Managing upwards is one of the most valuable – yet often overlooked – career skills you can develop. It’s not about trying to curry favour or play politics. It’s about building a productive, respectful relationship with your manager so that you can both succeed. The starting point? As Stephen Covey famously said, “Seek first to
A few weeks ago, I ran a session for the United Nations Development Programme as part of their Virtual Career Lab series. The subject was ‘Managing Upwards: How to Make Progress Through Influencing Your Supervisor’. It was extremely popular so I thought it might be an interesting subject for a blog post or two. Managing
We are very privileged to support the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) with their Virtual Career Lab (VCL) series. The VCLs are more than webinars. They provide exercises, tools and guidance on a range of career development topics. A few weeks ago, I delivered one on the subject of “Trust Matters” so I thought I’d
In my last blog post, I talked about why deepening self-awareness is critical for career growth and success. Deepening your self-awareness is a lifelong effort. Researcher and author Tasha Eurich uncovered a disturbing statistic. Her multi-year study showed that 95% of us think we are quite self-aware, but only about 10-15% of us actually are.
When I reflect on the pivotal moments in my own career, one thing consistently stands out. It wasn’t a promotion.It wasn’t a training course.It was a conversation – one where I finally understood how I was getting in my own way. Up until then, I’d been described as “calm under pressure.” But what I didn’t realise was
Even those who’ve known the pleasure of purposeful work can lose that feeling. We may be burnt out from the acute stress of a demanding job or desensitised through the stress of living through the pandemic. We may have lost sight of the big picture. We may have lost our sense of purpose gradually, one
Are you looking for more meaning in your work but not sure how to get there? We all need a sense of purpose in our lives. When we can’t find one, it can leave us flat and demotivated. The pandemic has prompted many to reflect on what is important to us and how we want
In my last blog post, ‘Want to future-proof your career? Adaptability is the number one power skill.’, I highlighted the importance of adaptability for career success. But how do you develop it? Adaptability is a natural skill. While we may naturally be prone to being adaptable (or not), it can be developed and mastered as
Charles Darwin’s words still very much ring true. “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, it is the one that is most adaptable to change.” If 2020 has shown us anything, it’s that the environment in which we now work is incredibly unpredictable; things change fast. So, employees
In my last blog post, ‘Career Development has changed. It’s time for a meaningful 21st century definition‘, I talked about how the world of work has changed. If ladders still exist, they are harder to climb. Here we explore other ways to take your career development journey. People still move upwards in a career. In
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