Episode 27: Setting Career and Work-Related Goals

About this Episode

Welcome to Season 2 of Real Job Talk! We are kicking off this season talking about setting goals at the beginning of the year.

First up in this episode, Kat and Liz both describe their process to set career and job-related goals.

Kat’s process has been built over the last 10 years and includes a year-end completion process. Acknowledging the wins and the emotions around the goals that were not met, and then putting them all to bed.

Kat has an audio recording that she uses with her clients to walk through a completion process to let go of the past year.

Kat starts with self care and making sure her self care game is strong, since it’s a high priority that gives energy for the rest of her personal and professional goals.

She also sets SMART goals (that are Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) to make sure she can hold herself accountable and remember WHY she set that goal.

Some other tips:

• At work, make sure your goals line up with business goals so that you have the buy-in to help to achieve the goal.
• Having 2-3 goals at once is achievable, but not a lot more. Let one be easy, so you can knock out of the park and get energized by the progress. There's science to back this up!

Don't get locked into inflexbile goals! We talk about goals being dynamic - They can change based on life circumstances, and that’s ok.

Kat keeps her goals in Evernote, and uses other technologies to manage projects and ToDoist for her to-do list. It's all about figuring out what system works best for you.

Liz reflects on what challenges she wants and thinks about how to stay sane, and then sets realistic goals to address those challenges. She plans to checki n monthly, and wants her husband, @erickbronson, to hold her accountable.

How do you set career goals inside a company? First of all, know the goals of your company and of your team to insure alignment with your own personal career goals.

When setting career goals, it’s important to know what the processes are within your company and who you need to talk with to get there. By putting it out there, you have taken the first step to making it happen.

Be strategic about who you share your goals with: not with Negative Nelly or Competitive Cassie... Sharing with too many people who aren’t decision makers can get in the way of you achieving those goals.

If there is something about your work that you can’t stand? Can you propose some changes to your boss? It shows initiative, and taking on problems and making things happen and that gives you power over things you don’t like.

Can your professional goals be supported by your home life? In setting professional goals, it’s important to think about how achieving those goals will affect your personal life. Can you make it happen?

Our goal for 2020 is to help you have your career be what you want it to be! We'll be talking with people about their career and their goals throughout the year in season 2 of Real Job Talk.