Career Growth Strategies | 4 Strategies to Help You Today

Navigating your career can be challenging, especially when you're the first. Being the first in your family to have a professional career can be a lot of pressure.

No matter what, it's up to you, to stop feeling lost. Or stuck on what to do next in your career.

Only you can grow your career.

Here are 4 Career Growth Strategies you can try today:

1. Embrace your network
2. Find a mentor
3. Ask for more responsibility
4. Create a Career Growth Plan

Embrace your network. Have you ever heard that - your network - is your net worth. The net worth of your career growth. Let's do a quick assessment of your net worth. Get a piece of paper. Write down the name of everyone you can go to, right now, for career advice. Anyone that you would be comfortable asking for help in your career growth. I hope you have a nice big list, but if you don't. Don't worry. It's not too late to get started in nurturing and developing your career. So, begin to develop those relationships. Genuinely seek to learn about those in your network. And see what you can learn from them on how to develop in your career. Ask sincere and genuine questions. If you're finding your network to be a little thin, here's a suggestion. Look for professional organizations, meet-ups, or other groups in your community.

Find a mentor. Look for a mentor in or outside your current industry. Reach out to a few people and see what comes of it. Still not finding a mentor? Reach out to your network and ask to be connected. A mentor can help you grow in your career, more ways than you think possible. A mentor helps expedite your growth. They can help you identify your career blind spots. How you can begin to work on them.

Here are some questions to ask, to start your conversation with a mentor. • Was there a time you messed up and felt like you’d failed? How did you bounce back?
• How did you learn to embrace risk-taking?
• Tell me about a recent business setback. How did you recover?
• Think back to five years ago. Did you envision your career as it is today?

Ask for more responsibility. This does not mean, do grunt work. This means truly look for GROWTH opportunities. Responsibilities that will put you in front of the right people. Take on a project, and ask to lead the presentation/results. Not sure? Ask your supervisor or trusted colleague on project ideas, that you can take on to gain career growth exposure. Be frank about your end goal. It's not to "look good" but to gain career growth. This is how you will begin to develop credibility and reputation. And also grow your skills. Grow in areas that need development. And ultimately grow strong internal networks in your workplace.

Create a Career Growth Plan. Do you have an idea where you want to be in one year? What about five? Do you have a career growth plan to get you there? Take some time to figure out your next 5-Steps. And then start taking action towards them. A simple google search can get you started to finding examples of career growth plans. 

• The simple strategy, that I give to my clients is, start with the end in mind.  So, let's say one year from now, you want to get promoted.  Ask yourself the following questions:
  1. What skills do I need for the role?
  2. What skills do I currently have for the role?
  3. What can I do to develop from now, to one year?
  4. What are four action steps I can do?

From there, it's up to you. Only you can decide to change your career growth or not.  Just remember that no one will do it for you. 

If you're ready to work with a career coach 1:1 or in group coaching. Check out my services here.

Listen to the Manifest Your Career Podcast