Bad Advice Can Ruin Your Career

As you move forward through your career, you’re likely to hear all kinds of well-meaning advice from people around you. Older, more experienced mentors may tell you to create a long-term strategy for getting ahead. They probably believe that having a thorough, decade-long game plan is your best shot at achieving your goals. Other people may tell you to forget about that and focus on applying consistent excellence to whatever is right in front of you, and eventually the larger path to your goals will be revealed.?

You probably know someone who took bad career advice and has big regrets. That doesn’t have to be your experience. You should always take advice with a grain of salt. But regardless of which strategy you choose, most people will agree that professional development is a key element to your career success. If you haven’t taken it seriously, now is the time to start.? Think of professional development as an investment in both your current role and whatever kind of position you aspire to achieve. It’s a win-win for both “present you” and “future you”.?

So far, so good. But there is something important that I want to warn you about, and it’s here in these examples that I’ve seen with many of my clients:

1) Their company makes them take a “personality test” that is designed to reveal their strengths and weaknesses, and those results are supposed to dictate the type of professional development they receive.?

2) Their manager, someone who attributes their own career success to a certain type of management training, will insist that they take those same training courses.?

3) They’re required to complete a certain amount of hours with the company’s in-house leadership coach, someone they don’t know or trust.??

Don’t ever let anyone else dictate your professional development! You have to take control of this crucial piece of your career power.?

So where to begin?? Start by asking yourself, “What are the 3 biggest areas of struggle in my daily work life?”. These could be things like organization/procrastination, navigating office politics, or securing stakeholder buy-in for your ideas. Do a thorough internal audit and identify what generates the most friction for you.?

Next, break each one down into individual skill sets, and start training on them. For example, if organization and procrastination is your biggest issue, you could teach yourself a new CRM or productivity protocol. If office politics are obtuse for you, try taking a course on networking. If stakeholder buy-in has never been easy for you, get some high-level communication coaching and learn to create more impactful presentations (this is part of what I offer my clients).?

A complimentary method of determining your professional development is to seek feedback from the people around you. If your company doesn’t have a formal vehicle for this, you can use a tool like a 360 review. Good-quality feedback is always useful! Even if the results show that you’re extremely lacking in a number of areas, you now have a clear list of new skill sets to work on.?

The point is to take charge, execute, and see it through. Investing in high-quality professional development is the single most impactful action you can take on your own behalf. It can help you stand out from the crowd and take a big leap forward. It can make the difference between a good career and a great one. Even the highest-level leaders get professional development, because they know that it helps them achieve everything they’ve accomplished.?

There’s no reason to ignore every piece of career advice you may receive. There are bound to be some good people who can offer insightful guidance when you need it. Just make sure that it aligns with what you know about yourself, your goals and your vision. No one else gets to decide those things for you!

These are just some of the techniques I work on with my clients. I give private Power Voice For Executive Women session packages to highly motivated individuals. I also give Power Communication trainings to groups of Executives and professionals at companies like Microsoft, Amazon, Columbia Bank, Carharrt and Kimpton Hotels, both remotely and in person. DM me for more info about my trainings, rates and availability. I love hearing from you!