7 Tips for Setting and Achieving Career Goals
Setting up and achieving career goals at work is certainly a very interesting and important balancing act. On one hand, your workplace related goals should be aligned with the company objectives. On the other hand, they should also be your own choices. Otherwise, goal-setting would just be a formal activity. In this article, we will provide you 7 tips for setting and achieving career goals for your future success.
Align your career goals with realistic objectives:
As a professional, it is a lot easier to take a path about which you know where it leads, rather than just wandering around hoping to reach some destination. Your career goals should help you devise your course of action. It tells you exactly what they are supposed to attain future success, rather than wasting important resources in futile activities. Successful professionals agree that having strong career objectives is a highly useful strategy of working in an organization. It leads you to the path to future success.
Make a detailed plan of your goals:
The fact can’t be denied that making career objectives and achieving career goals can help in planning and scheduling of activities. When you have your target in mind it gets easier to figure out exactly what resources will be required. Goals help in planning effectively. They can also help in coordination among the different organizational departments as well as outside the organization. It helps in getting others as well on board for successful teamwork. Goals are more effective when everyone in the team is on the same page with respect to the target set. Cross-functional teams can be created for the effective accomplishment of goals. Future success becomes inevitable this way.
Self-motivation is the key:
No matter where you work or what stage of your career you are, you always need a motivational factor. Goals play an extremely influential motivational factor for organizational commitment. You may set yourself a life goal when you are a student. After that, you may have broken that goal into smaller targets. You would have learned how to make a CV and taken interview tips from elders so that you get a job successfully. When you get a job, you should be able to keep your long term goal in your mind and strive to achieve it. In the future, success would only come to you if you do not lose focus of your goals. Several organizations across the world reward employees through appreciation letters and other ways for their achievement of goals. This is extremely motivating when a person’s performance is acknowledged publicly. Goals serve as an objective measure against which performance can be evaluated.
Consistently measure your performance:
Your career goals provide a benchmark against which you can measure your performance. There is no point in setting a goal if you cannot measure your progress. People who set goals achieve future success by setting even higher goals once their current goals are achieved. This keeps them going on. Most organizations set performance-based appraisals and remuneration systems. This is a great way to align the future success of the company with the individual performances of employees. Hence, setting and achieving career goals in the prescribed time, of course, helps your career flourish and prosper.
Focus on being productive
As a professional, you should realize that your growth is much bigger than productivity and proficiency. Career progress often requires a broad range of skills and experiences. Moreover, you should also add professional seminars and other educational opportunities to your goal list, because continued learning is critical to your ability to expand your responsibilities and get promoted.
Ask for support if you need it
High achieving performers don't have to do it alone. Such performers know that they can attain more through the help of a coach or mentor. As a professional, you should look for allies within and outside your company. Moreover, you should also build a strong network of professionals that care about your individual success. You should discuss with them, ask for advice and also listen carefully.
Track your accomplishments
When you prepare for your personal assessment, you draw a complete blank on your personal accomplishments. You may have been busy and your manager is also happy with your work but you are not able to name a specific success over the last year. It is difficult to recall details of success at the end of the performance period. You can have a full year of projects for thinking through! It is essential to save yourself the trouble and to also maintain a list of your wins. You should make a list of everything from meeting deadlines and stepping up to help with an urgent research project. This can also help to complete successful client pitches and presentations.
