Questions to Ask Yourself

This article is for those who want not to dream, but to act and really change something in their career for the better. To do this, these are some important questions to ask yourself to reach a new career level.

1. “Where am I aiming?”

What do you want and where is your desired destination? Specify the goal. Do you want to climb a step higher in your position or jump several steps at once? Do you want a higher salary (how much higher?) or find another job (what exactly? What should it be different in?) or maybe change your profession?

I recommend, not limiting yourself to the goal for the year, but immediately looking at it as part of a larger goal: “Ask yourself what big goal the goal you set for the next one works for. the year”.

“Practice shows that checking the long term is very sobering.”. Once a client, a top manager in a medium-sized company, approached me with a request to help me move into a large business while maintaining my status and role. I clarified: “What is the big goal of this transition?” The client thought hard. It turned out that his real, big goal was a personal project, opening his own business. And he only now realized that by inertia he reasoned with old goals, trying to increase the scale of the employer, but not getting closer to his true goal.

The second recommendation of mine is to calibrate goals for ambition and importance. When goal-setting, limiting beliefs begin to appear that knock down the accuracy of the sight and strategy.

Also read : How to change career goals?

2. “What am I doing for this?”

Who are regularly going to start a new life on New Year’s Day or Monday, think about how many of these Mondays and New Years have already passed by: “How often have you already promised yourself that now you will be something do it differently, but didn’t do it? Look where are you now?

What needs to be done to achieve the goal you have set? Don’t try to change everything at once. Real change happens gradually, step by step. Map out these steps and start doing them little by little.

Choose one thing, but the most relevant, the most important right now. Now define one action that you will do differently than you have always done. Just one small action.

3. “Who can help me?”

Big goals are rarely achieved alone. You may need the help of someone more experienced who has already achieved the goal you set for yourself and is now at about the point where you want to be. You have something to ask him and something to learn from him.

If, for example, your goal is to completely change your profession , you should find someone who has been in the profession you dream of for a long time and is successful in it for support. Thanks to communication with such a mentor, you will better understand how long it will take you to achieve your first professional success, what kind of competition awaits you in this area with those who have been working in it for a long time, where it is better to start, which areas, on the contrary, are not worth attention. And what are the main disadvantages in this work – what if you are not ready for them at all?

If you want to become a leader (or grow from a middle manager to a top manager), you will need the tips of someone who has already accumulated experience in this capacity and has bumped into bumps along the way to this goal, which he can warn you about.

Now a culture of mentoring is developing. In fact, this is the mentorship of a more experienced professional.

“The task of a mentor is to help you go through your development path with a minimum “rake”, to help you solve problem situations more efficiently and in the shortest possible time, and thereby accelerate the achievement of your goal.”

You can find your mentor in the professional community, on the recommendation, and even in the company where you already work, if it uses the practice of mentoring, or simply there is someone experienced who is ready to help you.

Also read : 17 ways to improve your motivation

4. “What opportunities does the company give me where I work?”

People often do not even know what career opportunities the company they work for can offer them.

When a person writes a letter of resignation, comes to the manager and hears: “Of course, it’s your business, but, in fact, I was going to put you in charge of a major new project soon. 

In companies with developed personnel management systems, personnel reserves are created and support for high-potential employees is built specially (they are identified through evaluation systems). The manager and the HR specialist openly discuss with such an employee what his future career prospects are in the company, what needs to be done for this and how the company can help (for example, pay for additional training).

Simpler companies do not carry out such systematic work to assess and support high-potential employees, but this does not mean that there are no prospects. Do you want a pay rise or promotion? By the end of the year, collect and show your manager your main successes in the tasks that you have completed in the past 12 months, thereby emphasizing your value to the company.

Ideally, if you can calculate success in terms of money. In the format: I did something, and it brought (or saved) the company such and such amount. If you are a sales manager, it is easy to show the revenue that you brought in for the year. If you are a lawyer, you can calculate the amount that the company saved by protecting it from the claims of counterparties and claims of regulatory authorities. This is not easy to do in all professions, sometimes you have to rack your brains on how to calculate the benefits. But the result is worth it.

Our advises to structure the result (for example, in the form of a visual report or presentation) and discuss it with the manager at a separate meeting. First, you will receive detailed feedback. Secondly, show that you can sum up, analyze and plan. Thirdly, if you see that the meeting is generally positive, this is a great time to share your expectations regarding a salary review, a position, training at the company’s expense, or a new project in management.

“Don’t expect instant decisions from the boss, because usually, such things require approvals and additional budget.” 

It’s not always the same. In small companies, solving a question, for example, about a salary increase, requires less red tape than in a large company.

5. What opportunities are there in the labor market?

Imagine that such a conversation took place, but the results did not please you. Perhaps your work is less appreciated than you expected. Or you are highly valued, but the company is experiencing financial difficulties: “We would be happy to raise wages, but we cannot.” There is no way to offer you the promotion you want, because there is simply nowhere to grow.