Taking Charge of Your Career

by Ray Salemi on January 2, 2010

As we start the new year, I thought I’d share Jeff Cohen’s Ten Tips to Take Charge of Your Career.

Who do you believe is most responsible for guiding your career?  Is it your boss, the company?  The answer is YOU!  Master these ten tips and you’ll be climbing the corporate ladder in no time:

  1. Find a mentor:  Do you admire a particular senior executive?  Ask them to mentor you and show you what it really takes to reach their level in the company.
  2. Volunteer for opportunities:  Raise your hand willingly and you’ll quickly become a valued team player.  Pretty soon executives will be fighting for your services.
  3. Meet deadlines:  You need that by when?  Don’t led deadlines slip by.  Meet your deliverables on time, under budget, and as agreed.
  4. Suggest a new project:  Don’t wait for your assignments.  Be proactive and suggest new ideas.  Become a brainstorming machine and you’ll be viewed a s innovative.
  5. Be helpful and resourceful:  Jump in!  Lend a hand!  Say yes!  The more helpful you can be the more indispensable you’ll become to your organization.
  6. Perform at the next level:  Say you’re a manager anxious to get promoted to Director.  Start acting like20a Director now.  Pretty soon your job title will match your effort.
  7. Demonstrate your expertise:  Are you a computer whiz?  Do you love to present?  Let your unique strengths shine and you’ll be a high performer in no time.
  8. Get involved in the industry:  Do you want to be an industry titan?  Start by joining a professional organization.  You’ll make connections and master the art of networking.
  9. Respond to voicemails and emails:  Nobody likes it when their voicemails or emails are ignored.  Get back to people promptly and you’ll earn a go-getter reputation.
  10. Enjoy the ride:  Don’t be afraid to smile at work.  If you flash those pearly whites colleagues will perceive you as an approachable, easy to work with partner.

Jeff Cohen runs Bold Road (www.boldroad.com), a writing, speaking, and consulting company that runs seminars, offers books & products, and consults people looking to reach their career, love, and life potential

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Excellent point from Seth Godin on hiring vs. recruiting.  I wish I had thought of the difference in these two words because it is important.  The key to recruiting is to create a the job description table I work through in Leading After a Layoff:

List the following to make a great job description:

  • Results—This is what you want the job to deliver
  • Tasks—These are the tasks you expect the person to do to deliver the results.
  • Skills—These are the learned skills that are needed for the tasks.
  • Talents—These are the innate thought patterns that make it easy for the person to learn the skills.

Recruit people with the right talents and the rest is easy.

Seth’s Blog: The difference between hiring and recruiting.

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Seth’s Blog: You don’t have the power

December 19, 2009

Seth Godin is ostensibly talking about the publishing industry.  But read his blog post in terms of changing an employee’s basic nature, and you’ll get an equally valid lesson.
Seth’s Blog: You don’t have the power.

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The first step in yearly planning

November 19, 2009

We’ve all reached that time of year where our company does annual planning.  Usually this means putting  managers in a room and getting them to create a PowerPoint presentation.  We really want planning to be more than that.
If you get put into such a PowerPoint generating room, remember the first step of annual planning.  Take [...]

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Motivating employees from the Top

November 18, 2009

My tips and writing focus on the front-line manager–a manager who leads individual contributors.  So my motivation suggestions focus on putting people into roles where they have talent and connecting their contributions to their personal interests.
This blog posting looks at the question from the top level.  How do you motivate employees as an upper level [...]

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Nice Email Tip

November 12, 2009

Here’s a simple email tip that a coworker suggested.
When you are writing a controversial email, which you shouldn’t be, there is probably a better way to communicate this information, but perhaps you are being forced at gunpoint, be sure not to fill in the email addresses until after you’ve written the email.
Some email tools can [...]

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Gathering data without emailing crap around

November 11, 2009

In my last blog post, I discussed the futility of sending large spreadsheets, or worse, PowerPoint documents, around the company looking for feedback.  Instead, consider using a free survey tool such as the one in Google Docs.
Here is an example survey:
Go to www.greatmanagertips.com to see the survey…
Once you take the survey, you’ll be able [...]

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Emailing Crap Around

November 10, 2009

The other day a buddy of mine made this observation about business:”You know what my company is really good at?  Emailing crap around.”
He was talking about the unfortunate management habit of sending PowerPoint presentations and Excel spreadsheets around a company with the email message, “Please provide your comments.”  These managers believe that this pointless process [...]

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A Hiring Disaster

November 9, 2009

I visited the Boston Museum of Science yesterday, and was reminded of the time that I was fired from a volunteer job there when I was 13. Not that I’m bitter. This always raises the question, “How do you get fired from a volunteer job?”  The answer: bad hiring.
When I applied for the [...]

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On the Radio … On the Radio … You’re gonna hear me on your radio

November 6, 2009

Today I was on Barry Moltz’s Business Insanity radio show.  We talked about how email can destroy long distance business relationships by making it too easy to upset others in a way that they can reread forever.
Barry Moltz » Blog Archive » The Zappos Way: Clarity of Character and Fewer Boundaries.

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