7 Steps to Level Up in Your Career
"Why am I still stuck in this job?"
Whispering those words to yourself at night before you go to sleep? Or maybe you’re not sleeping much at all. Maybe you haven’t advanced professionally in a while and there’s no line of sight to that next promotion. Or maybe you like your career but you have one or two things that are holding you back. There are likely a laundry list of frustrations bouncing around in your head but rest assured, you’re not alone. I’ve been there myself.
Stress and frustration around any topic often stem from feeling like you are stuck in a situation you don’t like, and with no (clear) way out. Making a plan gives you back a sense of control and helps you progress towards a happier place. Keeping that in mind, let’s get started on your plan.
Step 1: Get clear on your goals.
Are you happy with your career path? If not, then you are likely bringing stress and unhappiness to the office and team around you, inhibiting your own growth. This is a whole topic itself so if you answered no, jump to our article focused on answering that question.
If you answered yes, then let's move you through the steps of making enduring, positive change to your performance. The first step is setting goals. Start with where you want to see your career in 10-15 years and work backwards through the levels that will eventually get you there.
As you are setting goals, think big but also think realistically. If your goal is to be the CEO of a Fortune 100 firm by next year but you're currently a Senior Manager or Director, that might be a bit unrealistic. You ultimately want to write goals for yourself that are a stretch but still achievable.
It's also important to remember that goals are not set in stone. They can change as we grow and learn more about ourselves, others around us, and life itself.
Step 2: Identify your gaps.
You may have heard the saying, "If you don't know where you are going, any road will take you there." This is especially true when it comes to your career. Every career at every level requires a certain set of skills to be successful. You may exhibit some of them already but you also likely have gaps. During this process, you want to uncover both.
To get started, ask yourself these questions:
What competencies do I need to develop? (For example: leadership skills or management skills.)
What experiences do I need in order to gain those competencies? (For example: project management experience or operational experience.)
What behavioral traits do I need in order to demonstrate those skills effectively on the job? (For example: being strategic or being able to inspire others through words.)
After you have built a list of strengths and gaps, move on to an external inventory. The best places to gather feedback are from your manager, direct reports, and your peers.
Many leaders in a corporate environment have a hard time giving constructive feedback because it feels uncomfortable. It can be even more difficult for direct reports and peers. How much information you glean from these conversations will be directly related to how you ask the questions. Start with language like the following:
“I have been reflecting on my growth this past year, and I know there are areas where I can improve my leadership and contribution to the team and business. I value your input and would like to get honest feedback about areas where you think I can improve. I’m going to take this feedback and start developing an action plan to improve over time and would like to check in with you through that period to get your impression of my progress.”
For direct reports and peers, be extra sensitive to their perspective and potential reaction:
“I know this may put you in an uncomfortable position, and I want to be sensitive to that. If you aren’t comfortable having a direct conversation with me about this, I have created an anonymous survey for you to give feedback.”
With your manager, be careful with wording. While you may be looking for that next promotion, don’t bring that up when asking for feedback. Instead, demonstrate that you are focusing on structured self-improvement to be more effective in your job. After you have had time to demonstrate sustained improvement, then you can have a conversation about a potential promotion.
At this point, the person may need time and space to think - give that to them. If they do respond, your reaction is very important. Keep things simple and non-defensive. If it’s feedback that is hard to hear, say “Thank you for the feedback - I really appreciate it.” Don’t get angry, don’t debate it, just listen to their perspective on things. If you need more details (which is often the case), ask them if they could give you more context or an example.
Step 3: Prioritize your gaps.
Not all gaps are created equal - you'll want to focus on those that have the biggest impact. The best way is to prioritize them according to their impact on your career.
The gaps with the highest impact: fix these first! These are the ones that will have a big effect on your level in the organization and your ultimate earning potential (if that's a priority). For example, if you want to be a CEO but can't create a visionary future for your company, you're going to need to fix that gap to achieve your goals.
The gaps with more frequent feedback: address these next! This is easy after you have met with your work partners. Rank gaps that were identified most frequently in your conversations at the top. Keep in mind, some of these gaps will overlap with ones that have the highest impact.
The gaps with more time available: take care of these last! If it's not urgent or will take a significant amount of time to develop, you can plan solutions on a longer time horizon.
Step 4: Identify the root cause of your gaps.
Identifying the root cause of your gaps is an essential, but an often overlooked first step in tackling them. It’s important to consider why you have a gap and not just that you do: there are many reasons people can be lacking in certain skills or knowledge. The common types of gaps that leaders need to address are:
Competency Gap: This type of gap is relevant to the competency necessary to be successful in your role (e.g. you are a VP of Marketing and need to understand digital marketing strategy). Identify possible educational paths to close that gap. Some paths may be as simple as doing online research and reading books, while others may require a more structured educational program.
Experience Gap: You might see feedback from your manager or others like, “I haven’t seen whether you can lead a project” or “You haven’t demonstrated thinking big on the business yet”. See this as an opportunity! It doesn’t mean you can’t do it, it just means you haven’t demonstrated it yet. Start by identifying specific improvement projects that can demonstrate your ability to succeed in that experience gap. It could be building a strategy for the future of your business, showing you can execute on an operational delivery, or external public speaking. Regardless of what it is, take the initiative and build a work plan that will be able to demonstrate that experience in the future.
Behavioral Gap: These can sometimes be the hardest to fix. They often have to do with your personality, interaction style, and communication methods. They might look like, “You’re not approachable”, “I have a hard time following your direction”, or “We’re missing the bigger picture”. These gaps are also often very contextually dependent. To understand this, first think about what’s behind the feedback you received. If someone tells you that you’re not approachable, it probably means that you make them uncomfortable in a specific way. It could be that you always look stressed or busy and they don’t want to bother you. Or it could be that your tone or wording is aggressive and non-constructive. Or that you interrupt and talk over people when they communicate with you. Put yourself in another person's shoes, be brutally honest with yourself about your behavior, and connect the dots.
Take your time on this part of the exercise. If you don't fix the root cause, you'll still experience the gaps that are holding you back. Investing the time now will save time and help you be more effective in the future.
Step 5: Create a plan to close your top gaps.
The next step is to create a plan to close those gaps. The best way to do this is by creating a learning plan for yourself.
It will include the following:
What you want to learn
How you're going to learn it (e.g., books, formal education, workshops, projects at work)
How long it will take you to learn it
Set yourself up for success by creating a learning plan for yourself. Take the list of your top gaps and then determine how you're going to close them. After that, get started on closing these gaps. Once you've done this, you should be able to set some clear goals for your career growth.
Step 6: Seek support during implementation.
In addition to direct work partners, having mentors outside of your current company is extremely important, especially as you reach higher levels of leadership. This could be a past manager or peer, a key work partner at an extracurricular non-profit, a parent or sibling, or an executive development coach. What’s most important is that you trust this person, you respect their abilities in leadership and critical thinking, and that they understand your bounds of confidentiality to your company and team.
Seek out weekly check-ins on your plan with your manager and monthly with your mentor - they can help keep you accountable for making progress on your career goals. If this isn't possible, consider hiring an executive development coach who will be able to provide guidance along the way.
Step 7: Track your progress toward closing your gaps and meeting your goals.
To get the most out of your gap-closing efforts, it’s helpful to track your progress in a few different ways.
Write down what you have achieved: When you achieve one of your goals, write it down. Write down how long it took and what challenges you faced along the way. This will help you visualize how far you’ve come and give you a sense of accomplishment when things get tough later on (because they inevitably will).
Write down what you have learned: Along with tracking your achievements, also take time to reflect on what happened during each milestone—what did this experience teach me about myself? What did my successes reveal about my blind spots? How can I apply these lessons moving forward?
Write down what changed as a result of reaching this milestone: What did I change in my work routine or behavior after reaching this goal? Did anything else shift because I decided to pursue this particular goal? What would have happened if I hadn't made that choice? These are important questions because some changes are permanent while others are temporary, so knowing which ones fall into each category is crucial for understanding where exactly you're headed next time around!
Additionally, check back in with those who gave you feedback on your gaps and goals. What did they think about how things went? Did their opinion change over time? If so, why? This is important because we're constantly evolving as people—what felt good yesterday might not feel right today or tomorrow! And their answers can help inform what you do next.
Finally, after making material improvements, you can begin the conversation of a promotion with your manager. Try working it into your weekly meetings with something like, “I feel like I have made tangible improvements in my gap areas over the last 6-12 months. Would you agree?” See how your manager responds to that question. If they agree, then you could follow up with something like, “Do you believe I have what it takes to get to the next level?” Gauge their answer and see whether there are remaining gaps to solve to get to the next level.
Conclusion
As children, we are often taught that going through a certain type of schooling or completing certain types of assignments is the path to success. What very few (including top business schools) really focus on, is successful interpersonal leadership skills and how to manage your career over time.
By following these steps consistently over time, we can ensure that our efforts are not wasted on unproductive activities while also building momentum toward long-term success! And if you need help along the way, Crux Advisors can offer customized support to help you reach your career goals.