Developing a career driven mindset

To succeed in your career you need to have a career driven mindset. The difference between having a job and having a career is mindset. When you have a career driven mindset, you take full responsibility for your career path and your development. When you lack a career driven mindset, you abdicate responsibility. You end up working whatever job becomes available and any development that you might experience is left in the hands of others. You become a utility for the organisation to use as it pleases and discard when they no longer need you. This may seem very negative but ask yourself honestly ‘if I am not prepared to manage my career, who is going to do it for me?’ I hail from a small town in rural Ireland. When I look at my parents’ generation, I see men who entered a job (usually a factory) in their mid teens. Most of them did not finish school. For the most part they went into those jobs and 50 years later they retired from the same job. I am not trying to knock that work as it paid for the upbringing and education that my generation were so lucky to receive. However, those days are gone now. The job market is more fluid and flexible than ever before. It is not just people that move around, companies regularly relocate too. It is time to make the move from the job for life mindset to the career driven mindset.

Why is the career driven mindset so important?

The career driven mindset is so important because with a constantly changing job market, opportunities can come and go in the blink of an eye. On the other side of the coin, managing your career can help you to avoid a whole range of problems.  A few examples of how important it is to have a career driven mindset:

• When your career is on track, you develop and grow as a person both in work, and in life in general.
• Job dissatisfaction is a common factor in stress and bad health. If you are in a job you do not job like, it can impact heavily on your health and happiness.
• Productivity is one of the most sought after career skills but it is very difficult to be truly effective in a job that you do not really want to be doing.

Critical elements of a career driven mindset

The following list of criteria is essential for developing a career driven mindset. If you meet these criteria your chances of enjoying a successful and happy career are greatly enhanced.

1. Have a blueprint for success

Before you set off on the journey that is your career, you need to know where your destination is. When you are clear on your destination, you can make effective decisions. You are able to determine the right thing to do in any moment be assessing whether, or not, it will help you to progress towards your destination.

Once your destination is clear, you can start to work backwards to create a plan for the best way to get there. While there is a need to maintain a level of flexibility in your plan, identifying some key milestones along the way will enable you to measure your progress.

2. Be optimistic

Being optimistic does not mean that you can sit back and hope that everything will turn out right. Being optimistic requires a degree of realism. Believe in yourself and your ability to make things happen for you. When things go wrong, believe that there is a valuable lesson to be learned, and then review what went wrong, identify the lesson and implement what you have learned.

You have most likely experienced times when others have gotten jobs or promotions that had seemed beyond their skills and experience. These people were optimistic and they put their names forward. They will have given the interview process their best effort and seen how it turned out. Sometimes, that is all optimism is, putting your hand up and saying ‘I could do that if you give me the chance’.

3. Seize the opportunities

In my coaching career, I have coached a number of people who feared losing their job. Some were having difficulties with management and some were working for companies that were either struggling or considering relocation.  I always asked them the same question, ‘Is your CV (resume) up to date?’ The answer has always been ‘No’.

Obviously, if any conflict can be resolved, then it should be resolved. But, if you know that there is a possibility that you could lose your job, why would you not have all of your job search materials up to date?, e.g.:

• Curriculum Vitae
• LinkedIn profile
• Cover letters
• References, etc.

More importantly, why wait for something to go wrong before you prepare these materials? Opportunities come and go quickly in the modern economy; so you have to be ready to pounce as soon as you see the opportunity.

When it comes to longer term opportunities, it pays to have your own development plan. Know what skills you want to develop, what courses you would like to take and what books you would like to read etc. Start working your way through these and then when an opportunity presents itself, you are in a better position to snap it up.

4. Play to your strengths

Most people can do just about anything. This does not mean that you should attempt to perform every task. With a career driven mindset, you learn what your greatest strengths are and you work to them. If it does not sit within your strengths you learn to either eliminate it or delegate/outsource it.

When you are trying to choose the right career for you, one of the first things you should consider is the things that you are good at. It is highly unlikely that you will find happiness in a career that you are not very good at. Identify your greatest strengths, gifts and talents and determine the best way that you can offer them to the world. That is where you will find career happiness.

5. Develop emotional maturity

Emotional Intelligence is becoming ever more important, since Daniel Goleman first brought the topic into the mainstream. When you develop emotional maturity, you manage your own emotions better but you also learn to understand and respond to others in a more effective manner. With emotional maturity, you have better relationships; and relationships are one of the most critical aspects of your career. No matter what career you pursue, you cannot achieve success without some excellent relationships.

A career driven mindset requires the ability to set goals which inspire and motivate. You can learn how to do this with the Ultimate Guide to Goal Setting. The modern economy is faster, more fluid and more flexible than ever before. This is not going to change anytime soon. The job for life mindset no longer works. It is time to adopt a career driven mindset whereby you accept full responsibility for your own career and development. This will give you the best opportunity to experience a happy and successful career. There are many opportunities out there but if you want to make the most of them, you will require a career driven mindset. The list of criteria above is absolutely essential for developing a career driven mindset.  You can assess yourself against these criteria and identify any areas where improvement is required. Image credit: Wixphoto.com