Five Top Career Management Tips
By: Shelby Olson, Executive and Career Management Coach, Right Management
Was your New Year’s resolution to enhance your professional success? To help you on this path, read my five top career management tips here and make plans now to attend the 2017 AFG Annual Conference and participate in the new Small Group Coaching. I am leading a Small Group session on “Honing Your Interview Skills” and would love to see you there!
Five Top Career Management Tips
1. Understand that your framework in today’s “World of Work” looks more like a “career jungle-gym” than the “career ladder” or “career lattice” of the past. This will inspire you to consider possibilities that may not always lead you “up a job ladder” in the conventional sense but may provide you with growth and learning opportunities that ultimately lead to more satisfying challenges as your career continues.
2. Give intentional thought and effort to developing your personal brand (your story) and representing it powerfully in the marketplace. This includes verbal, written and on social media platforms. To guide you in this process, you need to be asking yourself: What are my core value propositions? What differentiates me? What are my target “marketplace intersections” for what I have to offer? All of these answers should be informing your story.
3. Always have your marketing collateral updated and ready—your resume, LinkedIn profile, networking brief, bio, and verbal messaging. This will allow you to act quickly should an opportunity arise for which you would like to be considered.
4. Stay in touch with the new developments in your profession and be attentive to the required competencies that will be essential to continued growth and success in your field. And, be proactive about “rounding out your portfolio of competencies.” Be a life-long learner!
5. Make networking a habit. Build it into each week—whether its reaching out with a “how are you doing and let’s catch up” e-mail to a former colleague, or a networking meeting over coffee with someone whose role you might aspire to someday, or attending a professional conference.
Shelby Olson is a Senior Career Management Consultant and Executive Coach and advises clients in the Northern Virginia and Washington D.C. for Right Management. She has coached all levels of leaders within the association, financial services, academic, manufacturing, federal contracting and hospitality sectors and has completed 5000+ hours of coaching over the past ten years. Learn more about Right Management.
Stay tuned to AFG Connections for more top career development tips! Check out the resources shared by our panel at the 2017 AFG National Conference on career conversations, interview prep, and senior executive job searches.
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