5 ESSENTIAL CAREER TIPS

. 5 ESSENTIAL CAREER TIPS TO DRIVE SUCCESS . 

Success is something i’m always striving for, whether that be on my blog or in my career or generally just in life. I always like to know i’m doing my best & feel great satisfaction in achieving things like promotions at work, new readers on my blog, securing brand collaborations or even just little successes like delivering a great presentation or writing a great article on my blog!  Success to me is quite a subjective thing, and success should always be based on your own goals and ambitions and never related to someone else, so to that point your journey, targets and goals should all be bespoke and personal to you!

But as well as these personal milestones or goals, when it comes to careers I do think there are some more generic things which I think all people should master in order to have a successful career, they’re the common sense, essentials of being a successful career woman or man and in my opinion are the basics of driving success!

So today I thought i’d share my top 5 essential career tips … I hope you find them helpful!

5 TIPS FOR THE CAREER DRIVEN

#1 PROFESSIONALISM 

This should be obvious, but it’s truly one of the most important things when it comes to having a successful career. Being professional is of critical importance, and it covers a whole spectrum of things, from how you present yourself on a daily basis, to the tone in which you speak to clients, your teams and your seniors, your punctuality, your organisation, as well as your ability to manage expectation and deliver great work. Ensuring that you are always professional, and of course personable and yourself, really is an important factor in establishing yourself within a business and role, garnering respect and trust from your clients and naturally of course in making friends & supporters in your company.

It can be easy to let professionalism slip, particularly on days where you may be in a bad mood or tired, and even more so in social situations when you might be having a few drinks and letting go a little. But it’s important to ensure you never cross the line, have fun, be yourself & be personable, but always ensure you’re keeping a little professionalism at the heart of it all!

#2 PROACTIVE & ADD VALUE

To really go far in your career I personally believe you need to be proactive, in this day n age, it’s not enough to simply do your job and do it well, you need to go above and beyond call of duty, add value beyond just the day to day and really establish yourself as a person who’s willing to help drive the business you work for, as well as your own personal development. Going above and beyond can obviously be tricky as it requires additional commitment and time (which given how long we all work anyway, is a little hard), but is a key way in not only making a name and positive profile of yourself, but also in showcasing your skill set to the broader business outside of your specific team or discipline. In my industry pitches & projects are a great way of adding value beyond your day to day job and offer a great opportunity to work with new people, get senior exposure & generally showcase your ability.

#3 WORK LIFE BALANCE

Whilst I’ve said it’s important to go above and beyond, I also think it’s super super important to have a good work life balance, and the reason for this is twofold. Firstly for your own health & wellbeing, ensuring you have a good balance between work time and downtime is really important. Not only will ensuring you get sufficient down time help overall productivity, it’ll also help give you perspective, clarity & a renewed sense of motivation and inspiration (which is a critical factor in delivering great work). The second reason is more from a profile point of view, whilst people may think it’s great to be seen in the office 24 / 7, late at night, early mornings, emailing at weekend, actually it’s not. It takes a little while to accept this point, and force yourself to stop, but ultimately working all hours of the day just makes you look incapable of managing your work streams efficiently and in a timely manner, and it also doesn’t necessarily suggest you’re good at managing clients or internal business expectations (sometimes it’s good to say no, push back, challenge delivery deadlines etc). Of course the odd late night every so often is normal (christ in my industry we’re often working until  8pm due to heavy work loads & deliverables) but doing this everyday, with no real reason or critical projects to be delivered doesn’t make you look particularly good. most companies these days are very conscious of their corporate responsibility and employee health and wellbeing, so seeing employees continuously working all hours of the day does ring alarm bells, not only for their own personal health but also for the precedent it can set for the rest of the team or company. It’s terrible how a negative culture can be created if work life balance isn’t kept in check!

So my top tip, just monitor your own work life balance, and be critical. Do you need to be in the office that long, do you need to deliver all of that by tonight? And if not, well then make an executive decision to leave, even if it’s that you try and leave on time twice a week, or take a lunch break to go to the gym a couple of times … this is actually a really positive step & will help you for multiple reasons!

#4 TRAINING

Don’t stop learning, ever! If you want to succeed, grow and continue to be the best you can be, then you need to keep training, keep upskilling and keep learning more. Put yourself forward for industry talks, attend all training offered to you, seek out new training which you feel would up skill you in areas of weakness, be proactive & be willing. Even CEO’s have to continuously learn more, adapt their skillsets and adjust to ever changing industries … if you want to be the top of your game you have to be agile, and forever soaking up new information!

#5 MENTORS

This is a little tip which can easily be forgotten, but also one that really can be a huge help in having a successful career, and that’s to find yourself a mentor. Whether that be a senior person in your business who you aspire towards or who you believe has skills that you could learn from, a person from a completely different industry who you can trust to give sound advice and perspective, or simply a partner, friend or family member who can offer you valid feedback & career advice! I personally need to find myself a mentor, someone who is leading businesses in my industry and who can provide guidance and advice on progressing my own career into the business leadership realm which would be my next step and linear promotion, from business director, to a managing partner! Consulting with someone who knows you, your industry and your ambitions and who has been on the same journey can be a really great way of not only inspiring you but also helping you to achieve your goals!

So there you have it, my top 5 career tips! they’re by no means right, and in no way exclusive, but for me they’re the 5 things that I really help you establish a successful career and keep it blossoming year on year!

I’d love to hear if you have any career tips or whether you find any of these helpful for your own careers? Don’t forget to check out all my other career and blog tips posts here too.