Reign your career

Whatever be your stage in professional life, any guidelines for improvement are always important and hence welcome. Incessant endeavours to add on to your professional qualifications are vital to uphold your brand image and anchor your stability. Today, work, workplace environments and work strategies are all undergoing a sort of revolution; and hence it is crucial to have your bearings correct. It is also essential that you are always ready for unforeseen developments.

You simply cannot depend upon your present job or company to offer enduring development. In order to rise and be successful in your career on your own terms, you must have a resolute intent, clear-cut objectives and an operational plot. Opportunely enough, companies and business houses have expanded their base and are offering several openings and prospects to your career on the move.

A pledge on your part to act as your own godparent will help you steer clear of all turbulence in your career. The catch however, is that you should know how to grasp opportunities. Some guidelines to always be in the ascending mode are:

·   Make a plan:  In order to be heading in the direction of your objectives, you need to plan. You need to know where you want to go or be. If you have a purpose, you will not go astray. Set your objectives in terms of time periods for attainment. An illustration will clarify this aspect. You may be in whatever profession you are in, but you are also a management guru. You have decided to call it a day three years from now after which you intend taking up a teaching assignment at any management training institute.  If that be so, you will need to identify suitable institutes, add on to your qualifications and even gain some teaching experience – all this spread out appropriately over the next three years. You should also earmark sufficient time for an appraisal to discern what you have attained and the course you are on.

·   Be Farsighted:   You should have a clear idea of where you want to be in the ensuing years. Similarly, you should also be appreciative of the working atmosphere that appeals to you the most. Depending upon your preferences, you may consider changing over to a room-bound assignment or taking up a field job. It is also possible that you want to be the Number One wherever you work. It is you who has to discern your priorities. You should stay aloof from trivial concerns so as to remain focused on your terminal objectives. In this way, you will never lose contact with the larger picture. 

·   Be truthful:   As an expert in your own field of work, you will be required to confront many principled verdicts practically every day. In the recent past, corruption has scandalized several business houses and corporate establishments; the need to preserve unimpeachable standards has come to be realized as more significant than ever before. Remember that your character, renown and honour are permanent attributes and any dent on them can cause you immense harm.

·   Learn and learn more:   Continual attempts to learn about issues pertinent to your career will always stand in you in good stead. Today, commercial establishments and professional fraternities maintain websites that offer immense opportunity to gain knowledge online. All that you need to do is peruse appropriate matter habitually and frequently. Getting into an on-the-job-training mode will also pay rich dividends.

·   Be noticeable:   You need bellow for getting perpetual notice. But you have to make certain that your immediate boss and seniors up in the hierarchy are aware of your contributions. You must provide useful inputs during conferences and not lose sight of opportunities even beyond your charter as they have catalytic power to boost your career progress.

·   Understand concerns:   You have to be an excellent communicator – a good articulator and an equally good listener. The anxieties of others should be appreciated by you. You should also be able to discern words of inspiration. And whenever you are required to convey anything, you should do so in brief and without ambiguity; also you should be fairly assertive. As time passes and you move forward in your career, your speaking, listening and comprehending skills will invariably serve to address intricate issues.

·   Expand contact base:   It is a known fact that good networking promotes career progression. It is also a fact that staying linked in involves quite a bit of time and exertion. But if you formulate a well thought-out plan, you will be able to slot in meetings with colleagues and contemporaries on various occasions. ‘Remain in touch’ – this mantra should never be forgotten.   

·   Exploit prospects:  The job that you are in and the tasks assigned to you should be engaged in rationally in consonance with your objectives. With dual trades and reduced manpower being subscribed to by most of the establishments, you can always shoulder additional responsibilities. You need to be on the lookout for unfinished jobs that could be undertaken by you. You can even move on to another division and contribute effectively there. All these moves are your responses to prospects with the intended objective of gaining knowledge, familiarity and practice.

If you are a professional, you have to be in command of yourself and your career. You have to have a hands-on and down to business approach in impelling your own progress and move forward. A little prudence and some scheduling on your part will assist you substantially to create your own career roadmap and realize your dream of triumph. In short, you have to be your own manager, mediator and negotiator.