Law Society talk on Career development:

I was asked to come up with my top 10 tips for my slot as a speaker at the Law Society’s module on career development last Tuesday. There is so much to say about each tip that it’s quite difficult to make it very focused, but I hope to take each tip and develop it on separate posts…

Top 10 Tips for workplace satisfaction:

1. Identify your goals

This may sound blindingly obvious, but a large number of people simply "drift" and don’t actually plan out their career goals or indeed their private life and simply hope that it will all somehow come together.

2. Ensure your goals fit with your needs

(e.g. working pattern, amount of travel, managing your stress levels etc). A goal which doesn’t fulfil your needs may become unachievable if your needs can’t be met. For example, if you need to work flexibly, you need to ensure that any career goal you have will be able to be achieved by working flexibly.

3. Identify the needs of those around you

Your partner, your team, the firm and the family will all be affected by your career choices. Achieving your own goals will be easier if you can accommodate others’ needs and goals too. Not only are they likely to be more supportive but it will also reduce conflict and stress.

4. Analyse your skill set

Identify where improvements need to be made – then find the person who can help you do this. If your own company doesn’t offer their own internal training courses, find an external course provider and see if your company will fund the training.

5. Ask for help.

We all have our weak areas; the only way to strengthen them is to seek help in doing so. Showing some humility usually goes a long way.

6. Identify the support structure necessary to achieve your goals.

This may be from your physical environment, your infrastructure, your training needs, your team, the support staff and so on. If you are clear about what changes need to be made, you can start making the changes- don’t assume people know what needs to be changed.

7. Listen to people and give them time to think

You will be better able to learn and understand issues if you do this. Often as we are listening we are preparing what we want to say and jump in the moment someone finishes their sentence. A pause can often encourage the person to keep developing their thought pattern often leading to illuminative thoughts and constructive dialogue.

8. Find the “champion” within your firm.

Who makes changes? Who is proactive? Who listens and wants to help? It doesn’t have to be someone in your team or even someone you know. Seek them out and talk to them about how to make things happen for you.

9. Identify and avoid the “sabbatoeurs”

There will always be thhe people who will consciously or sub-consciously prevent things from happening. This may be through fear, annoyance, stress, time pressure or for a whole variety of reasons. There is no point pushing against a closed door, so find one that opens more easily.

And finally:

10. Remember that we are people first, workers second

Relating to people on a personal level, rather than purely on a business level, enables you to gain a greater level of understanding, co-operation and trust which will help further your working relationships with them.

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