The 10 P’s of Career Advancement

by Rania H. Anderson

What is the best strategy for career advancement?

As part of our “Be Your Own Job Czar” series, we’ve covered some good ground:

• Set an intention to succeed and achieve what you desire
• Create an action plan to realize that intention
• Get a new job at your current employer or someplace new
• Make more money: a great strategy to increase your leverage

We hope you are off to a great start. The 10 P’s to will enrich and energize your work on the path to greater professional success:

1. Passion — Start with getting really clear about where your passions lie. Without passion, success will be limited and the journey won’t be fun or fulfilling.
2. Possibilities — Explore the range of career possibilities that could best utilize and benefit from your passion.
3. Preparation and a Plan of Action — Operating from your passion and fortified with the most promising possibilities, prepare and put together a career advancement plan. Identify the specific steps that you need to take to create the ideal circumstances for your success.
4. Proactive Purpose — Be proactive and act with a sense of purpose. I see so many people, especially women, who keep waiting for someone to identify opportunities for them or to come to them with an idea for professional development. The days of a paternalistic organization that is going to take care of you are gone. The likelihood that someone is going to tap you on the shoulder are slim. Be diligent and proactive in identifying, seeking, and asking for opportunities.
5. Performance Expectations — Exceed all your performance expectations. This is a true non-negotiable with no wiggle room. If you are not performing at an exemplary level in your current role, it will be very difficult to advance to something new. Ask yourself, in which areas are you performing beyond what’s expected, and what are you doing that will get you noticed.
6. Professional Development — Seek and undertake diverse development opportunities even if you have to pay for them yourself and even if you have to do them outside your regular work schedule. The best developmental opportunities include: fixing a problem, issue, or business; a job change; starting something from scratch; making a line to staff or staff to line change; doing something new and outside your comfort zone; and/or an overseas assignment. While certainly helpful and highly encouraged, as far as supplemental development actions go, the least effective development activities are attending training programs.
7. People — Develop, nurture, and maintain a network of sponsors and mentors. There is a wealth of information available to you on the web on these topics.
8. Present and Promote — Present yourself and your work professionally and in a manner that is consistent with the type of role you seek. Be congruent in what you say and do. Develop a style that is conducive to working with both genders.  Do you have a personal brand and are you effective at promoting yourself?
9. Persistent Priority — If you don’t make your career advancement your priority, no one else will. Be persistent, identify, and ask for what you want. According to Curtis J. Crawford, author of Corporate Rise , you will need about 10 different jobs to acquire the skills and knowledge needed to be in senior executive management.
10. Proactive — Proactively take risk. According to the The Management Research Group, executive women take more risk. Are you playing it too safe?