Progress Report - MAC001 to MAC006

In episode one - Higher Level Tasks, I talked about how you should be looking for opportunities to increase the scope and impact of the work that you perform.  Delegating and automating process driven tasks and soliciting for work that involves more discretion and judgement.

In episode two - Individual Development Plan, I walked you through the process of creating an IDP and initiating a conversation with your manager to convey your desires to your leader.  I also offered a template that you can request via the contact form on my website at ManagingACareer.com.

Episode three - Mentoring, I cover the benefits of being a mentor, especially in a situation where you want to showcase leadership skills even though your current duties aren't specifically leader focused.

Episode four - Being "scared", is about how to manage your fears and still achieve success.  By relying on your personal strengths and your network, you can gain the confidence you need to be successful.

Episode five - Documenting Your Work, is sort of a continuation on episode one.  By producing Troubleshooting Guides, How-To articles, and Standard Operating Procedures, you can enable other members of your team to perform some of the process oriented tasks that you own freeing yourself for higher level tasks.

Episode six - Urgent vs Important, is again a continuation on the topic of Higher Level Tasks.  In this episode, I discuss evaluating whether your work is urgent or important and how you can structure conversations with your leader to gain those types of assignments.

With my team, I like to scheduled career development conversations every four to six weeks.  Any shorter and there really isn't enough time to make progress on the feedback.  Any longer and you can lose momentum and stall your progress.  In this podcast, I'm going to stop and reflect on the previous episodes on a similar schedule.

So, in these past six weeks, have you made any progress on your career goals?  Even just defining them can help set things in motion.  I think that the most important action you can take is creating your Individual Development Plan.  Your IDP puts structure around your career goals.  Once it's complete, discuss it with your leader.  Use your IDP to determine what "higher level tasks" apply to your career roadmap.  Create Action Plan items around documenting the work that you will be passing to others.  Create Action Plan items around ensuring that your work is growing in importance.

If you're struggling with filling out your IDP, join the community and start a conversation there.  I'd be happy to answer questions and offer suggestions on how to build it.  You can find the community by going on ManagingACareer.com and clicking the Community link there.

Are you looking for a career coach? If you reach out to me via the contact form, I will arrange an introductory session where we can talk about your career goals and how I can help. If we're a good fit, we can schedule regular coaching sessions.