Doing these three things will make a huge difference to your career

Next week I will be running a session for WHEN: The Women's Higher Education Network called '12 Ways to take charge of your career'.

Here are *three spoilers* - my top three tips for career success and some coaching questions for you to reflect on.

1. Take ownership. I was really fortunate early in my career to have a great boss. One of the things he said and I often quote him on is 'If you don't take responsibility for your own development, no one else will.' (Thanks Iain!) I sometimes see individuals, who sit back, waiting for their organisation to train them on something. If someone is operating like that, they would benefit from changing their mindset from thinking that development is something that is 'done' to us. We all need to own our career goals, our vision, and the steps we need to take in order to get there. Of course we can then draw on a range of people for support, but the onus is on us to own it and make it happen. So the first coaching question I invite you to reflect on is this: What is most important to you in your career in the future, and what steps are you taking to make it a reality?
2. Invest time in building and deepening relationships. A mistake I see time and time again is professionals neglecting to keep in touch with their network because they put it to the bottom of the list. They always prioritise their day job, most typically the short term operational activities. In a recent survey I conducted 84% of people want to network more but only 17% regularly diarise time for it. However, for career success there are a wide range of benefits to be gained from nurturing your professional relationships, from having a sounding board of people who you can seek guidance from, to experts you can learn from, to professional friends who can cheer you on. Which leads me to the second question: What do you have diarised in the next 3 months, outside of your operational day job activities, which will benefit your professional relationship building?
3. Increase your exposure. Research tells us that exposure is a key element of career success, but most people are very uncomfortable with self promotion. I attended an #IAmRemarkable workshop last week (Thanks Ravi!) which helps delegates to develop their competence and confidence to self promote. The session reminds us that if you don't tell people about yourself, they don't know. Also, that if you don't promote yourself, there is a very real risk that in your career you will fall behind peers who do self promote. (And we all know they aren't necessarily better than you, in fact they very often aren't.) So my third question for you to reflect on: When did you last speak (or post) about something you have achieved? How can you find a way you are comfortable with to do this more often?

If you are a woman working in the higher education sector, you can join WHEN free of charge and benefit from many super resources including regular webinars:

Events hosted by WHEN (whenequality.org)

I would love to know what other tips you would include ... If you would like to know my other 9, drop me a comment :)

Wishing you a good month,

Ellie

xoxox

For my other blog, head to my website: Blog | Ellie Rich Poole