Career Reflection for 2016

19 December 2016

We are approaching the end of the year and after you have done the Christmas shopping, wrapped the presents, stuffed your self on Christmas Day and done the myriad of other things there will come a pause which is a natural time for reflection.  Like many people you may decide to, and I would encourage you to, self-assess how successful 2016 was in terms of your career. 

Calling on wise thinkers throughout history who have highlighted that the better the quality of question you ask the better the quality of answer you will receive I have listed below a series of questions and sub-questions to give you insights into key areas that often signify career success. 

I invite you to carve yourself out a nice quite space where you won’t be interrupted, take some time and reflect without rushing your answers.  Even ponder these questions over a couple of days.  Write down your answers so you can come back to them at some point in the future.

Are you making progress?

Research shows that making progress at work is more motivating than almost anything else so a first area to reflect upon is where and how you have made progress in the last year.  Consider the wide range of areas in which you may have made progress including: relationship development, financial advancement, growth of knowledge and skills, increase in reputation and influence, moving forward with projects and/or products, bringing forth creative and innovative ideas, learning new things, bouncing forward resiliently during change…

In the major areas of your work do you feel you made no, little, a good amount or a significant amount of progress this year?

If you felt you made progress what was the progress you made?

Were the areas you made progress in areas that you believe are meaningful and make a difference? 

If so what is the difference that your progress made?

What changes or adjustments have you made to your daily work this year to make you more productive?

How good are your workplace relationships?

The quality of your working relationships has a significant impact on career success.  No matter what career goals you are pursuing they will be helped or hindered in subtle ways by the people around you.  Gain insight into how valuable you are to others and how valuable they are for you.

List the 5 people you most interact with day to day in your work.  For each of these people on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is low and 10 is high, rate the relationship against the following areas:

The level of positive emotion you have around that person
The level of generous helping that individual extends to you (their generosity with their time, ideas, contacts, resources…)
The level to which that person stretches and develops you
Are there people you would like to have more interaction with through the work you do?  If so list them.

Are you able to genuinely call at least one person you work with a friend?

Who did you actively invite into your network of workplace relationships in the last year?

Give yourself a rating on a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is low and 10 is high, for the degree to which you feel you have been generously helpful to your colleagues.

On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being drained and 10 being high, how energised has your generosity left you feeling?

Does your work engage you?

The degree of challenge and skill you use in your work impacts greatly on the degree of engagement you feel.  As you become more skilled your work needs to give you, or you need to seek out, greater challenges to avoid becoming bored.

How often do you become so engaged with what you are doing at work that time flies by – rarely, occasionally, regularly, often, all the time?

What have you done to stretch yourself out of your comfort zone in the past year (e.g. new skills you have learnt, courageous actions you have taken or ideas you have embraced)?

What new skills have you learnt this year and/or what skills have you deepened?

What challenges have you taken on?

Recall and list the times you have shown grit and perseverance in the last year.  How has this paid off for you?

Do you have fun at work?

It is very beneficial if work is a source of positive emotions.  When you feel good you learn better, are more creative and intuitive, see more ways to achieve outcomes, are more helpful, more resilient, healthier and perform better.  The following questions will help you ponder how much positive emotion you experience in your workplace.

Have you laughed as much as you would like to at work over the last year?

Thinking in general terms what positive to negative ratio do you believe you have experienced in your work life (e.g. do you generally have a 3 to 1 ratio where you have 3 positives to every negative, or is your ratio lower or higher)?  The work of Barbara Fredrickson suggests we need at least a 3:1 ratio as a minimum to stay neutral, let alone flourish.

How often (never, rarely, regularly, or often) do you experience the following emotions at work?

Awe
Joy
Gratitude
Serenity
Interest
Hope
Pride
Amusement
Inspiration
Love (good feelings for others rather than the romantic type)
Over the last year what small things have you done to increase the level of positive emotion where you work?

How much do you care about the work you do?

Doing work that you find personally meaningful not only increases motivation it also gives you a sense of having a positive inner work life.  When you are able to connect to the bigger picture of the work you do you put in more discretionary effort, believe that more is possible and subsequently have a greater impact.

How has the work you have done this year made a positive difference to something beyond just you?  What has that difference been?

How has the work you have done this year contributed to your own life goals and aspirations?

You will have your own definition of career success and may find it valuable to add additional questions to those outlined above.  Ask yourself high quality questions that lead to greater learning and insight.  Often we ask ourselves black and white or right and wrong questions, which can lead to self-judgement rather than energy for growth.

Round out your reflection with one final question.

What can I learn from this reflection?

Note:  For those of you who did these reflection questions at the end of last year take time to do this current reflection before looking at the past one.

Keep an eye out for my next article which follows up on this one and helps with outlining your career hopes in the new year.

Wishing you a flourishing career

Katherine