The short answer: Always! As summer comes to an end, conversations about your future are right around the corner. It’s time to start thinking about the goals you want to set and the opportunities you want to pursue.
Then, the big question becomes: “How can I grow in order to achieve my goals and reach the opportunities I desire?” That’s where career development comes into play.
The best way to approach career development is from a personal change perspective. So many people say they want to grow, develop and take on higher-level roles, but they don’t want to change. Can you see the missing logic there? Growth IS change! And vice versa.
So, the real question is: “How can I change in order to most benefit myself, my career and my organization?” Well, to help individuals grow, we focus on 9 Winning Action Strategies. The Winning Action Strategies represent ways you can grow yourself to strengthen your performance in goals and competencies today as well as in the future.
The 9 Winning Action Strategies
Organizational Career Development is a future-focused approach to growth and movement that aligns organizational and individual needs for better performance today and readiness for the future. By growing talent capability, your organization achieves success. Therefore, it is essential to ask fundamental questions such as, “Do you have the right people in the right roles for today and tomorrow?” and “How can we advance your readiness for future roles?”
The top row represents growth for individuals who want to do and achieve more, meaning make a greater personal impact:
- Be Essential – Make sure what you contribute is essential to your team, manager and organization. Beware: Most people think they’re more essential than they are.
- Push Yourself – Get out of your comfort zone and see what you can accomplish.
- Exercise Confidence – Practice showing up in a bolder way to get your voice heard.
The middle row represents growth for individuals who want to strengthen their interpersonal and organizational relationships:
- Build a Fan Base – Be a fan of others in order to earn fans of your own. It’s one of the best ways to stay connected in an organization!
- Practice Regular Self-Reflection – The best way to learn about yourself is to take the time to reflect.
- Give Back – Helping others to learn and grow is an easy way to give back.
The bottom row represents growth for individuals who want to have greater influence and increased social power:
- Negotiate for Success – Everything at work and in life is negotiated.
- Always, Always Have a Plan – Never underestimate the power of a good plan.
- Understand the Game – Know what makes your organization tick.
Now for the fun part: Identifying your development focus! This can be as simple as choosing to enact a Winning Action Strategy and embracing the personal change that comes with it. You should feel motivated by the Winning Action Strategy you choose because it gets to the heart of meeting your own needs.
Let’s be clear: The Winning Action Strategies are NOT competencies. Improving in competencies (such as communication, decision making, teamwork, etc.) is important too – these are the expectations for your work. But, the Winning Action Strategies show you HOW to grow in your competencies through personal change. Example 1: “I can get better at decision making if I Push Myself to take greater risks.” Example 2: “I can Exercise Confidence and just make the decision. I can always course correct later, if needed.”
Use the Winning Action Strategies as your key to personal change, growth and development. When you embrace real and meaningful personal change, you’ll be ready to assume greater responsibility and take on larger roles.
You can also further explore the Winning Action Strategies in our GrowWise Program. GrowWise enables greater leadership and career development for you and your employees/colleagues. Using this virtual, scalable program, everyone in your organization can choose a development focus, make a development plan, and get GROWING!