Raise your career bar in 2017

The year 2016 is gone and we are now beginning a new year 2017. This gives us the chance to review our career progress to now and plan for the immediate and long term future. We have every reason to re-energise our career hopes and dreams. This is the time to think very big and time to chart new ways in career. This is the time to build a new career momentum which helps us to climb high in career.

This is the time to set the standards high and to work towards achieving that goal. Let us raise the career bar high. The basic question is: at what stage will you retire? Will you retire having fully realised your potential or not? What level of career do you want to retire at? The answers to these questions will determine the speed at which you need to grow your career. If you want to retire at very senior career positions, then you really need to develop and grow your career fast. If you want to retire at middle ranks then moderate speed may be adequate and if you are not ambitious at all, then anything goes!

As a rise and shine community, we do expect everyone following this column to have some meaningful ambition and purpose in life. To have no ambition for your career makes very little sense. Therefore, we expect you to have some plan for growing your career at some reasonable pace, between moderate and fast rate of growth.

This is the time, therefore, to review how fast your career is growing. Are you growing your career fast enough or you have some catch up to do? Your career goal must be high enough. Be sure that the level at which you desire to retire is high enough for you. Raise your bar!

Now that you are clear about the level at which you need to retire and therefore the pace at which you need to grow your career, you need to develop a plan that achieves that. The plan must include major milestones with expected dates for achieving those milestones. Of course, there will be underlying assumptions and conditions for achievement of each of the milestones and those too must be stipulated very clearly.

Supporting the schedule of milestones will be the development of the required skills and competences along the way. Ahead of each milestone, you need to develop certain skills and competences which will enable you to not only get the next job but also to be able to perform satisfactorily at that next career level. You need to push for support towards further training. You also need to take personal initiative to train online and through lots of affordable electronic means. Do not only wait for sponsored classroom training programme. Where you can, sponsor yourself for classroom training. If you cannot afford that, try affordable means even if it means pursuing some of the programmes online.

This helps feed into your key points for the 2017 resolutions. You now want to raise your career bar! You have built the plan that helps you retire at the level that you desire and so you are clear about what you need to achieve in 2017, career-wise. This means that you are now set for implementation.

Now is the time to work hard implementing the career plan for 2017 so that you build a good momentum for the long haul plan until you retire.

It is possible that by now, you are well behind schedule. Do not waste time regretting or complaining about the lost time. If you do this, you will lose more time going forward. Instead, quickly learn the lessons from the past and then work to avoid a repeat of the mistake or occurrence of similar mistakes as you build your momentum and acceleration for the implementation of your career plan.

Good luck as you raise your bar for career development in 2017! All the best as you rise and shine by raising your career bar! n