Investment For Each Stage Of Your Career To Fast-Track Your Progression

The only constant we have in this more complex world of work we live in is change so staying ahead of the curve, learning and growing your mind-, skill-, and tool set is a non-negotiable. However, especially most recently with so much conversation going on around AI and how technology can already replace certain skill sets, professions and disrupts industries, the question is: where, when and in what should you invest in to maximise your output?

Let's start with the early stages of your career. This may be literally when you graduate from an education but also if you explore a different path to where you’ve been so far. There are 2 main career changes: the industry change and the profession change.

It’s a lot easier to change careers because you can still use your technical skills as well as your soft or transferable skills in the same way. You can upskill a lot quicker on industry specifics including their particular language and jargon by attending conferences, talking to industry authorities, learning from books, speeches or podcasts.

Changing profession on the other hand usually requires also upskilling in the technical skills for which a more formal education (and that can include short courses and micro-credentials) can come in handy.

Either way – early on in your journey it all comes down to exposing yourself to as many different people, projects, and tasks so you can not only gain a better understanding of how all the moving pieces work together but also decide with more certainty which direction / specialisation is the one for you as it aligns most with your strengths and personality. Think of law or accounting or engineering etc: how many different specialisations (could be industry-specifics or tool specifics or target audience specific) are there? Since you don’t know what you don’t know, getting as much hands on experience as possible under your belt should be the focus.

This is also a good time to start attending more specialised conferences once you consider taking a certain direction. Eg if you’re interested in social media marketing, you want to attend events, conferences and workshops that help upskill in this particular aspect of marketing rather than attending a more general business conference. If you’re not quite sure which direction to take, then a more general selection is again the way forward as it means you increase your exposure to more topics and make then the call which direction is best for you. Most people only think about what might be best suited for them but never act and the only way to know for sure is to experience it.

As you move into the middle stages of your career, you may have already established yourself in your field and be looking to take your skills to the next level. This is a good time to focus on developing specialised skills and knowledge that will set you apart from your peers. This is also usually the time when professionals go back to uni for a more advanced or specialised degree. In particular MBAs are a crowd favourite but just keep in mind- adding another credential to your tool kit doesn’t automatically mean you progress in your career. The more you progress, the more you want to also develop a parallel skill set that supports your technical abilities and this skill set includes strategic thinking, persuasive communication, and relationship & network building. Otherwise you will get stuck here for a long time and I know that since this is the audience I’m working with the most: the mid- senior level who got stuck at a certain – usually already quite senior – level in their career because they have focused so much on developing their capabilities and working in their career that they didn’t have time resources or energy to work on their career. Especially the sandwich generation, you know who I mean! The ones who didn’t grow up with technology and the ease of being able to access any information or knowledge with only a click or a swipe away, The ones who learned that the harder you work, the more you get rewarded. Whilst a strong work ethics is still key, it comes down to focusing on activities that move the needle rather than just doing the work and being busy. Getting in the C-suite doesn’t come down to how good you are at what you do. It comes down to how good you are seeing the bigger picture, being able to build the right relationships, thinking beyond the now and you but about the then and the collective. It comes down to developing a strong cross-functional understanding of how all moving parts contribute to the bigger outcome without necessarily having to know the ins and outs. This can actually keep people stuck in the doer level because being able to jump in, solve a problem and get the work done is their second nature by then.

However, it comes down to communicating what you’ve done, what the impact was, what’s next and who needs to be involved in each of these stages. This isn’t a skill set you can pick up from a book or more formal education.

This is where coaching can fast-track your results because you learn a lot about yourself and build self-awareness as well as how to spot the different personality types with all their shades of grey in others. I’ll go in the different types of coaching in a couple of episodes time as there is a lot of confusion what type of coaching is the best. Just so much- I don’t think there is the best type of coaching overall but there is the best type of coaching for you at particular stages in your career. I’ll cover the details and the different focuses in the next solo episode so shameless plug here – subscribe to the show if you haven‘t done it yet.

However, what I can see is that coaching teaches you to see perspectives of situations but also people you highly likely haven’t seen before.

And this is why it’s so effective.

Think about it: As a leader, your job is to know what you can bring to the table, where your strengths are but also your weaknesses so you can surround yourself with team members who compliment your package and don’t compete with us / flatline it. Being surrounded by those who have the similar specialisation, skill set, and personality can often do that. So, for example: I’m a magician and visionary. It’s easy for me to think 2, 5 or even 10 years and steps ahead. When it comes to the day-to-day operations, my attention to detail is low as I get bored quickly. So rather than surrounding myself with a ton of other visionaries, my team is exceptional when it comes to the executing and operations of the business. This is why we get things done, not only within the timeframe but also a high level of quality. So, think of your unique skill set and the current set up of people – is it optimised to your contribution, or could it be better?

In the later stages of your career, and that doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with tenure. It could be due to your success and/or opportunities you’ve had. For example- one of my students from a couple of years ago, is one of the youngest founders and CEOs – back then, he was 17 years old and already worked with investors for his FinTech business. He is now very much a C-Suite leader despite his young age. This is definitely the exception but the higher you claim in terms of seniority, size of portfolio, team or responsibilities, the less it is about developing specialised technical skill sets and the more it is to focus on mastering your communication skills because this is the time when you want to consider also contributing to the industry through speaking engagements, board roles or teaching. Not necessarily in the traditional form but it could be by you hosting a mastermind group yourself or being a guest lecturer at a Uni or working with other industry leaders on any shape or form of content, including podcasting, etc,

To bring it all together – whilst continuous learning is a non-negotiable to stay relevant and ahead of the curve in this fast-paced and constantly changing world of work we live in, it comes down to developing parallel skill sets as you grow in your career. Initially you want to focus on building a deep level of expertise and understanding for your field and area of specialisation but the higher you climb, the more it comes down to working on your strategic thinking, communications and relationship building skills. This is where the different forms of coaching, mentoring, and masterminds come in rather than formal education.