Take charge of your career

CLIMBING up the ranks to earn more money in an organisation is not easy. According to Sienna Beard in her article Five ways to fast-track your career on wallstcheatsheet.com, it takes more than hard work and motivation to achieve that high-ranking position your dream of achieving.

“Working hard is certainly essential when you want to move ahead in your career, but there are many other important steps if you want to move up quickly. Even the most motivated workers won’t necessarily achieve their career dreams, especially not quickly, if they don’t have a specific plan to do so.”

According to Heera Training and Management Consultancy principal consultant Heera Singh, the most important thing that a person must do in his career is to have clear career goals.

“The people with successful careers are usually the ones who have a long-term career goal, which focuses on what they want to achieve, as well as the short-term steps they will need to take in order to get there.

“These career goals must be written down and provide a clear road map to the peak of your career. Since the goal and plan may not always go according to plan; hence adjustments must be made as you go along. The earlier this goal and plan is made the better it will be,” he tells StarBizWeek.

Speaking from experience, Heera says most people do not have goals and leave the management of their careers to their superiors or their organisations.

He adds that when things don’t go well, they complain that they were not given the opportunities by their superiors.

“They think that working hard and being a good employee will take them up the career ladder. Yes, this will, but if they are clear about where they want to go, things will become even better.

“Having clear career goals also serves as motivation to individuals to fulfil more of their true potential.”

Omnicom Media Group Malaysia chief executive officer Andreas Vogiatzakis concurs that’s important to have career goals.

“Building a career will make you stronger to make the necessary investments (others might call it sacrifices), and ensure you enjoy the rewards in the future,” he says.

Build a network

Beard writes that networking often and with the right people is sure to help your career advance quickly. Many jobs are not published at all, but are exchanged through networking. As great as LinkedIn is, if you meet someone once, add them on the site, and then never talk to them again, you probably won’t be able to use them to get a job.

“To truly network successfully, you need to know the right people, and have relationships that encourage sharing information about jobs. Keep in touch with your contacts regularly.”

Heera says developing a personal brand for yourself can help one get noticed faster.

“Personal branding is basically the way you market yourself to the world. Your personal brand is what other people think of you. Imagine if people were to describe you as reliable, hardworking, positive or as a good leader.

“From a personal branding basis, you have already made it. It means that people’s perception of you is very positive and this will surely play a huge role in your upward mobility in that organisation.”

Heera adds that personal branding also helps in networking.

“The more people remember you positively, the better will your career be. Some ways to build your personal brand is to be good at your job and let people know it, take part regularly in industry activities, contribute to industry journals and magazines and dressing well and always taking pains to create a positive self-image.”

Leaderonomics chief executive officer Roshan Thiran believes one needs to keep learning to fast-track their career.

“Each time I ask people if they love to learn, they all answer ‘yes’. What most people forget is that learning is very painful and tough. It requires hard work and practice. Try learning a new language or a new skill. It requires hours of focus, dedication and persistent practice.

“You can’t be CEO instantly. You have to learn so many things before making the grade to run an organisation. But learning requires sacrifice and time. Getting the big job involves hard work and learning.”

But what happens when you want to move to a new role to learn more and your manager does not let you?

“Instead of getting upset with your boss, first answer these questions: Have you learned all there is to learn in your current role? Have you contributed as much as possible to your current role? Have you performed your role better than your predecessor? Have you left a significant legacy in your current role?

“If you answered ‘yes’ to all these questions, first wear a smile on your face and then let your manager know you are getting bored and need to move on. Usually, if you are truly an asset to the company, your manager will figure out how to give you a new role.”

PDA - passion, discipline, action

Vogiatzakis firmly believes that the three traits, when combined, forms a great recipe for success.

“My dear friend and in my opinion, a great practical philosopher, Jeff Lee, former managing director of Panasonic Malaysia, told me about his PDA once and I have never forgotten it. Passion, discipline, action – an amazing combination of traits that takes people further and higher.

“As we are younger, the middle part of the PDA, discipline, is the hardest to master. But it truly makes the difference if the fire in us rises to become a bright star in the sky and light the universe up, or a wild blaze that destroys. I have seen both and it is magical when people truly make the best of their PDA.”

At the end of the day, Vogiatzakis says that there is no real magic formula to success.

“It is a combination of many things, but above all it requires hard work, determination and a passion to constantly learn and improve ourselves. One can jump jobs, take advantage of circumstances and can climb up the ladder fast. We see examples like that every day.

“But does that contribute to true capability and maturity? Not necessarily.”

BY EUGENE MAHALINGAM