Proactively show your strengths
July 17th, 2010 | 
Author: QUESTION:
I have been at my position for three years as a manger and love working here. I would really like to show my team lead that I want to advance within the company. Any suggestions?
ANSWER:
Good for you for taking charge of your career and not waiting for your employer to tell you what to do. Most managers don’t have the time to do that. I really commend you for being proactive and wanting to show the company that you are a valuable asset to them and want to develop yourself as well.
Here’s one idea that I use a lot with my clients. Some of this is adapted from the work of George Johnson and Jeff Staggs, authors of “The 7 Entrepreneurial Skills”.
1. Why not survey the company and come up with a vision of what you can do to make the company better? Determine where in the company a problem might exist, a new challenge or something that you may have an interest in improving. Stumped? Ask yourself these simple questions to start the ball (and your mind) rolling:
• What current projects are being worked on?
• What are the company’s values?
• What are the unmet needs of the company?
• What are other like companies working on?
2. After assessing the needs of your company, start brainstorming ideas for a new vision or project. Don’t limit yourself. Think outside the box and ignore all those “I can’t do that” voices.
3. Develop an outline of the steps you would take to implement the idea. Ask yourself:
• What need will this project or vision fulfill?
• What is the niche this project will be filling?
• Who might you partner with on this project?
• What is the suggested time frame for this project?
• How will this idea be funded?
4. Get feedback. If you are able, ask your peers, your manager or your own staff for their feedback on your idea. Be sure you go to folks whom you can trust and with whom you feel comfortable sharing your idea. Listen to what they have to say and make changes if necessary.
5. Present your idea to management. Recap what you have done, including the assessment, your idea and a rough outline of the plan. Be open to a discussion on how to make it even better. Keep in mind that you are going to them with an idea. It might work, it might not. But you have done something that hopefully will help the company to move forward. What decision maker, president, CEO wouldn’t want that?
I also encourage those of you who have ideas or examples of what you’ve done to advance in their company to send them to me and I will post them on this blog. (You can be anonymous if you want.)
This is all about positioning yourself as a leader and a leader takes charge of his or her career. They create a vision, develop a plan to make it happen and then implement it. It’s now your turn to step up and become a leader in your company. Good luck and let me know how you do!
Original post from “The Career Coach Is In” from The Washington Post.
http://views.washingtonpost.com/on-success/career-coach/
Read other articles here:
http://www.mbrownassociates.com/articles.html
Marshall
http://www.mbrownassociates.com
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