Career Advancement: Create a Comprehensive, Motivating Career Advancement Plan to Achieve Your Career Advancement Goals

ACTIVITY

TARGET COMPLETION

Analyze your past career successes and frustrations

(from Chapter 2, “The Career Coward’s Guide to Career Advancement”)

Jot down a timeline of major activities that have occurred in your work and career, listing the main highlights.

Use a 1 – 10 scale to rate the events on your timeline based on how energized or frustrated you felt at that time, with “1” being especially low and discouraged, and “10” being high energy and satisfied.

Analyze why you were feeling the way you were feeling during the peaks and lows.

Itemize what you value in your career

(from Chapter 2, “The Career Coward’s Guide to Career Advancement”)

Evaluate what were you focusing on—or neglecting, at the high and low times in your life.

Determine holes in your career advancement that you want to work on filling.

Prioritize your top values.

Write a few sentences about what each value means to you, to articulate your career advancement objectives.

Choose a Career Advancement Format

(from Chapter 3, “The Career Coward’s Guide to Career Advancement”)

Move up within your current career.

Modify your existing work to make it a better fit for you.

Expand into new territory within your existing work.

Trade one career for two or more.

Take a sabbatical to renew and gain a fresh perspective.

Launch your own business.

Create a List of Career Needs and Put Together a Draft career advancement plan

(from Chapter 3, “The Career Coward’s Guide to Career Advancement”)

Refer to your prioritized values and their definitions and ask yourself, “What could I do to get closer to my ideal picture?” Create a long list of possible ideas.

Repeat this process with your other values, to create a draft list of action items.

Draft your initial career advancement plan, comprised of your overall career advancement goal and the ideas you brainstormed. Label the first part, “Objective” and the second part, “Action Plan”.

Create a Target Database Including Key Information

(from Chapter 4, “The Career Coward’s Guide to Career Advancement”)

Organization / Contact Name

Address

Phone, email, web

Summary of their purpose, mission, products, and services

Key decision makers, particularly those related to your career advancement goals

Additional relevant information

Consider Groups to Support Your Advancement Goals

(from Chapter 5 , “The Career Coward’s Guide to Career Advancement”)

Civic organizations – Locally-based groups focused on improving the community through a variety of volunteer and fundraising activities (such as Rotary and Junior League).

Business Networking & Mastermind Groups –May include chamber of commerce organizations and business networking groups, such as BNI, or Business Networking International. Also consider finding or creating a mastermind group.

Hobby Clubs & Nonprofit Organizations: Choose groups based on your hobbies or beliefs.

Professional Associations: Consider international consortiums as well as small local groups, based on either your specialty or industry.

Locate, Evaluate & Join Groups

(from Chapter 5, “The Career Coward’s Guide to Career Advancement”)

Check out organizations’ web pages and surf for articles.

Contact organizers or membership chairs to ask about their groups.

Attend a meeting, just for fun.

When you find a group that fits, participate actively in meetings, projects, and committees.

Seek out people who can support your career goals, and set up one-on-one networking opportunities.

Begin You, Me, We Networking with Contacts

(from Chapter 6, “The Career Coward’s Guide to Career Advancement”)

Request networking conversations using a successful script: “I’m working toward achieving some career goals I’ve set for myself, and I’d like to talk with you to brainstorm some next steps. Would you be willing to meet me for coffee, or talk with me on the phone, sometime in the next few weeks?”

Follow a proven networking agenda.

You – Focus on them initially. Talk about FORD (Family, Occupation, Recreation, Dreams) topics.

Me – Shift the focus back to you, as in, “Now I’m going to spend a few minutes talking about what’s going on with me.” Five minutes or less.

We – You and your contact brainstorm together about next steps. Should take five minutes or less.

Conduct a quick career advancement survey with others already involved in those roles to find out what kind of training they’ve received.

Determine what other skills or career advancement training you would need toward modifying your existing work, to make it a better fit for you.

Investigate Several Avenues for Learning

(from Chapter 7, “The Career Coward’s Guide to Career Advancement”)

Formal degree and certificate programs.

Skill-building courses, offered through professional associations, community colleges, and organizations such as you local Small Business Development Center.

On-the-job training: Learn through the guidance of a mentor or coworker.

Self-instruction: Read books on the subject, or train yourself using instructional DVD or audio programs.

Ask for Advice from Experts

(from Chapter 7, “The Career Coward’s Guide to Career Advancement”)

Run your career advancement plan by an expert or two who is experienced in your desired line of work before making any big decisions.

Define Your Position Proposal Objective

(from Chapter 8, “The Career Coward’s Guide to Career Advancement”)

Detail how you can be a resource to a company in a role that you propose. Decide the following:

What activities do you want to be involved in?

In what format do you want to execute these activities (Full time? Part time? Partnership? Contractor?)

How do you want to be compensated?

Determine, “What’s in it for them?”

(from Chapter 8, “The Career Coward’s Guide to Career Advancement”)

Show how your career advancement ideas can create win-win opportunity for both sides. Brainstorm several potential benefits as part of your proposal development process, based on these categories:

Make money: How might help them improve their revenues.

Save money: How you could help them be more efficient to increase profitability and reduce waste.

Improve quality: How your proposal would help them boost their product or service quality.

Improve image: How you could contribute to a better overall perception of their business.

Organize Your Position Proposal

(from Chapter 8, “The Career Coward’s Guide to Career Advancement”)

Compile your career advancement information in a professional, understandable proposal using a You, Me, We outline:

You: In this section, include information that will be important to the recipient of your proposal, as in, “This is what’s in it for YOU”.

Me: Here you’ll outline what you hope to achieve through the proposal, as in, “This is what’s in it for ME”.

We: Finally, you’ll define what next steps you and your contact can take to move forward.

Practice and Present a Position Proposal

(from Chapter 8, “The Career Coward’s Guide to Career Advancement”)

Finalize your career advancement plan: Show your proposal to someone you trust and ask them for input on how to make it even better.

Practice delivering your career advancement proposal: Pretend this is the real deal. Refine your career advancement proposal as necessary.

Rehearse your closing: Practice wrapping up your career advancement proposal by saying, “What questions or concerns do you have? How can we move forward on this?”

Anticipate objections, rejections, and questions: Be open to hearing, “I need time to think about it”, and “I’m not sure this would work for us,” and be ready to ask further questions to learn more about their needs and hopes.

Schedule a conversation with the decision maker: Example: “Boss, I have some ideas on how to increase our profitability. Could we meet for 30 minutes to go over my proposal?”

Deliver it and move on: Chances are excellent that you’ll make some progress toward your career advancement goals, one way or another.

Prepare & Present a Work-for-Free Proposal

(from Chapter 9, “The Career Coward’s Guide to Career Advancement”)

Gain hands-on experience through an unpaid internship or practicum experience by preparing a proposal that details the following:

Activities in which you hope gain career advancement experience. These might include specific processes, skills, and knowledge you want to obtain.

What’s in it for them: Possibilities include an extra set of hands working toward their business goals, additional help in areas where you already possess expertise, and a fresh perspective for solving problems or creating solutions.