Career Success: Take Charge of Your Career

People react very differently to the waves of change that suddenly flood the work and marketplace. Some, who feel confused or unsettled struggle to keep their heads above water gasping for air. By contrast, others, who may not even like or agree with the changes, nevertheless accept them, get on with their lives and swim forcefully to their new destination. The following three tactics will help you mobilize your resources to take charge of their careers.

Fuel the Fire In Your Heart.

Live your life and career with intention. The key to sustained peak performance is discovering who you are, what you want in life, and then confidently pursue it. Remember, if you don't have your own mission or purpose get one, or otherwise, all you can do is sign up for someone else's. Remember, if you don't know where you're going, how will you know that you've arrived?

Start by develop a career line. Prepare a graph that outlines your career highs and lows from your first job to the present. What kinds of activities were you involved in during your highs - during your lows? Continue this getting to know yourself process by locating your inner energy source. What really gets the juices flowing for you? Is it challenge? Helping other? Being creative? Having authority? Making an impact? Whatever motivates you, write it on a card and look at it every morning.

During times of change and uncertainty, you must realize that it's often your outlook or your attitudes--- what you bring to work, not what work brings to you---that determines your career success. Can you look at what's happening in the workplace and not take it personally? Can you accept the luck of the draw and move on? Can you bounce back on your own rather than allow yourself to wallow in negative emotions? You must learn to accommodate adversity. It can either break or build character. Which is it doing for you?

Forget Being the Lone Ranger.

Are you familiar with the saying: "It's not what you know, .but who you know." Well in today's changing work world, the new saying is: "It's not only what you know, it's not only who you know, but, as important, it's who knows you and your work."

First thing to do is to inventory your network. List all the key people in your career world. Are your contacts mostly within your area? Or are there linkages into different departments, divisions, subsidiaries? What about outside your company? What kinds of relationships do you have? Hi and Good by? Or Hi! What have you been doing? Develop relationships with a whole array of people. It's your ticket to career advancement and success.

Know and be known. Work groups or teams, not hierarchies, are now doing the real work in today's workplace. How are you going to find out about the latest hot project? How are key people going to know about you and your talents? An active network is the most effective tool fin this age of uncertainty. Realize that contacts are the bread of career life. In times of change, information and relationships are a source of power.

Don't Just Stand There, Do Something.

Recognize a successful career in not a spectator sport. Opportunities do not just get placed on your desk. Organizations will no longer provide you with clearly defined career paths. Don't be an absentee landlord and neglect your personal career management. Know what you want and actively seek it out. Take charge of your career. Remember, if you don't control your own destiny, no one else will.

Start by doing a career check up. Ask yourself: "Where am I? Where do I want to go? What are some paths to get me there? What are possible barriers? What are my supports? What resources am I going to need? How will I get these resources?" Failure to take charge of your career leaves you a victim of your own neglect and the changing workplace.

Always have several options in your back pocket. Focus on career contingency planning. Do you have a Plan A, a Plan B, and even a Plan C? What conditions could possibly change in your job; your company; or your industry? Do you have a clear idea where you could jump if unexpected roadblocks arise? Where else can you apply your skills and showcase your talents? A successful career is not fixed in stone, but is fluid and subject to change.

Remember, the Name of the Game Is Action.

Make sure your career goals are not stranded on a island called: "Someday I'll..........." If you want something, don't just think or talk about it. Figure out a way to make it happen. Set specific goals. Develop action plans. Have realistic timetables. Find the resources you need. Keep alive in today's rough seas and begin preparing for tomorrow's raging waters.

Marcia Zidle, a business and leadership development expert, works with entrepreneurial organizations who want to be a dominant player in competing for customers, clients, funding or community awareness.

In the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy say, ?Toto, I have a feeling we?re not in Kansas anymore?. Well business, government and community leaders, Marcia says, ?It?s no longer business as usual anymore; its business that has to better than usual.?

Do you want to be better than usual? Then subscribe to Making Waves! a free monthly e-newsletter with quick lessons on better, faster, smarter ways to lead. Sign up now at http://www.LeadersAtAllLevels.com and get a 35 page bonus e-book: Make Bold Change! 101 Ways to Stomp Out Business As Usual. Or contact Marcia directly at 800-971-7619.

Your Career Objectives: Who's in Charge?

Your career objectives: Who's in charge of your career?

If you've worked for several employers and possibly in more that one career you know how important it is to keep up with technical changes in your career, new advancements in your industry and your continuing career growth and development.

Although many companies realize how important it is to stay competitive through added training of their employees many do not have the resources to cover all the needs of their staffs.

So the proper obligation to advance and grow your career and keep up with the related knowledge rests with you. Here are some ideas to advance your professional and career growth:

Life-time learning: The key to reaching your career objectives and building your skills is a robust plan of life-time learning and self-study.

With the internet the source of information is almost limitless. Briefly, here are some starting points to consider:

1. Keep up with your career and industry by reading at least one all-purpose business magazine and one industry publication. Use your down time, like waiting or your lunch hour, to keep current with your reading. Whenever you come across something of interest, summarize it and send it other members of your department and your boss.

2. Plan to read at least one career or business related book each month. Whenever possible add another book of topical interest.

3. Discover on-line learning. There are literally dozens of distance learning courses. Many are free, on video and podcasts. Make it a point to keep abreast of what is available and build this important learning resource into your plan. The positive impact on your career will be swift and immediate as you learn new skills, improve your strengths and eliminate areas of weakness.

4. Your learning should never stop. Your local junior college and university has a roomful of continuing education courses. Many can be completed with only one classroom session a month with the balance online. Moreover, some can lead to career related certifications. Others include learning a new language, expanding on computer systems and software skills or just exploring information for a possible career change.

Learning from others: As you get more involved in your professional association look for someone who can advise you about your career and your overall career objectives. Be considerate of their time and plan on meeting periodically to review your progress and to work through issues that may have cropped up.

Within your company, your career association or in your volunteer work you will be working with and observing others who are very successful in one or more phases of their careers. Whenever possible ask them for some time to explain and show you how they reached the top of a particular skill.

If it's some study or practice they suggest add the items to your study plan. Keep them involved in your progress.

In addition, if you see someone who is routinely unsuccessful at some activity that of course is something to stay away from.

If you get stuck in some aspect of your career, you can always find someone who can give you advice and counsel on that particular issue. Career coaches are everywhere, talk to others and get their recommendations.

Get your boss involved: When you have an outline of your career development plan drafted; plan a meeting with your boss. Discuss your overall goals and how and when you expect to achieve them. Get feedback on your priorities and carefully consider any suggestions your boss may have.

Going forward keep your boss informed as each planned milestone is reached and any other achievements related to your career plan.

Learning from outside activities: If your career has a local career based organization, you can profit in a variety of ways. It's a great opportunity to network. Local meetings have speakers where you can learn more about your career and industry related trends.

You should be able to participate on committees and assist in membership drives and conferences. Many professional groups have training courses and possible certifications.

Newsletters, emails and websites will keep you current on news important to your career. Also, there will be opportunities to write articles for the newsletter and website.

Another valuable outside activity is volunteering and working with others. You expand your network of contacts and build important skills such as; leadership, teamwork, marketing and communications.

Summary: Your career plan is a long-term commitment. Stay flexible and adjust your goals as your interests and skills change. Your career success goes beyond a particular job as you are constructing both a career and a life.

John Groth has changed careers seven times during his working life. Learn more about changing careers and career planning at http://careersafter50.com. Discover how others over age 50, built winning career plans and found the right careers by career growth after 50.

How To Take Charge Of Your Career

You want the job! You feel that this is the career path for you! You go for the interview and impress your interviewer. Next you got the job! You are now at the top of the world.

Then when the natural 'high' of getting the job is over you fall into a rut of things. Your career seems mundane. You feel that there is no more challenge in what you are doing. You feel that perhaps it's time to change your career.

But wait! Can you guarantee that the next career will be an interesting one? Or is history going to repeat itself all over again?

There is no success formula for your career. You are your career. Period! It is what you make out of it. Your career succumbs to the natural law of selection in that if you do not want your career to become extinct than you need to nurture it. To do that you need to adapt to change. As naturalist Charles Darwin puts it: "It is not the strongest nor the most intelligent of the species that survive; it is the one most adaptable to change." To prevent such a catastrophic extinction of your career you need to create your own personal vision and as management 'guru' Stephen R Covey mentions as one of the habits of highly effective people to "begin with the end in mind."

Once you got the career you want you need to create a short-term, mid-term and a long-term career plan.

Short-term Career Plan

A short-term career plan can be from six months to two years. Here you can maximize your potential by learning everything about your trade, networking and understanding your roles, responsibilities and function in your career. This is also a volatile period in your career as others might intend to topple you or the challenges you face might seem overwhelming and impossible.

There is a saying which goes: "Just when you see the light at the end of the tunnel it turns out to be an on-coming train." This means that you need to be very clear and focus on what you really want if you are going to come out of the 'tunnel'. Otherwise you are going to get run over by the 'on-coming train' which represents all the resistance and oppositions that you will face in your career.

Mid-Term Career Plan

Your mid-term career plan can be three to five years. By now you should be professionally competent in your job. You might be highly efficient in what you are doing but the question is whether you are highly effective as well.

Efficiency is basically about doing things right. Being effective is doing the right things right. This means that you need to continuously analyse your original career goals to see whether they are still relevant in your industry. Staying relevant and able to respond effectively to the changing environment is crucial to your career success. Mr Lee Kwan Yew succinctly said: "It's the ability of a people to respond quickly to the unexpected that decides whether they survive, or they are swept aside by events."

This is the period where boredom begins setting in as you start enveloping yourself in a comfort zone. The original sweet taste of success starts to wither away and you feel that you are in the rut. Just like an aging car, your need to do a complete overhaul if need be to make sure that your performance is still intact.

Long Term Career Plan

Your long-term career plan is anything from five years and beyond. There's the danger that you might get entrenched in your comfort zone such that it will become difficult to manage your career. Further you may find yourself having the fear of redundancy. If you are unable to make the changes necessary and take charge of your career you may very well be writing your own career epitaph.

This is the time you need to "rewire" yourself. Throw out the old school of thoughts if you have to and embrace the new work philosophy. Accept and adopt new ways of doing things, attend relevant training courses, learn a new skill and keep identifying new business avenues to exploit.

This might all sound exceedingly insurmountable; however it is easier to make small changes in gradual steps then making one giant leap. Dutch painter, Vincent Van Gogh said: "Great things are done by a series of small things brought together."

This is the time when you can be an inspiration to others. Engage yourself in a transfer of your knowledge. When you teach you learn. And most importantly remain teachable. When you've come this far you might be fearful of failure and this kills your entrepreneurial spirit.

Be receptive in trying new things in every aspect of your life. Do not be afraid of failure. You may not succeed at first but as Lloyd Jones said: "The men who try to do something and fail are infinitely better than those who try nothing and succeed."

Dr Daniel Theyagu is a corporate trainer and seminar leader who has designed and conducted competency-based training for more than 150 organizations. He is based in Singapore and can be reached at dtheyagu@singnet.com.sg Website: http://www.thinklaterally.com