Develop your career by developing others
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One characteristic of people who are successful in their careers is that they take action to make a broader contribution to the organisation or wider team, on a regular basis. One broad contribution is to build their own expertise, and pass this on to others.
Taking action to develop those around you is a great way of advancing your own career. It brings you allies and friends, and can have a great effect on the strength of your network. But one of the most positive effects is that it builds your reputation. It changes the way your boss and senior management perceive you. People leading a department or team often wish more people would be willing to focus on developing the whole team. So when someone volunteers for the task, they are usually delighted.
Ask yourself – do you have the time and willingness to help others to learn within your area of expertise? If you have, you’ll develop a great reputation, and build strong career equity.
Think about the following.
You reap what you sow. The more you invest in people the more you get back in terms of your career.
Taking action to develop those around you is a great way of advancing your own career. It brings you allies and friends, and can have a great effect on the strength of your network. But one of the most positive effects is that it builds your reputation. It changes the way your boss and senior management perceive you. People leading a department or team often wish more people would be willing to focus on developing the whole team. So when someone volunteers for the task, they are usually delighted.
Ask yourself – do you have the time and willingness to help others to learn within your area of expertise? If you have, you’ll develop a great reputation, and build strong career equity.
Think about the following.
- Become a reporter. People commonly say they find it hard to keep up to date with their external industry or developments in their subject area. Find ways to become the go-to resource for your team. Could you write a regular email that alerts people to new information published in journals, that they will find interesting and useful? This will establish you as proactive and also position you as an expert! A simple Google alert can also yield some press cuttings you can pass along, about your company and competitors – or topics of interest. Can you attend a conference, and then run short sessions on what you learned? This will build a strong case for you to attend more leading edge conferences.
- Can you set up “learning bites”? Find the hot topics in your work and organise one-hour learning sessions to help teach people important information. You can cover topics that fall in your own area of expertise, but don’t forget that you can also engage others to do the same. Find people who are respected experts in your team or department and encourage them to do a learning bite for the rest of the team. You’ll become known as the person who initiated and runs the learning bite sessions that help everyone ‘sharpen the saw’.
- Coach new people. If there are new people in your team or department who need help and support, be the person who steps up to manage their skill increase. This is a great way to shine as a potential manager, and will make you stand out as a key contributor. You’ll also make the new person a supporter who could be there to help you later on.
- Become a mentor. If you find working with more junior people something you enjoy and have a natural flair for, speak with your manager and talent team about formalising the role. You may be able to get support and training to help you develop your mentoring skills. You can mentor people in other departments, which will broaden your perspective and make you more visible. It doesn’t hurt to be more visible to the talent team either!
- Represent your team. Consider going into other teams and departments in the organisation and giving presentations on how your team can help them, or on how they can help you. 30 minutes going into another team meeting really can extend your network and succinctly show what you add to the business.
You reap what you sow. The more you invest in people the more you get back in terms of your career.