You may not have a formal appraisal at work any more, but there’s nothing to stop you from doing your own. Every business has a strategic plan, so it makes sense that we have one for our own careers too.
We may be back to business as usual after the holidays, but don’t waste the energy you’ve gained from your break. Time spent musing on a sun lounger may have cast light on what needs to change in your work life, and now is a perfect time to reassess, set goals and make plans.
Take stock of where you are now and where you want to get to, both long and short term. Enlist the help of people that know you well: friends, family and colleagues may have a more objective assessment of your skills and achievements than you do.
Here’s how to make an appraisal of your career, to find out what’s important to you, where you want to be, and if you’re on track.
Start from the end and work backwards
Imagine your retirement party. Who do you want to be there and why? What do you want them to say about you? Are you on track to achieve this? It helps to work backwards from there.
How will you feel if you get to the end of your career and you haven’t done everything you want to? What if that book is never written, or that language never learnt?
Once your formal career is over, will you continue your professional interests in some way? If so, you may need to put steps in place now, such as developing products to give you an income, consultancies on the side, non-executive roles or trustee interests.
Align your work with your values
As we get older we are less tolerant of situations that don’t meet our needs. What do you value? What is most important to you? It could be autonomy, financial security, integrity, creativity, location, being an expert, sustainability (one of Volkswagen’s corporate values apparently), working in a team, working flexibly, gaining recognition, health, helping others, learning, travelling, status, contributing to society.
How does your work now match up to your values? What needs to change? In a perfect world, what would your working life look like, and can you adjust your current way of working to fit this?
Assess your achievements
What are you most proud of in the last year? What have you been thanked for? What’s the brand you are developing; the reputation you have and the particular achievements you are associated with?
This information will tell you where you should focus your attention in the future. And give you an excuse to celebrate too.
What didn’t you do last year and why not? If you know what got in the way, you can do something about it. If you haven’t achieved a goal it may not have been important enough to you, so ditch it.
You may have had a tough time at work, but there will be silver linings too. For example, most people who have found a new job after redundancy say their lives have improved. Try to list the positives to help you move forward.
Set your goals
What do you want to have done when you look back on this year? Stick to no more than three goals but make them substantial, exciting ones: aim for Pluto, worse case you’ll still hit Mars.
Turn your goals into a plan
Now break these big goals down into monthly milestones, to keep you on track. What gets measured, gets done. What support or learning do you need to achieve them?
Focus your time on what gets you to your goals
How will you spend your time more productively, now that you are clearer on your goals and values? Remember Pareto’s Law: most of us get 80 per cent of our happiness and desired outcomes from 20 per cent of our time. How can you schedule your time to become more successful and ditch the time-wasters?
After the appraisal: Set a diary date to do an interim career audit in six months’ time. It might be time to polish up your LinkedIn profile and make sure your connections are up to date.
Is your CV as good as it can be? You might not need a new job, but the process of maintaining a CV keeps you on top of the brand you present externally.
Doing a career audit like this should help you feel in control of your working life; the good bits as well as what’s lacking. You may decide to make big life changes (such as relocation, changing from permanent employment to freelance, moving to the third sector).
Most of us make smaller adjustments, like requesting flexible working or making a conscious effort to work on projects that are more interesting and fulfilling.
Whatever the results of your audit, you will be back on the career ladder again after the holiday season, but now you know it’s up against the right wall.
This article was first published by www.high50.com.