Want to Accelerate Your Career Development? 6 Steps to Start

During National Career Development Month, begin setting the foundation for success in 2023 by investing in your career development. An unending process for advancement and survival, career development is vital during the middle (becoming a manager) and later (reaching executive levels) stages of a person’s career. Increasing responsibility and demands throughout your career are overcome with continued development. Let’s start your journey with these six key steps.

Career Development Benefits

Career development helps identify, prioritize and address areas of focus that you or your manager have determined are necessary to bring mastery, growth or variety to your career. It encompasses activities you undertake to increase performance in your current role or to prepare yourself for a new, larger or expanded set of responsibilities.

The advantages of career development for an employee and organization include:

Improving effectiveness by staying up-to-date on current and emerging technologies or practices
Gaining readiness to take on broader or new responsibilities
Developing interpersonal skills for managing conflict, building consensus and handling stress
Becoming more marketable internally or externally
Increasing job satisfaction and engagement

A robust career development program is a must for organizations to attract and retain top talent. According to a recent Gallup study:

87% of millennials say professional growth and career development are very important.
76% of employees are looking for opportunities to expand their careers.
94% of employees say they would stay at a company longer if it invested in their learning and development.

Steps to Boost Career Development

Here are the steps to begin focusing on your career development:

1. Partner with a Career Coach

There’s a saying that, “There’s no growth in your comfort zone, and there’s no comfort in your growth zone.”

Especially in uncertain times, it’s easy to:

Become complacent with the familiar
Settle for “good enough, for now”
Worry that your performance has leveled off or isn’t distinguishable from your peers
Feel unsure about how or whether to make a change

Career coaching provides a partner to get you out of your comfort zone and help guide your career path. This is achieved through developing a comprehensive strategy to identify your core strengths and values, as well as eliminate and shift beliefs or fears that are holding you back. This inspires action and builds momentum to improve your career growth and achieve your professional goals.

If your path is to make a career change, your career coach assists you in creating a powerful and compelling resume and LinkedIn profile, prepare for job interviews, and designing your overall job search strategy.

In addition to shifting out of your comfort zone, a career coach helps you:

2. Discover Your True Passion

Imagine you’re wholly committed and have unwaveringly high energy for the goals you want to achieve. You embrace complete ownership for what you’re setting out to accomplish, operate in alignment with your strongest values and motivators, and are completely confident you will transcend any obstacle that arises.

In other words, you’re unstoppable!

Discovering your true passion will unlock your potential, eliminate any blocks or beliefs that stand in your way, and support you in tapping into your creativity and intuition to bring about the change you seek.

The ways to uncover your passion include:

Getting to your “why”: This is your “noble purpose.” It’s the fire in your belly that drives you to do what you do. Reflect on your “why” and write it down in no more than 15 words. If it’s longer than that, it’s too complex.
Writing your vision statement: Imagine it’s one year from now and you’ve accomplished all you set out to achieve. What are you doing professionally? How do you feel? What experiences are you getting? Write it in the present tense, as if it has already occurred. Use statements like “I am…” instead of “I will.” Take 10 or 15 minutes to write your vision. Let your creativity and intuition flow.
Framing your goals in terms of your “why” and your vision: Find that connecting thread between your deepest motivations and what you’re setting out to achieve. You’ll find new sources of inspiration, to take on challenges and develop solutions with increased clarity and confidence.

“There’s no growth in your comfort zone, and there’s no comfort in your growth zone.”

3. Build a Support Plan

Share your goals! Along with your coach, find colleagues and friends who will advocate for you, support you and hold you accountable for doing what you commit to do. Enlist others to be thought partners with you. This will help in those moments where you’re too much “in your head” and need support raising your perspective, thinking bigger or challenging what’s holding you back.

There are multiple benefits to doing this. Speaking about your big goals shifts you from “willing to dream” to the “courage to dare and do.” It also enlists allies to bring your dreams and career development priorities to reality.

4. Increase Your Awareness

Gain a deeper understanding of the day-to-day behaviors that facilitate or hinder your:

Resilience, drive and energy
Getting along with others
Conscientiousness and problem-solving ability

Then, become clear on how these factors are amplified or diminished when you’re under stress or heavy workloads. In other words, know your reputation. What we believe to be true about ourselves may not align with how others see us. Understanding and narrowing the gaps between our self-perception and our reputation are vital to our professional and personal growth.

360 feedback and other assessment tools such as the Hogan Assessment and Energy Leadership Index (ELI) are valuable in identifying these gaps and prioritizing career development focus areas.

5. Develop Your Skills

Technical skills, those that enhance your ability to perform or leverage specialized knowledge on a particular subject matter, are vital throughout your career. Their focus is on how well you produce according to the requirements of the job.

Depending on your role, or the role you desire, among others they include:

Programming and coding
Data analytics
Project management
Technical writing
Specialized tools, applications, or equipment
Design
Skills specific to certain industries (e.g., accounting and finance, biotechnology)

Building this skill set can be a significant differentiator earlier in one’s career. Over time and at more senior levels, however, it’s the “power” skill set (formerly known as “soft skills”) that has a greater impact on distinguishing performance.

While the focus of technical skills is on performance or production, the focus of power skills is on improving how rewarding it is for others to interact with you.

These include:

Interpersonal and emotional intelligence (EQ) skills
Problem-solving and critical thinking skills
Communication skills
Leadership presence
Self-direction
Collaboration
Adaptability

Building your skill sets – technical and power – should be an ongoing focus at every stage of your career. Doing so increases your effectiveness ensures a balance between “what” you accomplish and “how” you go about doing it.

6. Shift Your Mindset

In her book “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success,” author Carol Dweck contrasts having a fixed mindset vs. a growth mindset.

People who possess a fixed mindset operate from a position of lack. They believe that their traits, skills and intelligence are largely unchangeable and stable over time. They also hold onto the belief that one’s past determines one’s future.

Their career development focus is highly constrained, so taking on or learning something new can be exceedingly difficult. Having a performance gap or struggling with something in the past means they can’t expect to improve in the future.

Contrast this with a growth mindset, where one believes that they are capable of learning and improving through effort. Possessing a growth mindset means there’s much greater motivation and confidence to gain the knowledge and skills necessary for successful careers. It also builds resilience for dealing with setbacks or unintended outcomes because it fosters the belief that there’s something to learn and gain from every experience.

For more on the importance of possessing a growth mindset, check out Carol Dweck’s TED Talk.

Join Forces with a Career Coach

Career development is a necessity at the different stages of your professional life, which start with the shift from school to work. Planning for a promotion, leading a team or organizational transformation, making a career change, and running a line of business all require specialized skills and insight. Working with a career coach will help you navigate career challenges and give you a competitive edge to secure your long-term success.

Are you interested in learning more about how 4D Career Transition Coaching by Leading Edge can support you? Book a complimentary discovery call today.