Career Goals How To Make Sure Your Boss Cares About Yours

Career Goals How To Make Sure Your Boss Cares About Yours Advocating for yourself in the workplace can be challenging. You know you are valuable and want to grow, but making your career goals important to someone else can be tricky. Whetzu sich youre asking for a raise or promotion, looking for a new job or simply creating a career game plan, how can you ensure that your babo is invested in your success?1. Consider your einbildung- What would your perfect day at work look like? What would you be doing and how would you feel? Is this vision different from what you are currently experiencing? Would you maximize your skills in a different way? These are the questions to ask yourself. Write down your ideas and formulate goals - both long term career goals and a short-term plan. The clearer you can paint this picture for yourself, the clearer it will be to your babo. You should have some sort of ultimate career goal. It may not be a single achievement, but could be a position, state of mi nd, or way you want to behave. Envisioning your ultimate goal gives you something toward which you can work.Ideally, your vision should involve your strengths.Embracing your strengths better equips you to achieve your ultimate goal, sinc eyou have the tools at your disposal.2. Make it measurable- The best way to consider your future and to achieve your career goals is to reflect on your past. Keep a log of all of your activities from the past year or more, taking note of when you met with whom and what you discussed. Show your own intentions on promoting growth and progress.Then, when you put this summary against your vision for yourself at work, you can help your boss identify where youre the strongest, how youre adding value to the company, and whether there are areas in which you need help improving. If youre goals are measurable an achievable, youll actually be able to gauge progress and demonstrate that youre taking your goals seriously. 3. Create an agenda- Your objectives ne ed to be well thought out. Reaching a long-term career goal will be difficult unless you have a practical outline of what youre aiming for. Know exactly what you want to cover and firm on what you are asking for. Will you reach a career objective by assumingnew tasks, getting involved witha committee, attending a conference, or getting a promotion or raise? What are you envisioning for your career path and how can you best articulate that? Odds are you have worked with your boss for some time, so you may have an idea of how he/she receives information and makes decisions. You have to take this into consideration as well when formulating your agenda. For example, does she like numbers and facts? Is he a visual learner who prefers diagrams or outlines?Find a way to convey your message in the style it will likely be best received.A sample agenda for your career objective or a long term goal can look something like thisHighlights of job wertzuwachs over past yearincreased sales by 5% fo r areamet targets for past 3 yearssubmitted best practice proposal for regional conferenceIntroduction of Goalsmore involvement with marketing departmentdiscussion about potential professional growth opportunitiesIf you are not asking for anything specific and want to instead brainstorm with your boss about your growth potential and your career path, throw some ideas out there first and be open to feedback. 4. Set the timeBe prepared and allow your boss to be, too. Dont spring this on your boss unexpectedly. Email or tell him/her you have something important to discuss and youd like to schedule some time for the two of you to meet.If you want to be clear about your intent, you can say, I have some thoughts about my professional development Id like to share with you. Can we set aside about 30 minutes to chat this week? This will give your boss the opportunity to determine the best time to receive this information and to prepare as well.5. Be open mindedThe best solutions come from te amwork. Consider the position he/she is in and information you may or may not know. There are often reasons why conversations like these are challenging for supervisors to have, which can include their inability to actually make decisions about subordinate career growth. Yet even if your boss isnt in a position to make certain decisions, she may be able to suggest something else that is doable from his/her perspective. Talk it out. Receive the information and consider how the both of you can work together to fulfill your needs to be a successful employee. After your meeting, take notes on what you have discussed and reiterate next steps at the close of the meeting. There is always an opportunity for follow up regardless of what your boss says. If your requests were met with a resounding yes, you will still need follow through to make sure things happen.If you were told lets discuss this at the end of the month, you go back to your desk and mark it on the calendar. If you walk away w ith a no you take a moment, write down everything that happened. Take a few days to evaluate your approach and consider revisiting the issue at another time.--Nicole Wolfrath is mom to two feisty girls in elementary and nursery school and has worked full time as a college career counselor for the past 15 years. She holds leadership roles on her childrens school boards and PTA, loves to create art when she can find the time, and is passionate about womens and parenting issues which she advocates for through teaching and blogging.Fairygodboss is committed to improving the workplace and lives of women.Join us by reviewing your employer