Life Lessons in Career Development Roadmapping
“It’s not about the journey, it’s about the destination,” is real but I only recently came to believe this. I fell for the dream job rhetoric that I talked about earlier this month. After being disappointed year after year for the affirmation reasons, I started to look at my career more like a road trip with intentional mile markers, pit stops, and interesting landmarks where it is just as much about where I’m going as it is about what I’m experiencing along the way. Now as a career development mentor, I teach my mentees the same. The Mentor Me Career Development Roadmap is a critical tool for professional women and serves as an actional, self-guided global positioning system for their career.
Read the latest blog post, where I share the key elements of the career development roadmap and explain how it can accelerate your career. The roadmap is a framework, a guideline to help provide you with direction and support for the next stage in your career. It’s a living, breathing document that will help you intentionally follow the Mentor Me Framework even after your initial sessions.
Let’s break it down so you know what to expect. The framework is not:
a rigid schedule that you have to follow
a dead document that you look at one time and then let sit on the shelf
It is a document that is iterative and should grow and develop with you. Here are the key elements so you can start thinking this through:
Start
Action Steps: What can you take action on right now to advance to the next stage in your career?
Timeline: What is the timeline for getting this done?
Date of Completion: What date do you expect to complete this action?
Stakeholders: Who will help you accomplish this? Who should you connect with to get this done?
Strengths to Soar: Which of your strengths can you leverage to get this done? How will you use it?
Weaken Your Weakness: Which of your weaknesses could get in the way of taking this action? What management/mitigation strategy can you use to avoid it?
Metrics of Success: How will you know if you’re successful? How will you know that the goal is achieved?
Commitment to Excellence: What regular habits and routines can you build to ensure that this action is completed?
As a Mentor Me mentee, you get access to a 90-day, 6-month, and year-long career development roadmap with a weekly, small group implementation strategy. Schedule your Mentor Moment <insert link> so we can get started on building out your career development roadmap today!