What five questions should you ask before deciding your next career move? According to a recent article in the Harvard Business Review, the following questions can help ensure that you achieve your definition of career success:
1) How fulfilled am I? To what extent do you find meaning and purpose in your work? Values are what you hold as important and are the key to feeling fulfilled. This is because they represent who you are.
2) How am I learning and growing? To what extent are you building competence or expertise in your sector or function? What knowledge, skills, or traits have you acquired in the last year?
3) Am I headed in the right direction? Day to day and even year to year, it can be hard to tell if you are headed in the right direction if you don’t look up periodically and assess where you are.
4) What seeds do I need to plant now? Whether it’s realizing a three-to-five-year vision or something longer term, career success is often the result of the cumulative effects of small, regular actions — akin to “planting seeds.”
5) What relationships do I need to build? Relationships are fundamental to career success. You can’t do it alone, no matter what the “it” is. So, given your near, mid, and even long-term goals, who are the people who can help you get there?
Stepping back and asking yourself these questions will help you be more intentional in managing your career and will inform your planning and actions for the year ahead.