4 Steps to Making Your Next Best Career Move
Photo credit: iStockphoto.com (Eva Almqvist)
Kimberly Brown, an expert in careers and leadership, has a manifesto: You must believe in yourself and your vision to manifest your desired life.
But she doesn’t position herself as a motivational or inspirational speaker. Instead, she believes in behavior change that works.
So, if you are thinking about making a transition–within your organization or outside–the author of Next Move, Best Move: Transitioning Into a Career You’ll Love has some practical suggestions.
Here are four in her words, lightly edited for brevity:
Identify all your competencies.
You must understand where you’re coming from before deciding where you are going. To do this, you have to start with self-assessment. You must know yourself, your skills, and your abilities more than anyone else.
It is never anyone else’s job just to see that you’re good. You have to be able to articulate why you’re good. What is your impact? What is your value? What does someone get by having you? You are responsible for the trajectory of your career in the workplace.
So, think about the most extended version of your resume with everything on it. Think about every acquired skill or competency that you’d be able to bring someplace else.
Cross out everything that you never want to do again.
I believe in working on your weaknesses only if they make you money. Imagine having a job where you are strengthening your strengths every single day. Imagine how good you feel every single day. If you are working in your zone of genius, you’re working on the things you’re excited about.
Circle the things you want to work on.
Circle all the things that get you excited and light you up. Think about what your actual job description would look like if you were operating in your zone of genius.
Try an “ideal day” exercise. Imagine it’s Monday morning. The first thing that you do is open your eyes. What do you feel? What do you do through getting to work? What type of meetings do you have? What does your office look like? Imagine what exactly your ideal job looks like.
Evaluate your past experiences to understand where you want to go.
Your challenge is bridging the gap between where you are and where you want to go.
For some folks, it’s a step. They need to talk to a mentor or a sponsor, take one more class, or tell someone that this is what they want to do.
Other folks may have gaps in skills, experiences, relationships, and so on.
Another way to think about this is–specifically, whether you should look for a new role or a new level of performance in your current role–what time is it for you in your career? Here are three possibilities:
- Right role at the right time. This generally applies when you’ve been in a job for under 18 months, and there’s still room to grow.
- The right role has been mastered, but you are still not quite ready for your next move. Maybe there’s a specific skill that would help you make that move. It could be something you could get by serving on a committee or a work team.
- New role, new experiences. You have mastered everything where you are, and it is time for you to change the scenery that throws you back to the right role.
Kimberly Brown spoke at the 2023 Massachusetts Conference for Women. This article is based on her talk.