In the current climate if you have found yourself more frustrated at work than fulfilled, perhaps it's more due to your experience than you think. Has your personal brand become one that can be really relied on, or worse still one that your boss cannot do without?
The temptation this year might have been to keep your head down, produce good consistent work and wait for the good times to return. Everyone knows that if they need a XYZ job doing, they come to you the XYZ specialist, because you have been doing this for ages.
Consistency is a good thing for a strong brand. But not at the expense of different experiences and the development of new skills. Do not look so negatively on those that volunteer for the less glamorous tasks or ask for the new projects – they are gaining new skills, broader experience and ultimately a higher and wider profile.
Once full business confidence returns, promotions and expansions will be coming around again and bosses will want to be looking internally as much as possible for their next leaders. So who do they go to?
It doesn't matter how long you've been at the company, but if you have been doing exactly the same thing every year for 5 years, you actually do not have five years experience, you have one years experience 5 times over.
What really matters about your personal brand is how you develop yourself into a leader , absolutely you have to know the technical side of what you do, but you probably had enough of that when you started the role.
Your role is not just to be one of the best technically at what you do, but to be the best potential leader of what you do. If you are too good everyone will be afraid to promote you because it will be hard to replace you.
What are you doing to expand your experience – tell me in the comments section of the blog.
I’m working outside of my full-time role volunteering on local projects and initiatives that provide me an outlet for what really drives me, and I take the time to share those initiatives with my leaders through performance reviews and development discussions. At times, the initiatives correlate to work that I’m doing 9-5 and I try to build bridges where those activities naturally gel.
Karen –
some great personal branding work, making those connections and then
communicating them to the people that need to hear about them is a great
strategy. well done. – Paul
I’m taking on payroll processing role. Been in Finance for 30 years and never done payroll. Will learn lots as I go outside my comfort zone. Taking on more runs counter to my training to delegate but everyone here supports it and I hope to gain management’s trust.
Good for you Tom for taking the step after 30 years – I am sure you will benefit.