By Angela Wahome,
As a career advisor many candidates that come into my office are unclear about where they need to be in the future. This creates a challenge for them as they lack focus and end up continually struggling. If you do not know where you need to go, no matter how hard you put effort into you roles you will repeatedly be faced with situations where you will feel perpetually like you are in the wrong place. Job wise you will end up job hopping.
1. Questions to get you started. In order to set clearly defined goals, start by asking yourself a few open ended questions just to get the creative juices flowing:
a) Where am I going?
b) Why am I going there?
c) How can I get there?
When answering these questions get out some paper and write everything that come to mind. Use the results of this activity to list your primary long term career goals.
2. Visualize these goals. This is an extremely important step in helping you to achieve your goals. When you visualize a goal do your best to make the visualization as clear and detailed as possible. If my goal is to be a Managing Director, I would visualize myself seated at large dark brown desk, in a big black chair, listening to the Finance Director, team as we begin discussing the budget strategy for the month.
Once you paint a picture of the end result this goes a long way to increasing the chances that this goal will be attainable. In essence you are already there in your mind; all you need to do is turn it into a reality.
3. How do you get to your goals? Map out the stepping stones, for your long term goals. Utilize the following process or whichever parts are useful;
a) Define the goal and be as specific as possible. I would like to develop my career in Marketing and be Sales Supervisor in four years.
b) List the benefits you will enjoy from achieving the goal. Describe the benefits in detail as the more benefits you list the more motivated you will be.
c) List some action steps that you will need to take. If your goal was to get your Professional Certificate in Sales and Marketing, register with Marketing Society of Kenya to do a course with them.
d) Attach a time deadline to the goal. Is your goal for a year goal, two years goal, 5 years the length of time does not matter, what is important is that you review your goal, see if things are working, make adjustments. If you find that you are continually putting your goal off, ask yourself on a scale of 1 to 10, how important is it for you to achieve this goal? It is a good idea to prioritize your goals as you see fit.
The last thing you should do is once you reached one of your goal deadlines is review your progress. So, one year from now review the progress of your one year goals. If you have achieved some or all of them, celebrate! Take time to reward yourself.
As a career advisor many candidates that come into my office are unclear about where they need to be in the future. This creates a challenge for them as they lack focus and end up continually struggling. If you do not know where you need to go, no matter how hard you put effort into you roles you will repeatedly be faced with situations where you will feel perpetually like you are in the wrong place. Job wise you will end up job hopping.
1. Questions to get you started. In order to set clearly defined goals, start by asking yourself a few open ended questions just to get the creative juices flowing:
a) Where am I going?
b) Why am I going there?
c) How can I get there?
When answering these questions get out some paper and write everything that come to mind. Use the results of this activity to list your primary long term career goals.
2. Visualize these goals. This is an extremely important step in helping you to achieve your goals. When you visualize a goal do your best to make the visualization as clear and detailed as possible. If my goal is to be a Managing Director, I would visualize myself seated at large dark brown desk, in a big black chair, listening to the Finance Director, team as we begin discussing the budget strategy for the month.
Once you paint a picture of the end result this goes a long way to increasing the chances that this goal will be attainable. In essence you are already there in your mind; all you need to do is turn it into a reality.
3. How do you get to your goals? Map out the stepping stones, for your long term goals. Utilize the following process or whichever parts are useful;
a) Define the goal and be as specific as possible. I would like to develop my career in Marketing and be Sales Supervisor in four years.
b) List the benefits you will enjoy from achieving the goal. Describe the benefits in detail as the more benefits you list the more motivated you will be.
c) List some action steps that you will need to take. If your goal was to get your Professional Certificate in Sales and Marketing, register with Marketing Society of Kenya to do a course with them.
d) Attach a time deadline to the goal. Is your goal for a year goal, two years goal, 5 years the length of time does not matter, what is important is that you review your goal, see if things are working, make adjustments. If you find that you are continually putting your goal off, ask yourself on a scale of 1 to 10, how important is it for you to achieve this goal? It is a good idea to prioritize your goals as you see fit.
The last thing you should do is once you reached one of your goal deadlines is review your progress. So, one year from now review the progress of your one year goals. If you have achieved some or all of them, celebrate! Take time to reward yourself.
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