Stop Leaving Your Career to Chance

If you're a Head or Director thinking about your next move, there's a good chance you're doing exactly what most senior people do.

You're getting on with your job.

You've got a team to lead.

Targets to hit.

Problems to solve.

People to manage.

And your career?

It's sitting somewhere in the background.

Until suddenly it isn't.

You see a role that makes you think, That's the one.

Or someone tells you about an opportunity that would be a significant step up.

And then you look at your LinkedIn profile and realise it hasn't been updated properly in three years.

You haven't spoken to half the people in your network for ages.

Nobody really knows what you're thinking about next.

And you've got no real idea who you should be talking to.

So you start from scratch.

This is one of the biggest problems I see with senior careers.

It's not that people aren't ambitious.

It's that they're only working on their career when they need something from it.

Think about fitness.

You don't wait until you're completely unfit and then decide to start exercising.

You practise regularly.

The same thing applies to money.

You invest before you need the money.

You give it time to grow.

Your career is no different.

You need to invest in it before you need the next opportunity.

That's what I mean by Career Practice.

It's not job hunting.

It's not endlessly networking.

And it's definitely not spending your Sunday afternoon scrolling through job boards.

It's a small amount of consistent work that keeps your career moving while you're busy doing your actual job.

And there are four things I want you to keep moving.

What do you want to be known for?

Not just what does your current job title say you do.

What do you want someone to think of when your name comes up?

If you're a Director of Marketing today, for example, perhaps you want your next role to be broader commercial leadership.

Your Position needs to start moving before your title does.

Once you know what you want to be known for, people need to see evidence of it.

This is where most senior people are surprisingly quiet.

You've spent 15 years becoming very good at what you do.

But almost nobody outside your organisation knows.

Your LinkedIn profile, the things you share, the ideas you talk about, the conversations you contribute to and the work you put into the world are all signals.

You don't need to become a content creator.

You just need to stop being invisible.

You also need to know where you want to go.

Which companies interest you?

Which roles?

Which industries?

Which people are making decisions about those opportunities?

You don't need to apply for anything.

In fact, I'd rather you didn't.

But you should know who is worth being known by.

Because it's very difficult to be approached for an opportunity if you're completely disconnected from the people creating those opportunities.

This is the one that takes the longest.

And that's exactly why you shouldn't wait until you need something.

Stay in touch.

Congratulate people.

Introduce people.

Share something useful.

Have the coffee.

Send the article.

Make the connection.

Be interested in what other people are doing.

You don't need a huge network.

You need relationships with people who know you, trust you and understand what you're good at.

And you need to build those relationships before you need them.

You can have a great Position and nobody knows about you.

You can have plenty of Signal but be talking to the wrong people.

You can Target the right companies but have no Relationships inside them.

You can have a huge network but nobody knows what you actually want to be known for.

The four moves work together.

And you don't have to do everything at once.

That's the good news.

Career Practice isn't another thing you have to add to an already impossible schedule.

It can be as simple as asking yourself, every week:

What am I doing to strengthen my Position?

What am I doing to create Signal?

Who should I be Targeting?

Which Relationships should I invest in?

Then do one or two things.

That's it.

Do that consistently for a year and you'll be in a very different position.

Do it for five years and you might barely recognise your career.

Because you're no longer starting from zero every time you decide you want something different.

You're building.

You're staying visible.

You're staying connected.

You're creating options.

And eventually, the work you've been doing starts to show up as opportunities.

Someone remembers you.

Someone introduces you.

Someone sees something you've shared.

Someone hears your name.

Someone thinks, I know exactly who would be good for this.

That's the goal.

Not to be constantly looking for your next job.

To build a career that keeps creating possibilities for you.

Don't wait until you're ready to make your next move to start preparing for it.

Start practicing now.

See you next week!

Cheraine

Stop Applying. Get Approached.