The unfortunate mistake many of us make when it comes to career planning, apart from not having done any, is that we don’t consider the ‘what if’ scenarios, particularly those that may derail our prospects for career progression and job retention.
Once we are ensconced in a role, all too often our focus is on the day to day challenges in our job and in particular meeting KPI’s that will help determine our future prospects. Its full steam ahead and there is little thought given to what could go wrong.
Career planning, while intended to help you lay out a road map to assist you meet your expectations, should also have a focus on critical risk management issues that can derail your career and relegate you to the sidelines.
Over the course of the last fifteen years I have interviewed a wide range of senior executives and business owners and the common thread running through the conversations is that they while most had a clear idea of where they wanted to take their careers, few had a strategy to get them to where they wanted to be. When it came to risk management none had given any thought to what could go wrong and they agreed that incorporating a risk management strategy in to their career plan would have been useful in avoiding some, if not all, of the pitfalls they encountered along the way.
Controllable and uncontrollable risks
While it is possible to mitigate risk there are some risks that you will find out of your control to the extent that some you will not even know about until they are brought to your attention and by then often it’s too late. These risks can range from a change in company policy that you have no input in to or a stakeholder who remains intransigent even when you bend over backwards to gain their support.
However, there are many risks that you can plan for and take action to control or at least reduce their impact. It’s all about the planning and being on top of the moveable feast of issues that may derail your career progress.
Establishing a risk management framework requires taking a robust approach to risk assessment and includes a broad range of issues that are either related to your capabilities and approach to the work environment and the role of internal and external stakeholders can play in you being successful in your job.
Risk management needs to be in your DNA
The starting point is to undertake a personal audit to ascertain a range of issues related to your capabilities and job fit. I have discussed the key points you should address in a personal audit in the AdviserVoice article ‘It’s not just a job – It’s your career Part Two’.
Once you have conducted your personal audit then you can look at how best to arm yourself against the risks that are in your control and be more aware of those you can’t control. At the core is your ability to identify areas where you can capitalise on your capabilities and make real and sustainable changes to the way you manage your behaviour and approach to the work environment.
Communication
If there is one skill most of us think we are good at is communication, however many people lack a consistency in delivering a message or may come across as vague or at worst are seen as abrasive. I know one general manager who prides himself on his communication skills. ‘’I tell it the way it is so my team knows what is expected of them’’. However I also have known members of his teams who have another version of his approach which they describe as bordering on belligerent.
While the art of communication comes naturally to some it is challenging to others and like the general manager there are those who are clueless as to how their audience is hearing them. It is helpful for all of us to ensure that our communication skills are at a professional level and that those we are communicating with are comfortable with how we are communicating with them. Otherwise we face the risk that we are unable to get our message across effectively, which will invariably impinge on our performance as judged by our managers and colleagues alike.
Stakeholder engagement
Those with experience with stakeholder engagement will tell you it’s all about influencing people and involves not only communication skills but the ability to bring stakeholders on board with you. While you may be an effective communicator you may not have the skills to engage with stakeholders to the extent where they are comfortable in offering their commitment.
The most challenging projects involve a broad range of stakeholders who often have preconceived ideas as to how best approach the management and direction of a project. Every project seems to have at least one person who questions everything to the extent that they can threaten to derail the project or significantly delay its progress. This leaves you in invidious position where you are not seen as up to the requirements of your role and the ramifications of that can lead to you being sidelined and your career stalling.
Effective stakeholder engagement requires an understanding of the stakeholders you are dealing with and what they see as hot and cold button issues. This requires an element of behavioural psychology and an ability to seek out the motivations of the parties you are dealing with so as to gain their trust and get them on board.
In part two we will discuss leadership, motivation and resilience and the role of adopting thoughtfulness in your risk management framework.
Read Part two of Avoiding career crash and burn.
Read Part three of Avoiding career crash and burn.
