CONNECTING WITH POSITIVE CAREER INFLUENCES

I strongly believe that there are influences that can catalyze your career growth. Your connection with them gives you a career of lift. They guide you and assist you to become all that you are capable of. On Career Insight this week, I want to point our positive influences that can give your career lift and how to connect with them.

In life, we cannot do without influence. In fact, who we are today is a result of many influences we have had. Some of those influences came naturally without much effort on our part. But for rapid career advancement, we need to consciously locate and connect with relevant career influences.

Connect with Those Ahead of Your

Those ahead of you in your career have seen what you are yet to see. They have made mistakes and recorded successes. They have also learnt from those ahead of them. Connecting with them gives you access to a wealth of mentoring, coaching and inspiration.

No matter how powerful your graduation grade is, know that those ahead of you have experience advantage over you. Your first class in school does not equal their years of many experience. Swallow your pride and sit under those that have been in your career before you. From my little experience in the real world many of the things taught in school does not apply in workplace.

In your effort to connect with those ahead of you, you may encounter some who will not want to teach you. Some of them believe that their job description is not to teach new employee. Others are afraid of your outshining them. My friends, if you can persuade them to teach, coach and mentor you, please do. If you can’t focus on your job and look for someone’s that’s wiling to teach you. If you can’t in your place, please look for someone in other organizations.

Wherever, those ahead of you are, locate them, if you can’t, get their books or books written about them, follow their blog or social media accounts and check out for any published/broadcast article or interview on them.

Connect to Your Industry Association

One of positive sources of career influence is your industry association. This association of men in your area of career has great potential to lunch you into great heights by providing you protection, inspiration, correction and enlightenment.

Look out for the umbrella body in your area and join them. Their job is not just to call for strike action. During conferences, workshops, seminars they organise, they will show you better ways of going about your job. You will also locate role models there and get inspiration from them. Request to get their contact and keep in touch. Some people will not oblige you but you are sure to get, at least, one person that will accept to mentor you.

And in case you can’t get a career mentor in your current place of work, you can locate them when you participate in your industry association.

Connect to Relevant Materials

There are materials that will deepen your knowledge and understanding of your career. Get in touch with them. Locate them and consume them until their nutritional value becomes undeniable in your career progress.

To operate based on what you have learnt in school a decade or even five years ago will be doing your career and the people you serve a deservice! Get to know what’s trending in your industry by following up on relevant publications, websites, social media account and books.

With fresh insights new trend you get from these materials, you will learn better ways of tackling current challenges in your work. Get relevant materials all involve getting up to date gadgets and machinery needed for peak performance. The world is going digital, join or you will be left out.

For me, Mike Awoyinfa and his twin brother and friend are the greatest influence on me as a journalist. I ordered from their book and read thoroughly. I followed their columns and interviews. I study their lives to gain insight and I learn as much as possible from them to ensure I continue to make advancement in my career. In their interviews and columns, they share their experiences and mistakes and that inspire and guide me.

My point? Your career is very important and if you desire rapid advancement, you have to deliberately work for it. One of the key things you have to do is to connect to the positive influences.