How to Prep Now for a Career Move

The summer is winding down in North America and many other places around the globe. People will be returning to work after their vacations, and businesses will once again start operating at full capacity. If you're thinking about making a move in your career, it's a great time to do some prep work.

I discussed this topic not too long ago with May Busch, who is an executive coach, advisor, speaker and author of Accelerate: 9 Capabilities to Achieve Success at Any Career Stage.?

We're spending this edition of #GetAhead focusing on what you can do now to set yourself up for a successful career move later in the year. You can listen to our whole conversation by clicking here.

Lay the Groundwork for a Move

The first step is to review what you've already accomplished in the first half of the year, says May.

"This is just a look back," she says. "What kind of things did you accomplish? Where are you relative to the goals you had set, if you had set some goals? One nice way to do it is the 'went well, do differently.' So, what things went really well? What things would you want to do differently in the second quarter?"

May says the second step in laying the groundwork for a move is to look ahead to the next 6 or 12 months. You should come up with a gameplan for what you want to accomplish during that time.

Finally, the third part of laying the groundwork is to look at what you've done and what you want to do to figure out the actions you want to take, she says.

Carve out "Coffee Time"

After you've reviewed what you did and what you want to do, May says it's time to carve what she calls coffee time.

"I call it coffee time because you want to give yourself time to think and reflect and percolate," she says. "Thinking about how you set yourself up for career success and advancing in your career or finding that dream job, it's part of a process. It is part of a journey. So, you want to give yourself that time. The percolation is to also get really in touch with what is inspiring to you."

Build Muscle

The next step is developing the muscle you need to achieve your goals, says May.

"One kind of muscle is skill sets," she says. "So, as you're looking ahead, what kind of skills do you want to build? What might be important at the next level that maybe wasn't quite such a focal point at your current level? It's about looking ahead at that kind of skill set."

May adds that the other two types of muscles you should build are around your unique strengths and then your self-beliefs, which can help counter self-doubt and imposter syndrome.

Lay Down Some Track

Once you know where you're going and you work on what you need to get there, May says it's important to lay down some track to actually get to the destination. These are like train tracks, she says.

"This is mainly about what kind of on-ramps do you need to build in order to get to where you want to go," she says. "One of the main things that comes up is building relationships… You got to build relationships before you need them. So you want to be building those relationships earlier on."

Hone Your Narrative

Another step in the process is refining your narrative for sharing. Since everyone is leading their own busy lives, they need guidance on how to advocate and support us, May explains.

"The more that we can help people understand who we are, the value we bring, what we're interested in, then make it into a gel cap that they can just pop in and go, 'Oh yeah, okay, I get that. I can either help you with this or I know somebody else who could help you better than me with this,'" she adds. "So it's just getting in touch with what that narrative is."

May says that a lot of success in a person's career is built on conversations. Those conversations are a lot less intimidating if a person has their narrative ready to go.

Take Action

The last step in the process is obviously one of the most important. All of the preparation in the world won't help unless you take action.

"This one is about the action taking part, because all of that percolating and muscle building, laying down track, it's ultimately about the actions you do or don't take that will propel you forward," says May.

?? You can also watch a conversation I had with May earlier this year as part of LinkedIn's Career Talks about developing a career game plan by clicking here.

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