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Your #Career : Six Steps To Get Promoted This Year…This is your Guide to Fast Track your Career in 2018.

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It’s a brand new year, and you’ve decided that it’s time to kick your career into high gear. Whether you’re gunning for a promotion or simply want to improve your performance, these six steps can move closer to your goal.

CHECK YOUR DIRECTION

Before you commit to moving forward on your current career path, take a moment to review where you are. How do you feel about your work? Are you happy?  It’s harder to be successful in an area for which you don’t feel passion or a sense of purpose, says New York City-based career counselor and executive coach Roy Cohen, author of The Wall Street Professional’s Survival Guide.

“No matter what advice we give ourselves, if we really don’t enjoy the work itself, these tips and tricks won’t necessarily work for the long term. They won’t have staying power,” he says.

 

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BUILD YOUR PLAN

A career plan includes your short-term (three- to six-month), medium-term (six months to several-year), and long-term (five- to 10-year) goals, as well as a list of tasks or actions you’ll need to complete to achieve them, says Cheryl E. Palmer, owner of Colesville, Maryland-based career coaching firm Call to Career. Looking at where you want to be 5 or 10 years from now can be overwhelming, she says. But when you think about what you can accomplish in the next three to six months, it becomes easier to visualize and accomplish, and builds the foundation and direction for more long-term achievements, she says.

“They all tie together but it helps to break them down like that, so that you actually know what it is you’re trying to accomplish and within which time frame,” Palmer says.

Angelina Darrisaw, founder of The C-Suite Coach, a New York career coaching firm, advocates planning quarter by quarter. When you build your plan that way, you can see the natural progression, but it also shines a light on what needs to happen for your plan to be fulfilled, she says.

“You start to make a list [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][and see] what am I missing, are there any gaps in relationships I might need to have, and stakeholders at work that I might need to be engaging and developing a relationship with. Maybe there are some credentials that I’m lacking, and I need to see if my company has some training that I can take advantage of or tuition reimbursement programs that I can leverage to fill in those gaps,” she says.

UNDERSTAND–AND ENGAGE–SPONSORS AND MENTORS

Finding someone who can give you advice and help you move your career forward can be invaluable–but those two roles are often misunderstood, says Kim Powell, principal with Chicago-based leadership and change management consulting firm ghSMART and co-author of The CEO Next Door: The 4 Behaviors That Transform Ordinary People Into World Class Leaders. A mentor is someone who can give you advice and act as a sounding board with the added benefit of experience. A sponsor is someone who is in a position to take action on your behalf, she says.

In research findings detailed in her book, Powell says she looked at “sprinters”–people who got to the C-suite faster than average. Roughly half had sponsors. “They worked with these individuals thoughtfully. They shared aspirations, not problems. They linked to what was relevant to the sponsor. They made requests easy to fulfill, and most importantly, they followed through relentlessly. Meaning, they’re very reliable. So the sponsor made an introduction or did something for them. They didn’t let that ball drop,” she says.

Mentors, on the other hand, can give you guidance and add an objective, experienced voice to help you make decisions. When looking for a mentor, be sure to choose someone who can devote the time you need, Cohen advises. Even well-intentioned mentors who are too busy may not be effective.

LOOK FOR RESOURCES YOU ALREADY HAVE

Depending on the culture of your company and what you hope to achieve, Darrisaw says it may be a good idea to share your goals with your manager to help you advance your career. “For the most part, most managers do want to see their people succeed and do well and achieve what it is that makes them happy,” she says. “They’re able to look at where you are with a different perspective and can be very helpful in engaging with you in filling out those gaps that you might have. So, making sure that they’re aware of what it is that you want so they can help present opportunities to you.

Palmer adds that it might be time to become more of a “joiner.” If you’re part of a larger organization, look for committees, projects, or task forces you can get involved with. If you’re part of a smaller organization, look for ways to take on new responsibilities and make a difference. She shares one caveat, though: Be sure you’re working in areas that matter to the company and will move you toward your goals. It’s easy to find ways to be busy that either aren’t aligned with what the leadership values or that won’t develop skills or visibility you need. So, choose these added efforts wisely.

LEARN HOW TO SHOWCASE–WITHOUT SHOWBOATING

In order to be considered for promotions or other advancement, it’s important that leaders know your abilities and accomplishments. But, being braggadocios isn’t the way to win. “We call it the self-interest torpedo. If you come across as trying to self-promote, it can be a torpedo from a career perspective. So, the trick around building visibility is really around how you go about doing it,” she says.

Finding the right sponsors who will toot your horn for you helps, she says. In addition, if it’s possible to be thoughtful about the boss you have, choose someone who is generous about sharing credit. Building a reputation for being reliable and for following through was also common among the fast-track CEOs she and her team studied. With the right approach, you can let people know your contributions without overselling yourself.

RALLY SUPPORT AT HOME

One area that rising professionals often overlook is support at home, Cohen says. Putting in more time at the office or being more focused on your career may mean that a partner or family members need to make sacrifices. Discuss these potential changes and be sure that the people in your life understand or work out compromises for work/life balance. Resistance or conflict at home or within your support system can be distracting and drain energy that you could be devoting to your goals.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gwen Moran writes about business, money and assorted other topics for leading publications and web sites. She was named a Small Business Influencer Awards Top 100 Champion in 2015, 2014, and 2012 and is the co-author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Business Plans (Alpha, 2010), and several other books.

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FastCompany.com | January 5, 2018

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Your #Career : Former Wall Street executive Sallie Krawcheck Explains the Best Way to Ask for a Raise — and Get One…Just Because you Deserve a Raise Doesn’t Mean you’re About to Get One. More Often than Not, you Have to Ask — and Then Back up your Request.

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At the S.H.E. Summit in New York City in October, Sallie Krawcheck — the former Wall Street executive and founder of Ellevest, an online investing adviser for women — spoke about ways women can proactively bridge the gender pay gap. But her advice can be applied universally: Don’t just ask for a raise, she said — provide definitive proof that you deserve it.

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“Be as quantitative as you can be,” she said. “Put numbers on paper.”

Vague requests can easily be denied, but hard facts are far more difficult to argue with.

Krawcheck suggests keeping a running list quantifying everything you do, from the number of clients you bring in to the size of the budget you manage to the work you do on each project. When you go in for a performance review or salary negotiation, you’ll be prepared with indisputable evidence of exactly what you contribute to the company.

 

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Krawcheck also advises looking up your position on sites like Glassdoor and Fairy God Boss to know how your current salary compares to the marketplace and gain an idea of how much you should be making.

“We have more resources now than ever before,” Krawcheck noted. “We should be excited about technology.”

As Krawcheck suggests, it’s smart to make the salary negotiation about the facts and leave personal emotions out of it. Demonstrate why you deserve a raise and how you’re contributing to the company, don’t whine about wanting more money.

“You should always link individual performance to departmental goals, and then to overall company goals and how what you’ve done directly impacted each,” Adam Ochstein, founder and CEO of StratEx Partners, previously told Business Insider.

And if you get denied, don’t take it personally — find out why it isn’t possible right now and what you can do differently. Don’t be afraid to be direct: “Ask, ‘What can I do to make this amount?'” Krawcheck said.

And then do it.

 

Businessinsider.com | November 1, 2016 | Emmie Martin

Your #Career : 5 Strategies to get Constant #Promotions …What’s the Secret to Getting to the #C-Suite? Being Self-Critical, Self-Aware, & Keeping your Ego in Check.

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Climbing the career ladder doesn’t happen though hard work alone. But the skills it takes to reach the C-suite might not always be that clear.

Free- Bridge in Fog

 

Krisi Rossi O’Donnell, chief recruiting officer for the staffing and recruiting firm LaSalle Network, has cracked the code. She started at LaSalle 11 years ago as a temporary office assistant and has been promoted 10 times.

Over the course of her momentous climb to the C-Suite, she has developed five strategies, including self-criticism and self-awareness, that have worked well for her and that she now shares with fellow employees (she currently manages about 60 people across multiple offices) as well as with job candidates who use the Network’s career counseling services.

1. ELIMINATE MICROMANAGEMENT THROUGH SELF-CRITICISM

O’Donnell explains that “in order to make sure you are doing your job as best you can, without being constantly supervised, you need to have some checks and balances to ensure you are not only doing your best at the moment, but that you continue moving forward and do it better the next time.”

Ask yourself how you can contribute. “What do you know?” O’Donnell asks. “How can you position yourself to have value? It is not how can I be important.” An offshoot of consistent self-criticism—in addition to helping to enhance your capabilities over time—is that you will experience less micromanagement from your boss(es).

 

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2. BE SELF-AWARE

Knowing where you need to improve is vitally important to continued growth and further steps up the career ladder. In other words, being self-critical does not work unless you are also self-aware. Being self-aware is a process, she adds.

“It is not a single moment in time. You have to think through things entirely by looking at the beginning, middle, end, outcomes, relationships, and interactions. People who are more self-aware, who can read across the table and know when somebody is not paying attention, or when what they are saying is not hitting the right spot, these people are more capable and take full advantage of being self-aware and self-critical.”

3. SEEK NEGATIVE FEEDBACK

How do you know more precisely where you need to improve when you are already fully cognizant and dedicated to high levels of work fortitude through self-criticism and self-awareness? “Encourage and gather feedback,” O’Donnell says. This means, in addition to frequently evaluating yourself, actively seek out ways to improve through other peoples’ suggestions.

For example, if you make a presentation at a meeting, don’t wait for one of your colleagues to offer a reaction to how well you did. “People intuitively want to be nice to each other, so when you are in a meeting in which you messed up, the person you are with may not tell you. They may tell other people,” however. So don’t be afraid to sincerely ask for substantial feedback. “You would rather know the truth and be able to overcome it instead of living a lie and never being able to max yourself out.”

4. THINK OF MULTIPLE SOLUTIONS TO EVERYTHING

An outgrowth of being self-critical and self-aware is that you start paying closer attention and gain a better understanding of how to be prepared for any given situation. “Even when you win, look back and say is this the only way I could have played it, are there other ways that I may be less comfortable with that I could have played,” O’Donnell explains.

Understand that perhaps your first inclination to do a job right is more than likely coming from your comfort zone, says O’Donnell. But, simply executing instead of thinking a bit more out of the box and even taking some risks to come up with alternative (and possibly more creative and interesting) solutions, can hold you back. “Speak to your manager about multiple options,” she says. “Your career will change if you are bringing in solutions as opposed to just executing.”

5. KEEP YOUR EGO IN CHECK

“The minute people think they no longer need direction or feedback because they do their job perfectly is the minute they slip and fall behind,” O’Donnell says. “Continuously questioning your process keeps you from developing an ego.” Always be receptive, and if you don’t agree with what some of your colleagues might have to say, “learn from it and recognize that, while you don’t agree, somebody else in the room felt that way and perception matters.”

 

FastCompany.com | December 11, 2015 | 

Your #Career : When Is The Best Time Of Day To Ask For A Raise? Psychologists Weigh In…Of Course, It also Has to Do With your Boss’s – & your Own – Psychological Rhythms.

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There May be Some Times of the Day, Week, & Month that are Better Than Others. Of course, it also has to do with your boss’s – and your own – psychological rhythms.

4 Fears That Can Sabotage Your Earning Power

There’s nothing more nerve-wracking than trying to figure out how to ask for a raise, even if you’re certain you deserve it. If you Google it, there are some good articles on how to do it, but not much on when to do it. It’s aggravating to think that you might just catch your boss at a bad time, and that if you’d chosen a different time of day or week, you might have had better results.

There may be some times of the day, week, and month that are better than others. Of course, it also has to do with your boss’s – and your own – psychological rhythms. While there’s no cut-and-dry advice for every situation and every boss, there are some good rules of thumb for choosing a time. Below is some advice from people who are pros at deconstructing person-to-person interactions: Psychologists.

Do not ask on a Monday

This is a no-brainer, but Mondays tend not to be the most chipper days around the office. They can be downright grim. Shannon Kolakowski, PsyD, a psychologist in Seattle, says, “Steer clear of Mondays, which are notorious for producing negative, tense moods.” Your instinct may be to wait till mid- or late-week to broach the subject, and that’s probably smart.
People may be more moral in the mornings

There’s not a lot of research on schmoozing your boss, but we can apply findings from other areas of psychology to office dynamics. Kolakowski points out that your boss might be more moral in the morning, so early on in the day could be the best time to talk about a raise. “One study showed what is called the morning morality effect; people tend to have higher levels of moral awareness in the morning and make less ethical decisions as the day wears on. In order to get a well-deserved raise, it may make sense to take advantage of your boss’s morning morality (after the coffee, of course).”
Wait till she’s caffeinated (or libated)

This is a good point – though morning may be a good idea, don’t ask too early. Even if you and your boss are the only people in the office, wait till your boss is fully caffeinated and has gotten any routine early morning stuff out of the way, before you ask to talk.

Of course, if your boss is one for having a martini at lunch, take advantage of it. “The simplistic approach is this,” says Michael Grove, PhD, psychotherapist and executive coach in New York City. “Does your boss have a drink or two at lunch? Definitely don’t get in the way of him and his drink. Go attack him after that!”

Fridays may be the best bet

Assuming your superior doesn’t have one foot out the door for a weekend getaway, the middle of a Friday morning might be smart, since there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. “Obviously I have no research to back this up,” says Suzanne Roff-Wexler, PhD, psychologist and founder of CompassPoint Consulting. “But my intuitive preference when to ask for a raise would be on a Friday mid-morning. The person I would ask would probably be looking forward to a weekend (hopefully in a good mood)!” She adds not to wait till Friday afternoon, since it may make you seem less confident, and the boss may be mentally hightailing out of the office already. So do it mid-morning. “If turned down, I would be prepared to deal with the rest of the day and then take the weekend to accept the decision and think about my next strategy,” says Roff-Wexler. “If the raise is accepted, then I would have the weekend to celebrate or at least enjoy the recognition.”

In certain industries, afternoons may make a more relaxed boss
There’s a caveat to the mid-morning theory: For certain businesses, afternoons may be better, says Grove, since there may just be too much going on during certain hours (like when the stock market is open). If the day was a particularly productive one, you have a boss in a good – or potentially great – mood near the end of the day: “Some bosses, like Wall Street people…. They have one eye on ticker or screen all the time. When it’s over, and it’s a good day, that’s when to ask. When a unit of work is done. So here, I’m favoring the end of the day (except on summery day. Then they’re trying to get to Hamptons).”

Get in sync with your boss’ ups, downs, and personal style

“There are two kinds of bosses: those who are seduced into things, and those who are coerced into things,” says Grove. “For the ‘seduced’ group, catch them when they’re at their most relaxed, when they’re off guard… Say, ‘look what we just didn’t do as a team – and look what I can do to correct this in the future.’” Woo him with your vision of what you’ll bring in the future. But if he’s a numbers person, make your case that way, and let the numbers do the coercing.

And always be aware of your boss’ personal patterns and habits. ”Notice when your boss is most engaged and chatty with you,” says Kolakowski. “Is he a morning person, bouncing with ideas first thing? Or does she pick up steam as the day goes on? Think back to the most productive conversations you’ve had and figure out what time of day they occurred. Mimicking successful interactions is a good way to gauge what time of day to ask for a raise.” If your boss is notoriously crabby or stressed up until lunch then, the stay away from that. Let his or her daily patterns guide you.

Think of his/her workload

Regardless of whether your boss is a morning or evening person, his or her workload can trump that. Know when your boss is finishing up a project or has a light workday – or on the flipside, if she’s just starting a project or has meetings with her own higher-ups. “The best day of the week depends on your boss’ personal schedule,” says Kolakowski. “Is there a certain day of the week you typically meet, when you know you will have his full attention? Be aware of his busy periods; avoid asking for a raise in the midst of other high priority projects, when his mind may be elsewhere and stress levels are high.”

Grove agrees that waiting till the end of a big project is essential. “Again, do it when a unit of work is done. In law, it will be when a case is done. In journalism, it will be when a magazine issue closes.” Other industries will have other ebbs and flows, so be sure to plan your pitch accordingly.

Your own headspace may matter even more

“The most important thing that I can say is that if you think you should ask for a raise, then you have almost certainly earned it (and likely more) and must do it,” says New York City psychologist and author of Your Next Big Thing, Ben Michaelis, PhD. “Therefore, what matters is not so much external factors (i.e., time of day, day of week, etc.) but your internal state. The time that is easiest for you to get up the nerve to ask IS the right time.”

How do you get in the right mental place? Think first about the bigger picture: Conjure up and internalize all the reasons why you feel a raise is logical and deserved at this point in time (you’ll likely have done this in preparation for making your “case” to your boss anyway, but go over all the reasons again, to convince yourself completely, too). And in a more immediate way, center and energize yourself before you meet with your boss, with whatever method works for you – calling a loved one, listening to a favorite song for mojo, or meditating.

Asking for a raise is probably less of a big deal for the more outgoing and confident among us. But it can be especially hard for those who are highly sensitive, less confident or more introverted, since it brings up a lot of “issues” we may have about ourselves and our roles in the work world. “Asking for a raise is very hard for many of us,” says Michaelis, “especially highly sensitive people (HSPs), because it calls to mind questions of self-worth, potential conflict and fear of rejection.” Figuring out how and when to ask your boss is important, for sure – the consensus seems to be to do it after morning coffee but before lunchtime on a Friday. But convincing yourself that you deserve it might even be the bigger step.

What do you think is the best time of day? Please weigh in below.

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Forbes.com | July 18, 2015 | Alice G. Walton