Breakthrough Career Connections

Breakthrough Strategies for Career Advancement

Leveraging relationships to your advantage

How's your career doing these days? Is it taking you where you want to go? If you are employed, you may be simply thinking you are happy to have a job. The job market always seems to be in a volatile state, doesn't it? There is so little security in our world anymore. But take heart, there are things you can do to enhance your career security and accelerate your career advancement. The key is to be proactive and utilize relationships to expedite your promotion and career advancement.

Here are some strategies to proactively utilize relationships to your advantage:

• Develop a strategic career business plan with short and long term goals
• Break down each goal into action steps to take you from where you are to your next desired career position.
• Identify breakthrough contacts - the key people in your company that can help you get ahead     
• Put together a strategy to evelop and enhance relationships with each of your breakthrough contacts with the goal of leveraging those relationship to help position you favorably within the company. Here are ways to do that:

- send them an article or a resource related to their area of expertise

- invite them out to lunch or for coffee

- request an opportunity for a face-to-face meeting to solicit their opinion/advice/perspective on their area of the business as it relates to yours

- send them an email recognizing their efforts on a particular initiative or congratulating them on an achievement or award

· Follow up religiously to maintain ongoing relationships with your contacts.

· When the timing is right, ask each of your breakthrough contacts the following question:

What would it take for me to get into the position of XYZ (your next step)?

· On a regular basis, check in with your manager or supervisor by asking the following question:

“How am I doing? Am I meeting your expectations?”

Then follow that by posing the question:

“what would have to happen for me to be able to move into the position of XYZ,  or take on the XYZ project?”

If you utilize these strategies on a consistent basis, you WILL see yourself advancing in your career and moving closer to achieving your short and long term career goals.

 

Make 2008 a breakthrough year

Is this going to be YOUR year for a breakthrough in your life or your career?  To create the momentum necessary to make your dreams come true, sometimes it is necessary to identify and overcome barriers that may be holding you back. For many it is anger. One of my clients sent me an email today that represented a major breakthrough for her. She had a lot of unresolved anger toward her family that had been negatively affecting her for the past year. In working with me, she resolved to try and work through it this year when she went home for Christmas, and in her email today she shared that she had made progress and felt better about it. Now that she has freed up energy, she can begin to make progress toward achieving her career goals.

What's holding you back? What can you do to eliminate that anger or fear or other psychological issues that are keeping you from taking action or moving forward? You might want to take this anger quiz to assess whether anger is an issue for you. If it is, the question is what action can I take to resolve it?  If you haven't been successful in 2007, you have another chance to make some real changes in 2008.

When I am struggling with an issue that nags at me, I reflect on the serenity prayer....

Grant me the SERENITY to accept the things I cannot change;
COURAGE to change the things I can;
and WISDOM to know the difference.

May each of you have a healthy, happy and prosperous New Year and may your life goals and career dreams become a reality in 2008.