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ME, UNLIMITED - Part II
By
Karen Oliver, Managing Director, LHH|DBM Gulf
Skills Identification
‘Me, Unlimited’ involves an unbiased assessment of your strengths, weaknesses and values. It pays to ask yourself some questions such as:
'What can I do and what can I bring into a job?'
'What do I really want to do in my next job?'
'What do I want to do five or ten years from now?'
Once you know your skill set, values and priorities match them with market trends, in order to find your level of employability. Though you may find that your skill set does not necessarily match the specific qualifications for certain jobs or industries, you should not be afraid to make a change (even if it means taking a pay cut or title change), if you believe that change will help you reach your ultimate career goals.
As an individual (as ‘Me, Unlimited’) you must develop career strategies that clearly describe the direction you wish to take. You need a set of inter-connected plans that align your values, skills, strengths and resources to achieve a goal.
Creating results is the most important career strategy of all. Maintain high performance standards and consistently be a positive contributor. While being a team player is still highly regarded, ‘Me, Unlimited’ means constantly delivering added value to every project or assignment.
Be Visible
Maintain positive visibility. By creating results, keeping track of and articulating your accomplishments, growing your skill base, and knowing your industry, you will succeed in creating professional visibility for yourself.
Identify Strengths and Skills
It is important, as you operate as ‘Me, Unlimited,’ to know your value. Quantify and qualify your accomplishments, both on the job and in your volunteer/civic activities. To determine your market value, you should know salary ranges in your organization, industry, region and function.
As you can no longer depend on your employer to ensure lifetime employment, you should know your prospects. Understand your industry’s trends, join professional organizations, read business and trade journals, attend conferences, develop a network, and establish a strong relationship with senior managers. These activities will enable you to uncover opportunities and gather information about your industry and the viability of your job function.
Expand your skill base. By constantly anticipating your organization’s future needs and matching the development of your skills to those needs, you will solidify your value to your organization today and tomorrow. Take advantage of training offered by your organization, industry, and professional groups; ask to be assigned new projects that will enable you to develop new competencies; or engage your own career coach.
Take Charge
Do you know where you’re going and how to get there? Have a career plan to give you greater control over your future. Doing so positions you to capitalize on the myriad opportunities that the changing world of work offers to those who choose to control their own destiny.
‘Me, Unlimited’ means being the best person that you can be and treating yourself as your own business. As employers can no longer guarantee lifetime employment, ‘Me Unlimited’ means getting the right skills and constantly improving oneself to ensure employability – similar to what Charles Handy calls ‘portfolio living.
Next time: Emerging Leaders
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