Taking control of your career is not easy. Time is at a premium and managing the future is secondary when coping with the present is so demanding. People are under daily pressure to deliver results - no matter what their job or where they work. People have to move fast so there is little time for them to step outside the organization and review their career.
The first step, therefore, is to make the time. If you don't know where your career is going in the short to medium term, how can you manage it effectively? If you don't make the time you will never know what you are doing, where you are going and, perhaps, what you are missing.
Step 2: Find someone to talk to
It is important at all stages in this process to remember that you aren't alone.
The obvious internal source of support in an organization is the personnel department. Though they can be helpful they are, by their very position, part of the organization. It is, therefore, very hard for internal IR or personnel people to give an objective view of the possible paths your career could take. If you are part of a company appraisal system, this might offer another way forward. However, conventional appraisal systems have often proved unable to cope with the continual tide of change. Typically, an organization can find that when it comes to a year-end appraisal of managers' performance half have either moved elsewhere in the company or have left. This makes it almost impossible for internal departments to keep abreast of the career and development needs of individuals.
With objective and up-to-date views difficult to find within the organization, it might be useful to turn to external consult-ants for one-to-one career counseling. This is something an increasing number of organizations are using. The personal approach is most obviously useful when managers are made redundant. However, it clearly has potential benefits for those still in work who are unsure as to the direction of their careers or which skills they will need in the future. Of course, the catch for employers is that the consultants may well be advising managers that their next move should be elsewhere. In some cases companies bring in career counselors when they are looking to make people redundant; one-to-one counseling helps identify who really wants and needs to work elsewhere and who are the people who would benefit themselves and the organization by staying.
One manager who benefited from the one-to-one approach is Bill Harris. Made redundant by Westland in 1992, he worked together with Coutts Career Consultants to examine his future career possibilities. Coutts' counseling program for senior managers is labeled as a 'safe house', time for managers to review - in confidence - their career to date and develop and assess their future direction. Bill Harris cites career counseling as the major factor in his decision to become a self-employed consultant after a career in large organizations.
The range of career alternatives open to me was diminishing,' he says. The career counseling enabled me to take stock of myself and my career. If you have spent your career working for a company you are concerned with the day-to-day business of managing rather than thinking about what kind of person you are or what kind of skills you have. I hadn't actually thought about running my own business before and thought I was destined to continue as a corporate career man.
The counselling convinced me I had what it takes to succeed by myself. It provided powerful reinforcement and support.' Bill Harris is now established as an independent management consultant based on the Isle of Wight.
Step 3: What are your strengths and weaknesses?
Having made the time - even a few hours thinking about what you would like to do is a start, and may even be enough - you have to be able to look at your strengths and weaknesses in an objective way. This is something most of us are unused to and not necessarily very good at. Indeed, you may have to break the habits of a life-time. Traditionally, self-analysis has not been a prerequisite for career success.
Taking control of your career involves two basic skills:
- Insight - You have to have a realistic view of your own strengths and limitations. This is something people are often particularly poor at - they don't know what their strengths are and where they would be best used.
- Being proactive - No-one else is going to do it for you. You have to actively seek out opportunities and be prepared to take personal risks. Talented people have always taken their development and careers seriously. They know their strengths and where they would be best utilized.
- Successful people - no matter what their occupation - tend to have a happy knack of being in the right place at the right time all the time. They are adept at using their skills where they are needed most. This appears to be commonsense -after all Manchester United doesn't play Ryan Grantedgs as a defender; surgeons don't answer the telephone. But in many companies people's strengths aren't played to - or sometimes even recognized. Taking hold of your career must begin with an awareness of yourself. What suits you? What do you enjoy and what are you good at?
- Self-awareness is the key to successful career management. You need to realize that you have to have knowledge and experience. In reality, a lot of people are more interested in papering over the cracks rather than harnessing their capabilities. People aren't comfortable with failure and regard admitting to development needs as a sign of weakness rather than something which is positive and that will have long-term benefits. Accepting that you are far from perfect and do not possess every single skill and ability that your working life requires, demands a degree of humility. We know we are not perfect, but we tend to leave it at that. Self-awareness is the key to successful career management. You need to realize that you have to learn. For many people this means that they have to learn how to learn.
