Dictionary.com defines career as “a course, especially a swift one” or “speed, especially full speed” (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/career).
It seems that the definition is very close to what all of us constantly hear, i.e., in order to be successful one has to work hard, keep oneself updated, and if one doesn’t do it fast one might fail since the course of success is narrow. Right?
Right. But I also like to interpret this “full speed” and high competitiveness differently: your biggest “competitor” for the highest place in the success podium is yourself.
The reason for this is that a successful career is something relative and you’re responsible for developing its conception.
Being the CEO of a company, for instance, can represent success. But are you sure you want to be the CEO of your company? Or do you only want the “good” part of being a CEO (high pay, visibility, power, etc …)?
Think about it. Everything in life has a price, even you! (check out this post).
Having a successful career is hard work because you always have to give up some things for others. But if this is really what you want here’s a tip.
Before anything else, develop your conception of successful career. The idea is to come up with a spreadsheet that includes all the elements about your successful career: salary, decision power, hours, pressure, family time, your health (remember, you only have one), how much you like what you do, and how much you like the industry you work in, the possibilities of growing in the business, etc…
You can assign a value to each element which should all total 100. Then you can grade each item based on your current job or professional activity. Multiply the grades by the values you assigned and compare the scores.
This may help you think if you really want to change jobs or work in a different industry.
You may even ask, “Is this spreadsheet the solution to my problems?” Of course, not. To think about your career only based on a spreadsheet is to oversimplify a very important part of your life.
But the exercise of going through the values you assign to each one of the things that impact your career may be a great opportunity to find out what a successful career means according to your conception of it.
If you’re far away from your goal you can now start to create your path to success, which doesn’t necessarily mean working more and making more money (but may also be!!).
You can even be surprised and find out that actually you do have a career that’s more successful than those of many professionals you used to covet!
GOOD LUCK!!
2/21/11
Online Career
Few weeks ago I started an online discussion about the allowed use (or not) of Facebook in the workplace. A lot of people participated and the discussions posted were very interesting to say the least.
Regardless of Facebook, workers are not always allowed to use their social networks at work under the allegation that their inappropriate use can negatively impact employees’ focus and productivity.
I personally don’t agree with that. I myself have profiles on Linked In, Twitter, Plaxo, and Facebook, in addition to videoclips on Youtube. My productivity is not affected because of that. Quite the contrary, I believe it’s even higher (the entire discussion about the use of Facebook was conducted through a set of interconnected social networks!!).
On the other hand one must also consider that the improper use of social networks might lead to the loss of productivity and focus in the workplace. It might, but not necessarily.
Let’s use a knife as an analogy. You might consider it to be a weapon, even an object whose use should be forbidden. However, through correct use a knife is an essential tool in several activities. So one way to look at it might be that it’s about how we use each tool we’re provided with.
And this was also addressed in the discussion about Facebook use in the workplace: common sense. But once again I’d like to point out my reservation about this. Common sense doesn’t exist. It’s part of each one’s individual framework and it’s extremely bound by cultural, religious issues; and varies depending on the context.
So how can one allow the use of social networks in the workplace without losing productivity and focus in the results to be delivered? Simple answer. By being focused on management!
It might sound like an easy answer, as if management were the answer for everything. But the truth is that it generally is!
Managers should pay closer attention to the results of their teams and how they produce them. Following the process of result generation and the impact of such process in motivating employees is a responsibility of managers.
For that reason prohibiting people to use Facebook (or any other social network) is not an action suitable to companies that plan on making the utmost use of the potentials offered by the current world. What businesses should be doing is training managers capable of guiding their teams toward maximizing the use of social networks to their own benefits, and training globally connected employees to exchange information, generate content and value online. Of course there are professions in which the use of social networks as work tool is less obvious. But perhaps social networks are today what the world wide web represented a few years back, which was only seen as useful in the academic environment. And does anyone see themselves living without the internet today?
Certainly, accommodating these new tools in the workplace (and why not in schools as well?) will still generate a lot of attrition and adjustment, which is natural.
But it’s already a reality; everyone’s is connected. Even without knowing for sure how social networks can actually help ONLINE is already my middle name and yours. Isn’t it?
Regardless of Facebook, workers are not always allowed to use their social networks at work under the allegation that their inappropriate use can negatively impact employees’ focus and productivity.
I personally don’t agree with that. I myself have profiles on Linked In, Twitter, Plaxo, and Facebook, in addition to videoclips on Youtube. My productivity is not affected because of that. Quite the contrary, I believe it’s even higher (the entire discussion about the use of Facebook was conducted through a set of interconnected social networks!!).
On the other hand one must also consider that the improper use of social networks might lead to the loss of productivity and focus in the workplace. It might, but not necessarily.
Let’s use a knife as an analogy. You might consider it to be a weapon, even an object whose use should be forbidden. However, through correct use a knife is an essential tool in several activities. So one way to look at it might be that it’s about how we use each tool we’re provided with.
And this was also addressed in the discussion about Facebook use in the workplace: common sense. But once again I’d like to point out my reservation about this. Common sense doesn’t exist. It’s part of each one’s individual framework and it’s extremely bound by cultural, religious issues; and varies depending on the context.
So how can one allow the use of social networks in the workplace without losing productivity and focus in the results to be delivered? Simple answer. By being focused on management!
It might sound like an easy answer, as if management were the answer for everything. But the truth is that it generally is!
Managers should pay closer attention to the results of their teams and how they produce them. Following the process of result generation and the impact of such process in motivating employees is a responsibility of managers.
For that reason prohibiting people to use Facebook (or any other social network) is not an action suitable to companies that plan on making the utmost use of the potentials offered by the current world. What businesses should be doing is training managers capable of guiding their teams toward maximizing the use of social networks to their own benefits, and training globally connected employees to exchange information, generate content and value online. Of course there are professions in which the use of social networks as work tool is less obvious. But perhaps social networks are today what the world wide web represented a few years back, which was only seen as useful in the academic environment. And does anyone see themselves living without the internet today?
Certainly, accommodating these new tools in the workplace (and why not in schools as well?) will still generate a lot of attrition and adjustment, which is natural.
But it’s already a reality; everyone’s is connected. Even without knowing for sure how social networks can actually help ONLINE is already my middle name and yours. Isn’t it?
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