There's no blueprint for a successful career, but some early planning can definitely help you get where you want to be. After interviewing almost 50 women who have "made it to the top", I've identified a number of important dos and don'ts. And these tips don't just apply to women; they're also very relevant to men embarking on their careers.
I've called these top tips for career building the five Cs:
Career planning: Having an idea of where you may go and how you may be able to get there is important, even as you set out on your career. A good mentor who is a few rungs up the ladder can be very helpful here. Think about what your passions, interests and values are. How might these translate into actual future career goals? Knowing how to achieve these goals is important and is what HR professionals call "career planning".
Critical job assignments: The roles and projects you have on your CV matter, so look out for variety and a way to stand out. In particular consider two critical assignments:
• Build a broad base of experiences. Doing more of the same even if it's at a more senior level and with an increased remit of responsibilities is far less valuable than trying different roles in different parts of an organisation. Breadth of experience provides an in-depth understanding of how different parts of an organisation work and forces us to learn new skills as we move out of our own comfort zone. Some organisations provide this breadth of experience through their management training programmes; where such programmes don't exist, you need to use your own initiative.
• Find an early stretch assignment. Many successful leaders, men and women, attribute their success in part to an early stretch assignment which allowed them to show both to themselves and those around them what they can do. It's an assignment where the person at times felt that they had bitten off more than they can chew but through hard work they managed to turn the situation into a great success. These early stretch assignments also mean that a person will get noticed by a senior manager who after seeing what has been achieved, may be happy to provide further opportunities and generally sponsor the person.
Courage: Say yes to a new role even if you don't have all the necessary skills. The further you are way from your comfort zone, the more you will learn. Leaving the part of the organisation where we learned our trade and moving to new shores is not easy but a step that can provide real personal development. Courage is also an important element of asking for more – the next stretch assignment, a promotion, a pay rise. In today's busy world of work, few managers have enough time to proactively understand what their team want and need – having the courage to share what you want to get out of your career is important.
Curiosity: Look left and right and explore opportunities off the beaten track. Don't be too narrow in your career choices. While it might seem comforting to develop deeper technical expertise in one particular area, it pays to spend some time and effort in developing a broader range of experiences, too. It helps to make you more rounded as a person and forces you to develop transferable leadership skills rather than relying exclusively on your technical expertise. As you move up in your career, these transferable skills will become increasingly important.
Connectedness: It is unlikely that you will make it to the top without the help of others. Staying in touch with former bosses and peers and making new connections both inside and outside of work is a great asset. Those around you are important sources of information – they can help you decode organisational politics and make you aware of new job opportunities. Where a more senior person has seen you do a good job, they may even go a step further and actively put you forward for new opportunities. The advantages gained from senior sponsorship are hard to beat.
Dr Ines Wichert is senior psychologist at Kenexa High Performance Institute and author of Where Have All the Senior Women Gone? 9 Critical Job Assignments for Women Leaders.
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