It would certainly be nice if all of us had a mentor who was committed to guiding our path to a successful career. Unfortunately, that is far less common than it should be. The reality of human nature is that we typically look out for ourselves first; taking the time to help others maximize their professional growth is just not a top priority for most people. There are plenty of valid reasons for that, so my intent here is not to be negative.
If you are one of the many individuals who are not 100% sure what your best path forward should be, the question is what to do about it. This may seem Captain Obvious, but let’s be real: The only person who will ultimately determine your career success is YOU. Even if you do have a mentor, what if they move to another employer and their support is no longer available? In simple terms, you have to take responsibility for your own career.
We all know the saying “Fail to plan, plan to fail”. This absolutely applies to your professional development. If you don’t have a well-defined roadmap of where you want to go, what steps you’ll take, what positions you want to hold, what skills you want to obtain, etc., how can you set goals and track your progress? This plan can certainly evolve over time, but a having an initial baseline is always helpful.
Managing your career is similar in many ways to managing a complex project at work – start with the end in mind, identify milestones along the way, and most importantly have specific action items you assign yourself. Without action items that you consistently execute and complete, you will have difficulty moving the needle.
Here’s the bottom line: How many of you have documented a long-term roadmap that outlines how you will actually manage your career going forward? I’ve asked hundreds of people that question, and the number who have is remarkably small.