Archive for Nurture Your Career
The Secret to Getting a Good Review or Raise
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Reprinted with permission from H2O Magazine
You’ve worked hard at your job and it’s time for your review and hopefully that much-needed raise.
Here are three things you need to start doing right away to ensure your review goes smoothly:
1. To receive a good review and possible raise, immediately after your last review, start keeping a word-processed bulleted list of all your accomplishments and your productivity. Continue keeping this list on an on-going basis.
2. About a month before your review, provide your supervisor with the list including the inclusive dates to which it applies. Be sure to include any presentations and travel for the company.
3. Quantify your accomplishments. For example, instead of “Answered customer service calls,” list, “Answered as many as 25 incoming calls a day and directed them to the proper employee.” Also give the results of your accomplishments such as “Gave presentation to management recommending how to improve customer service. Management implemented recommendations resulting in 25% improvement in efficiency as measured by weekly productivity reports.” Use words like “approximately” or “as many as” to estimate the highest volume of productivity you performed.
Rather than expecting your supervisor to know or remember everything you’ve accomplished, provide the list. By doing so, your supervisor has information documenting your productive performance. If you don’t receive as good a review as you expect, you have a solid basis for discussion. However, your professional list is much more likely to show your manager that you are a proactive employee who keeps accurate records and hopefully will earn you a good review and a well-deserved raise.
Terry Wynne
Certified Career Coach
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Do your work projects bring value to your career?
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I was excited to be featured in this recent career article on the Work Reimagined website, How To Pick Projects That Will Boost Your Career. I wanted to share a couple of additional thoughts with you:
1) Diving into something new to boost your talent in your career, or beef up your skills, is also a good way to network. You can meet new people in the firm that you may not have, or clients you’re working with who you haven’t interacted with before. This can increase your list of networking contacts in this new area of skill for you.
2) Remember to mention what you accomplished on new projects in your resume and on your LinkedIn profile. We often don’t update our resume for years if we’ve been in the same position for a long time. Keep your resume fresh. Make a task to update it every 6 months so you don’t forget anything. Updating your resume doesn’t mean that you want to leave your job. You can also use these stories or examples in a performance review. It helps you remember to keep track of your performance.
3) Be willing to say “No” as well. If a project isn’t going to directly boost your career and may end up being a drain on your time, say no and be confident with that decision! Realize your time is valuable and that you want to spend it on productive activities.
If you’d like more help with your resume, contact us today for a complimentary consultation.
P.S. How do you know if your resume is good? Take this Resume Quiz to find out how to keep your resume out of the trash can.
When to say “No” at work
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Here is a helpful career article that I highly recommend reading, The #1 Career Mistake Capable People Make. I loved this quote from the article, “If you don’t design your career someone else will”.
You need to run ship and steer your career in a direction that you want to go in. Part of the process requires balancing when you say yes and when you say no. The most important thing is that you stay in control of your career path.
For example, it’s good to be the go-to-person at work and be enthusiastic about projects that are handed to you, but you also need to know when to say no. If you don’t say no when you should, you’ll get overextended, which can result in you not doing what you should be doing. You need to know when you’re part of a project that isn’t utilizing your skill set. If it’s not best for you, then it might be a good time to say no.
If you’d like more help with your career path, contact us today for a complimentary consultation
P.S. Need to discover your interests, preferences, and personal style to choose a career you can be passionate about? Get on the path to your ideal career here!
Enhance your career path with meaningful projects
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I had the privilege of being interviewed for an AARP article that will be coming out soon. The article is about the importance of choosing projects that are relevant to what you’re doing now in your career. This can help enhance your current career path OR it can help with your next one. You want to be part of projects that last a long enough time and provide enough depth to be worth it; projects that are meaty and not just sitting in an advisory meeting one time.
Here are some tips to help you choose projects that are worth your time:
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Work with people who are players in your company. People who you want to establish better relationships with or new ones. These people might be ‘the influencers’ in the company.
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Decide how much time you can devote to the project, but don’t just add it to the to-do list. Actually incorporate it into your existing schedule, for example on your lunch hour or your morning commute. Adding it to your to-do list can make it more overwhelming. Or it might just get pushed to the back burner.
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Don’t be afraid to suggest or create a project. You don’t have to just volunteer for an existing one. Talk to your boss about your project idea informally, because it doesn’t have to be a formal proposal. One example would be to mention it in a performance review. Or if you don’t want to wait that long, mention it in the hall or sometime when you’re already speaking. Mention that you’d like to enhance specific skills and volunteer for a certain project as a result. Don’t be afraid to speak up, employers typically like motivated and pro-active employees.
If you’d like more work performance help or you’d like help identifying your ideal career path, contact us today for a complimentary consultation.
Hallie Crawford
Ideal Career Coach
P.S. Get one of the most information-rich career newsletters on the web delivered straight to your email inbox! Check out our Free Newsletter to help you along your career journey today!
Advice for seasoned professionals – Don’t try too hard to be hip
Posted by: | CommentsCheck out my latest YouTube video where I share three things that you need to be aware of, to not overstep your bounds and bring the best out of your younger employees. Are you having a hard time relating to the younger generation? Watch this video for advice on how to better work with your younger co-workers or employees.
Two tips to help you focus on your strengths
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Katie Weiser, one of my associate coaches, and I were thrilled to present our new Strengthsfinder Workshop to the EMBA students at Mercer University last week. They loved it, and I wanted to share two things with you that really hit home for me:
- Here is a great video from Marcus Buckingham talking about how as employees we really need to focus on our strengths instead of focusing on improving our weaknesses: Watch Video Here
I don’t know about you but I do this all the time! I’m constantly thinking about how to overcome my weaknesses as opposed to leveraging my strengths and how I can do that on a regular basis. Hello – news flash! I spent a half hour reviewing my own Strengthsfinder and making a list of how I can begin to leverage my strengths, more often. I know I already use them in my business BUT not often as I could, and not as deliberately. Imagine what can happen for you if you make a commitment to continuously focus on your strengths, as well as minimizing the weaknesses. And…if in our performance reviews we did that as well instead of spending most of the time figuring out how to fix things. Marcus Buckingham describes this well, focusing on fixing something bad just makes it less bad. While focusing on strengths/our positive traits, can dramatically improve our success.
- I also wanted to share 2 things the students said. One said I am constantly focusing with my kids on their weaknesses and how to improve them. He sent an email to them right then and there apologizing and telling them he’d start helping them with strengths. I was touched…
Another student who’s a nurse works by managing a large staff of nurses said she always focuses in their team meetings on her employee’s strengths instead of nagging them about weaknesses. Over time she has seen a dramatic improvement in their performance and their morale as a result.
Food for thought that I just wanted to share with you. I hope it’s helpful!
Hallie Crawford
Ideal Career Coach
P.S. Are you in the ideal career for you? Find out if you’re in the right career with our Ideal Career Quiz.
Three tips for your holiday office party
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Check out this article about holiday party bloopers, HO HO ‘UH-OH’. It’s a fun article to read, but take it as advice and don’t let this be you!
Here are three tips for any office parties:
- Watch how much you drink
- Don’t over-share personal information
- Remember that you’re always “on”, it’s a party but still a work function.
I hope you are having a wonderful holiday season. Just don’t forget if you’re attending something work related, keep it professional!
Hallie Crawford
Career Performance Coach
P.S. How do you know if your resume is good? Take this Resume Quiz to find out how to keep your resume out of the trash can.
Managing versus being a ‘worker bee’
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I was excited to be interviewed for this recent article on WSJ.com, So, You Want a Raise… I wanted to discuss a few additional thoughts with you. I think that new managers under-estimate how different managing is versus being a ‘worker bee’ is in terms of not just their role in an organization, but also the skills it takes to lead a team. You go from having your agenda set for you, to being a part of the bigger picture. It requires that you see your job from a much broader perspective.
Also, managing people requires communication skills and an understanding of people. At least a higher level understanding than being an employee does. I advise that people take it seriously and take the time to develop those needed skill set. Yes, you can survive and muddle through while learning along the way (that is part of the process as well). Just be thoughtful about it and observe yourself as a manager. This way you can adjust as needed through the process. Don’t just dive in without looking.
If you’d like more help with your career path, contact us today for a complimentary consultation.
Hallie Crawford
Job Search Coach
P.S. Are you in the ideal career for you? Find out if you’re in the right career with our Ideal Career Quiz.
