Start growing your career with these tips.
One of my career growth moments is when I decided to be bold and ask for what I wanted 🙋🏻♀️
Even with time, it's still scary for me to have those conversations. But as I continue to put it in practice, I’ve found it gets easier with preparation.
🤔 ASK WHY
Get clear, be brave, and be bold and challenge yourself to identify why you want something. What’s the value proposition, the mission statement, the goal?
✍🏼 PUT IT INTO CONTEXT
If this is for your professional growth, to help others, to improve a process, to increase a sale, elevate an experience, etc, build that into the ask. What makes this important? Who is benefitting from it?
📈 BACK IT UP
One of the hardest parts of asking for what you want is the moment you get asked to make your case. Sometimes WHY and CONTEXT isn’t enough, so bring the data, bring your brag book, give examples, bring a recommendation from someone, and bring the strategy and the game plan.
🤲🏼 SAY WHAT YOU NEED
Next hardest part is also asking what you need to accomplish your want. These could be resources, projects, time, connections, reprioritization, etc. Not only that but what could be the impact of what you need (cost, bandwidth, etc.). See BACK IT UP and make sure you’ve assessed for this.
🗣 SHARE YOUR OUTCOME
Maybe this is the hardest of all. Sharing the outcome you want to get out of the conversation. “I’d love your support on this”, “It would mean a lot to be considered for X”, “I’d love to see the path forward and actionable next steps”, “I want to build this and have you advocate for me”.
👂🏼 LISTEN & GIVE TO THE RESPONSE
You’ll either get a yes, no, maybe, not now, I need more information, let’s continue to discuss, etc. Whatever the response is, receive it with gratitude, then follow up with clear next steps. Follow up and reassess. Ask for clarification.
🏃🏻♀️ STAY IN THE LONG GAME
Depending on the ask, it could take time, take multiple conversations, multiple iterations, time to gather data, time to gather resources, etc. No matter what, and if it’s THAT important to you, stay in it for the long game. Be mindful that if it doesn’t happen where you are now, it doesn’t mean never. It could mean your wants will blossom elsewhere, and that’s okay!
Here’s where this has been successful in my career:
✅ Asking to be considered for speaking engagements
✅ Producing a podcast inside a company
✅ Building an internship program
✅ Asking for a promotion
✅ Negotiating my salary
✅ Asking for a referral
What's your career growth moment?