Key Takeaways from #LICareerMonth

When I got promoted in my first full-time job, I remember my VP at the time, Richard , coming over to my desk to congratulate me. He then asked me, “Do you know who drives your development?”

The answer is YOU. You drive your own development. Sure, you have your manager, your leadership team, and L&D to support you along the way, but it really comes down to you.

This past month at LinkedIn has been Career Month, chock-full of workshops, panel discussions, guest speakers, and networking speed sessions. The best part from all these sessions was that I made so many serendipitous connections from various breakout rooms – hello, 20 new friends!

Here are a few takeaways from each #LICareerMonth session I attended:

Career as a Community with Laura Delamare

Who’s on your career dream team? Learn how to leverage all these relationships in your network: sponsors, managers, coaches, mentors, & friendtors.

Loving the LinkedIn Life? Build Your Career at LinkedIn with Rachel Nevers , James Raybould , Michelle Kwan , & Steven Xu

What’s your dream job? Set up coffee chats and network with others to figure out the vocabulary of your dream job. Learn how to effectively communicate how your skills & experience are transferable to the role you want.

Guest Speaker: Choose Possibility with Sukhinder Singh Cassidy & Dr. Chrissy Roth-Francis

“If we treat risk taking and choice making like a process that we can each become good at, you end up choosing your way through success and failure alike to get the ultimate and outsized reward of risk taking. If you only want to choose once, you’d be better off to not choose at all.

The riskiest thing you can do in your career is: never move OR move once with the presumption that one move leads to the reward. You have many shots to glory. Get the smallest choice you can make today in motion to unlock the cumulative reward”.

10 Simple Ways to Accelerate Your Career with Kelly Chuck

Kelly had so much wisdom to share, so it’s tough to choose one key learning. Here’s some that stood out:

• Be that person who adds missing puzzle pieces to the picture. Help others look good, participate, & contribute. Add new pieces to the conversation by having an informed opinion and sharing it. Connect other people into the big picture.
• You become like the 5 people you spend the most time with. Choose carefully.
• Attitudes are contagious. Is yours worth catching? When others spend time with you, do they leave feeling energized or exhausted?

Drive Your Development with Laura Delamare

Big T transformations are large, pivotal moments in your career. Think of long-term aspirational goals, or where you want to go. It’s important to know your Big T because it acts as your north star, helps you filter your choices & make decisions, & allows you to think way past your next promotion.

Guest Speaker: The A-Z’s of “owning it” with Diane von Furstenberg , Gabby Hirata , Catherine Fisher , & Rachelle Diamond

“The most important relationship in life is the one we have with ourselves. Once we have that, any other relationship is a plus, a luxury, and not a must. In order to have a good relationship with yourself, you have to be strict. You can’t be delusional & see things the way they are – you have to own it”.

Learning InDay: Powerful Goal Setting to Transform Your Life with Michael Bungay Stanier & Linda Cai

“We unlock the good stuff by working on the hard stuff.”

3 worthy attributes of a goal:

• Thrilling: what lights you up and speaks to your values?
• Important: what’s the bigger picture that this serves? What if we could give to the world more than we could take?
• Daunting: where’s your learning edge? If thrilling is about overcoming obligations and important is about overcoming selflessness, daunting is all about overcoming comfort & status quo.

The Gift of Feedback with Leah Smart

3 types of feedback you can ask for:

• Appreciation: what is one thing I'm doing that is making a positive difference for you and/or the team?
• Coaching: what is one thing I'm doing – or failing to do – where you think I'm getting in my own way?
• Evaluation: on a scale of 1-5, how effective did I…? What is one thing that I can do differently to be a X* *one point higher or a 5+

The Career Lab with Dr. Chrissy Roth-Francis

• Small, actionable career experiments will help you operationalize your career development. These experiments will encourage you to explore & take risks, helping you get closer to your Big T transformation goal.
• Take a failure bow if you make a mistake

Career Advice from LinkedIn Leaders:

• Blake Lawit : Take what you love and bring those things with you to work. Figure out what’s important to you and bring joy + authenticity to your work life.
• Dan Shapero : The top action you can take to get the job you aspire to have in 5 years is to accelerate your pace of learning. Maximize your chances within your control to magnify your long term opportunity. Who can you learn from? How can you get on projects that force you to build skills? Surround yourself with exceptional people.
• Feon Ang : Understand how your work aligns with your purpose. Don’t forget that success belongs to everyone.
• Imani Dunbar : Make mistakes, push boundaries, fail, & learn.
• James Chuong : Be intentional to carve out the time and space so you can reflect. Get feedback and talk to others.
• Josh Graff : Excel at your job and help your boss do their job brilliantly as well.
• Mel Selcher : It’s a much bigger risk to not move forward. Surround yourself with people who know you better than you know yourself and believe in you.
• Mohak Shroff : Instead of complaining, it’s more important to be the person who recognizes opportunities and is part of the solution.
• Teuila Hanson : Assume positive intent, put yourself in a place of curiosity, & try to deeply understand what is happening rather than react. It’s helpful for the people around you and makes you a better leader.
• Tomer Cohen : Embrace a growth mindset with learning, dedication, and hard work. Grow from your mistakes.

#LICareerMonth