“Getting ahead” means something different to everyone.  Money, benefits, opportunity, leadership, awards, even fame.  Whatever it means to you, there are tried and true methods that business all-stars use for getting ahead at work.  Below are 5 strategies to transform hardworking everyday employees into highly marketable fast trackers on the way to the career of their dreams.

1. Get Ultra Specific About What You Want

Successful people spend time actively deciding what they want and writing it down.  Then when a great job opportunity comes along, they have the self-awareness to recognize if it is a perfect match for what they want and put 100% of their focus and energy into obtaining it.  They constantly look for their next great role (even if they love the job they have) and know exactly what it looks like.

The majority of the workforce makes the mistake of doing the opposite:

• Waiting until they lose their job and then dividing their focus across applying to every possible job opening they can vaguely qualify for (sometimes hundreds).
• Waiting for an opportunity to drop into their lap like their supervisor leaving.  (Note: these types of opportunities are very infrequent, and the rest of the department is also waiting for it.)

Strategic Activity:  Defining the Perfect Job

1. List the top 10 criteria of your perfect job.  Did you already know what they were, or did you have to come up with them on the spot?  It might be harder than you think.
2. Add detail to your top 10.  If one of them was a “good boss,” list out what that means. They pay a lot of attention to you and overcommunicate, they leave you alone and let you be autonomous, or maybe they’re just not a big ol’ jerk of a bosshole.  Create a specific definition of each criterion that defines what about them is important to you.
3. Rank your top 10 in order of importance.  Now you have a tool for evaluating what your next role should look like.

2. Career Plan That Actually Works

A career plan is a combination of your goals, timeline, milestones, and competitive strategies.  Measuring your progress and making smart career decisions are important, but the real value is adding in highly customized strategies that give you an advantage over your competition.  Fill the time between milestones on activities like targeted skillset development, gaining relevant experience, resume building achievements, and making key contacts in future companies and industries.  Competitive advantage is a big part of getting ahead at work.

If you have a rough idea of your plan but have not actually written it down yet, you are not alone.  That extra step of getting the details on paper is one of the actions that separate the fast trackers from the rest of the workforce.  So is reviewing the plan and updating the strategies each year (and every time you think about quitting your job) which can make you extremely valuable

Strategic Activity:  10 Minute Career Plan Starter

1. Write down a few long term goals for your career that contribute to your overall life satisfaction (a certain title or salary, retirement date, industry recognition, the opportunity to give back, etc.)
2. Estimate the major milestones between where you are now and your ultimate goals (promotions, job changes, etc. every 3-5 years).  Be sure to include the dates of when you need to achieve them to be on track.
3. Identify the single most important thing you can do to set yourself up for success on each milestone.  What would the ideal candidate have done over the 3-5 years prior to landing that next promotion?

Related Article:  The Ultimate Guide to Career Planning

3. A Rockstar Support Team

Your career support team is the key individuals you surround yourself with to help you move forward in your career.  It could include a career coach, mentors, peers, spouse, industry heroes, teachers, peers, confidants, etc.  If you are an entrepreneur, it may also include your lawyer, accountant, banker, website programmer, vendors, and advisors.  Your team is anyone who contributes to your overall career objectives. 

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that successful people are born as geniuses that don’t need help.  The brilliant thing they do is surround themselves with as much of the right help as they can find.  Think about who you surround yourself with and what impact they have on your success and satisfaction.   Imagine how far ahead your career would be if the most successful people you knew were advising you regularly.

Strategic Activity:  Personal Support Team Performance Review

1. List the professionals (coaches, mentors, peers, boss if you are lucky) and personal relationships (spouse, partner, family, friends) that support your career.
2. List the types of support each individual provides (emotional, mentoring, strategizing, solutioning, celebrating, etc.)
3. Score each individual (1-10) on how much value your career has received from their support in the last year.  Evaluate if this is truly a rockstar team or if you have adjustments to make

Related Article:  Business Coaching, A Tool of the Ultra Successful

4. Mental Excellence Training

Imagine if you had complete control of your stress levels and could focus 100% of your thoughts on the task at hand.  Think about how much more you would get done in a day and where your career would be right now.  How much better would you feel? #Winning

Today’s workplace warriors are investing more time and resources than ever before into “mental excellence” techniques.  Learning skills such as stress management, enhanced focus, and operating at choice instead of reaction, gives them an advantage over their peers and contributes to their success and overall happiness.  Activities like meditation, yoga, focus exercises, and coaching are excellent for developing these advantageous skills. Getting ahead at work becomes significantly easier when you have less stress, more focus, and an unstoppable approach to work.

“The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me?”

Ayn Rand (source)

Related Article: How Successful People Overcome Workplace Anxiety, Fast

Related Article: Breaking the Bad Day Cycle

5. Next Level Achievement

Employers reward those who contribute to their success.  Mentally list your successes in your current role and throughout your career.  If you were the boss, would you hire yourself based on what you have accomplished?

Top achievers think about accomplishing high value, career-building tasks constantly.  When a work task is high-value, they give it their all and add the success story to their resume.  If a task is mundane or poorly structured, the achiever will look for ways to either minimize the time and effort it requires or overdeliver the results.  When the boss asks you to prepare a seemingly mindless report, ask what it’s for and what good results look like.  Then prepare the boring report as requested but include a brief analysis and some strategic ideas with it on how to improve the results of your department

Strategic Activity: Creating the Achievement Mindset

1. Dedicate a notebook, planner page, or space on your computer for an achievement journal.
2. Spend 7 minutes at the end of each day writing down your achievements and rating how important they were.  If you don’t have at least 3, ask yourself what changes you need to make in your work and priorities.
3. Summarize what your most important achievements were every week, every month, and every quarter.  This will create a new level of focus on achieving as a habit and give you a lot to talk about in your next annual review (or job interview).

Don’t Forget the Basics

The strategies above can give you a massive advantage in the job market, but only if you have all the basics covered.  Don’t forget things like being reliable, being pleasant to work with, making your boss look good, and being a part of the solution instead of the problem (source).  All the training and experience in the world won’t help if people fundamentally dislike working with you.  If something seems to be off, be humble, and ask for feedback.  Your boss will tell you exactly what they want if they aren’t getting it.

Once you define what getting ahead at work means to you, the strategies above can be implemented rapidly.  Small efforts applied consistently over time can have life-changing results.  The only difference between you and the fast trackers leading your industry is that they have already figured out a personal strategy that works for them.  Today is a perfect day to take your next step toward the fast track and claim the success and satisfaction you always knew was possible.