Whether you are in a job that you enjoy or are feeling a bit stale or stuck in, adopting some of the following career management strategies will help you gain momentum:

Your future is created by what you do today, not tomorrow. Robert Kiyosaki

1) Take a pro-active stance in being your own career manager.  If you are waiting for someone else to spot your talents and capabilities, you could be waiting forever. Become your own career manager and take action.

2) Do a realistic talent audit.  Identify your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Get feedback from those close to you at work and home about your strengths and weaknesses.  A 360-degree feedback exercise can be very helpful here. Building on your strengths,  especially ones you enjoy,  is vital but take in  areas for development as well. If 5 out of 6 people are stating that you need to pay attention to your listening skills, they can’t all be wrong and this clearly points to the need for developmental action on your part.

3) Have your own vision and goals of what you want out of this job.  Have a few goals that will happen as part of the job rather than having to do something extra. For example, “ I want to increase my network of people who may be good mentors for me in the future. I will do this by …..(action) …..developing and maintaining good relations with my manager, workmates and customers.” Read more »

The business world is now more connected than ever before. And companies with global operations have executives who are doing business with new emerging markets – different countries with diverse cultural groups of locals and other international executives.  While the opportunities for business growth and success are immense, challenges also abound.   At a human level, no matter what the culture is and or what advancements have been made technologically, business at its heart is still about people, relationships and connectivity.

If you are doing business with people from a different culture, how do you minimize misunderstanding and faux pas and maximize good will,  co-operation and success?  How do you not only survive but thrive in a culture vastly different from yours?  In such a potentially challenging context, skills involving a keen sense of observation, attunement, genuine interest and emotional intelligence (EQ) become more poignant.  Cultural intelligence is just as important as any other technical skills relevant to your job. The good news is that this  need not be a minefield of unknowns but a journey of learning, discovery and success.  Read more »

Blindspots are those aspects of us such as our behaviour, attitude, values and beliefs that we are not even aware that we are operating or “acting out” of.  Blindspots are what others can often so clearly see in us and yet we remain oblivious to.  And blindspots can also be what gets us in trouble including career derailment. As Sir John Whitmore, author of the best selling “Coaching for Performance” and the mulitiple title holder of the British and European Motor Racing Champion puts it,  “we have a measure of choice and control over what we are aware of, but what we are unaware of controls us.” 
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Can you recall a time recently when clearly you had been “done wrong” by someone – a colleague, team member, manager, friend or even a loved one?  In some way they had “failed to deliver” what was either normal, expected, within the bounds of that relationship. Worse they had “done a dirty” either knowingly or unknowingly?  How did you feel?

And when you talked   to them about it, how did they react?  Were there excuses, explanations, denial or blame or did they acknowledge what had happened, took responsibility and proceeded to put it right?  Read more »

Do you feel like you have lost your spark?  Perhaps things aren’t quite going your way.  Or you find yourself going through the motions but deep inside are feeling lost and directionless? Or perhaps you have gone through some significant life events and your life as you have known it has changed forever?  The old is gone but the new isn’t entirely clear. You have more questions than answers, if you are even clear about what these questions are.  It’s quite normal during such times to feel despondent, doubting of your own self and your abilities and experience feelings of anxiety and even unworthiness. 

Well – the good news is that this is a very natural part of the evolving human journey.  Read more »