Career Action Plan Part I – Why You Need One

Great careers don't happen by accident. Just as a strong strategic planning is critical to the success of every business, we need to take a strategic approach to managing our professional growth. Like rowing a boat upstream, if we stop moving forward, we fall back. A lot is being said about the negative effects of job burnout, but we need to also recognize the silent career killer. Complacency is dangerous to your career. Having a successful career is not about staying steadily employed in any job but rather advancing along a chosen career path. Growth requires concentrated effort. Change might be painful. But staying stuck can be a truly agonizing situation.

Let us not confuse a career action plan with the “check the box development plan exercise” when performance review time rolls around. A typical individual development plan (IDP) performance review document asks employees to list their strengths, outline their achievements, and create a development plan for the next review period; a document which rarely defines any immediate next steps, or long-term career objectives, and which is rarely looked at again. A career action plan asks you to own your continuous development over the course of your career.

An action plan can be considered a road map that will get you started in your chosen career from your first job through the many career advances to reaching your long-term career goals. A career action plan places you on the path to career success and ensures you continue to move along and hit the milestones at a steady pace. The process starts with focused attention on formulating a career vision, which is then translated into short-term and long-term career objectives. Once you define the destination off in the distance, you’d be able to make short-term decisions and define the immediate next steps within the context of the path ahead en route to your career vision. These need to be reevaluated every six months, or when major changes occur, to ensure making the right decisions at the right time. When you proactively pursue your goals and objectives, you are positioned to make wise decisions in your professional career.

Don’t leave your career to chance. Most employers are not going to invest in your career development unless you drive the process yourself. The days of tenure-based promotions are long gone. Without a clear career plan, you are at risk of taking the slow and painful route to career stagnation and the early demise of your professional hopes and dreams. Be in the habit of establishing and achieving clear goals in order to steer your career along the path to career success. Consistently choose tactics and strategies that boost your success and that keep you from getting stuck in a rut. Having a written career plan provides an easy way to manage progress and track achievements. However, as you gain experience and insights, make sure your plan is a live document to be updated with any changing circumstances or needs. Always remain open to new possibilities.

With the strong encouragement to take your career seriously; to take control over your success and your future, I hope you’d follow your heart and do things for the right reasons. Remember:

“We make a living by what we get. But we make a life by what we give.”  ~ Winston Churchill

Work should be more than a means to an end. Ideally, it could also be a way to make meaningful contributions to the world around us. Make sure your career action plan will be a useful tool to find purpose in your work. If you are able to do that, you will find yourself continuously inspired and motivated each day throughout your career.