|
 Manage
Your Career
The definition of career, according to Merriam
Webster, is “a field for or pursuit of consecutive progressive
achievement...a permanent calling”. Progressive achievement
- is there a way you can take control of that achievement, things
you can do to help yourself progress? Of course!
For starters, set goals about where you want
to end up in your career. These need to be measurable and realistic.
Have an ultimate goal (say, Manager in your organization, or Owner
of your own business), as well as small step-by-step goals designed
to lead to your ultimate goal.
Perhaps some of your smaller goals will consist
of:
- Training/education to increase your knowledge/skill level
in your field
- Taking assessments to improve your knowledge about yourself
- Finding a mentor/coach in your chosen career to help you learn
the ropes
- Joining an association for networking, knowledge and peer
support
- Focusing on personal growth, such as organizational skills,
conversational ability, time management, etc., to keep your
career from being sidetracked, waylaid or even run over by unmanageable
personal habits
Then, set aside a regular time each month for
personal professional development. This time can be used to review
career goals, actions taken and plans for the future. Evaluate
your priorities and work values to be sure where you want to go
with your career is a place you will be happy and fulfilled.
 With
such a harried life these days, we can easily get off track and
forget what we want in our career. Don't leave this important
personal evaluation time to chance; schedule it in the calendar
so it isn't forgotten. As a person in our office says, “If
I don't schedule professional development time, I feel like everything
is getting out of control.”
Achievement and advancement may happen by chance,
but more likely they will happen because of planning, forethought,
hard work and good personal management. Managing your career will
keep you in control and constantly moving forward.
 Voicemail
Etiquette
It's rare these days to actually
talk to someone when you make a phone call. Leaving voicemail
may be frustrating, but it is reality. How can you do it effectively?
Try these ideas:
- Prepare to leave a message when placing a call, so you will
know what you want to say
- Identify yourself with first and last name (you probably aren't
the only Gary or Susan the person knows) and company name
- State your phone number at the beginning and the end of the
message, even if the person you are calling knows it; they may
not have it with them if they are checking messages from the
road or home
- Speak slowly, being clear, concise, polite and pleasant; you
never know who else may hear the message
|
Quotes This Month
“The people who get on in this world
are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they
want, and, if they can't find them, make them.”
~ George Bernard Shaw ~
“Any human being is really good at certain
things. The problem is that the things you're good at come naturally.
And since most people are pretty modest instead of an arrogant
s.o.b. like me, what comes naturally, you don't see as a special
skill. It's just you. It's what you've always done.”
~ Stephen Jay Gould ~ evolutionary scientist
“If you have to support yourself,
you had bloody well better find some way that is going to be interesting.”
~ Katherine Hepburn ~
|
2301-15th
Avenue, REGINA, SK, Canada S4P 1A3 |
| 306-586-2315