Managing A Career

Advancing your position or getting promoted at work can sometimes feel like a struggle. If you are feeling stuck and wondering why you aren't advancing, this week's episode will help you understand the key misconception that most people face and learn some strategies you can put in place to get past it. As we go through childhood, we are often told that through hard work, we can be successful. Whi...

If you pay attention to what is going on within your company you can often see what direction things are going to go. With this warning, you can PRE-act to upcoming changes instead of RE-acting to them. This proactive stance will put you in the best position to succeed when those changes happen. Whether the changes are localized within your department or if there are larger changes coming that imp...

At some point, you may find yourself in a position where you are able to attend an industry conference. When this happens, with enough planning, you can leverage this conference to help advance your career. At any conference, there will be panels, talks, and sessions by industry experts. These can help you understand upcoming changes to any regulations that apply to your industry. They can also of...

I've mentioned Jackie Simon in the past. If you aren't following her on LinkedIn ( https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackiesimon1/ ), you should. She's a leadership coach and regularly posts some insightful content. This week's episode of the ManagingACareer.com podcast is inspired by a post she made this week on Delegation vs Leverage ( https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jackiesimon1_delegating-wont-get-yo...

In today's episode of the ManagingACareer.com podcast, we take a look at a framework you can use to evaluate whether your current role will have a positive impact on your ability to advance your career. This framework is supported by four E's: Enablement, Empowerment, Engagement, and Enthusiasm. Enablement: The first E is Enablement. In Episode 51 - Success or Failure ( https://www.managingacareer...

Having regular conversations with your manager is important to ensure that you are on track for your desired career growth. But just as important is to occasionally have similar conversations with your skip level leaders. When it comes to skip level one-on-ones, there are three key outcomes to look for. First, is to build a relationship with your leaders. Second is to have an opportunity to highli...

I was hosting a coaching call the other day and I wanted to share the problem that we discussed in case you are experiencing a similar situation. The person I was speaking to has an issue where their manager is actively sabotaging their career development. If you want to be successful, you have to take control of your career because no one else will do it for you. And when your leader creates road...

At the time of this episode, we're a little more than halfway through the current year. Most companies have an annual goal setting process and it's a good time to check in on your progress towards those goals. Waiting until the end of the year to review your progress doesn't give you enough time to react and adjust to ensure success. In Episode 47 - Annual Goal Setting ( https://www.managingacaree...

Let's talk about credit. I'm not talking about the financial mechanisms by which you borrow money from a bank using plastic card. I'm talking about the type of credit involved when someone receives recognition for work performed. If we consider our relationship to credit: we can TAKE credit; we can GIVE credit; we can STEAL credit; and we can GIVE AWAY credit. In today's episode, I'm going to talk...

I firmly believe that you have to own your career. If you rely on someone else to drive it, it will likely not go in the direction that you want -- if it actually goes anywhere at all. In each episode of this podcast, I cover a topic that makes you think about your career, but taking action is still up to you. Sometimes, we find ourselves procrastinating even when we know we should be acting. This...

The other day, I saw a post on LinkedIn by Wes Kao the co-Founder of the Maven learning platform. Her post was a synopsis of an issue of her newsletter that really resonated with me ( Link https://newsletter.weskao.com/p/the-unspoken-skill-of-finesse ). It was on the topic of Finesse in Communications. You could also think of it as communicating like a leader. In Wes' article, there was a situatio...

The goal of most people in the corporate world is to get promoted. Along with that promotion is usually personal growth, more responsibility, and increased pay. But, what happens if you find yourself promoted too soon? There could be many reasons that you receive a promotion. Someone more senior could have left -- either the team or the company. You could have also pushed for it with your leaders...

I was reading an article on LinkedIn by Christine Laperriere that was titled "How to get on the AAA team" . This article talks about how a new leader could build a AAA team - a team with the three A's: Accountability, Autonomy, and Authority. From a leader perspective, it's important to build a team that everyone wants to be on, but what about you as an individual, if you are a AAA talent, you can...

The past few weeks, several of us at my job have been working on a slide deck that will be presented to an executive that is a few levels above mine. The final deck is just three slides, but it took a lot of time to get those three slides nailed down to the ideal content. Most of the time was spent on simplifying the content to only the information that the executive would actually care about and...

I was reading through LinkedIn the other day and there was a post by Jason Feifer, the editor in chief of Entrepreneur magazine, where he had made a mistake but owning up to it and correcting the issue lead to an overall great outcome. That post inspired this podcast episode. It can be scary when you make a mistake. Depending on how impactful that mistake is, there is always the possibility of sev...

I focus a lot on the Individual Development Plan or IDP as a tool for managing your career. As a singular document, it encapsulates where you want your career to go and the steps it will take to get there. If you need to review the IDP, refer back to Episodes 036 through 040 where I break down each section. But if you are unsure of what that end goal should be, understanding your WHY may help you...

There is a lot of uncertainty in the job market right now with so many news stories talking about this company or that company laying of large portions of their workforce. If you've been following the guidance that I've shared in the various episodes of this podcast, you've likely done all within your power to keep your name off of "the list", but sometimes, no matter what you do, you could find y...

Manager, Leader, Mentor, Coach; all four can help you advance your career. This week, we take a look at each role and how each one can help you in your quest for a promotion. At the most simplistic level, the roles can be summarized as: A Manager tells you want to do. A Leader enables you so that you can do it. A Mentor shows you how to do it. And a coach changes the way you think about it. Your m...

The other day, while browsing Facebook, a quote appeared on my feed that I found very inspiring. "The only difference between success and failure is the ability to take action" - Alexander Graham Bell. This week, I want to break down why I find this quote so inspiring. In general, I consider myself a fairly successful person. But most of that success has come from not being afraid of the results a...

If you regularly listen to my podcast, it's either because you know me personally and want to help me out (thanks, I appreciate it) or because you found me because you are looking for advice on how to position yourself for a promotion. I hope that you find my advice targeted and actionable while being presented with simple clarity. But, I'll also be the first to tell you that you should listen to...

In Episode 001 , I touched on the subject of Higher Level Tasks . In that episode, I talked about how you can position yourself for advancement by transitioning from process oriented tasks to higher-level tasks that leverage more discretion and judgement. This week, we'll revisit that topic and discuss additional strategies for making this transition. Process oriented tasks are those that follow a...

Early in your career, advancement is generally easier and is just a matter of doing "more"……more tasks, bigger tasks, more responsibility. But, transitioning to senior levels may require a different approach - being more innovative. Senior members of the team are usually expected to bring new solutions, approaches, and ideas to the problems the team tackles. These expectations can best be met by t...

Most companies, at least once per year, go through an annual goal planning process. As part of this process, you are expected to have some number of company-focused goals as well as some number of personal goals. Company goals are usually related to revenue, profit, sales, projects, or initiatives. Your personal goals, however, have more freedom in what they target. With the company goals, you'll...

Periodically, I check back and highlight the last few episodes to remind you of things you can work on to help set you up for career success and this most recent group has a lot of solid content. Episodes 036 to 040 was a five-part series that covered the Individual Development plan in detail. It starts with an Introduction that emphasizes the importance of the IDP and is followed by episodes that...

If your company has a hybrid policy, how can you best use your time in the office? Well, first you should make sure you understand and comply with all aspects of the new policy. Are there specific days that you must be in the office? Do you have a designated space or are you participating in Community shared desk system? Which days and what locations will most of your coworkers leverage when they...