Resource: Shaping Organizational Excellence · Winter 2017 · 3
From the President’s Desk:
Plotting Your Personal Career Path Morgan Kerby, President
As HR professionals, we often coach and advise others on how to take charge of their careers. However, we need to remember to do the same for ourselves as well. How do you define a career? One way to describe it is a pattern of work-related experiences that span the course of our professional lives. However, career movement can take many shapes. While we often think about the next step as a promotion, there are several other moves we can make to gain the skills and experience we require to grow and develop. What many fail to realize is that sometimes we need more breadth in our expertise, and a lateral transition or more time in our current role to deepen our expertise is the best move. Career development is typically a shared responsibility. Employees and their managers consider individual capabilities and aspirations and the needs of the organization to come up with a plan—getting people where they want to be and where the organization needs them to be. Our level of success depends on our ability to take charge of our careers. With the amount of change we are enduring organizationally and personally, we need to be nimble and resilient, and have our own personal career plan. In today’s work environment, we need to make performance development, continuous learning and transferable skills a top priority.
Start by being prepared to take risks and embrace opportunities. Formulate a plan, but be open to opportunities that come up out of the blue. Use your network and continuously build relationships, as you never know what they might lead to. Consider finding or becoming a mentor, as both sides of a mentoring relationship have significant career benefits. If you haven’t already done so, sign up for our Community Mentorship Program at www.hrpa.ca/HRPAChapters/durham/membership/Pages/ Mentorship.aspx. If you’re just beginning or only a few years in, start with a personal development plan in place. If you’re mid to late career, you likely know your strengths and where you need to develop or improve. Work with your current manager or a senior practitioner you respect to determine what your next step might be and what you need to do to get there. Things to consider are the skills, education, training and exposure you require to achieve your aspirations. Gaining experience in a different area of HR or taking a step back in seniority to acquire new skills and knowledge can also be an effective way to spring forward into new territory. To be successful, always think about how you can align your aspirations with the needs of the business. HR is a wonderful career with variety and new experiences every day. Take ownership of your career and you’ll find that the sky is the limit!