Career is a Verb!

Career as a verb means to go, drive, or run at top speed especially in a headlong manner (He careered though the small alleys without a scratch on his car.). Yet, despite this license most continue to treat career as a noun not just in their verbal usage of it, but also in their life where it involves managing their own professional career. They let their career happen to them, and when it does not go well, they find someone to blame.

There is no reason why you cannot manage your own career through a series of preemptive actions. Most complain about how stultifying their jobsare, how they have reached a glass ceiling, or how insecure their boss is and how he is holding them back. Then they let each one of these factors get in their way of having a good career. Most are far more comfortable being a victim than being a victor.

Regardless of the specifics of your own career barrier, the following prescription may help you jump into a drivers seat when it comes to managing your own career:

1. Take a stock of what is happening and what should be happening in your career trajectory.Assess how much of the blame points inwardly; youd be surprised what you discover if you remain objective and make your own list.
2. Shed the victim mantle and put of the victor armor. Make a list of things you must do to turn the situation around that has got you stuck. For example, if your boss is ignoring you and you are not getting any credit for your good work, take charge of the situation and write a memo to everyone in your team thanking your boss for giving you the opportunity to take on a project you suggested and the one that you successfully completed (make sure it is true and sincere!). Send a copy to his boss and let her know that your boss is a good leader. Avoid sugar, butter, and spices! Mention this in open meetings in appropriate ways, where your boss is going to be present. Pretty soon he will get the picture that you are there to make him look good and he will start paying attention to your needs.
3. If no one has praised you for your good work, take a random and worthy person and praise them. Praise must be specific, genuine, timely, and spontaneous. When you give this praise the recipient should light up and start telling you about their accomplishment proudly. Praise is a contagious sport; pretty soon it will boomerang back to you. If you feel shy doing this in person, do it by emailor a note! The amazing aspect about giving someone praise is that the recipient assumes that you are someone important!
4. As you move up in the hierarchy what matters is the relationships you have with those around you. This is particularly important for those who come from technical ranks. They are raised in the belief that as long as their technical work is flawless, everything else should not matter. Wrong! No one likes a smart alec, but everyone finds irresistible people who make them genuinely feel worthy and good. This is the basis of establishing good relationships.Read up on EQ (emotional intelligence).
5. Set out an objective to advance your career in a measurable way. For example, if you are a senior manager vying to become a director in a year, merely doing a good job in your current position is not enough. You must become visible at the level that matters. Supporting your boss in front of their boss; becoming visible by taking initiatives and social causes that the company believes in, and so on. If you do this well, most of the people working with you will wonder how is it that you are just a senior manager and mingling with higher-ups effortlessly.Once you become part of the circle in upper management you will be seen as a part of the upper management. Remember, to move up, relationships matter and not merely your competence.
6. Look for outside jobs that are one or two levels above your current title. Find what job skills you need to develop to qualify for those positions and then ask your boss for assignments that allow you to take on those opportunities. Each year proactively update your rsumfor those positions and see what assignments will take you to claim that expertise. Now you are managing your career with you in the drivers seat.
7. Learn how to look and feel important and project that image. You can influence people without authority. Understand the difference between influence, power, and authority.
8. Understand how senior executivesin your company spend their time professionally, socially, and in the way that they project their image. For example, if they all belong to a certain charity or organization consider joining it.
9. The best way to claim a position that you are vying for is to act as if you already are in that position and to start behaving as if you have that responsibility. Without alienating your team, show leadership that allows you to be seen as doing that role and getting everyones cooperation. When time comes no one would be surprised if you get that promotion.
10. Senior managers and those in the executive suites have extensive networks. Start developing your own network of influential people and take time to nurture and expand your circle of friends and professionals. Make an investment of time every week to make this a scheduled activity in your routine. Once you build connections start nurturing important relationships.
11. Learn to communicateeffectivelyand to take on opportunities that require you to speak publicly. Nothing creates greater visibility than to have done well in a presentation that has public exposure. Join Toastmasters or similar organizations to ratchet up your leadership and communication skills. Listen to TED talks and practice strong presentations.
12. Do not wait to be assigned a project. Identify a project that will improve the companys position and take it on. Send out a memo spreading the news of your successful accomplishment, and, once again, thanking your boss and anyone else who pitched in!
13. Take on someone to mentor and find yourself one. Learning is painful, but without pain there is no growing. Seek out opportunities to take risks and do not be afraid to fail. As Winston Churchill said, Success consists of jumping from failure to failure without admitting defeat!

Good luck!

About Author

Dilip has distinguished himself as LinkedIn’s #1 career coach from among a global pool of over 1,000 peers ever since LinkedIn started ranking them professionally (LinkedIn selected 23 categories of professionals for this ranking and published this ranking from 2006 until 2012). Having worked with over 6,000 clients from all walks of professions and having worked with nearly the entire spectrum of age groups—from high-school graduates about to enter college to those in their 70s, not knowing what to do with their retirement—Dilip has developed a unique approach to bringing meaning to their professional and personal lives. Dilip’s professional success lies in his ability to codify what he has learned in his own varied life (he has changed careers four times and is currently in his fifth) and from those of his clients, and to apply the essence of that learning to each coaching situation. After getting his B.Tech. (Honors) from IIT-Bombay and Master’s in electrical engineering(MSEE) from Stanford University, Dilip worked at various organizations, starting as an individual contributor and then progressing to head an engineering organization of a division of a high-tech company, with $2B in sales, in California’s Silicon Valley. His current interest in coaching resulted from his career experiences spanning nearly four decades, at four very diverse organizations–and industries, including a major conglomerate in India, and from what it takes to re-invent oneself time and again, especially after a lay-off and with constraints that are beyond your control. During the 45-plus years since his graduation, Dilip has reinvented himself time and again to explore new career horizons. When he left the corporate world, as head of engineering of a technology company, he started his own technology consulting business, helping high-tech and biotech companies streamline their product development processes. Dilip’s third career was working as a marketing consultant helping Fortune-500 companies dramatically improve their sales, based on a novel concept. It is during this work that Dilip realized that the greatest challenge most corporations face is available leadership resources and effectiveness; too many followers looking up to rudderless leadership. Dilip then decided to work with corporations helping them understand the leadership process and how to increase leadership effectiveness at every level. Soon afterwards, when the job-market tanked in Silicon Valley in 2001, Dilip changed his career track yet again and decided to work initially with many high-tech refugees, who wanted expert guidance in their reinvention and reemployment. Quickly, Dilip expanded his practice to help professionals from all walks of life. Now in his fifth career, Dilip works with professionals in the Silicon Valley and around the world helping with reinvention to get their dream jobs or vocations. As a career counselor and life coach, Dilip’s focus has been career transitions for professionals at all levels and engaging them in a purposeful pursuit. Working with them, he has developed many groundbreaking approaches to career transition that are now published in five books, his weekly blogs, and hundreds of articles. He has worked with those looking for a change in their careers–re-invention–and jobs at levels ranging from CEOs to hospital orderlies. He has developed numerous seminars and workshops to complement his individual coaching for helping others with making career and life transitions. Dilip’s central theme in his practice is to help clients discover their latent genius and then build a value proposition around it to articulate a strong verbal brand. Throughout this journey, Dilip has come up with many groundbreaking practices such as an Inductive Résumé and the Genius Extraction Tool. Dilip owns two patents, has two publications in the Harvard Business Review and has led a CEO roundtable for Chief Executive on Customer Loyalty. Both Amazon and B&N list numerous reviews on his five books. Dilip is also listed in Who’s Who, has appeared several times on CNN Headline News/Comcast Local Edition, as well as in the San Francisco Chronicle in its career columns. Dilip is a contributing writer to several publications. Dilip is a sought-after speaker at public and private forums on jobs, careers, leadership challenges, and how to be an effective leader.

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