Six Power Practices for Lifelong Career Growth
Posted on June 28, 2023 by Pam McBride, One of Thousands of Executive Coaches on Noomii.
Whether you're job-seeking, career transitioning, or reveling in your current role and want to keep growing, six simple practices will serve you well.
Do you have a favorite piece of career advice that has stuck with you and you wish everyone knew?
Here are a few of mine. They apply whether you’re job-seeking, considering a career transition, or are deliriously happy in the job you already have and want to grow your impact and influence.
1. Know what your dream job is and how it fits with who you are: what you value, what you’re good at, what work you could happily get lost in, where it all fits in with where you’ve been and where you want to go. And then make sure everybody you know knows all that.
2. “Networking” should be abolished as a verb. Activate your existing network (see 1), but also tend to the people in it. Your network consists of everybody you’ve ever known and liked, so reach out and find out how those folks are. No agenda, no asks, just the energy of renewing relationship – it will do you all good.
3. Be curious. You may not be comfortable with small talk, you may hate the idea of asking people for favors, you may not want to “bother” people – so don’t. You’re smart, creative, analytical, and intellectually curious. Use your authentic curiosity to learn what puzzles people are trying to solve, what lights them up about their work, how they might approach a project you’re working on, how their goals relate to things that you want to learn, or whatever YOU really want to know.
4. Always be working on a project related to your career field, whether you’re getting paid or not. Be the role you want to have.
5. Add value. Give support, offer ideas, make introductions, ask great questions, comment meaningfully on content, be a consultant and thought partner for the people who interview you. You have gifts; let them flow.
6. Every experience is full of valuable information that you can use to grow and become that much more awesome. Reflect, draw lessons, apply to the next time. Actively seek feedback and advice. Keep growing.
