My CEO Life

In many of my discussions with staff over the years, there seems to be an inbuilt expectation that a business is going to actively train and educate you with your long term career in mind.  Well i hate to break it to you, but that is probably not the case.  If a business is offering training and education, it is probably because they have an immediate skills shortage or they have a statutory obligation to ensure that everyone has good OH&S training (for example).

So what should you do?  Well the first step is to take charge of your career.  Perhaps a good way to think about yourself is as a business.  So what are the things a business needs to be successful?  A vision of where it wants to be, finance to make sure it gets there, the right skills and capabilities to achieve the vision, good sales and marketing of tyhe business, and of course a great product.

So lets apply these to yourself.  What is your vision in life?  When they are chiseling your tombstone, what will they write on it?  The vision may be to have a lasting impact on those around you or perhaps something far greater, to change the world.  What ever that vision is, that should be your guiding light and everything you do should be building towards delivering that vision.

Now to achieve the vision, you need a product to sell – you.  When you think about a product, what is the product that you are offering a potential employer?  How do you package it up and how do you continue to improve it?  That is where education and training come into play.  You need to actively think about what improvements are needed and then just do it.  It is always good to package them into something that is attractive to the business and try to get them to fund it but at the end of the day, you just have to do it – even if you have to pay for it yourself!

Now the last thing i want to talk about is how you market yourself.  Now this is an interesting topic.  Firstly – this is NOT about being political.  That is just about short term gains – does anyone know of many politicians that truly stands the test of time? 

So this is about how you market yourself (the product) externally and internally within an organisation.  

External marketing is important as you want to make sure that you are constantly on people’s radar in case they are looking for someone just like you.  This is where sites like linkedin and facebook are excellent.  Recruiters today are scouring them for great candidates and it is important that you manage your brand on these pages. 

Internal marketing is about getting on and doing your job, delivering each and every time, making sure that you lead where you can and most importantly making sure you, the product, shines through.  Internal marketing is NOT about politics, sucking up, taking credit for other people’s work, big noting yourself and so on – you will be found out!

The bottom line – its your career – take charge and make the most of it!

More tomorrow

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