Build your way to the top of your dreams.
Your career is your business and you’re the manager of your future!
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Build your way to the top of your dreams.
Being your own boss is not something just for freelancers and traders. In fact, every single person in the world can be their own manager, and some even treat their career as a business. You change the companies you work for, the roles you take on teams, and even what you want to do with your life, but you are still the product that’s going to make your ‘business’ succeed. This is why it’s so important to be in charge: in charge of your future, of where your career is going and how you’re going to achieve it.
Managing up is a rather amorphous concept, especially if you’re trying to climb positions outside of your current job. Here’s where personal branding comes into play. Even though it might sound like a social media influencer buzzword, your personal brand is, in Jeff Bezos’s words, “what people say about you when you’re not in the room.” Taking it to the next level is crucial in order to make yourself stand out, inspire confidence and create development opportunities. If you’re wondering where to start your brand, ask yourself these five questions that Corporate Escape Artist’s Caroline Castrillon suggests:
What is your goal? Knowing where you want to go will help you make decisions regarding your brand.
Who is your target audience? Know who you’re trying to sell your brand to, whether it is your manager, investors or an HR team, and mold your strategy based on that audience.
What problem do you solve? If you don’t know what the problem is, you can’t offer a solution. Ask yourself about it or do some research to know what you’re able to do for your target audience.
How do you differentiate yourself? Authenticity, personality, experience, fresh ideas? Discover what makes you unique and make it part of your strategy.
What do others say about you? If you see your career as a business, what other people say are the receipts. Identify allies, learn from other people’s strategies and make sure your business relationships are healthy and strong.
Castrillon assures the “corporate ladder” doesn’t exist anymore, and if you want to be, as she calls it, “the CEO of your career,” you need to be proactive, flexible, and creative. Career progression is no longer linear, and the more you take responsibility over that path, the closer you’ll be to your goal. Switching jobs is no longer something undesirable, and is actually valuable since it provides deeper learning, growth opportunities and the chance to move up the ranks faster.
While staying true to yourself and what you can offer is important, getting stuck in your ways and ignoring your audience, your surroundings and your weak points can be a mistake. This is one of the 30 tips First Round Review’s favorite leaders give on managing up, and it’s an article that’s worth keeping around. On this list, Margie Mathewson, VP of Business Operations at Ossium Health, also shares her advice: instead of trying to hold all the information until you craft a perfect plan, ‘leave a breadcrumb trail’ of what you’re doing, and let people know you’re working on it. You don’t need to have all the answers right away!
The most important part of all of this is to be patient. Great leaders are not made overnight, and every single step is necessary to learn and grow into the very best version of yourself. The CEO Magazine says:
True leaders possess skills, not superpowers. These essential leadership skills such as communication, emotional intelligence and decisiveness are acquired and honed over time. They don’t magically appear in telephone boxes or indeed, after a classroom-based short course. Leadership skills – often referred to as ‘soft’ skills – are actually not even remotely soft. They are hard – hard to acquire, hard to maintain and hard to demonstrate. They invariably require a long and robust journey of development.
So, no matter where you wanna go, start by enjoying where you are and how that serves your ultimate purpose. Good luck!
Best,
Andrea.
Edited by: Lauren Maslen.
EDITOR’S PICKS
☀️ Early Riser - Follow Robert Glazer and his six key elements of a meaningful morning routine to achieve productivity and a healthy lifestyle.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
How to approach difficult conversations with your manager. (Pt 1.)
Managing difficult conversations is a soft skill everyone should work on improving. No one likes to hear that their employee has a condition that will jeopardize their health and the way they work. Productive Growth’s Camila Mirabal shares her experience with the subject and some initial tips to handle it in a more empathetic manner. Check it out here.
SCROLLING THROUGH
We leave our email on several websites a month, sometimes even without knowing what we’re subscribing to. That leads to having a constantly full inbox, and the truth is, we never read everything. Take a moment to follow Griffin’s advice. It feels so much better.
DISCOVER
Asana is more than a task manager: it could literally be the only tool you use for the rest of your life. However, you might not be aware of all the features inside the app, like the existence of add-ons. Being able to bring external applications to Asana and extend the usefulness of the tool is super easy. Weekdone reviewed their three favorite Asana apps to handle your needs without even changing tabs!
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