50 ways to achieve more career success€¦ · 50 ways to achieve more career success -2- it’s...

50 Ways To

Achieve More

Career Success

Duncan Brodie

Goals and Achievements http://goalsandachievements.com/

50 Ways To Achieve More Career Success

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It’s over 35 years since I started out in my career.

In many ways it just seems like yesterday when I was finishing

school and starting out in the world of work.

From the very start I was fortunate to have people who helped me

to get additional qualifications, get a wide range of experience, get

the opportunity to manage, to lead and be involved in some significant projects.

As a result of the help, support and encouragement of others, I was

able to climb the career ladder to become Finance Director of a

£160 million organisation.

Since 2006 I have been helping many professional people to

achieve more career success. I have trained close to 1500 doctors

in leadership and team working. I have helped hundreds of

accountants to improve their presentation skills, improve their

leadership and management skills, better deal with change, develop

winning KPI’s and business cases.

I have had the opportunity to work one to one with people as their

coach and mentor on their career. I have also helped new leaders

be successful and even helped people build and grow their business.

So it felt appropriate at this milestone point in my life to offer

something to my list and followers on social media to help them

achieve more career success.

Now as you know I truly believe that career success is not achieved

by being good at one thing. Essentially it is a range of factors that

come together that really increase your chances of success.

For that reason, I will be sharing some thoughts and insights in this

report in a number of areas.

I know that there will be value in you reading and absorbing this. I

also know that information without action is always going to be of

limited value.

So if you know that you are someone who is great at absorbing

information but not so great at follow through, then you might want

to consider some Career Coaching. Alternatively you might be

doing pretty well in your career and are at the point where you are

stepping into a senior management or leadership role and you would benefit from some Leadership Coaching.

Perhaps you are not yet at the stage where you are looking for one

to one support but would benefit from a course or workshop or perhaps more in-depth information.


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Whatever you are looking to achieve, I hope that you will take and

use the ideas in this report in a positive way to achieve more career, personal and professional success.

Duncan Brodie

Managing Director

Goals and Achievements Ltd

http://goalsandachievements.com/


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#1 Get Clear About What You Want To Achieve

This might seem like stating the obvious. Yet have you really considered what you want from your career? If you are like most

people chances are you have never considered this in any focused

way.

So write down, right now what you want to achieve from your

career.

#2 Determine The Types Of Organisation Where You Will Prosper

We are not all the same. Some will prosper in small and fast

growing organisations. Others will prosper in a big corporate.

How about you?

#3 Determine The Type Of People You Want To Work With

If you are go ahead, dynamic and optimistic, you are going to struggle to be around people who are negative or drain you.

Define the type of people you want to work with.

#4 Determine The Sacrifices You Are Willing to Make

Career success involves some sacrifices.

What sacrifices are you willing to make?


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#5 Identify Your Career Achievements

Most can remember very recent achievements and yet most struggle to identify their career achievements.

Create a list of your career achievements.

#6 Identify Your Technical Skills

You probably don’t even realise the range of technical skills that you

have because you have never consciously thought about it.

Create a Mind Map of all your technical skills.

#7 Identify Your Interpersonal Skills

Interpersonal skills are the skills we use every day to communicate

and interact with other people, both individually and in groups. They

include skills like communication, listening, assertiveness, problem solving and decision making.

Make a list of your best interpersonal skills.

#8 Identify Your Business Skills

Being technically competent is important and increasingly

employers are looking for wider business skills like negotiation,

selling (even if not in a sales role), marketing and strategy.

Create a list of your business skills.


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#9 Identify Your Management Skills

If you are good at your job you will quickly find yourself in a position where you have to manage people.

List all of your management skills. Identify what is missing and how

you might address this.

#10 Identify Your Leadership Skills

People take the lead even when they are not in formal leadership

roles. They set direction or get the support of others as examples.

Create a list of all your leadership skills.

#11 Identify Your Best Attributes

Attributes are your unique qualities or characteristics. Perhaps you

are the person who is resilient, helpful, delivers what they promise

or takes responsibility.

List what you see as you best attributes.

#12 Get Feedback

Doing your own lists and mind maps of achievements, skills and

attributes is great. Getting feedback from others helps you identify

strengths and qualities that you might not even be aware of.

Ask for feedback from at least 6 other people.


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#13 Write A One Page Summary

Imagine you were asked to describe yourself and your achievements. Could you do it?

Take the pressure off and create your one page summary of what

you offer.

#14 Review Your CV

Your CV is your personal marketing document. It determines

whether you get asked for interview or not.

Does your CV market you effectively?

#15 Update Your CV

Chances are when you review your CV there are things that you

could do to make it better.

Take action and update your CV.

#16 Speak To Your Boss About Your Career Aspirations A good boss will help you achieve success in your career. At the

same time they are not mind readers.

Speak openly about your career aspirations short, medium and long

term.


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#17 Do Some Research

Whatever level you are at, the immediate goal is usually to get to the next level.

Research roles at the next level and determine what is critical to

succeeding in the role.

#18 Look For Ways To Contribute More

Some people turn up at work and do the minimum. They then

wonder why they are struggling to make any progress in their

career.

Look at ways in which you can help the organisation to achieve

more success.

#19 Make Improvements

In every function in every organisation there are processes that are

not working as well they could. Most will just put up with them.

Stand out by making improvements in processes.

#20 Help Others To Be More Effective

Train a new member of staff, train someone who is an internal

client, act as a mentor for others.

Help others to be more effective.


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#21 Speak Up

Sometimes it is not always the best people who achieve most success.

It’s the people who speak up about their successes.

#22 Get A Mentor

The more you progress in your career the more challenging it

becomes.

Having someone to help navigate and guide you through these

challenges makes a big difference.

#23 Take A Proactive Approach To Professional Development

As you progress in your career it is easy to get so swamped by the day job that you forget about personal and professional

development.

Create and take action on professional development.

#24 Take On New Responsibilities

With anything you do at work, you reach a point where diminishing

returns kick in. in other words you stop learning.

Look for opportunities to take on new responsibilities.


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#25 Get New Experience

This might be by working in a different division, taking a secondment or even taking on some sort of voluntary role outside

of work.

#26 Learn How To Manage

If you cannot manage, there will be limits on how far you can go.

Take a course or workshop or even some form of online course

#27 Learn About Leadership

Leading is different to managing. I would go as far as saying that it

is the biggest career step you ever make when you move into

leadership.

Take a course or workshop to get a good overview and then take

other courses to dig deeper into certain areas.

Alternatively look at some online courses if you find it difficult to get

along to a formal workshop or training.

#27 Learn How To Present This was one of the first courses I took as I knew it was absolutely

essential to be able to present to small and larger groups.

I train people in person and also recently created an online video

course


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#28 Target Job Search When It Is Time To Move Jobs

You might believe that you can do any job in any sector in your professional field. You possibly can but employers might view

things differently.

Focus on jobs where you have a higher chance of success.

#29 Be In Tune With Current Practices

20 years ago and maybe even as recent as 10 years ago it was

more than likely that jobs would be advertised in professional

journals.

These days online is becoming the norm.

#30 Update Your LinkedIn Profile

Recruiters are using LinkedIn to advertise jobs, source candidates

and check out candidates who have applied for roles.

Make sure your LinkedIn profile is complete and up to date.

#31 Build Your Network Jobs that become vacant sometimes never make it to the stage of

being advertised. Often people are asked if they know someone in

their network.

Most people don’t focus on building their network.


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#32 Get Value From Your Appraisal

An appraisal meeting can be a going through the motions meeting or something that you use as a basis of getting real insight and

feedback.

#33 Prepare Well For Job Interviews

Poorly prepared candidates are going to be at a huge disadvantage

in job interviews.

Don’t make it easy to reject you.

#34 Make An Immediate Impact In Job Interviews

First impressions really do count. Some say that decisions are

made in the first few minutes of an interview.

#35 Be Able To State Why You Are The Best Candidate

I never cease to be amazed how poorly candidates do at answering

this question.

You want 5 top reasons why you are the best candidate.


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#36 Talk More About What You Can Contribute

Employers are interested to a point in what you have done and achieved.

What they are really interested in is what you will contribute.

#37 Use Concrete Examples In Job Interviews

Anyone can talk in terms of generalities. Specific examples and

evidence will make you stand out.

#38 Know The Different Style Of Questions And How To

Answer Them

Some questions focus on testing knowledge, where others are

looking for examples.

Make sure you use the right answering style for the different

question styles.

#39 Ask The Employer Good Questions

If you have researched the organisation and sector this should be

really easy to do.


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#40 Invest Time In Creating A Strong Covering Letter/Email For Job Applications

People will then look at your CV from a more positive perspective in

my experience.

#41 Invest The Time And Energy

Recruiting someone is a major investment decision for the

employer. Respect this and invest the time and energy to help the

recruiter make it a success.

#42 Always Be Professional

There will be times when it is easy to lose it because you are

frustrated by a lack of progress.

Resist the temptation to let off steam and remain professional.

#43 Take A Long Term View

Career success is not achieved overnight, so take a long term view.

See it as less of a sprint and more like a marathon.


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#44 Learn To Bounce Back

The more senior you become the more difficult it is.

Chances are you may well find that you are getting more rejections.

It is how you bounce back that matters.

#45 Recognise That At Senior Levels It Is All About Fit

People often wonder why despite having the right experience,

knowledge and skills they don’t get the job.

At a more senior level your fit with the team often is a huge factor.

#46 Focus On What You Can Influence

You can only influence how you do in job interviews. Focus your attention on positively influencing and showing what you can offer.

Don’t waste effort on what you can’t influence.

#47 Be Honest With Yourself

Don’t pretend that you are good at something if you know that you

are not.

Be willing to take action to get better.


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#48 Don’t Underestimate What You Have To Offer

You no doubt have a lot to offer. It is easy to underestimate what you have to offer and assume that you are just the same as

everyone else.

#49 Don’t Take A Role You Don’t Want

This is easy to do, especially if you are not enjoying or feel like you

have reached the end of the road in your current job.

It is important that you make the right move for you.

#50 Take Control, Take Responsibility and Take Action

It is your career at the end of the day. If you want to achieve

success you have to take control, take responsibility and take

action.

No one is going to hand you things on a plate.


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What’s Next?

So there you have it. I have shared 50 ideas on what you can do to achieve more career success.

In terms of next steps I encourage you to look at your situation, your challenges and where you need to focus your attention first.

Don’t try to do everything at once.

If you know that you are someone who is likely to absorb the

information and knows that by investing in some support they will

move forward, then I invite you to consider a no obligation

telephone strategy session.

During that session we will explore your situation, your challenges,

the impact and discuss the options for helping you to move forward.

To get the process moving, go to http://goalsandachievements.com/career-success-coaching-

services/ scroll to the bottom of the page and complete the

questionnaire.

Alternatively check out one of the following:

Leadership Coaching

http://goalsandachievements.com/leadership-coaching-services/

Leadership and Management Courses and Workshops

http://goalsandachievements.com/leadership-and-management-

courses-workshops/

Leadership and Career Products

http://goalsandachievements.com/leadership-and-career-products/

Online Presentation Skills Course

https://www.udemy.com/being-an-effective-presenter/

50 ways to achieve more career success€¦ · 50 ways to achieve more career success -2- it’s...

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