In Episode 001, I touched on the subject of Higher Level Tasks.  In that episode, I talked about how you can position yourself for advancement by transitioning from process oriented tasks to higher-level tasks that leverage more discretion and judgement.  This week, we'll revisit that topic and discuss additional strategies for making this transition.

Process oriented tasks are those that follow a standard flow and can be done more through rote action than through personal agency.  Higher-level tasks are often unique and require more understanding and experience to resolve.  These types of tasks usually provide more value to the organization leading to additional responsibilities and, eventually, a coveted promotion.

Previously, I offered several methods you could use to showcase your creativity, problem solving, and decision making skills.  These included optimizing processes that you owned and volunteering to take work from senior members of your team.  This week, I'll cover some additional options for stepping into higher-level tasks.

Understanding the BIG picture

Higher-level tasks are often focused on decisions that move the organization forward.  Having an understanding of the values of the company and its leadership, allows you to align your decisions with them.  So, how do you go about learning about other areas of the business?

First, you can pay attention during organization-wide meetings.  During these types of meetings, they will often talk about projects that are important or that have a high, cross-departmental impact.  This will give you insight into what ideas and initiatives you could champion in your area that would build on those important projects.

Next, look for cross-functional teams that give you exposure to people in other areas.  Leverage those teams to build your relationships and expand your network.  Schedule sessions with these new contacts to discuss what they are working on and how that relates to your work.

Lastly, keep up with trends in your industry.  Dedicate time each week to read up on everything related to your industry and competitors.  Are there new approaches or new technologies that you can bring to your organization?

Strategic Thinking

Once you've built an understanding of the big picture, you'll be better positioned to develop your strategic thinking skills.  There are a few exercises you can undertake that will take your understanding of the big picture and use that to think strategically.

First, practice Critical Analysis of your existing work.  Challenge the assumptions underlying each decision.  Use techniques like the "Five Whys" to get to the actual root of them.  Ask probing questions to understand why those assumptions are believed and look for evidence that those assumptions are still valid or if they need to be changed.  When you determine that the assumptions are incorrect, analyze how that changes the original decision.

Next, leverage Systems Thinking.  With each problem that you face, focus on the interconnections between the different systems involved in the problem.  The interconnections will be where changes will have the biggest impact.  Start by understanding the system at the highest levels and spiral down to lower and lower levels looking for areas where you can have the highest impact.

Finally conduct Scenario Planning exercises.  Using the knowledge of the industry trends, play "what if" to see how those trends could be beneficial or detrimental to your company.  What are some changes you could champion that would turn negative trends to your favor?  How would that impact your current projects?  What if your competitor is in a better position to take advantage of these trends?

By understanding the big picture and utilizing strategic thinking, you will be showing your ability to handle higher-level tasks.  When you have your one-on-one meetings with your leaders, be sure to highlight how you have continued to grow and that you are interested in taking on additional responsibility and advancing your career.

Is there something that you would like for me to cover on a future episode?  If so, go to the ManagingACareer.com website and drop me a note via the Contact Form.  I'll do my best to schedule that topic quickly.

Early in your career, advancement is generally easier and is just a matter of doing "more"……more tasks, bigger tasks, more responsibility.  But, transitioning to senior levels may require a different approach - being more innovative.  Senior members of the team are usually expected to bring new solutions, approaches, and ideas to the problems the team tackles.  These expectations can best be met by those on the team that are the most innovative.

Innovative solutions can often lead to improved efficiencies, reduced costs, or new product lines.  Before we look at some techniques that could help you be more innovative, let's talk about some of the benefits of adopting this mindset.

• Opportunities to lead - those who provide thought leadership are often the ones given the chance to lead the efforts to implement those ideas.
• Demonstrates value - those who provide the most value are often promoted fastest; by being the one to solve difficult problems, you can give yourself an edge.
• Drives learning - innovation requires learning new skills and staying abreast of advancements in your field.
• Inspire teammates - by facing difficult problems with curiosity and determination in order to find a solution, others on the team will follow suit resulting in an elevation of the capabilities of the team.

With some of the key benefits outlined, we turn towards some techniques that you can  leverage to encourage more innovative thinking.  Some of these techniques will work better in person, but several of them can be used in a remote setting, so regardless of whether your company has deemed there to be a Return To Office, you can still find ways to be innovative.

• Host brainstorming sessions - whether in-person or virtual, hold sessions where anything and everything is considered a viable solution.  Spend the first half of the session just listing out possible solutions, regardless of how absurd the idea seems.  Then, as new ideas slow, transition to analyzing each idea.  Don't consider why an idea WON'T work until every idea has been reviewed as to why it WOULD work.  This will ensure that each idea has had adequate consideration and not dismissed unfairly.
• Bring together cross-functional teams - by working with people in other areas, you may be able to find parallels within their respective fields that can be applied in novel ways to your problem.  Additionally, it can help you strengthen your network making it easier to implement the solution once identified.
• Schedule "thinking" time - one way to foster innovation is to schedule regular time on your calendar to just sit and think.  During this scheduled time, turn off all distractions and if possible, get away from your normal workstation.  Innovating is a skill and you build skill through repetition and practice.  By scheduling recurring time to just think, over time, you'll find that you are able to envision ideas and solutions with less and less effort.
• Create prototypes - prototypes allow you to test aspects of an idea without focusing on a complete solution.  Proving smaller complex pieces reduces the overall risk of adopting an unfamiliar approach and allows the cycle of innovation to proceed faster.

Regardless of the techniques you use, there are several tools that can aid you as you work on ideas.

• Whiteboards - whiteboards are one of my favorite tools because they allow you to capture notes or quickly edit as you think through ideas.  Using multiple colored pens provide simple ways to categorize your notes or to make important parts stand out.
• Idea prompts - There are numerous apps and websites that will generate random words or random prompts.  There are also physical books that offer thinking strategies.  Using these types of tools allow you to contemplate the problem from angles that you may not normally consider.
• Idea diagrams - There are also several different popular brainstorming diagrams such as mindmaps, fishbones, flowcharts, bubble maps, and affinity diagrams.  The structure of a standard diagram can help ensure that your ideas have traceability back to the problem you are trying to solve.

There is no one "right" way for being innovative, but through continued practice, you can get better at coming up with new and novel ideas.  Not all of them will be "good" or "great" but by honing the skill you begin being adaptable to unfamiliar situations and open yourself to being receptive of new ideas.

If you have a friend who should be receptive of the new ideas offered by this podcast, share it with them.  Send them to ManagingACareer.com and help them subscribe.

Most companies, at least once per year, go through an annual goal planning process.  As part of this process, you are expected to have some number of company-focused goals as well as some number of personal goals.  Company goals are usually related to revenue, profit, sales, projects, or initiatives.  Your personal goals, however, have more freedom in what they target.

With the company goals, you'll want to start by analyzing how you can personally impact them.  This may take a little bit of creative thinking.  For example, if you are in the facilities organization and the corporate goal is related to profit, it may seem like you have no impact on the goal and it shouldn't apply to you.  However, there are aspects that you DO have control over that impact the bottom line.  If you are responsible for negotiating building leases, a cost savings there could lead to higher profits. 

Before you start writing goals, pick a goal framework.  There are several available, but by using a consistent framework, your goals will be clearer and have defined success criteria.  A few popular frameworks are OKR - Objectives and Key Results, SMART, and Backwards Goals.

• OKR - Objectives and Key Results is a popular framework where you take high level objectives (for example the corporate strategy) and provide measurable results that you can achieve that leads to that objective.  In my earlier example, renegotiating a building lease to reduce costs by at least 5% could be a key result that supports an objective focused on profitability.  A strength of the OKR framework is that goals (key results) are immediately traceable back to objectives.
• The Backwards Goals framework takes a long term objective and works backwards by consistently asking "if THIS is to be achieved, then THAT has to have happened by WHEN".  Personally, I find this framework to be better suited for more targeted objectives than larger corporate strategy.  If you have followed my earlier episodes covering the Individual Development Plan it follows a Backwards Goals approach toward defining your career path.
• SMART goals is another framework based on the attributes of the SMART acronym - Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound - to provide all of the components that a good goal needs, ensuring that the path to success is understood by everyone.  The strength of the SMART framework is that it provides a path for refining goals ensuring that you reach buy-in by all impacted by the goal.  Additionally, SMART goals can be combined with OKR or Backwards Goals to ensure that your plan can lead to success.

Using the framework you select write your company focused goals using the defining statements where you have personal impact.  Be sure to include the appropriate success criteria to ensure that it is clear when the goal has been met.

When it comes to setting personal goals, you'll find this process easier if you have already gone through the process of creating an IDP.  You can take a tactical approach and set goals based on your Action Plan or you can set more strategic goals based on your Roadmap or you can set goals based on some combination of both tactical and strategic goals.

Whether you have an IDP or not, if you find that you are making slow progress on your career growth, I would put more emphasis on strategic personal goals.  If you only create tactical goals, a large part of your focus and a large part of the one-on-ones with your manager will be about short-term activities.  If your career growth has slowed, you want to have conversations with your manager are about how to progress on your roadmap and those bigger picture goals ensure that they keep that focus throughout the year.

If the pace of your advancement is sufficient, I would favor tactical goals.  You've already established a cadence you're happy with and by focusing on your Action Plan activities, you'll be able to maintain your existing pace.  For your annual goal setting, pick items from your Action Plan that build critical skills and items that lead to higher level tasks.

Even though the goals are personal in nature, try to tie them back to the corporate strategy somehow, too.  When there is a relationship between corporate goals and personal goals, your manager has a vested interest in helping you achieve them.  Additionally, review the timing of all of your goals in order to spread them out throughout the year.  If they all target the same timeframe, there won't be an urgency early and then, at end of the year, you could be overwhelmed when everything is due at once.

Once your goals have been documented, have a conversation with your leader about them.  Work with your leader to put a plan in place so that you have the proper work assignments to be able to meet the goals.  Use the outline in Episode 011 on How to Structure Your One-on-Ones to communicate the progress on your goals -- both corporate and personal.  If you follow the advice detailed in Episode 044 - Reporting Status, in addition to the progress reported in your one-on-one, you will be sending out regular emails relating the value you have provided and often, that value ties back to the corporate objectives.

Annual goal setting is not just something you trudge through just so you can mark some task complete.  It's an opportunity for you to relate the work you do back to your career aspirations. 

You can help me reach my goals with this podcast by sharing it with a friend.  If you know someone who is looking to advance their career and would benefit from the content in my podcast, send them to ManagingACareer.com and help them subscribe.

Periodically, I check back and highlight the last few episodes to remind you of things you can work on to help set you up for career success and this most recent group has a lot of solid content.

Episodes 036 to 040 was a five-part series that covered the Individual Development plan in detail.  It starts with an Introduction that emphasizes the importance of the IDP and is followed by episodes that describe the key sections: the Vision and Roadmap, the Assessment and Next Steps, and the Action Plan and Successes.  The series wraps up with an episode that describes The Process you can use to integrate the IDP into your personal career growth.

After the series on the IDP, Episode 041 covers Gaining Responsibility During Company Change.  As many companies are restructuring their workforce, you can take advantage of those changes to strengthen your position and set yourself up for future advancement.  This episode outlines several ways that you make your own luck by leveraging this change.

Episode 042 addresses Mental Health.  Taking care of your mental health is more important than any work that you do.  If you find yourself struggling with mental stress, reach out to one of the resources I covered in this episode.

Next up I cover how creating a Personal Brand isn't just for social media influencers in Episode 043.  By building a reputation that makes you unique within your company, you be come and expert and make it easier for your leaders to position you for advancement.

I wrap this group up with Episode 045 that covers Making the Most of Return to Office.  As the workforce moves towards requiring staff to be in the office at least part time, I give some tips on how to make best use of your in-office hours.

I'm always looking for good content to bring to you, so if there's a topic you would like me to cover on an upcoming podcast episode, reach out to me via the Contact Form at ManagingACareer.com. 

If your company has a hybrid policy, how can you best use your time in the office? Well, first you should make sure you understand and comply with all aspects of the new policy. Are there specific days that you must be in the office? Do you have a designated space or are you participating in Community shared desk system? Which days and what locations will most of your coworkers leverage when they work from the office?

Most companies, as they roll out these return to office policies, state that the primary driver for them is to foster collaboration. It's very likely that you primarily interact with those on your team, or those that are directly involved in your projects. When you work remotely. So as you go back to the office, look for opportunities to spend face to FaceTime with business partners and key decision makers. You should really understand where those people will be and make it a point of spending time in those areas, especially for those important hallway conversations. When you do meet with team members in the office, focus on using that in person time to brainstorm solutions to difficult problems or to build agreement on next steps in your project.

Because there will be days that you go into the office and other days where you'll work from home, you're going to need to take full control of your schedule. Don't be afraid to decline meetings or suggest alternative times to ensure that your calendar aligns with the most appropriate work for the location that you're going to be in that day. For the days that you will be in the office, plan adequate networking time to ensure that you focus on those all-important face to face conversations. Reserve your at home days for deeper work where you have fewer disruptions. Additionally, review Episode 023 - "Can you be successful working remote?" For more tips on how to make the best use of your working from home time.

If you aren't going to have a designated home, Oregon or you find yourself working in a community area, it's going to be harder to be comfortable in your new working environment. Consider purchasing the essentials that you bring with you when you go to the office. Having things such as your own mouse or a headset or USB hub. It ensures that you can work how you want no matter where you're stationed. There are even things like a USB external monitor. If you work best with second monitor. Also consider going paperless to ensure that important documents aren't left behind when moving from one location to another.

In spite of returning to office, be sure to maintain your work life balance. The additional commute time is already going to have an impact on your personal life, so setting strict boundaries to ensure that you leave the office on time is important. Save your late nights for days when you work from home, especially since those days will be focused on more deep work. This should provide more flexibility, allowing you to still spend time with your family. Episode 019 - "Work / Life Balance" has additional tips on this topic.

Word of mouth is the single most effective way to grow community, so if you're enjoying this podcast, I would appreciate it if you help me get the word out by sharing it with a friend. I would love to be able to help everyone take control of their career.

In several of my previous episodes, I've mentioned that one way to stand out is to produce status reports that are value focused instead of task focused.  This week, I go into more detail about what that type of status report would look like.

Purpose and Audience

The first thing to understand about a status report is its purpose.  By knowing who the audience is you can properly tailor the report to meet the purpose that they care about and summarized appropriately.  For your clients and stakeholders, it's a means to communicate project progress.  For your manager, a status report ensures that they are able to track your performance against your annual goals.  For executives, it's an opportunity to update them on company initiatives.

Did you notice something?  The purpose of a status report differs based on the audience and they aren't one-size fits-all.  This implies that you would be creating different status reports for each audience.

The other thing to be aware is that each different audience will likely need a different cadence for reporting status.  Clients and stakeholders are more engaged in your day to day activities and would require more frequent updates.  Executives have a higher level focus and may only need updates a couple of times per quarter.

Content

Status reports that just list the things you've done are very forgettable.  Regardless of who your status is for, the key is to transform your status updates from task-focused to value-focused.  If you want to make an impression and stand out, focus less on the tasks and more on the outcomes.  Activities that do not provide value likely aren't worthy of being included in a status report.

Instead of saying: "Automated reporting of our KPIs"

Say this: "Increased the productivity of my business partners leading to a $50k annualized savings by automating the reporting of our KPIs"

Instead of saying: "Delivered the Artemis project on-time and on-budget"

Say this: "Delivered the Artemis project within the planned 5 months and $1M budget which is projected to save the company $15M over the next three years"

These types of statements still reveal the work that you've completed but highlight the value that those activities provide.

Be sure to align the status with the purpose of your audience.  When updating your clients and stakeholders, the focus will be on project deliverables.  But if you are sending a status report to your manager, try to align the value with progress against your goals.

Structure

My background is in software development and in that field, we have a project management process called Agile SCRUM.  In each daily SCRUM meeting, every project participant is expected to speak to three key points: What did you do yesterday?  What are you going to do today?  and What things are blocked from progress?

I think a good status report more or less parallels those same three areas.  What value have you provided since the last status report?  What are your focus priorities going forward?  And what risks or impediments are you tracking that could prevent progress?

Additionally, keep your status reports succinct.  The intent is not to detail every single thing you do but to provide key highlights.  Noone is going to want to read multiple pages.  Try to keep the length to two or three paragraphs or just a handful of bullet points.  Develop a standardize template and use it consistently so that over time each recipient can learn to anticipate where the information most relevant to them is located.

If you haven't been sending status reports before, it may seem awkward at first, but by sending them regularly, the people you send them to will begin to associate "valuable" with you.  When it comes time for raises or promotions, that's an association that should give you an advantage.  And when faced with potential downsizing, it may even give you a layer of protection compared to others.

During this next week, identify the different audiences that you should provide with regular updates and create recurring events on your calendar to send those status reports.  Also, create a template that you can use when you send them out.  As you go through your week, keep track of what you have accomplished and how that provides value to each different audience.  When your calendar even occurs, summarize your activities and write the status report.  After you've done this for a couple of weeks, send me a note via the contact form on the ManagingACareer.com website to let me know how much of a difference they make.

This week, I'm going to talk about your personal brand and how you can build one.  When you hear the term, what impression does that give you?  For many, I'm sure you associate the term with celebrities, athletes, and social media influencers.  But, I'm here to tell you that it applies to everyone.

So, what is a personal brand?  At the simplest level, your personal brand is the impression that others have of you -- your reputation.  But it's more than just that.  Your personal brand statement is a concise summary of who you are, what you do, and what you stand for -- or rather it's a concise summary of who you want others to think you are and what you want others to think you do and what you want others to think you stand for.  Your reputation is based solely on the impression that others have about you, whereas your personal brand is also the aspects about yourself that you work to project and how you go about projecting them.

As you look to progress your career, often, you are promoted or are not promoted based on your personal brand.  When your manager suggests your name as a candidate for promotion, how do his peer leaders react to that request?  If they know who you are and have a positive opinion of you, that promotion request will be easy.  But if you are unknown or the perception is negative, your leader will have to fight a lot harder to justify your promotion.

Within your company, are you known -- not just within your team, but within your organization and those organizations that you interact with?  If you are known, what are you known for?  Is that the reputation that you want to have?

As you look to build your personal brand, identify what makes you unique.  If your strengths are similar to the strengths of everyone else on the team, you will struggle to stand out.  Is there something that only you are capable of?  Is that something that you want to be known for?  Maybe your reputation is that you are the person that can solve the most challenging problems.  Or maybe you’re the one who can get any project back on schedule.  Or maybe you're a great negotiator.  Maybe what makes you unique isn't so much what you do or can do, but instead is how you approach things.  Are you calm under pressure?  Are you a take-charge leader?  Are you able to talk anyone into anything?  The more uniquely you can define your brand, the easier it will be to highlight those capabilities to the wider organization.

When you identify what aspect or aspects you are going to concentrate on for building your brand, look around the company to see how others will value them.  How can you leverage those aspects to advance the company's goals?  How can you leverage those aspects to advance your personal goals?  If your company values logic and reason, how would branding yourself as being strongly empathetic play with the organization?  Each situation is different -- being antithetical to the values of the organization could be invaluable or it could be ostracizing; you'll need to make that call for yourself.  But, once you've decided, you'll need to put in the work to make that the opinion people have of you.

Your personal brand is about perception, but perception starts with action.  As your brand begins to take shape, come up with a brand statement.  Actually write it down, like on a sticky note, and place it somewhere that you will see it daily.  Use the brand statement as your mantra throughout the day until it becomes a natural part of you.  Every action and decision you make should trace back to your brand statement.   When your actions support your brand, it almost sells itself.

If you are struggling to write your brand statement, come up with a short statement (often a phrase or a single sentence) that describes what makes you unique.  Here are some examples:

• I build and grow great teams.
• I aggressively manage cost in order to maximize profits.
• I treat everyone with compassion and equality.
• Nothing is impossible.
• I apply logic and reason to produce optimal solutions.

The second part of perception is communicating your brand.  In the social media world, you build your brand by how you present yourself on the various platforms.  Within a company there isn't usually a platform for you to use -- but, you can be social.  Work to build your network within your company.  In Episode 028 - Building a Network, I cover ways to build your external network.  However, when building a network within your company, it takes a different approach.  Look for projects that allow you to work with people outside of your immediate team.  Volunteer for initiatives that put you in contact with new people.  Attend social events that you would otherwise avoid.  Offer to give presentations on topics related to your brand.  Find ways to have your name be associated with the brand you are building.  How can you be viewed as the resident expert on your brand specialty?

Spend the next couple of days formulating your personal brand.  Then, visit the Managing A Career community and make it real -- post your personal brand for everyone to see.  By posting it publicly, everyone in the community can become your accountability partners.  Everyone in the community can help you clarify your brand and ensure that you begin the path towards building it successfully.

This week, we're going to talk about a very critical subject, your mental health.  Each episode, I talk about subjects that can help you advance your career and understanding and addressing your mental health is an important one.  If you aren't able to be focused on your work because of things happening in your personal life, it's going to impact you.  So, let's take a look at what you can do about it.

First, I want to start by saying, no matter what anyone says, your health and your mental health are far more important than any work that you do.  It's kind of like the statement that when the oxygen masks come down in an airplane, you should put your mask on before helping anyone else.  It wouldn't do you or anyone else any good if you were unable to help them because you had passed out.  The same is true when it comes to your health and your mental health.  If you are facing personal stressors, it is better to address them than to ignore it and focus on work.

It is important to identify the signs of mental stress.  Denying that they exists can delay any treatment and likely find them compounding.  If you find your work performance falling off or if you have trouble concentrating on your work for an extended period of time, you may be experiencing mental stress.  Another sign could be changes in appetite or sleeping patterns.  Lastly, if you find yourself reacting strangely to normal situations -- overly aggressively, too lackadaisically, being touchy or sensitive -- these types of reactions can be because of how you bring your personal stressors into other aspects of your life.

If any of these signs apply to you I would recommend reaching out for help.  If available to you, professional help is going to be your best option.  Many companies have EAP programs - Employee Assistance Programs.  These programs offer counselling services to employees, often by phone so that they are available any time night or day.  These services can also refer you to local mental health professionals for in person session.  If your company does not offer an EAP program, there are still online websites that are fairly affordable and can serve the same role as an EAP program.  I have no affiliation with them and I do not know which countries they are available in, but a site like BetterHelp.com offers online counseling.  And if you find yourself having suicidal ideations, most countries have suicide hotlines that you can call -- for example in the US, you can call 988 from any phone at any time to talk to someone at the National Alliance on Mental Health who can help.  You can also reach out to the Crisis Text Line  at CrisisTextLine.org for issues other than suicide; they have local numbers in several countries including 741741 in the US.

After the initial assessment, your mental health professional will often work with you to establish strategies that will help you cope with whatever stress you are experiencing.  This could be something like mindfulness and meditation where you sit quietly, perform slow, steady breathing, and focus on the immediate.  For some, becoming more involved in religion can give them the focus they need to calm their mental state.  For others, vigorous exercise may be a way to alleviate stress.  There will also be instances where medication is suggested -- this is not a stigma, if there is a chemical imbalance in your body, often medications can help regulate them.  Regardless of the technique, it takes time; it doesn't have an immediate effect.

Once the root cause has been addressed, the next step is to address any triggers that may cause your stress levels to increase.  If the triggers are from aspects of your work, have an honest conversation with your leaders to try to change your assignments.  Remember, your health and mental health is the most important thing.  Taking on less stressful duties will ensure that you can continue to perform your best which is good for both you and your company.

Everyone faces stress and handles it differently.  If you find yourself in a situation where that stress is beyond what you can handle on your own, reach out for help.  Personal health, including mental health, is important.

There is a lot of corporate downsizing happening right now.  In a future episode, I may go into more detail on that subject, but this week, I would like to talk about how you can take advantage of the downsizing to increase your responsibilities within the company.

If you are one of the ones that remains when a company goes through any sort of organizational change, it is an opportunity for you to increase your sphere of influence and position yourself for increased visibility.  Adding responsibilities strategically can provide a measure of security and even accelerate your career growth.

The first key is to understand the primary drivers of the reduction.  By understanding why each area is being impacted, you will have insight into where the opportunities will be.  Next, you need to determine which areas were impacted the most and whether the work they performed is important to the business going forward or not.

• Cost Reductions - If a company is downsizing in order to cut costs, there will be opportunities in increasing the efficiencies across the company.  Look for ways that you can help people do more with less.  As an individual, look for processes within your larger organization that you can streamline.  As a leader, look for cross-functional processes that you can bring under your control.
• Divesting unprofitable functions - If a company is cutting a business unit that is underperforming or is not considered part of the company's future, you will want to determine what aspects of the business unit will still need to be performed and have those functions assigned to your team.
• Mergers and Acquisitions - When two companies combine, there will often be overlap in certain organizations; usually the ones that are more for business support such as Human Resources or Accounting.  In these instances, the duplication of roles leads to elimination of redundancies and streamlining of costs.  In these instances, the opportunities will be in owning the process of aligning the competing processes into a single process.
• Technological Advancements or Improved Efficiency - Another reason that a company will downsize is when roles have been made obsolete due to improved technology or efficiency.  Can you become an expert in the new technology or processes in order to be best suited for leading efforts in its adoption?
• Restructuring - Sometimes, a company will just make general cuts across every area.  In these instances, teams will have to prioritize their efforts on the most important work and let everything else go.  Are there areas within the company that you can focus on picking up their slack?

Knowing where the gaps are and how they align with the company vision going forward will allow you to assess their value potential.  You should also consider how those functions align with your current responsibilities, however, that is less important than the value of the work to the company.  Additionally, consider which of the opportunities align with your current skills or the skills you are looking to develop.  Focus on areas that provide the most value to the company as well as lead to the most career growth for you.

Once you have identified which areas you would like to target, start to develop a plan for drawing that work to your team.  Start by evaluating your network for any connections to the impacted areas.  If you can reach out and offer your help, you can begin to suggest your name as a potential candidate to take over those responsibilities.

Next, have a conversation with your leader on how you would like to take on this additional work.  Be prepared to provide justification on how that additional responsibility aligns with your skills or how it can expand your capabilities going forward.

If you have enough warning, work to build any skills you will need to take on the additional work.  This is what is happening with Generative AIs such as ChatGPT today.  Those who are learning everything they can about AI and how they can incorporate it into their work are getting ahead and those who aren't are falling behind.

The last step to take is to evaluate your current workload and figure out what aspects of your job you can delegate in order to free up the time you will need for the additional responsibilities that you take on.

As I mentioned in Episode 013 - A Little Bit of Luck, luck is when preparation meets opportunity.  Any time there is change, there is opportunity.  Are you going to be in position to make your own luck and take advantage of the change, or are you going to fall behind those that are already prepared?

If there are any topics that you'd love for me to cover in the future, why don't you drop me a note via the contact form on my web page at ManagingACareer.com?

Over the course of the past four weeks, I've described the Individual Development Plan -- why it's important to your career and what the various components are.  This week, I'm going to talk about how you can integrate an IDP into your development processes.

Initial conversations

Once you've spent the time creating your IDP, it's important to share it with your leaders and mentors.  If you don't already have a recurring one-on-one with your manager, you should schedule one.  In Episode 011, I cover How to Structure Your One-on-Ones.  I recommend having a career-focused one-on-one every four to six weeks -- more frequently and you haven't had enough time to act on the feedback and any less frequently and you aren't putting adequate focus on personal growth.

As you speak with your leader, talk about your goals and aspirations -- talk about what aspects of your road map exist within the company.  Can your leaders help you get in contact with people who already have those roles?  Can someone in that role act as a mentor for you?

Ongoing conversations

Beyond just talking about your longer term goals, talk with your manager about the items in action plan.  Are there resources available from the company -- such as budget for training -- that will support those activities?  Can your manager provide you with assignments that allow you to build the skills you need to progress?

Remember, your action plan should be targeting activities that can ideally be completed within three months.  This would imply that the activity would be discussed in up to four different one-on-ones.  In the one-on-one where the activity is introduced, talk with your manager on strategies for achieving the goal so that you start off correctly.  In subsequent one-on-ones discuss progress and any roadblocks; verify that you are still on track to meet the target date.

Once you have completed an activity, spend some time in your one-on-one doing a retrospective on how that activity has impacted you.  How has that activity improved you?  Were there any obstacles that you had to overcome to accomplish the goal -- whether internal issues or external factors that caused you trouble?  Does completing that activity open you up new opportunities?  Are there follow up actions you can take that can reinforce or build on the take-aways from the completed activity?  Use the notes from the retrospective to record them in the Successes section of your IDP.

Continue to add new activities to your Action Plan as you identify gaps in your current role or areas of growth towards your next role.  Even after you feel that you are ready for the next role, continue to plan actions that expand on your capabilities.  In many organizations, being ready doesn't get your promoted -- often, you have to have already been performing at the next level.  Work with your leader to increase your responsibilities and scope of work.

After a promotion

At some point, you'll reach the next role.  When this happens, I recommend archiving your existing IDP and starting a new version.  Much like the successes section, having an archive of your IDP gives you something that you can review later to see how much progress you've made.  In your new IDP, review each section to make sure that it still applies.

When you review your Vision Statement, is it still true?  Is the timeframe still reasonable; can you reach your goal or can you reach it sooner?  Have you learned anything that would lead you to a different goal -- whether a bigger goal or a complete shift in direction?  Update your Roadmap based on your revised Vision Statement.

Now that you have reached your next role, perform a new Assessment of your strengths and weaknesses in this role.  You should be able to transfer quite a bit from the previous version of your IDP.  Additionally, research what skills you need to build for your new Next Role.  While an additional promotion is likely several years away, you start working towards it TODAY.

If you have any open items in your Action Plan, carry them forward to the new version of your IDP, but work with your leader on a set of activities that set you up for success in your new role.

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