Unlocking your Potential
In order to fully understand how to plan your new career and move forward with confidence, it is important to identify what career means to you. It can however, mean different things to different people.
The dictionary definition of career is "a profession or occupation chosen as one's life's work" (Collins - new edition). However, it is a lot more complex than this. Here is a new definition:
Career: "The collection of an individual's work experiences, beliefs and values over time."
Understanding your sector
Today we live in an uncertain world. New technology, global trade, widespread relocation of manufacturing and services and the rapid growth of electronic commerce all suggest uncertainty is here to stay. This will have an impact on our career choices. The question is how can we better understand those implications and move our careers forward with confidence?
In this knowledge driven economy which is constantly changing there is a demand for newer and more exciting ways to understand how we can cope with this change and indeed embrace it. The answer lies in understanding oneself and moving towards a more subjective approach to career thinking. By this we mean understanding our work passions, motivations, identities and attachments to others. In other words to really embrace your career the intelligent way, you must first understand yourself, your own personal motivations, values and beliefs.
Understanding yourself
This process of self evaluation or assessment is the vital first step towards understanding how you work, why you work and with whom you network with (i.e. relationships, reputations and career supports). This is called the 'three ways of knowing'.
When we talk about the 'intelligent approach'; we mean that each individual should, at some point in their career, stop and take a good look at where they are going with their career. You should consider your own career choices through the lens of the three ways of knowing. What’s going on with your career right now? Have you ever considered how powerful it would be to really understand your own personal ways of knowing?
Think through what is important to you, what makes you get out of the bed on a Monday morning and head of for work. If you have had a good day, think through why it was good - what had you enjoyed about it? Were you challenged? Is this something you need on a regular basis? But what does 'challenge' really mean to you?
You should take time to analyse yourself, your skills, your values, your motivations, your strengths, your skill gaps and your preferred communication style. This will then enable you to understand which career and company you may wish to pursue.
Seize control of your career
Change can be daunting or even desirable, marvellous or muddling. What helps a confusing plethora of options to become a wealth of exciting opportunities is clear information and a full understanding of oneself and ones talents.
Everyone is talented and there is a job out there that will motivate, stimulate and engage you - it’s just a matter of going out there and seizing it!
