You can advance your career during COVID
Advance your career during COVID
2020 has been a wild ride so far. The global pandemic has affected almost everyone around the globe. It has had a destructive effect across the board, from economies at the macro level, right down to the details like travel, childcare, and of course our employment.
People around the world have been living with change, it’s not been easy, and we are just now starting to understand what some of the longer term effects might be.
Most people in corporate careers are predicting a rather bleak outlook, but the reality is, you can still advance your career during this time, and it’s not self-centred to want to do so.
I’ve put together my top five list of actions you can do that will help both you and your business to progress in our current reality.
1. Build trust
The current climate of increased remote working has its challenges. One of them is the old-fashioned tendency for leaders to believe that if they can’t see their teams working, they will be goofing off.
I recommend that you proactively disprove this theory. I don’t want you to mix this up with working all hours of the day and night and constantly being available. That doesn’t build trust, it simply sets false expectations that your leaders may exploit — either intentionally or not.
The best way in my opinion, to build trust in you and your abilities is to deliver results.
Ensure that you prioritise your work effectively, and do focussed productive work on the things that will help you to deliver your agreed projects. When you have conflicts on the work and can’t get it all done, go to your boss to discuss their preferred priority.
Asking for guidance like this will reassure your boss that you have the interests of the business in mind. It will show that you’re thinking about the bigger picture and focusing on work that matters. Working to move the business forward and help it to survive during this unprecedented moment in history.
2. Demonstrate market awareness
Times of rapid change open the door for disrupters to come into the market. Bosses love team members who proactively keep up to date with changes in their industry. It allows them to set direction effectively and keep ahead of the competition — either existing, or new. Ask yourself questions like:
- What challenges are your customers now facing?
- What are you hearing from them?
- Which products or services are more or less popular during this time?
- What is the stock market saying about the effect on your industry?
- The situation is changing daily, more often in fact… what is the breaking news?
Once you’ve asked these questions, and more, and you have a better understanding of what this actually means, form your own opinion. Make your own predictions and test them out.
Ensure you communicate this so your bosses can see the value you’re bringing to the business.
Don’t be afraid to make ‘if then’ predictions, for example, “If x rate continues to rise then this means y, and the impact to ourselves and our customers will be z”.
3. Be as comfortable as you can with change and ambiguity
Let me assure you that your bosses are feeling about as in control as you are. They are probably dealing with their own concerns and instabilities at home as well, like childcare challenges and worries about family and friends.
What they need from you right now, is to be as okay as humanly possible about all the changes and uncertainty. They are probably asking more than they have ever asked of you before and may not be explaining enough about what’s happening. They will be trying to ensure business can continue.
Your bosses will appreciate you being able to work this way or ‘go with the flow’ for a while and they will notice that some people are handling it easier than others. Resilience is a trait that will stand you in excellent stead when performance reviews are happening.
If you believe that your bosses aren’t communicating enough, then by all means raise it with them. Go with asks and solutions instead of taking a bunch of problems day in and day out.
4. Flexibility
This goes hand-in-hand with being comfortable with change and uncertainty. Be open to changing direction on projects that were already planned, even if it doesn’t seem to make sense in the moment.
If you are asked to work on other areas that you wouldn’t normally, then do it. Listen to what your bosses are looking for and try to accommodate if you can.
5. Talk about all of it
It is essential to find an effective way to communicate that you’re doing all of this great work. Make sure you talk about your wins and the results you’re delivering. Tie them in to customer and business value.
Explain your approach and why it’s been so effective. Tie that in with the changing demands due to the pandemic and the current operating reality.
Remember that this global pandemic and the current economic situation is new to most, if not all of us. You can shine as a great performer and someone with huge potential at any time.
Conclusion
The secret is to do all of this because you want to grow, perform well, and so you can come together with your colleagues to advance the business you work in to make sure it survives during this time.
If you have the pure intention of doing your best, and being successful, and you proudly and effectively communicate it – you will be noticed.
Free Course Coming Soon!
During August I will be running a free online course which will help you to get ready for your next career move. If you’re interested in finding out more about it click here to join my mailing list. I’ll send you some complimentary e-books about mastering difficult conversations.
Join My Online Community
Click here to check out my online community and meet people like yourself who are aiming to do their best to improve their career and move up to the next level. It’s free and I post all new articles there for ease of reading and for discussion.