You’re never too young or too old to start thinking about moving up in your career, and Jennifer Bridges, PMP, offers practical pointers.
Here’s a shot of the whiteboard for your reference!
In Review: How to Advance in Your Management Career
Jennifer said that wanting to know how to advance in your career is a sign that you’re a serious professional who is taking a proactive stake in your development.
There are lots of questions you may ask, Jennifer noted, but the two basic ones are: Where are you now? and Where do you want to be in the future?
She suggested the path to get from one point to the other is by following a development plan:
- Who do you need to be?
- What do you need to know?
- How can you get the skills?
The way to advance is to know where you want to go and ask yourself the right questions to build the experience and the skills to get you there.
Pro-Tip: Just like an artist, project leaders need a portfolio in order to show at a glance the work they’ve done. Think of it as a story that narratives your accomplishments and points to your future goals.
Thanks for watching!
Transcript:
Today, we’re talking about how to advance your management career and I just love this question and I could literally do a series. When someone asks me this question, I know they’re intentional about what they’re trying to do. But here’s some common questions that I get.
Some people wanna know, “Am I too young or am I too old for the role I’m trying to go in?” “How do I ask for more responsibility?” “Have I been here long enough to advance to the management career I’m trying to get into?”
Some people ask, “How do I articulate without looking like I’m really ready to leave?” Some people wanna know what skills or maybe experience they need. But here is another interesting one: “Do I have to leave my current organization in order to rise?”
Well, here’s where I like for people to start. Look at where are you now and where do you want to be in the future. For instance, what environment are you in? Are you in a start-up and want to stay in a start-up, or do you want to move into a large corporation or even vice versa?
And then what role? Is it a general management role? Do you want to move into a team leader role? Or maybe you’re looking to go into project management. Or if you’re in project management, maybe you’re seeking to become a project director. And with that, this is a progression and it takes time, but you want to look at your development plan.
You want to look at who do I need to be in order to do that role? What behaviors do I need? What mindset might I need to have? What do I need to know? What knowledge? Do I need some new business knowledge? Do I need to know more about leadership or even technical or things about my industry? And what do I need to be able to do? What skills do I need?
If you’re moving into management and you’ll be leading teams, you may need more skills in leading teams, handling difficult conversations, or helping negotiate, helping people get along. If you’re going into project management, you may need some project management skills, how to develop a schedule and a budget and manage that project.
So with that, you look at what is the core foundation. Do I need experience? Do I need training? Do you maybe need a coach or mentor to learn from? And sometimes, it just takes time in order to be ready for the role you’re seeking.
So with this, you can go back and begin answering some of the questions. So depending upon where you are and where you want to go in the future, it may make sense to leave your organization. Sometimes I submit, though, if you can stay in your organization, sometimes it’s easier to develop in an organization who already knows you and trusts you.
And then sometimes, in order to go into something maybe that is not offered in your organization, you may need to leave. And then, again, you can begin looking at answering some of these questions based on your plan.
So if you need a tool that can help you manage your career, then sign up for our software now at projectmanager.com.
