Month: June 2015

Build a Brand and a Web 

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In today’s organization structures there are less vertical opportunities. This means you should look for horizontal opportunities as well. Why is this important? Well, looking at horizontal opportunities helps to set you up for an even more dynamic career path by increasing the variety in your experiences. Looking horizontally as well can allow you to develop a different career path with more opportunities than your previous. You never know who you will get the opportunity to work with! 

In addition, by looking horizontally you can also focus on building a brand instead of a title. Titles do not help others learn how to best leverage us. If you can brand yourself, you will become more recognizable for your talents not your job description. Your unique talents that only you bring to the table will now be on display to help you ultimately move up in title without “chasing the title” vertically.

Your Own Role in your Development Plan

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When looking for development opportunities note that this is not just your manager’s job. You need to sit in the driver sit while looking to your leadership and organization to provide support and resources for internal opportunities.

You should speak with your manager about your interests/goals and voice aspirations regarding your career goals. You should also align your personal goals with your current talent/skills and experiences. However, you should not only align your personal goals with your skill set but also align with the company’s priorities.

It is important to actively seek and express interest in new responsibilities or assignments in order to show your leadership your strong desire to grow.

It will help to develop a personal plan for development/learning to fill skill gaps or knowledge gaps as well as strengthen existing skills. If you show this to your manager and/or leadership you will empower your manager to assist you in your development. This is imperative as you want your manager to provide honest feedback and engage in where you are leading  with your career.