Five insights to set yourself up for a sustainable & fulfilling Next Level Career that doesn’t wear you out.
I’ll cover these five Insights in this post:
- Patience & Intention
- Adopt A Growth Mindset
- Kindness Builts Networks
- Know Your Value
- Confidence is Key
Patience & Intention
One of the most important things I realized looking back at the past decades of my career is that it is in fact that: spanning decades!
I wish I had had that insight looking forward though. Having that long view, knowing that time is on my side, would have made me less worried, less careful and risk-averse in my earlier years.
The first 5-15 years of a career are actually the perfect sandbox to figure things out. To follow ideas and dreams, make mistakes, learn from them and find a path that is aligned with our truest intentions and values.
And then having found that intention, patiently take steps towards what we feel is most fulfilling.
Playing the long game with patience & intention will make it much easier to avoid the traps of short-term thinking, fear-based choices and having a fixed mindset.
Adopt A Growth Mindset
A growth-mindset is your best asset when playing the long game. In my career, I learned the most every time I had taken a leap and accepted a role that I was barely qualified for (or so I thought at the time). Your ability to adopt the “I don’t know the details of this market/product/field/solution yet, but I know I can figure it out” approach gets you FAR!
The first time will be scary, but as you gain more confidence in your ability to learn and adapt you will become very agile in navigating your chosen career.
Knowing that you can learn and thus grow into what you aspire for will help you make long-term choices – regarding which on-the-job company training to request or even part-time education to enroll into on your own time.
Along the way you will also gain a large network of coworkers, customers and other business connections who see your trajectory and will gain trust in your capabilities and knowledge.
Kindness Builds Networks
As you grow into new roles, switch departments within an organization or change companies, you will encounter many people along the way. As coworkers or as business connections, they may not follow the same trajectory though.
You may think it can become awkward “leaving them behind”, but it can actually work very much to your advantage. What is key here, however, is that you treat people with kindness and decency. Help them whenever you can and stay ethical & honest.
A customer can become a business partner, a co-worker can become a customer or even your manager. People move companies over time and having them as allies is invaluable.
They will give you insights about deals that are happening, background information on certain companies they worked for, and sometimes even offer you jobs!
It may seem trivial, but building relationships is a key success factor for a thriving career.
Know Your Value
Having the ability to learn & the network of business connections on top of your skill-set and knowledge is something that companies find very attractive in candidates. In fact, I believe this is the main reason I never had to apply for a job directly myself and was always approached by head-hunters..
In the long run, the combination of your growth mindset, business network and skill-set will make you a valuable asset for any company in your field. They demonstrate you have the kind of skills that are highly sought after by organizations: communication, leadership, interpersonal skills, learning/adaptability, self-management, open-mindedness and a strong work ethic, to name a few.
Knowing your value is very important when moving into new roles or changing companies. It is THE perfect time to ensure your being compensated well for your worth. You are the whole package! (Also see my FREE E-book “3 Easy Tips to Navigate Your Next Pay Raise”)
And last but not least:
Confidence is Key
As a woman in a male-dominated field, it wasn’t always easy to be confident and stay true to myself. In the first half of my career I was probably “mansplained” and systematically undervalued more than I can remember. I’m sure I didn’t even notice in most cases. In those days, the way I dealt with it was by just ignoring that I was a female and they were men. In my mind, I was a person, working with other people, selling and presenting to rooms of people. Nothing more, nothing less.
That actually gave me a lot of confidence, because I was only focusing on the job and not so much on the relationships. However, as my role changed and became more and more about relationships it got harder to maintain this approach.
This is a story for another post, but in the end I embraced my feminine side and used that (in a positive way) to build even better relationships and thus, better career opportunities.
Confidence isn’t something you can fake or get overnight. It has to be cultivated and maintained. And it starts with knowing yourself, your personal values and your value in business. That comes with experience, but most of all, with awareness.