One thing successful people do

By William Arruda

We’re all busy. We all have infinite to-do lists that fill up faster than we can cross off the most urgent tasks. “Busy” is the most common reason people give for not doing anything to build their brand so they can advance their career. 

They make time for emails and meetings and teleconferences, but they don’t capture the true benefits of all those activities. Working in their career is getting in the way of working on their career.

Well, here’s the one personal branding habit you can’t be too busy for: Document your wins.

What’s the easiest way to do that?  Keep a job journal. Take a minute to jot down the day’s achievements to achieve the following.

1. Acknowledge what makes you great: Your team members and clients are too busy to notice your daily victories, so it’s important to take a brief moment for self-congratulations. It’s a great confidence builder, and it helps you quantify and assess your strengths. Don’t forget to record the seemingly small triumphs, even the personal ones (“met the deadline despite cranky vendors … stayed calm under pressure!”).

2. See the difference between meeting goals because of motivation and meeting goals despite burnout: If you take an extra 90 seconds and record not only what you achieved, but how it felt to accomplish the task, you’ll get a great reality check. You’ll realise which activities and co-workers make you happy and which ones fill you with dread. This self-awareness is critical as you decide where you want to go with your career.

3. Get a clear picture of the kind of work you are doing: Do you find yourself in leadership roles? Are you perfectly content to execute someone else’s plans? Which types of projects do you prefer? Are you repeating an inefficient process?

4. Shine during meetings with your boss: You can speak clearly and articulately about all you accomplished in the prior week or month, and have the latest facts when it’s time to deliver a progress report.

5. Prepare a dazzling portfolio for your annual review: If you’ve written them down, you’re not going to forget those great things you did in January when you get to your annual review in December. Instead of a vague conversation, you can have a full-blown presentation that showcases all the times you saved the company money, brought in business, made customers happy, and otherwise saved the day. 

If you’re invited to interview at another organisation, these materials (except confidential ones, of course) translate into a great career-marketing portfolio.

— Agencies