Biz of You Spotlight: Creating Your Compass — Building the Business of You
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In this episode, Connie covers step one of the five-part fluid career system, called Spotting the Trends. It’s all about identifying the challenges, threats, opportunities and potential to help you research and analyze where you are and where you want to go. She explains how it fits into the overall system and why it’s so critical to career success.
Transcript
Connie Steele: So what does it mean to create your compass? It's really about creating clarity on what you're aiming for, by being able to map out a strategic plan to help you see the bigger picture and identify those tasks you will need to do to help you get there.
So the reason why this is a compass is because what you're trying to do is plant a flag and set a direction for where it is that you want to go.
You might not be exactly clear on what the specific thing it is. What we're trying to do is help you establish a starting point, or maybe there's multiple starting points where you're able to start small, test and learn along the way, because at the end of the day, we know your goals will change and subsequently your plans will change.
It is a living and breathing document. Uh, so by calling it a compass, it means it may shift direction. It's a guide to help you get there versus being a very fixed position, a defined position. At the end of the day, as we grow and mature and our career, what we want out of it will inevitably evolve.
So as you define the direction you want to go in, and as you continue to acquire information about this direction, you want to go in the compass may shift and that's okay. But the intent is to provide some initial framework to help you crystallize that thinking so that you can understand where you might want to navigate to, versus it being a bit more amorphous, um, and too fuzzy for people to understand.
So where does this fit into the system? This is the second component and the system, and as I mentioned, it's all about creating the actual plan that will help you move forward because without one, you're basically trying things, somewhat aimlessly and subsequently you won't get the traction to be able to help you move forward in the way that you want, because you won't have that clarity and alignment of what it is you're trying to do. And honestly, you know, for many of you, you probably deal with this on a day-to-day basis in your work life.
You might be hearing people say, what is the plan? What are we going to do? How are we going to get there? No different, we're trying to do is teach you how to develop that. And so when you think about the components of any strategic plan, you've got a goal, objective, strategy and tactic. So the ghost method.
So what is a goal? A goal is something in which it's really broad. General, tangible. It's that big picture thing that you're shooting for. So for example, maybe it's defined work-life balance, which was the case in mine, my situation, um, the objective. That actually gets to a next level of specificity against your goal.
So it's something that's more specific, it's actionable, it's realistic and it's measurable. It gets into what does that big picture really mean? So great, I want to find work-life balance. What does that mean? So for me, you know, or for anyone else to find work life balance, leave my corporate job. You know, moving to consulting so I can have flexibility, but for others it may be you'll leave the job that you're in that doesn't feel like it aligns to what it is that you want to do. And maybe it is to start to be freelancer this summer.
And then strategy is about how you're going to get there. Those are the specific steps and approaches to realize that objective, that objective of moving to be a freelancer, for example, and so what could that look like?
It could be, I think you start networking with friends or past colleagues to see if they have any needs or maybe they have leads on people who may want support. And then the last piece, which is what everybody typically thinks of are the tactics. Tactics are those specific actions that you take. But many times people are very focused on just those tasks and they're not laddering up to what is it supposed to do at the end of the day?
So in this case, if say you want to be that freelancer by the summer, a tactic would be well, knowing I need to network, my tactic would be well I’ll reach out to five people this week and have a conversation and just begin down that path. So, why, and this is just so important, is at this foundational skill of strategic planning is something that you should not only do for your own life and ultimately your own career mashup, but it's a skill that is important to do in a professional setting. When you're able to identify that bigger picture plan for your organization as a leader, then you can bring everybody together to align to that common goal. People are very clear on what your vision is.
What you're trying to accomplish, why you're trying to accomplish, how are you going to get there? So it becomes a, a way to bring everyone together to be on the same page, to be that forcing function at the end of the day, for those to have a common understanding of what it is they want to do as an organization, but at the end of the day for you, what it means for you is that then anybody that you talk to will have a common understanding of what it is you're trying to accomplish. And you'll be able to articulate that because without a plan, it's just a thought, it's just an idea. And so the advice is that, you know, realize the compasses that you're going to be creating are dynamic.
You'll be constantly iterating on it and that success is going to be achieved by these mini victories. So it's really about taking y’know one step at a time. Uh, But you have to be very clear on what it is that you want. What are those goals and define how you’re going to get there. And it's okay if they change over time, but you need to have that foundational clarity of what it is you really want, because that's what people are going to be asking you.
Um, and then you gotta be able to measure that. Are you making progress towards that goal? Are you defining those right activities? And you got to do this over the long term. It is not a one and done. It is that plan, it is your long-term career plan. That will help you create the momentum to get you to where you want to go.
Resources
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