Embarking on a journey to progress in your career can feel like navigating through a maze, with countless paths that either propel you closer to success or push you further from your goals. Knowing the right actions to take and the ones to avoid can significantly impact the trajectory.
Whether you’re aiming for a promotion, seeking new opportunities, or striving for personal growth within your current role, adhering to certain principles can be the difference between stagnation and advancement. While doing this, you also want to avoid an aggressive competitive environment with your colleagues and jeopardize the relationship you have with them.
In this blog post, we’ll delve into the essential dos and don’ts for career progression, offering actionable insights and practical advice to help you chart a course toward success.
Practices to Advance your Career
Go Above and Beyond
Yes, you probably have heard this before, but have you applied it? Showing initiative and taking on tasks you weren’t necessarily assigned to do will get the attention from your managers. Just make sure someone else wasn’t assigned to that job, as being willing to step outside your normal job or skill set and do what others won’t draw good attention. When you’re willing to volunteer for projects others avoid, your boss will be thankful to have you and will be more likely to consider you for future promotions.
Do Your Job
Doing your job to the best of your ability will put you leaps and bounds over some of your competition. Many people just show up to work because of the pay check, they don’t have any drive or desire to be there or to try and enjoy their work. If you come to work with a smile on your face and do what you do to the best of your ability, you’ll stand out. Even if the job you’re in isn’t your dream job, you can still pick parts of it that you enjoy. Focus on those. Find fulfilment however you can in your job. The quality of your work will improve, and you will definitely stick out from the crowd.
Be a Leader
When opportunities for leadership come up, ask to be put there. Don’t shy away from added responsibility. After all, that’s what promotion is all about. This is also a great opportunity to learn the best ways of leadership. If you’re able to, ask your manager once you’ve completed the project how you did, and in what ways you could have improved. They will appreciate your humble attitude, proving that leadership won’t go to your head in the event that you get that promotion.
If you’re able to be a leader, make sure to do your best to cause your colleagues to have success too. Encouraging them and praising them for their work is a great leadership trait. As a leader, not only do you want to succeed, but you should also want them to be successful too.
Talk to Them
If you know that you and a coworker are both trying to get the same promotion, talk to them. Don’t let the tension simmer. Not only will that make your workplace uncomfortable, but it could also potentially ruin your relationship with your coworker. Be willing to sit down with them, acknowledge that you both want the job, and commit to remaining friendly throughout the process. By taking the initiative in doing this, your coworker will know that you aren’t going to try to get the job by underhanded means and you’re not out to destroy their career.
Practices Blocking Your Professional Goal
Dependency on supervision
Your manager won’t likely promote you if they think you require close oversight at every stage of the process. It is important to make sure that you are doing things right, but at the same time you need to make forward progress on your own without having someone looking over your shoulder all day. Take initiative with your projects and don’t be afraid to ask questions as they arise, but don’t crutch on other people to tell you how to handle every detail of the project.
Personal ego outweighing team priorities
If you are always stepping on other people’s toes because you want to do it your way, then you could be sabotaging career opportunities. No one likes to feel like they are being pushed around, especially when it comes to things that impact their performance at work. Don’t let your ego get in the way of developing stronger work relationships and building an effective team.
Engaging in usual complaints
Nobody really wants to hang around with a constant complainer. If you’re always griping, chances are you’re not doing yourself any favours when it comes to getting promoted or snagging new projects. Occasionally, complaints can be beneficial if they offer solutions and improvements to the company, but make sure that you aren’t the person in the office that is always bringing up the problems and whining about your issues. When you complain, you sap the morale of the whole team which can cause undue stress for everyone involved.
Poor Communication with Employees and Customers
Communication is key to maintaining good relationships, and the quality of your communication will get you noticed. If your communication is non-existent or unclear, then it can have a negative impact on the impression that other people have of you. On the other hand, clear and positive communication can show that you are confident, comfortable, and a good team player.
Excessively Flattering
Trying to impress people too much with flattery often has a negative impact, and your efforts will likely backfire on you. If someone offers too many compliments or they are too clingy to gain the approval of the boss, then it will likely come across as disingenuous. It is ok to offer a genuine compliment every now and then, but you need to avoid crossing the line and come off as insincere.
Simply doing your job to the best of your ability and taking the opportunities that come your way can get you a long way in your career. Do the right thing. Avoid the temptation to succumb to underhanded measures and back-stabbing techniques. Those may get you ahead for a short while, but in the long run, they will ruin your career.
About Allen Recruitment
Allen Recruitment is an international recruitment consultancy with offices in Ireland, the UK, the Netherlands, Spain, France, Sweden, Belgium and Poland, providing recruitment solutions and job opportunities all over Europe. We have great experience in placing candidates in the right roles for some of Europe’s largest brands.
Posted in: Career Resources
