Is your career in YOUR hands?

So, what do you think – Is your career in your hands? Or your manager’s?

Well, let’s see! Some are of the perspective that it is completely in the individual’s hands; while another school of thought agrees that it is the manager. Let’s look at each angle separately.

‘Your career is your hands’: Oh yes…very much it is and in fact we get to listen to this statement almost during every review meeting or appraisal cycle and I don’t find anything wrong in the fact that a person has to hunt for his own meat for survival. If we feel that we are not getting opportunities towards career progression, well then, learn to create them. Discuss your situation with your manager putting your point across in a manner that he recognizes that you are becoming bitter, not better. Besides, think about it, it will make him realize that you have a “strong urge of willingness and drive to excel in the organization” (Michael Freeman). Furthermore, Bob Ebers feels that all development is self development. To think otherwise sets up unhealthy dependencies and will lead to disappointment. Just thinking of the proverb, ‘God helps those who help themselves’ 

Your career is in your managers hands: Well...well...well, let me re-phrase this to a more frequently heard testimonial: “My career is in my manager’s hands and he does not care about it one bit!” This takes us to a completely different tangent, where the onus lies with the manager. In this regard, Tiffany Murray states that a "good" manager will help to identify opportunities to assist the employee along on their career path. Michael Burgess rightly states that managers have a responsibility for creating career opportunities, for identifying "blockers" to career progression and for working out ways to navigate a person’s career around them. Your manager knows you very well and should ideally allocate work and tasks on that basis. He should be skilled enough to shower you with challenging tasks, so that you are out of monotony and you work towards your efficiency and effectiveness. The new phrase these days is that employees do not leave companies, but they leave because there is nothing challenging left for them.

How about those situations when the manager gives complete support in terms of showing opportunities to team members to prove their mettle; however, the individuals do not build upon it? Thus it is indeed imperative that WE OWN 70% of our career, while our managers own about 20%. Well then, what does the remaining 10% comprise? This, my dear readers, is in the hands of our market conditions, which at times, we label as ‘destiny’. I would like to include situations like recession here (quoted by Venugopal, an Aircel employee).

Think about it!

As managers and as reportees to him, the art and skill of giving and receiving feedback is essential for a positive relationship. You take the steps towards progression; give your 100% and convince your manager to guide your ship through the rough corporate high tide ocean, where everyone is ready to pull each other down. Managers should inculcate this skill of working smartly, rather than hard or in fact, hardly. Richard Daugherty has rightly stated that while it is our inherent duty to be stewards of our path, a manager can provide insights and highlight talents that we may never notice in ourselves. Nina Chakaramakil from Aircel and Ophealia deRoze also feels that a manager will show us the path, but it is totally in our hands to tread on the path or not.

WHO DO YOU THINK CONTROLS YOUR CAREER?

Be your Own Trainer...! - Part 2

As soon as you become part of the corporate world, it is YOUR job to undertake the responsibility of self-development. You cannot afford to lazily linger for your manager / business unit head to either foot the bill or initiate something for your development.

This corporate world will make you experience a lot of learning and development initiatives including:
· 'on the job' learning
· learning by observation
· customized training programmes
· professional study, related to your work, like MBA, etc…
· performance reviews and appraisal processes

In enhancing your career, it is vital to demonstrate to your manager / employer that you place high value on learning and that you are constantly seeking to thicken your skills and experience, in your current role. It is also imperative to remain employable at all times, if not indispensible. Business is fast-moving and unless you keep abreast with the changes, you will find yourself obsolete.

Developing your personal skills
Most organizations today encourage employees to work on their personal development in the form of training opportunities. While making the right hire, employers assess both your technical skills in relation to the job and your soft skills such as teamwork, communication and influencing. Honestly, this ratio is now turning into 80% people management and 20% domain expertise for all supervisory roles. For staff level roles, interviewers have demonstrated their keenness to hire candidates with high aptitude and attitude towards learning. Once you start working, they expect you to apply these skills in the context of their business and to further keep developing them.

You may have an access to training courses or other development materials to help you; however, key forum for you to formalize your developmental needs is the performance review – biannual or annual. On a monthly basis, team managers could conduct quick 30 minute review of each employee in their team. This gives you an opportunity to receive feedback on your progress, identify areas where you need to develop your skills further, and set related action plans. The more you demonstrate interest in your development, the more your manager reverts with keenness and zeal. It is nothing but a contagious cycle for both where the enthusiasm that you demonstrate to learn is reciprocated with the enthusiasm to coach you by your manager.

Keeping up to date with your industry
All areas of work are recurrently changing. You will need to keep up with all best practice developments in your industry and to consider how they impact your role. Here, the onus is on you to research and read in your own time what you need to keep yourself up to date. Whichever way, you will always need current knowledge to be able to perform effectively in your role and to assist you in progressing further within your field.

Undertaking further study while working
Many people embark on further study in the form of professional courses once they are established in the workplace. At times employers will fund this education for you (Please refer to your company training policy for further details). You may also wish to study further as a personal initiative. Study alongside work allows you to bring a different perspective to your work and to your academic learning.

It is always important to establish how achieving further qualifications might be rewarded by your current employer or what other opportunities it might open up to you in the wider market. Some employers may require you to achieve certain qualifications during your career to enable you to progress to more senior levels or move into specialist roles.