A warm welcome into my 3rd instalment of the A to Z of career success series where we have now moved onto the letter C.

Career Coaching
 
Finding a good Career Coach can help you to discover what your best life at work looks like, making the most of your skills, experience, values, and aspirations.

The range of issues a career coach can help you with include:
•    Supporting you to make a big leap in your career
•    Working with you to look at your career options
•    Helping you to deal with the blocks you may have around your career success
•    Assisting you to overcome the fear of making the next step to something better
•    Supporting you when you are ‘stuck in a rut’ at work - maybe you are in a ‘great job’, but it's not feeling so great for you!

Action

Recognise that career success sometimes requires you to find a professional to support. Here is a Buyers Guide to Coaching I have created to help you.


CPD

CPD (Continuous Professional Development) can not only help you in your current role it can also boost your career prospects.
CPD is an ongoing self-driven form of learning which helps to ensure your skills and knowledge are up to date. CPD also helps you to develop more confidence in your role and in taking on new opportunities.
 
Action

Review your CPD by following these four simple steps:

Plan - Make an honest assessment of your current situation and determine your professional development goals for both the current year and the medium-term, e.g. next 2 to 3 years. Create a CPD plan.

Do – Identify and undertake relevant professional development as set out in your plan.

Record - Monitor and record your progress against the plan.

Reflect - Reflection is the most important part of CPD. Ask yourself  - What did you get out of this? What have you learned?


Commitment

Commitment is the level of enthusiasm you bring to your day to day work and the feeling of responsibility you have towards the organisation.
Before you start your workday, it can be useful to think about what it is you are aiming to achieve, what attitude you are bringing to your work, and where you want your attention to be during the day.

Action

Aim – Think about the day's most important activities. What matters most to you in making them a success? That’s your real aim.

Attitude – As you think about the day, take a moment to notice your mindset and approach to the day. Will this attitude help you to achieve your aims?

Attention – Where are you focussing your attention during the day? Is this helping you to achieve your aim?


Critical Thinking
 
Critical thinking is a vital skill in the workplace and is the ability when dealing with a problem to analyse how you think and ask intelligent questions. Being good at critical thinking means that you examine an issue from all sides and use facts rather than personal biases to reach a conclusion.
 
Action

Clearly define your question or problem
Gather factual information to support your analysis
Use the 5 Ws to help you: Who. What. Where. Why and How.


A great book to read to develop your critical thinking skills is Your Deceptive Mind: A Scientific Guide to Critical Thinking Skills By Steven Novella, The Great Courses.

I hope you find these tips helpful and wish you happiness and good health always. Drop me a note and let me know how you are getting on. Please also forward this email to anybody that you think might be interested in the content.

Kind Regards

Mark

Mark Crossfield
Bravo Coaching