Career development isn’t achieved overnight, rather, it’s a life-long journey. This is something you work on throughout your professional life, with no perfect, singular path to be followed. Developing your career includes all the traditional markers of success such as getting a promotion, securing a pay rise or excelling at performance review time. However, it also includes putting strategies in place that help you manage the more testing or demanding moments in your career.
Once we graduate from college or university and land a job, our next immediate concern is how to succeed in career. Because the world has become so competitive, doing well in your job and moving forward with your career is more important now than ever. Career advancement and recognition are on every professional’s list of goals. But what sets the exceptional professionals apart? The answer is simply willingness and a strong desire to perform well. Once you have the willingness and the right mindset, you can begin climbing the ladder.
So, to do that and to be different from other 9 people, who are sitting next to you every day, what should you do? We can simply follow at least the below 6 rules to make a difference in our workplace which will help us to excel in our career.
- Be dedicated, truly:
Nothing comes
across as easily as a person who is truly dedicated in whatever they do.
Of course, you cannot fake true dedication; therefore, the only way to be truly
dedicated is by either be actually interested in the job, or at least believe
in whatever you are doing. If you are truly dedicated to the job, your
dedication will not go unnoticed. You will be rewarded with professional
growth. Therefore, for example do not hesitate to come with new ideas to your
executives.
- Happy to learn:
To excel in your career, you have to be willing to learn. No matter what university you graduated from or what grades you had, professional life will be very different from college. Be prepared to have a million questions pop up every day regarding what you’re doing. It might take you days to get a hang of your duties at your new job, so show management that you are coachable, paying attention and always willing to learn new things.
- Innovative:
Today’s career requirements are highly developed and require much more than someone who won’t take risks. In today’s competitive career landscape, employers are looking for individuals who can bring fresh ideas to the table and take initiative, start new projects, pitch new solutions and create new opportunities for the business.
- Setting individual goals:
Remember you’re not being paid for ‘working hard’ or ‘staying busy.’ At the end of the day, what matters to your employer is how you’re contributing to fulfilling the company’s goals and mission, both short term and long term. Therefore, keep in mind that you’re being paid to deliver on clearly defined goals that significantly impact the company’s performance and overall mission and vision. This goal-oriented mindset will help you achieve career success, no matter where you are on the corporate ladder.
- Provide solution:
Everyone can turn their problems into their manager’s problems. Be the solution provider, not the problem creator. Great employees solve problems. If you don’t have the authority to give the final verdict on a problem relevant to your work or department, then make sure you offer solutions to your boss and try to help as much as you can, wholeheartedly.
- Be empathetic:
Being a good employee requires compassion and understanding that your manager, and fellow employees are doing their best. Throwing a tantrum is not going to do anyone any good, neither will constantly complaining about how much work you’re doing. At the end of the day, everyone is doing their fair share of the work they’re getting paid for.
To enhance your career, along with the above-mentioned characteristics, you should always focus on what you wish to do with your career and what achievements you wish to cover. Many of these above traits and behaviours that can help you excel in your career are also found in great leaders. By keeping these 6 career success secrets in mind, you can put yourself on the path to true greatness and achieve your ultimate career goals.
The best way to do this is by listing these down and going through them once in a while, to gauge exactly how many of the achievements have you reached. Once you have a clear focus, you can always work along and find out what exactly you should have cleared according to your ambitions.