5 Strategies to Help You Manage Your Career Like a Boss!

In our jobs, we’re given a list of Key Performance Indicators (metrics and expectations) that we must meet. If we hit them, we get to keep our job, if we miss them then it’s bye-bye!

So, here’s the thing. We have KPIs for our jobs, so why don’t we set personal KPIs for our careers?

Failure to set targets and goals is why so many people tend to drift or stagnate in their professional lives. It also means it takes them longer to achieve success.

This eventually leads to frustration and feelings of unfulfillment, which ultimately bleeds into their personal lives.

So where do we start when it comes to creating a strategic career management plan for our career success?

It starts with the desire to want more, be more and achieve more in our professional lives.

But a desire isn’t enough, although it is a key driver.

If you want to enjoy a fulfilling and exciting career, then you need a strategy, an execution plan and a set of actions with key milestones and timeframes.

Below are my 5 Career Management Strategies to help you take the ultimate control over your professional destiny and design and achieve the career you truly deserve.

Are you ready? Here we go….

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STRATEGY 1: SHIFTING YOUR PERCPETION

A CEO is responsible for making sure all the different business areas function like a well-oiled machine. They make strategic decisions that ensures the organisation remains profitable and drives the overall success of the business.

If you want to achieve the highest degree of career success then you need to manage your career as if it were a business too.

You are the CEO in charge of managing your reputation and Personal Brand, how much you earn (profitability), how you market yourself, your professional development, how you remain competitive and how you progress.

To manage your career like a boss, you need to make strategic (executive) career management decisions to help you maximise all your capabilities, value and potential.

At the end of the day, you are in the business of YOU!

STRATEGY 2 – DEFINING YOUR DOMAIN, GOALS AND ACTION PLAN

Having a set of specific, measures goals are critical to helping you achieve a rewarding and fulfilling career. Putting metrics round your goals, including key milestones and timeframes, enable to you effectively track your progression and stay on course. Think of it as project managing your career.

To help you determine your goals, you need to define the space (domain) you want to occupy.

Your goals will be centred around that space, which means you need to be specific about your domain so can be specific about your goals.

When defining your space and goals, consider the following:

• What space do I want to be in (what is my zone or domain)? Describe it in as much specific detail as possible, i.e. industry, role, salary etc…e.g. I want to be a senior digital marketer working with luxury brands or I want to be in business operations management for SMEs
• What do I want to do in this space exactly i.e. what function do I want to play within an organisation?
• What problems do I love to solve for business in this space because they challenge and excite me and they’re valuable to an organisation?
• What specific activities would I like to fill my day/week/month with in this space?
• What level do I want to attain in this space, e.g. manager, executive, consultant, thought leader etc…?

Next you need to create your strategy and roadmap on how you are going to achieve these goals.

So that you don’t get overwhelmed with your big, long-term goals, you need to break them down into manageable chunks. Think of it as reverse engineering your ultimate goal and working backwards.

It could be a series of strategic career jumps through promotion or taking on specific roles, changing company, upskilling and gaining additional certifications, moving in the right circles with the right people etc…

What key actions and activities do you need to do daily, weekly and monthly that will lead to success? You need to get specific on these so you can get laser focused and fill your time doing the right things!

Remember, always be working towards something, whether it’s a promotion, a career change or pivot, a new certification, a new skill and so on.

You don’t just want to ‘do’ your job – you want to OWN that freakin’ space.

STRATEGY 3: CREATING STRATEGIC RELATIONSHIPS

A critical strategy in managing and advancing your career is making sure you seek out and identify the key people in your organisation and wider industry to form strategic relationships with.

You want to make sure you are also aligning yourself with the right people, namely the go-getters, the rapid climbers as well as the decisions makers.

Done consciously and strategically, you can effectively leverage off these relationships and progress a lot quicker.?Think of it as being on the inside and getting a leg up.

Look at it this way, who’s responsible for your promotion? Is it your manager or your boss’ manager? That’s who needs to know about you so you need to get on their radar!

Here are three questions to think about as you create you career management strategy:

• Who needs to know about you?
• What circles do you need to be moving in?
• Who is in charge of promoting you or has influence in the organisation to help you advance your career?

STRATEGY 4: BUILDING YOUR PERSONAL BRAND AND CREATING YOUR VISIBILITY STRATEGY

It’s not always the person who has the most skills, experience and education that climbs the ladder the quickest, but often the one who has the strongest Personal Brand and can market themselves the best.

Now a lot of people really struggle with the concept of self-promotion, their modesty gets in the way.

Do successful businesses suffer from modesty? Hell No!

They’re shouting their brand from the rooftops. They are making sure their target audience knows they exist.

Your job is to do the same.

Remember, you’re treating your career like you’re managing a high-performing business.

A brand message that truly connects and resonates, revolves around the people who have the problems you love to fix. Putting them at the centre of the message means you’re going to get noticed.

Once you have figured out your core brand message, you now need to create a visibility strategy.

So, whether you’re an introvert or an extrovert, find a platform that works for you. It could be networking, being a guest speaker, publishing articles and video on social media, podcasts, newsletters etc. There’s something out there for everyone.

You want to be in a position where your name is passed around the table as an expert in helping businesses achieve the outcomes they need or can solve their problems they have.

We’ve all heard the saying, ‘it’s not what you know but who you know’, right? Well you could know all the people in the world but a fat lot of good it’s going to do for you if no one knows about you.

This is why my mantra is:

‘It’s not what you know and it’s not who you know that’s as important as who knows YOU!

STRATEGY 5: PERCEPTION MANAGEMENT

A critical aspect of Personal Branding and Strategic Career Management is managing how people perceive you.

I have written a lot about this topic already which you can read here, here and here.

But here’s a quick summary of this strategy.

There are a number of crucial factors that influence people’s perception of you, either positively or adversely which can propel your careers forwards or hold it back.

They include:

• How you behave in your professional life and interact with others.
• The words and specific language you use.
• Your attitude and mindset.

To help you better manage and influence people’s perception of you, consider these 4 questions:

1. If you have a specific career goal in mind, such as a promotion, how do you need to manage the perceptions of others around you to achieve that goal?
2. Is the way you are currently perceived at work and in your industry bringing you closer to your goals or driving you away from them?
3. Are your actions, interactions and the words you use reinforcing or detracting from your career goal and eventual success?
4. What experience do you want to create for people when they interact with you?

At the end of the day, you cannot completely control how people perceive you. That’s up to them. However, you can certainly?influence?the way they see you.

?So, let’s wrap it all up.

If you want to take your career from survive to thrive, then you need start treating your career like a business and that means making strategic management decisions to maximise your career growth, opportunities and of course salary.

It means getting out of your comfort zone, drawing a line in the sand, deciding you deserve more and taking real control.

They say the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The next best time is now! So get cracking.

Decide on the space you want to occupy; the domain you want to command, define your specific goals and work backwards to create a set of actions you need to take with milestones and timeframes. Study the jobs where you want to progress to and make a plan to develop and hone those necessary skills. Build your visibility get known and have those job opportunities come and find you.

Because, if you don’t have a strategy to manage your career, you’re literally leaving a pile of money and opportunities on the table that should be yours for the taking.

So, what’s your game plan? What’s your next move?

YOUR NEXT STEPS

Are you drifting in your career without having a plan? Maybe you feel frustrated in a job that’s below your potential and believe you should be earning much more.

If this sounds like you, then I want to help.

My Career Mastery Programmes are designed to help you define your space, get clear on who and what you are and reveal the true extent of your capabilities. Together we will create a strong Personal Brand and a powerful career management strategy to help you enjoy the rewards that a fulfilling career can bring.

To find out more, book your free 45-minute, no obligation consult and together let’s explore ways we can reenergise your career.?Click to here to book.