This is Laura Lee Rose, a business and life coach that specializes in professional development, time management, project management and work-life balance strategies. In my IT Professional Development Toolkit – I go through the: who, what, where, when, and how of the below. If you are interested in more training in these areas, please sign-up for the continuing online coaching series.
Do you feel your career has stalled? Chances are that there are some things that you are doing to kill your own career. Check this list to see where you stand.
1) Singular focus on doing a great or perfect job on your assigned tasks and responsibilities
– Many professionals complain that they work 10-12 hours a day to do an excellent job on their tasks. Then they complain that they still only get “Average” or “Meet expectations” in their performance review — when they feel they deserve an Exceptional or Excellent rating. The fact is that employers pay you to do excellent work in your assigned tasks. They expect you to be exceptional in your field of expertise. Therefore, you are ‘meeting expectations’. To get an “Above Expectation” rating — you need to offer something in addition to your defined tasks.
2) No career vision or plan.
-Many people don’t take the time to design a career development plan. They don’t sit down and envision where they really want to be in 10 years. It’s something people do when they first get out of college. But once they get a job in their profession, they often allow the company (or their manager) manage their career at that point. Managers intend to look out for their employees and do what’s best for both their employees and company. But if the employee doesn’t clearly articulate what the employee really wants in their own career, the managers don’t know what is best for the employee. Because employees are not taking ownership for their own career plans, companies/mangers often direct their resources (employees) to fill the companies’ gaps.
3) Lack of imagination in your career vision.
-When asked, “What do you want in your career?” or “Where do you see yourself in five years”; most people say, “I just want to still have a job.” Doing the same thing, the same say — will keep you in the same place. Merely doing a good job at what you are asked to do — will keep you stalled. Having a larger vision of where you want to be – gives you an exciting roadmap. For instance, if you decide you want to own your own company in 10 years, you will realize that your technical background is fine — but you lack the Big Picture and marketing savvy. So — now you have identified some gaps that you need to fill for your longer-term goals. Now you can start filling in those gaps (perhaps taking on a temporary position with sales and marketing to help fill in that portfolio).
4) Not aligning your performance with the company bottom line.
– Companies are in business to make money. If you are assigned to projects and products that are not making money, then you are not contributing to the company bottom line. By not taking ownership of your own future (delegating your career progress to your manager) – you may feel like you are being ‘the good soldier’ – but you are losing the fight. You need to understand the company vision, mission and goals — and then quantify your own performance according to those company goals. Otherwise, you are killing your career.
5) Not ‘project managing’ your own career.
– Most complain that they don’t have time to do anything ‘extra’ because they are already overworked. They are too busy doing their assigned tasks — and don’t have time to focus on their own individual development plans and career growth. Your career is one of your most important project that you will ever have. You are the one accepting the various tasks from your managers, coworkers, and sibling departs. You have the power to properly manage your time and projects. Your employer is a ‘blind waiter’. They will continue to pour until you say ‘when’. YOU are responsible for saying ‘stop’. If you don’t project manage your own career and life, you won’t be able to be, have and do whatever you want.
6) Blaming other people for your work-load.
– Along the lines of the above. You feel that you are being a ‘good soldier’ when you take on other people’s work. You feel you are a good team player to accept interruptions and urgent, last minute requests. Even though you are behind in your other commitments, your solution is to merely work harder and longer to catch up. As a result, you continue to fall behind, churn among several tasks and fail on all of them. You blame other people for giving you so many last-minute requests. It may make you feel better to blame others, but you are the one responsible for accepting and making those commitments. And it’s your career on the line – not theirs.
7) Not understanding what is expected of you
– Not documenting your responsibilities and SMART goals in reaching your departments business goals. Employees need to understand their company and their department’s business goals and commitments. Employees also need to understand how their role and responsibilities support those company and business goals. Employees and managers need to outline their own Personal Business Commitment (PBC) document – to achieve their department goals. Documenting your SMART goals with your manager’s approval, should be used for your performance evaluation review. If you know upfront – what is expected of you (i.e. your PBC with your SMART goals) – you are more likely to get a good performance rating.
8) Not making use of Change Management
– The above PBC is a living document. The only thing that is constant is change. Therefore, the better you can manage change, the better for you. Every time a new task, new project or new request comes to you – you need to do a Change Management process on it. You need to review the priority, consequences, stakeholders involved, and what will come off your plate to accomplish the task. Just because a request comes to you NOW — doesn’t mean that it’s an urgent or even important request. It just means that the request is coming in NOW. You need to review the priority against your other tasks and what will be delayed, delegated, diminished, and deleted because of it’s addition.
9) Assuming your manager know all the answers
– Beware of the high-level dumb. Just because your manager suggests you do the task in A,B,C,D steps — doesn’t mean that A,B,C,D is the most effective or efficient way to do it. Your manager doesn’t really care HOW it is done. He/she just wants is done accurately, on-time and with quality. If you can accomplish the essence of the goal with high quality, precision and reduced time — he/she will be happy. If you do exactly what people are telling you — then you are not illustrating your expertise, creativity, and initiative. You won’t get gold stars for doing what other people tell you to do. That illustrate that you are a good follower — but not a leader.
10) Not asking for help
– Many feel that asking for help illustrates a lack of competence and ability. People rather deliver something late, instead of owning up that they are running into a roadblock or challenge. You feel that you will figure it out — if you work harder and longer on it. You know everyone is overworked and don’t want to bother them. Instead, you just stay isolated, with head-down to get your work done. In the meantime, you have become the bottleneck in the critical path. By being transparent in everything that you do, you can avoid many of these bottlenecks. High-performers are not ‘all things to all people’. They just seem that way, because they know who to go to for mentoring and coaching. Take the time to do a self-assessment of your skills and skill gaps. Line up the appropriate mentors and coaches to fill those gaps.