Ensuring that you are ‘career-fit’ is an essential prerequisite to all career plans and progression. And it needs some organising, suggests Patrick Forsyth...

The recent economic environment has wrought many changes and there remains no ongoing guarantee of growth and profit. We all live in uncertain times and the old adage that success doesn’t come to you, you go to it is not a bad one to adopt. The world does not owe you a living, and surviving and thriving in today’s volatile work place needs working at.

Specifically these days you cannot realistically assume that regular, automatic assistance will be forthcoming from an employer intent on furthering your career, or even assisting you perform the job you do for them currently satisfactorily.

Realistically you need to take the initiative and adopt an active approach to developing your competence to do what you need to be able to do now, and what you will need to be able to do in the future; this is perhaps particularly the case if you seek to move on or move on and change track.

Specifically there is a need to:

• Become secure in your existing job and role (even if this only interests you in the short term)
• Be ready and able to take on new challenges
• Appear an asset to your organisation (and your boss) making you worth developing and promoting on up and through the organisation structure
• Be desirable in the job market if – or when - you choose to move on to another employer
• Obtain fair and satisfactory rewards for what you (and improve this too if that is an aim).

Everyone needs to be what we might call “career fit”, regardless of age, seniority, gender, or experience and whatever kind of organisation they work in or what career plans they may have for the future. You must sensibly look at how to make what you do now and how you do it successful; and at how to make it go on being successful over time.

Change Is The Norm

Why is this so important? It is not just because of the competitive nature of the modern work environment, but also because it is not just jobs at the heart of operations that are perhaps especially vulnerable in changing times. Change is the norm, is likely to increase rather than decline and the extreme nature of recent changes hardly needs comment. Overall it affects us all and success should not blind you to possible negative influences in the future.

For instance, if lay-offs loom, management does not usually decide to lose the best people, but those who are performing poorly, thought less of or are simply more of an unknown quantity may quickly find themselves in the firing line (sic). Action if disaster should strike is one thing, but lessoning the chances of your being in any kind or peril makes more sense and, possible disaster apart, action to help you excel and create and maintain a secure, satisfying and rewarding career makes sense too.

You have to get things right, and you may well get no second chances. And this is as true of your career as it is of your job.

Whatever your expertise at present, it is a fact that its nature and level will need to change. This may mean major extension if you are a newcomer to your field, or it may mean what is better described as fine-tuning – though this may still be of considerable significance and influence ultimate success very much. Whatever it may necessitate, you must ensure that you are always “career-fit” now and on into the future.

Two Areas Of Action

So, you must ensure this expertise development takes place. You must ensure that your knowledge is kept up to date, your skills continue to be finely tuned and that you are able to do an equally outstanding job tomorrow, next week or next year whatever new circumstances you face. So a first area of action is development; not just taking advantage of what development is offered, but instigating ongoing self-development too. Looking ahead remember that this presupposes that you know where you want your career to go and what additional or enhanced skills may be necessary to make this possible.

Clear career objectives are therefore a fundamental requirement; as the old saying has it – if you don’t know where you are going, then any road will do. By all means aim high, that is only sensible, but remember that a big jump may necessitate some stepping stones en route and that each step may need change to achieve it.

A second, so often underestimated and neglected, is appraisal. Appraisals should be constructive and act as a regular catalyst to the process of development. Here too you can take an initiative, making sure that you understand the process, are well prepared and insisting on an action based session that actually takes you forward and makes success in the following period more likely. In both cases it is not just the actual changes that you make that matter, ensuring you are seen in the right way is also vital and cultivating a positive image is something else that won’t just happen. It too needs an active approach.

All this is an aspect of what might be called active career management, a process that must be made manageable and effective. Of course, fitting in such a thread of activity (though it need not be time-consuming, it must be regular and at appropriate times) is not easy. Your job is no doubt hectic and the workplace may seem ever more pressurised; just keeping on top of things may seem sufficient. But for anyone wanting to become – or remain - successful, inaction is simply not an option (for a summary of the top ten actions to bear in mind – see boxed checklist). Perhaps we might wish otherwise, but as Beverly Sills said: There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.

Top tips for achieving “career fitness”

1. 1. Resolve to be a regular “self-developer”- the development you need won’t just happen
2. 2. Analyse and set clear objectives – you must know where you intend to go
3. 3. Make and use a plan – you need precision here
4. 4. Create sufficient time – not too much, but when and where needed
5. 5. Learn from experience – think and analyse after the event and look ahead
6. 6. Learn from others – colleagues, your boss, mentors
7. 7. Spot opportunities – remain aware of what might help
8. 8. Utilise a mix of methods – remember that there is no magic formula
9. 9. Monitor progress – keep tabs on how things are going
10. 10. Aim high – no other way will achieve as much.

Patrick Forsyth runs Touchstone Training and Consultancy and is the author of “Marketing and Selling Professional Services”. This article is adapted from the introduction to Patrick’s latest book “Disaster Proof your Career” published by Kogan Page (£9.99).

Copies of Disaster Proof your Career can be supplied direct to readers of Changing Careers for £7.99, post free. Simply send a cheque to Touchstone Training & Consultancy, 28 Saltcote Maltings, Maldon, Essex CM9 4QP