“A successful career will no longer be about promotion. It will be about mastery.” 

-Michael Hammer 

Are you confused between pay or learning opportunities? 

There are times where one must choose pay over learning and growth, but all the other times it should be about growth. Brian Tracy, an author and motivational speaker, says, “Personal development is a major time – saver. The better you become, the less time it takes you to achieve your goals.” Employees have already started moving toward it with the influx of millennials. Earlier, baby boomers would focus only on pay. Once, they get into a company, they used to stay there till they retire. But with the advancement of technology and multiple opportunities in the market, the digital-savvy millennials are not as loyal as their ancestors and they job-hop frequently in search of a better opportunity in terms of pay, learning, and also growth. 

According to a staffing firm Robert Half, 64% of employees favor job-hopping, which is a 22% rise from a similar survey that was taken four years ago. According to a survey by Fidelity Investments, 58% of employees, when evaluating a job offer, look for a quality work environment more than compensation. Besides, another study reveals that millennials more than any other generation look for flexibility and work-life balance. The data suggests that companies should start creating a nurturing work culture to retain high performers and attract the top millennial talents in the industry. 

The companies are transforming to accommodate the emerging workforce. However, employees are sometimes lost as to how to grow their careers and become successful. 

Here are a few tips to help you have a positive career growth. 

Reflect on what you want to be 

Most students and graduates join a company just because they got a job offer. When you ask them, ‘Why this company? Or ‘How will this role help you achieve your goals’ they do not have answers. They do not even know what their goals are. People without goals are just like buses without termini or ships without a port. They are lost. They do not have a destination. They just change their course whenever they are forced to.

But every person should have a goal to lead a meaningful life. Take your time to analyze and learn what you want to be and how you can achieve it. In these cases, Objectives and Key Results (OKR) can be used to help you in measuring your progress toward your goals. Once you have set the goal, you can join the company that will take an interest in your growth and help you achieve your goal.

Know What is expected of you 

To grow in your organization, you must know what the company expects from you and try to fulfill the expectations.  
Here are ways to do it. 

1. Prepare a task list every day. 
2. List the priority tasks and push the unimportant tasks to the next day.  
3. Focus on your tasks while working. Do not allow distractions. It helps you to maintain a good work-life balance. 
4. As you complete the task, strike it off from the list. 

When you do this, you will be able to do an excellent job and also satiate your superiors. If your goal is to thrive in the organization, that may happen soon when you prioritize your tasks and do them accordingly. 

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Be Receptive to Feedback 

When you are open to feedback, you will learn about your strengths and weaknesses. Feedback helps to improve yourself and become a better version. Do not get feedback from a single person. Choose multiple persons and receive feedback from them. For instance, if everyone says that you need to improve your communication skills, you will need to work on it. Do not ever develop a defensive attitude when you get feedback, that will demotivate the people who are interested in your growth and also your chances of improving will be lost.
Companies should leverage the power of continuous check-ins and 360 degree feedback to help employees learn and grow. Doing this will build mutual trust and loyalty between the company and employees. Besides, employees, especially millennials, when they see growth in a company, do not leave the company easily unless it has something to do with their financial situation or crises. 

Always have a deadline for everything; be it a goal or a task 

If you don’t set a deadline, the task or goal is doomed for eternity. There are high chances of you postponing and also getting frustrated with the task. Therefore, set a deadline and work on the project or journey, and it will teach you how to manage time, which is one of the core values in most organizations. A person who completes the work in time is easily recognized by his/her managers and peers. But if you don’t follow it, the price you pay will be very high. Meeting deadlines is highly significant as it helps in increasing customer satisfaction and retention rates.

Attend the company programs and training sessions 

People-centric organizations often come up with programs that help an employee to grow professionally and also personally. Employees should make use of these sessions to learn how to function in the competitive business world. Employee-centric organizations know that the termination and recruiting costs are way too higher than upskilling and cross-skilling the employees. Therefore, you should choose the sessions keeping your goals in mind. It is also not a bad idea to make use of the programs to gain knowledge in other domains as we never know when it will come in handy to improve in our own domain. 

Learn New Skills and Create opportunities

The world is updating every second. The keyboard video games we used to play years back have become play stations and Xbox versions. The keypad mobile phones have upgraded to touch phones. Do you think the makers of keypad phones are still relevant? No. They would have become unemployed if they had not learned how to make a touch phone. It is pivotal to learn new skills and create opportunities to lead the generation or to adapt in order to stay relevant. Always be aware of the emerging trends and equip yourself with the requisite learning and skills to top even in the upgraded world. 

Step out of your comfort zone and build a solid network 

Success begins when you step out of your comfort zone and work on things that would help you grow even though they make you feel uncomfortable. For instance, if you are in the marketing department and speaking to someone in the IT domain regarding work makes you feel uncomfortable, then do it without fail. Besides, building connections can help you gain more knowledge and information on how to achieve even your stretch goals. Use every opportunity to come out of your shell. 

Never forget your long-term goals

When we are too busy with our work, we tend to forget our long-term goals and do things that are totally irrelevant. Eventually, everyone starts losing themselves and the purpose of why they started it. Therefore, one must always have long-term goals in mind and do tasks that can help the employee to take a step forward.

Failure is a stepping stone of success 

Stay positive at all times. Failure is absolutely necessary to learn how not to do a task and also appreciate the taste of success. Quitting a job and being overly sensitive will help in no way in your career growth and development. Embrace the failures to learn more from it and become a pro in your domain. 

When you follow these hacks, you can be a better person in your field and also make this world a better place to live in. 

Stay safe and dream bigger!