SHOCEO® Reading for Success: Four (4) Minutes.

 

The First Quarter of 2017 has just concluded.  If you work for a corporation, your 2017 has gone something like this:

You came back to work from the holiday season.  You worked some late nights under pressure reconciling the financial books.  You assessed your 2016 sales performance.  You finished entering your final comments on your 2016 self-assessment.

After that, you were told, “It’s going to be a great year, let’s get ready for what results you’re going to deliver in 2017!”  You received some high-level, 2017 Objectives that have been dropped down to you from multiple levels of management above you.

You reviewed those high-level objectives, asked some clarifying questions, and wrote and submitted some objectives based on your current role and job grade.

Kinda the same process and result as last year.

Sigh.

You want more.

But wait.  If you are lucky enough to have a good, caring, and professional manager, you had at least an hour-long conversation about your 2017 Objectives.  You worked together to make sure that the objectives aligned to upward-reaching company goals.  You made sure that the objectives were not “slam-dunks”, per se, but that they were attainable.

You also worked together to include at least one “stretch objective” that pushes you into the territory of the next job grade and performance level.

But what else?  If you’re saying to yourself, “this year looks a whole lot like last year,” it’s time to take a closer look.

 

Career & Development Planning may be your answer.

 

C&D, if done properly, is an extremely effective tool to both (1) build off your current objectives AND (2) raise your game to prepare you to compete for your next role or career move.  If you’re ready to undertake additional responsibility to showcase your capabilities, be sure to follow these tips for success!

Tip #1:  Always be sure that your Career & Development conversations are special.  They should be separate conversations, in different settings, and on a different day than your regular review meetings.  Do not co-mingle your objective conversation and your Career & Development conversation.

Tip #2:  If your desire is to obtain additional training, attend a conference, or have your employer invest in you (either with releasing you from your day-to-day duties and/or with paying your travel and registration fees), find a way to demonstrate how you’re going to bring back those new skills and that new knowledge…and have a plan to really showcase how you are applying them to your current job.

Put your plan on paper!  Use that favorite pen you used when you consulted your expert and made some good business decisions:

Tip #3:  Align with your manager to revisit your Career & Development Plan AT LEAST quarterly.  Set up the meetings yourself if your manager forgets or is reluctant.  Be professionally persistent to show your commitment.  And when the update meetings come, always, always be prepared for those conversations with updates and examples of performance against your agreed-to plan.

Did you craft a 2017 Career & Development Plan?  Subscribe to the blog, and share below!

xo Kathryn