Some companies have formal career planning and employee reviews. This is separate from the planning discussed here, because you need to track your career progress over many years, regardless of the employer.
Quarterly, Annual Reviews and Updates
Once you develop and put in place a career plan, schedule time throughout the year to update and measure your progress. Appointments are 1 hour for a quarterly review and 2 hours for the annual review.
Set up appointments in your personal calendar (like a Google Calendar) not your work calendar (like your company's Outlook). Make these appointments automatically. That way you create only 4 appointments: March 15 (quarterly review), June 15 (quarterly review), September 15 (quarterly review) and December 15 (annual review), that repeat for the next 10 years.
Quarterly Review
At the quarterly review, look at your plan and determine if you have completed the correct percentage of each of the planned tasks. For example, if it is March 15, and you have scheduled one year for a specific training, you should be 25 percent complete with that training.
It’s okay if you don't have every task completed up to the scheduled amount. The important thing here is to raise your awareness of what progress you have made towards this year's plan and what’s left to accomplish for the year. This review can also get you back on track if you’ve off track.
After you have gone through the list of actions for the quarter, the review is done until the next quarter.
Annual Review
The annual or end of the year review is an opportunity to look over the progress you have made in the past year. Planning and execution is hard work. Celebrate all your past year’s successes.
Identify tasks not completed and discern the worth of these tasks. If these tasks are still worthwhile, schedule those in next year’s plan. If these tasks are now not worthwhile or relevant, make a note stating what you accomplished towards this task and why you have discontinued it.
Each year you can review not only the current year's accomplishments, but the prior year’s. By reviewing your progress, you will see trends. Compare one year to another and to gain insights about other things you need to learn to increase your skill set.
Look at what needs to be accomplished in the following year towards completion of the 10-year plan (again another 1-year chunk of the plan).
After you have charted out next year’s plan, put it aside for a day or two to give yourself time to think about it. Updated it when you are ready. Then work that plan!
Lesson 8: Understand Professional Career Tracks
There are two types of roles in any company or organization: Individual Contributor and Management.
Individual Contributor (IC)
The Individual Contributor (IC) is a specialist that focuses on one job. People in these roles work by themselves or as part of a team, to create some kind of work product. That person does not have to manage or supervise employees, nor manage budgets.
Management
Any time you add the word Manager to a job title it means that a person may have to manage people, processes, budgets and/or other things in the work environment. Management isn't for everyone. A Manager usually comes from an Individual Contributor role where she has already been a specialist in an area that's managed by this role. For example, before she became an Information Technology (IT) Manager, first she was a software developer; before she became an Account Manager, she was a Sales Support Specialist.
Promotions and Raises
More and more companies today create pools of Individual Contributors and assign those to a project rather than one department with one Manager. If you decide you don't want to manage people, you can stay an Individual Contributor and progress in your career (with promotions and raises) without having to go into management to get a promotion. Going into management to get promoted is a terrible idea, especially, if you have no management training and are not interested in helping people.
The management question you should ask is: Do I like people enough to spend 70% of my time working on people, relationships and communication issues, and enforcing policies from upper management? If the answer is yes, you might be a good candidate for management. If the answer is no, remain an Individual Contributor.
Summary
All successes usually begin with a great plan.
Quarterly reviews are an opportunity to see if you’re on track for the year and to make corrections as necessary.
Annual reviews are an opportunity to celebrate your successes, highlight the objectives you missed and to map out next year’s plan.
There are two types of roles at companies: Individual Contributors and Management. Each type of role has its rewards and challenges.
Questions to Ask Yourself
Have I ever tried planning out my career in the past? If so, and it didn't work, why did it not work? What will I do differently this time?
What are my worries about career planning?
How will I keep myself accountable on a quarterly and annual basis?
Do I have any other concerns about doing this? If so, what can I do now to resolve those concerns?
Do I think I will get any career planning support from my management?
Additional Resources
Linkedin.com – “IC or People Manager...?
Harvard Business Review – “Do You Have a Manager’s Mindset”
New York Times – “Maybe Management Isn’t Your Style”
Chapter 8: Basic Survival Skills for Business
“Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don't recognize them.”
~ Ann Landers
There are skills and attributes each person should have to survive and thrive in today’s work world, regardless of the company size. These skills can improve with time and practice.
Lesson 9: Be Willing to Pay the Price
In your life and career, there will always be a price to pay. If you pay the price now, it’s done. If you don’t pay now, you may pay it for the rest of your life. No one is exempt from paying their dues–it’s just the way the world works.
Here is a financial example: When you purchase a home you can get a 15-year or 30-year mortgage. The longer you pay, the more it will cost you in interest. It will cost you approximately twice as much for a 30-year mortgage as it would for a 15 year one. It is this way because of the factor of time–the longer you borrow money from the bank, the more you'll pay for it.
It is the same way for life and career: You can pay the price now for something, or later. Paying later will always cost you more.
What is this price I’m talking about?
“The price" is the work you do and the sacrifices you make to achieve your 10-year career plan. If you want to be a Marketing Director in 10 years and already have a job in marketing, the price you pay might be getting an MBA in Marketing. If you have the college education, but not the job, it could mean taking a lower level job in a marketing or sales department to learn everything about a company's products and services and gaining additional skills on your path to becoming a Marketing Director.
Paying the Price now increases the likelihood you will achieve your goals and achieve those sooner.
Lesson 10: Preparation
Always prepare well. This may seem like an easy choice, but in today’s world, lots of people don't understand or embrace this concept.
Are you always prepared with your work? If not, why?
Do you always meet assigned deadlines? If not, why?
Being a professional means always being prepared. If you have an assignment or your manager or client has an expectation, you will complete something on a certain date, you need to meet that expectation.
Winging It
Many people don’t fully prepare their work. They make excuses for not meeting their deadlines, or ignore those deadlines altogether and assume that they aren't accountable. The worst scenarios for this is when they “wing it” and get caught.
A manager may say “it’s okay, you can get it to me tomorrow,” to someone who misses a deadline, but what she is thinking is that “you screwed up and now I have to wait, which won't help you when you need something.” You should embrace this concept. Managers hate surprises (more on that later in the book).
Lesson 11: No Excuses
No excuses are acceptable. Not in the real world. Said another way: there’s no excuse for an excuse-managers and others really don’t want to hear it.
If you often make excuses, this is an opportunity for you to change your work habits.
What you need to ask yourself is:
Why can’t I meet my deadlines?
Why don’t I follow through with my responsibilities?
What could help me perform better?
Should I seek guidance from a peer or manager?
If the reason for missing a deadline is the amount of work, a lack of knowledge or skill set or the work environment, you must talk with your manager about it. That’s why she is there–to remove roadblocks and to help you become successful.
With all of that said, you may already know you need to do this and not care. If you don’t love or at least like what you are doing, go do something else. Your life and happiness are too important to waste. Not meeting goals and deadlines will only make you and your management miserable.
The questions you could ask yourself are:
What would make me want to change and meet these responsibilities and deadlines?
Where better could I apply my skills?
What other types of jobs would make me happier?
All jobs aren’t right for all people. If you are in this situation, you have the power to change it.
Lesson 12: Build Trust
Trust is very difficult to earn in today’s world because many people lie all the time! It really is unbelievable. Maybe the reason is that it’s easier and they don’t think they will get caught. The lack of honesty is so pervasive, always inspect closely to be sure you know the truth.
People who always prepare gain one of the most valuable rewards from their manager and coworkers: high trust equity. This is priceless. Trust isn't something you can buy, you must earn it. Once earned, it can be a bridge to wonderful things in your career, that you never imagined! However, if you lose trust, it is very difficult to regain.
Where did This Start?
Where did the lack of being prepared and missing deadlines start? Maybe it began in childhood when everyone would get a trophy and called a winner, regardless of the effort they put into the competition, regardless of their skill. It is the false narrative that “Everyone is a Winner.”
In real life, “Everyone is NOT a Winner.” There are winners and losers, which is the way it has always been. If you want to progress, if you want to be an all-star, if you want to be a “Winner,” you must produce, meet your deadlines and build trust with your management and peers.
Summary
To be successful in life, you need to meet your commitments and other’s expectations.
The price you pay now will always be less than the price you pay later.
No one cares about excuses for not meeting your obligations.
Nothing is more important in relationships than building trust.
Not everyone in the real world is a winner.
Questions to Ask Yourself
Am I willing to pay the price to be successful? Do I think I can do it? How will I keep myself motivated throughout the year?
Am I always prepared for work and my other obligations?
Am I willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done, or do I slide through life and work?
How often do I justify why I didn't make a deadline or an obligation?
Do people trust me? At work? In my life?
Am I a winner?
If I am not a winner yet, what would it take to become one?
Additional Resources
InspireForLifeCoaching.com – “4 Powerful Benefits of Being Prepared”
Medium.com – “If You Want Success, Figure Out the Price, Then Pay It”
Forbes Magazine – "The 8 Most Damaging Excuses People Make For Their Unhappiness"
Psychology Today – 5 Ways to Build Trust and Honesty in Your Relationships”
Forbes Magazine – “Growing Up Where Everyone is a Winner–How do Kids Learn to Win?”
Lesson 13: Become a Specialist
As stated previously, Individual Contributors and Management are the two professional tracks most often seen in business. It used to be that these roles were mutually exclusive, meaning that managers just managed, they didn't do the work, because they spent the majority of their time planning and in meetings. That is no longer the case as more and more companies are looking for “hands-on managers” that can do both, when needed.
Another fact that's well known to Managers, but not necessarily to Individual Contributors, is that Managers usually come from the Specialist ranks (especially in technology, finance, accounting, marketing, and human resources). This is because specialists are experts in an area. There’s a school of thought that firmly believes only an expert can manage an expert. So it’s recommended that you: Become a Specialist and keep competency in that area as long as you are in business.
One of the great things about being a specialist is that you can pursue an Individual Contributor career path and if you decide you want to try Management, you can do that too with some training. Then if you later decide you don't want to be a manager, you can go back to being a Specialist. The same is not true for the Generalist.
Generalists can be highly effective managers, but as Individual Contributors they often run into a hiring manager’s perception of “we don’t understand what you do and we need a specific skill set, so we will hire the Specialist.” The only exception to this is working in small business. In a small business, a Generalist is valuable because his wide array of skills is needed, expected and a true asset to the company.
More and more of today’s companies are paying specialists for work when they need them. Specialists are in high demand because employers can quantify their skill sets to current tasks and projects.
Summary
Become a specialist in one or two things to increase your chances of being employed.
Generalists are much harder for employers to quantify for Individual Contributor (IC) roles.
Specialists can become management with the right training.
Questions to Ask Yourself
Am I a specialist? If so, do I have any interest in learning about other areas I could work in?
Am I a generalist? If so, has being a generalist hurt me in my career path?
If I am not a specialist, do I want to become one? If yes, in what field and what training/education is required to achieve that?
Additional Resources
Fast Company – “What You Should Know About Being a Specialist or Generalist”
Monster.com – “Should I Become a Specialist or Generalist?"
Cleverism.com – “The Ultimate Career Choice–Generalist or Specialist”
Lesson 14: Under Promise, Over Deliver
Setting realistic timelines is paramount, not only for good planning, but to set the correct expectation of your client, stakeholder or manager. One way to do this is to under promise, over deliver.
The saying “under promise, over deliver” comes from the Technology sector. The purpose of it isn't to slack off. The purpose of it is to set realistic deadlines for commitments that are achievable. Business usually wants a technology solution in their time frame (which is typically faster than technology can build it). Technology projects usually take longer than expected, because of the unexpected things that happen with software, people and the shifting demands of the business.
A person who over-commits for a deliverable is seen as someone that can't meet deadlines or commitments. No matter how good their intentions, they should have planned better and added
time for the unexpected (often called Murphy’s Law).
Setting realistic timelines or commitments is about doing an accurate, well thought out plan and estimate. Adding 10% for the unexpected and delivering on that commitment is acceptable and people will appreciate it. If you do this planning consistently over time, you will build substantial trust equity.
There is an old saying in business “If you want something done, give it to the busiest person.” That isn't accurate anymore. It’s up to the individual to push back and set realistic expectations for management, clients, and stakeholders, because what they really want is consistency, quality and predictability.
Summary
It’s up to you to negotiate realistic deadlines with your manager and others.
Avoid the urge to over-promise or commit–especially if you already have a full workload.
Plan at 100%, then add 10% for the unexpected.
Deadlines and expectations need to be reasonable and achievable, not early or unrealistic
No one wants to miss a deadline. It takes maturity to negotiable a realistic, achievable deadline that will provide the finished work product and the right level of quality desired.
Questions to Ask Yourself
Do I have problems negotiating and meeting deadlines?
Do I commit to too many things and then not get all completed on time?
Do I plan for the unexpected?
Has not completing projects on time hurt my career?
What can I do to change my situation?
Additional Resources
WikiQuotes.org – "Murphy’s Law"
Don’t Work Stupid, Coach Yourself Page 4