Setting goals in your career is one way to garner more knowledge and get better at your skills in the workplace. You could decide to set individual goals for your progress or work with your colleagues for collective growth.
Having career goals provides the needed motivation to put in your best at work and considerably make your career journey easier by making you more productive. It also helps your boss and colleagues at work see that you take your work seriously and want to continue being diligent at it.
How To Set a Career Goal
1. Figure out what you want to achieve
In what area do you want to record significant growth? Do you want to focus on your speed, time management, or accuracy of your output? Do you want to improve your relationship with teammates or work on your networking skills? Choose a goal you want to work on one at a time.
2. Make a list of your short-term goals
In order to achieve the long terms goals, you need to break them further into short-term ones. Your short terms goals should be goals that you can easily and consistently introduce into your daily pattern without there being a significant disruption in routine. It is easier to include small adjustments, so your long-term goals do not seem overwhelming.
3. Make sure your goals are S.M.A.R.T goals
The Smart goals method is one of the well-known tools to assist with reaching your goals. Smart stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-specific. Make sure each of your goals falls into all the categories to record a successful goal achievement.
Here are 5 examples of career-related goals you can set:
1. Complete a Certification Program
Gaining further knowledge in your career will help you advance and enable you to secure possible promotions in your career. Depending on the program’s rigor, you could break down your learning stages into bits by having a daily short-term goal to learn for a few hours.
2. Request Constructive Feedback
Getting feedback from your superiors and colleagues is a great way to know what others think of you at work. Doing that will give you insights you can channel into recognizing your strengths and maximizing them, and working on your weaknesses.
3. Get Better at Networking
One way to improve your career networking skills is to attend social functions and career-related workshops organized by your place of work or in line with your profession. This way, you can meet people with related interests and build a solid professional bond.
4. Put in Effort for a Promotion at Work
This is a great way to push yourself and show your company that you are ready to take on bigger responsibilities. Figure out the next best position in your career journey and the requirements for that capacity, and work towards it. This could either be a long or short-term goal.
5. Improve Your Communication Skills
The importance of communication in a professional setting cannot be overemphasized. Consider effectively communicating with your work colleagues and improving your written, verbal, and nonverbal communication. You could take training on public speaking to also help you get better.
