What tools and methods can you use to develop your career action plan?

Take the New Year as a two-fold opportunity. First, reflect on your past accomplishments and lessons you learned. Think about the conferences you attended, the networking, and the new skills you acquired. You made it this far: celebrate! After the celebration, it's time to focus on what you can accomplish going forward: a promotion or new job? A new certification or degree? New ventures you want to achieve?

Set goals and you will win once, create systems to make it consistent. Its great to set career goals, strategize and execute towards those goals, but in the long run, creating systems that help you grow in your career will be far a more valuable tool. One system that I have benefitted from (recommended by my mentor) is the "skills then scope" system. Pick skills that will help you grow, develop those skills and then broaden your scope i.e. area of responsibility or ownership or impact. Then, analyze the new set of skills you need for the next level of growth. Rinse and repeat.

It is important to manage *your* career. Identify what you want and take steps to achieve it. When you have 1:1 meetings with your manager, lead the conversation. Discuss what you have accomplished, what you plan to do, any inform your manager if you need assistance.

Plan time to learn! Most companies have a learning portal that is available for employees. Take a course (or 2) and document it. Include the title of the course, especially if pertains to your role.

My favorite tool when it comes to execution is Notion. It's free. It's online. It's shareable. It's easily customizable. Use this to track opportunities, the stages of those opportunities, the relevant people involved, and the dates of the most recent contact with those people. Then view it to easily identify your history and your next steps.

To develop a career action plan, you can use various tools and methods, including self-assessment, setting SMART goals, SWOT analysis, career mapping, networking, mentoring, skill development, updating your resume and online profiles, tracking progress, periodic review, seeking feedback, and considering professional coaching. This process is continuous and adaptable, requiring flexibility to adjust to changing circumstances and opportunities.

Take stock of what you've put out there. How curious, thoughtful, driven, focused, motivated, ambitious, etc., have you come across in your public persona? What has the public seen of you, especially here on LinkedIn and other networking platforms and forums? Aside from credentials and experience, personality, approach, and voice get high marks for raising someone's stock and status. What people see externally is just as important as what someone builds internally in their career development.