start typing.
Your approach to job interviews
You do some preparation but it is minimal. How do I know this?
I’ve questioned close to 2,000 people to date, most of them professionals.
Amazingly only about 12% do anything approaching proper preparation.
By that I mean spending 10 hours or more preparing for job interviews. It makes a huge difference to your confidence, impact and performance.
How you deal with clients
Now you might be thinking that you don’t have clients because you work in an in-house function or team.
Those that you provide a service to whether you are in finance, HR, procurement, internal audit or some other function are your internal clients.
How do you deal with those clients? Are you reactive or proactive? Do you look to excel in the service you deliver or make life easier for them?
Going out of your way to deliver great service gets you noticed.
The truth is there are many behaviours that serve you well. On the other hand there may well be behaviours that are getting in the way of you moving forward in their career. Take the time to identify them and make some changes.
About the Author Duncan Brodie
Since 2006 I’ve worked with in excess of 8,000 accountants and professionals in workshops, seminars and one to one helping them land their next jobs and become better leaders, presenters and business partners. Before that I spent 25 years in accountancy climbing the career ladder from Payments Clerk to FD. I’m a CIMA Fellow, Certified Professional Coach and Team Coach Facilitator.