How To Use Your Voice To Advance Your Career
How to Use Your Voice To Advance Your Career
Advancing in any career takes time, hard work, and patience. It’s not a quick road, right? However, if you learn to use your voice in your day to day, you may advance your career just a little bit faster than your co-worker. Listen up because it’s time to speak up! Career Coach Shannon Russell, Founder of Second Act Success and Host of the Second Act Success Podcast has advice on how to move the needle in your career.
Try these steps to help move you further along your career path…
1. Speak Up
Speaking up for yourself is not always easy, especially at work or in business. If you want to advance in your current role or get the recognition you deserve, try adding to the conversation. If you are in a meeting or on a Zoom, it is sometimes easier to sit quiet and take notes, but if you have something valuable to contribute, make your voice heard. The more you interject, add to the conversation, and show that you’re interested and engaged, the more you will be recognized as someone valued at the table. Be confident in your views and what you can offer to your team. Your opinions are needed and important.
2. Lean On A Mentor
Is there someone on your team or in your field that you can look to as a mentor? Look for a person who’s work ethic and values you resonate with and ask them to mentor you. This person can offer support, guidance, and help advocate for you when the time is right. It may be simply asking this person to grab coffee or have a 15 minute check in every few weeks, but knowing you have someone to learn from and lean on can only help you advance in your career.
3. Network
Work environments have definitely changed over the past few years, but networking is still extremely important when it comes to advancement. Engage with your coworkers, attend events and social outings, to keep in the conversation and to stay up to date on the happenings within your team, company, or industry. It is helpful to show your face and add to conversations with peers and superiors. It goes back to the speaking up lesson. Let your voice be heard and build relationships while you do. You never know when a conversation over some chips and dip at the office cocktail hour will lead to an opportunity to advance at the company or in your career.
4. Get Your Work Noticed
With offices working remote or peers passing each other in the office on different days of the week, it can be hard to truly show what you are working on. So make it a priority to get your work noticed. Seek out times to talk about the project you are working on with others outside of your team. Maybe there is an opportunity to present your latest report or give a presentation on a grander scale. It could be something as simple as turning a report or discovery into a blog post for the company or giving a presentation to another department. Be confident with your work and make sure others know the good you are bring to your company.
5. Feedback Is Key
Getting feedback can be a frustrating process at times. Managers don’t always take the time to give it, and sometimes we don’t really want to hear it. Let me remind you though, that feedback from your teammates and superiors is crucial to advancing your career. Asking for feedback shows that you want to learn and grow within the company. Having this conversations about your work and where you can improve will help demonstrate that you are dedicated to excelling in your role, and this can go a long way.
6. Negotiate
Now that you have shown you are a valued asset to your company, it is time to negotiate this advancement. When the time comes to ask for a promotion or raise, be confident and negotiate effectively. Be prepared to list all of the action items you have taken up until this point, that demonstrate you as a leader and contributor to the overall prosperity of your team. Come to the table prepared, confident, and ready to explain why you are ready and willing to take on this new role or get compensated for your work.
Make Your Voice Heard and You Will Not Regret It
At the end of the day, you work hard and you deserve to strive for the next step in your career path, whether it’s at your existing company or not. By using your voice to advance your career, you will notice traction. Plus, you will begin to feel more confident in your role and others will take notice of your efforts. Even if you do not get the promotion or raise you want at your company, you will have confidence to take to your next opportunity in-house or elsewhere. For more career advice and strategies on how to advance in your career go to Second Act Success to learn how to work with Founder and Career Coach, Shannon Russell. You can also get career tips and hear success stories of others who have advanced their career or pivoted to a new one on the Second Act Success Podcast.
