Hunting down great career ideas...

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.

Here’s a quick question. When people see you coming into the office do they a) smile and greet you with the expectation of an enjoyable conversation or b) inwardly groan and start to worry?

At the start of the year we urged you to make your career urgent – how’s it going? Believe it or not we’re 4 months into the year and there are only 8 months left until 2015!

There’s a myth that every mentor needs to be a Yoda figure. But the truth is that successful mentors may not be good listeners, may not always offer balanced advice, and may not have a story, anecdote or sound-bite for every situation.

Excellent performance ratings, great careers and enviable reputations rarely come to people just doing their day job. Your manager is looking for ways in which you go above and beyond what is expected. Here are six quick tips to start to add value: