The fifth career success factor is confidence. It may seem like simple common sense. Everyone knows confidence is critical when focusing on career success. Although the factors covered in previous Monday Morning Minute blogs – courage, commitment, collaboration and connectedness – are important when designing a career development strategy – without the confidence to take the first step, even the best career pattern will stall out. So, if the confidence well is not quite full, what can be done to save that career plan?

• Do the homework! Informed choices beat guessing every time! Teachers and experience taught us how important homework is to being prepared. If you’re working on your own career development strategy check out the options you’re considering. Conduct some informational interviews. Do the research. As information is gathered, understanding deepens and confidence grows.
• Test the waters – start in the shallow end. Very few people learned to swim by diving into the deep end of the pool. Seek out low risk opportunities to experience early wins and get some confidence boosts. Reach out to people you already know and trust to get feedback on your plan. As the wins accumulate, confidence will grow.
• Pause for applause! Everyone needs encouragement. Celebrate the small steps. Reflect on accomplishments. If a step didn’t turn out as well as expected, keep things in perspective. Focus on what worked and went well. Learn from what didn’t.

And for you managers out there! Keep your employees’ career patterns alive by opening some doors, making introductions to subject matter experts, sharing network connections. Build time into your schedule to review employees’ plans, acknowledge wins and offer suggestions. Be a coach and a confidence creator for your team!

When your organization’s ready to explore career development, employee engagement, diversity and inclusion – and the powerful ways these important areas intersect, contact Talent Dimensions to learn from our decades of experience helping clients build powerful, sustainable and inclusive employee growth and development strategies.