Keeping Goals on Track

When was the last time you reviewed your career goals? As we discussed in our blog ‘3 Easy Steps to Set Career Goals’, the reason that career goals aren’t achieved is because there is no accountability to achieve them. Your personal career goals are no one’s responsibility but yours and, because of that, you will prioritise other things over them. This blog discusses three ways to keep your career goals on track. 

1.    Review Them Regularly

Career goals should not be set or reviewed as a New Years Resolution. Every step you make in your career, where possible, should serve your ultimate goal in some way. For example, you may take on an extra role or responsibility in an area that isn’t aligned with what you want to do (we’ve all been there). 

The question is can it serve you? Will you expand your network? Will you get to work closely with key people in your organisation? Will you develop a skillset that may be helpful down the track? Viewing different obstacles or distractions as opportunities, and leveraging them as an opportunity is going to help you understand the different parts of your role, you career and where you want to be?

However, the only way to know if you are moving towards your ultimate goals is to review them regularly. Knowing what you need to improve on, develop or consolidate will help you assess if what you are currently doing is actually helping you in the long run. 

2.    Get a Coach or Mentor

We talk about this a lot at The Change Network. Having a coach or mentor, both from a technical and a behavioural aspect, will help you set, monitor and achieve your career goals. 

Being fully transparent on where you are at and getting feedback on what you need to do to get to the next step is the best way to know if you are tracking well. This ideally is your manager, who works with you and reviews your work consistently, however you may have more than one. Your manager may be an excellent coach for your technical area, but maybe you want an external mentor who can help mould your leadership or entrepreneurial skills?

3.    Write them Down

It may sound obvious but write down what your career goals are. You may forget, you may lose track or, when you’ve written them down, you may decide it’s not actually want.

When I say write them, I mean in detail. What is the job role? What is the salary? What is the ideal company? Where is it located? How far away from achieving it are you? What are going to be your biggest barriers?

This information is going to be critical and you can sense check it against other aspects of your life, like friends and family, to see if its achievable among everything else. 

Keeping your career goals on track looks different for everyone. Some people are motivated by other, some are self-motivated. Try and use a few different ways to keep your career goals on track and see how far you get in the next quarter.