How do I succeed in a career leap?
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Sometimes in your career you’ll get a great opportunity to take up a role that’s bigger than you think you could be ready for. Perhaps it has a bigger budget than you’re used to, involves managing more people, or requires delivering a project at a level beyond your experience.
These opportunities are a fantastic chance to accelerate your career – but they’re also a risk if things go wrong. And no one wants to crash and burn! So what can you do to seize the opportunity successfully?
Don’t assume that a career leap is easy – you need to work at it in order to successfully make the jump. Remember – sometimes you win, and sometimes you learn – there is no down side.
- The key is being good at handling people. If you’re taking a career leap, it implies that you’re not quite ready for the role yet – and therefore still have areas of development to work on. With that in mind, get a quick view on who you can trust. Use your team to help fill the gaps while you develop the right skills. They will have seen their last manager doing the job, so they’ll know many of the things you have to do.
- Understand what’s expected of you. Don’t make assumptions about the expectations people have of you. If you’re guessing what your manager expects of you, you might underestimate – and that will lead to you not delivering enough – and that in turn will lead to enormous pressure on you to pull it back, because it raises questions about whether you were the right hire. Instead make sure you ask a lot of questions, to drill down and find out exactly what people’s expectations are. Then you can work to meet them.
- Deliver early and impress through delivery. When you start in the new role, look at where the low hanging fruit is. Work out what it is you can deliver very quickly. Even if you only understand 50% of the job, you will find that that 50% has got enough in it to build a great reputation for action.
- Find out why they let you leap. The truth is that you may not fully understand why they’ve appointed you to the new role; this will make you feel nervous about your lack of experience. However, if they’ve recruited you despite a lack of experience, it suggests you have strengths that matter in other areas – maybe you’re creative, have lots of energy or are a great communicator. Ask why they let you make the move – then you’ll know which of your strengths to play to.
- Remember that you need to be resilient. With the challenge of a career leap you will get tough times and you will make mistakes. Set up a great support network and line up good mentors. Don’t let the setbacks dissuade or affect you – just keep pushing on!
Don’t assume that a career leap is easy – you need to work at it in order to successfully make the jump. Remember – sometimes you win, and sometimes you learn – there is no down side.