5 ways to nurture career growth

As it happens, a lot depends on the consistency, focus and execution you bring to your work life over the long haul.

Here are five key factors you can control to nurture your career.

1. Set clear, achievable goals

The single most important thing you can do to achieve any goal is to actually define what it is. Otherwise, no matter what happens in the future, your perception of whether you’re making progress will be entirely subjective.

According to research in the field of performance psychology, it’s important to set multiple career development goals that ladder up. Don’t just focus on big-ticket, end-state achievements like, “I want to be a CEO.” Instead, articulate mastery and performance goals for yourself. Identify skills that those in your goal position have mastered, and seek to master them yourself. Then, measure your performance in those skills over time, and track your progress with data.

This career development mindset will also help you turn annual or quarterly performance reviews into growth opportunities rather than formalities. By inserting your own mastery objectives into your job’s performance management framework, you can elevate your vision from just doing a good job in your current position to developing your skills and capabilities over the long haul.

2. Find a mentor

3. Identify your gaps and create a plan to fill them

Achieving more senior positions requires constant growth in your professional abilities and experience. Knowing where you have gaps in either your resumé (demonstrating you’ve held the right roles) or skills (demonstrating you’ve done the right work) for the role you want is essential.

For instance, if you want to advance to a sales leadership position, you may need to demonstrate not only your sales acumen but also your leadership ability. Otherwise, no matter how good your individual performance is, you may not appear to be an obvious fit for the chief revenue officer role when the opportunity presents itself.

Work with your mentor to really assess what the key skills and experiences would look like for the position you’re aspiring to, and think about how you’d get them. If you want to lead, for instance, you may find it prudent to pass up taking on the best territory in your market to instead embrace an available regional management position. You may find you need a certification in a key skill such as P&L management to win that role. By identifying these resumé and skill gaps early, you can prioritize addressing them as you progress in your career.

4. Change jobs strategically

5. Embrace lifelong learning

In my own long career, I’ve identified one single trait that consistently differentiates rising stars from the stagnant ranks, and that’s coachability. Coachable people bring a growth mindset to their work, readily see their own knowledge and skill gaps, learn from mistakes, spot opportunities to improve and just keep getting better.

When I’m hiring, I almost always prefer candidates who demonstrate a penchant for lifelong learning. If you’ve been working in your career for a decade but just completed a certificate program in a key skill, that signals a growth mindset and coachability. If you’re constantly reading the latest books in your field or adjacent fields — or even unrelated fields — you’re going to learn things that make you stronger, smarter and more adaptable in business. 

In a field of talented people all striving for the top roles, those who show the greatest ability to learn, adapt and grow consistently stand out. And standing out often leads to career growth.