Take Action and Keep Active for Career Success

6 June 2016

While luck can, and does play a part in the unfolding of careers most great careers are built on two things:

• Doing good noteworthy work
• Taking small ongoing actions

First and foremost you have to do good, consistent, thorough, well thought out, reliable work.  This is fundamental, not just for those you do the work for, but for yourself.  When you know, and have deep knowledge, that you do good work you develop a sense of pride and self worth that makes you feel good.  This fuels more good work – work that others will notice.  So do your best work every day, again and again.

But secondly, taking small ongoing steps to move your career forward will accelerate this process and ensure you move your career in the direction you want it to go, and get noticed for the things you want to get noticed for.

Achievement

Through her research the inspiring Angela Duckworth (see her TED talk here) has identified the formula for achievement:

Talent x Effort = Skill

Skill x Effort = Achievement

Note in the above equation that Effort counts twice when it comes to achievement.  You need to put effort into developing your raw talents into skills that are valuable.  Then you need to take those skills and put effort into using and developing them in order to achieve. 

Achievement takes effort and effort, quite simply, is the process of taking action again and again and again.  Small, little, drip-by-drip, and day-by-day actions with the occasional (yet rarely needed) more courageous, take you out of your comfort zone, actions.

We Intend To

Most of us have fabulous intentions.  We intend to take the proactive actions we know we need to take to get the kind of success we want in our careers and life.  Yes somehow, something just seems to get in the way.  And the things that do get in the way are often important, alluring and unavoidable – often attached to doing good work.  Yet still we do not take the action that we need to take for our own careers.

Identify What Stops You Taking Action

The first step in taking action in your career is to know what it is that stops you taking action.  The best way to do this is through self-reflection.  Pausing and noticing the thoughts that pop up when you have planned to do something proactive for your career yet don’t do it. 

People I have worked with have reported to me the following common hurdles to taking action on their own careers:

• Procrastination – I’ll do a whole article on this
• Settling – Telling themselves that close enough is good enough
• Discouragement – it’s just feels too hard
• Boredom – which often hints at being in the wrong type of work
• Not feeling it is important enough
• Lack of belief in yourself – who are you to dream
• Fear and a scramble back to their own personal comfort zone
• Fixed mindset thinking and thinking it should be easy – keep an eye out for an upcoming article on this one too
• Lack of focus – not sticking to the plan and taking the actions you have identified.
• Being too kind to yourself – letting yourself off the hook
• Other people’s priorities – bosses, kids, partners, colleagues

Plan to Overcome the Road Blocks

To consistently take action it is necessary to acknowledge and then plan for how you are going to overcome the things that stop you taking action.  A good way to do this is to set up, in advance, what you will do when your distraction comes along and to put in place an “if…then…” intention plan.  Here are a couple of examples of how they work: “If I notice myself telling myself that the next step in my career isn’t important, then I will re-read the list of outcomes I have written about what this career steps will enable for me and those I care about.”, or “If it is Monday morning, then I will set up a coffee catch up with someone during the week.”

If/then intention plans can also be used to set yourself up to actually start doing the action in the first place.  For example: “If it is Friday morning, then I get to work an hour early and work on my resume.”  In research this type of planning has been shown to substantially increase the rate of follow through people have on their actions.

Write Actions Down

Another way to support yourself to take action is to write it down - no matter how small it is.  Writing it makes it real.  Here are some tips for how to support your action by writing it down:

• Write it as something you intend to do, not as something you plan to not do e.g. contribute to at least 1 conversation in meetings, not stop hiding in meetings
• Note down the date on which you will start this action
• Give yourself a start date, time frame for how long it will take you to complete it and completion date
• Identify the physical location in which you will do the action
• Identify resources you may need to do the action
• Think about any sub-steps or preparation actions you need to do first
• Spend time thinking about the distractions that may take you away from the action e.g. other people, email, you own lack of focus…
• Plan how you will bring your self back on track if you do get distracted (e.g. if/then)
• Ask someone to keep you accountable to taking the action

List of Actions to Take for Career Success

By now I hope to have convinced you that you need to get active in your career.  While your career pathway is unique and there are unique actions for you to take here is a list of suggestion actions.  Just choose one and do it well.  Then when that is done choose another and do it well.  Confidence comes as a byproduct of taking action, so just consistently make sure you are doing something, no matter how small, that adds to your career success. 

Some actions to think about doing:

• Dust off your resume.  Spend 10 minutes per day over the next week making small updates.  Then schedule ongoing maintenance every 6 months.  Links for useful resume articles are here and here.
• Set up a coffee catch up with a colleague you don’t normally interact with.  Just chat about what is happening in your industry and look for ways you can be of help to them.
• Write up your values and display them where you will see them.
• Take a strengths assessment to know your strengths.  Again display your strengths where you will see them often.
• Take time to just sit, think and perhaps journal about your purpose.  Keep an eye out for an article coming out soon with a few exercises you can do to explore your purpose.
• Join your professional association to keep abreast of developments in your field.  Then go to events they hold and meet new people in your field.
• Write down a goal you have for the next 6 months in your career.
• Develop you own career decision-making criteria and test the criteria against real job opportunities.
• Develop and/or update your LinkedIn profile and join some groups on LinkedIn you are interested in.
• Do some volunteer work – it doesn’t have to be in an area related to your work – just volunteer and enjoy the benefits of feeling good about yourself and meeting new people.
• Sign up for some training.  If work will pay for it great – if not do it anyway.  A resume with little recent training is not a good look.
• Set yourself some personal targets such as:
• Go to 1 networking event a month and speak to someone you don’t know
• Read one non-fiction, wisdom enhancing, article each week, or book each month
• Once a week send someone in your network an article, or some information they will find useful, or connect them with someone you know they will value knowing
• Take some online self-knowledge tests – links to some good ones are in this article on knowing yourself.
• Practice creating upward spirals of emotional contagion in in your workplace.
• Do something outside of your comfort zone so you get more comfortable with being vulnerable and you get to strengthen your resilience – always a handy strength in your career.
• Take time to identify the bigger meaning of the work you do.  Answer the question: How does what I do, eventually, benefit the world?
• Identify the work you do that takes you into a sense of Flow and look for ways to do more of that work.
• Get a career buddy or set up a career club of people who will talk career with you.
• Make (and keep updating, as we soon forget) a list of your achievements, no matter how small.  This list will be invaluable as a source of stories and inspiration when the next job opportunity comes along.
• Make yourself a list of the skills you want to develop over the next 12 months – post it up somewhere where you will see it often so you keep an eye out for ways to learn or enhance those skills.
• Draw a picture of your career to date and reflect on it to see what you can learn.

Phew… I think that is enough for now:).  I am sure to have more for you in upcoming articles.

When days and days, and weeks and weeks, and months and months go by without you taking proactive action on your career you are relying entirely on the quality of your work to progress your career.  Look around you – the world of work is full of people who are good workers whose careers are languishing.  You don’t have to take big drastic steps, just small, consistent, ongoing, steps to keep focused on the big picture of your career. 

Like falling dominos the smallest of actions build momentum for bigger actions.  And taking action feels good, boosting your mood.  Increased mood supports you to take more action.  It’s a virtuous circle that builds, step by step, a career that meets your definition of success.