Professional Career Solutions - Boise Job Market Report

The Focus…is on Focus

As a professional who has dealt with different aspects of the career business for more than a decade, I have come to some interesting conclusions. From mid-level managers to CEOs, I have done substantial research to determine the “secret,” if one exists, to maximum career development. My focus has been to differentiate between success and ultra-success in careers, and the findings have been interesting.

My first goal was to pinpoint the common denominators in all professional-level people. These were easy to find, because most are common sense: traits like work ethic, honesty, likeability, energy, intelligence and persistence. However, while each of these attributes is extremely valuable for career growth, I’ve found there are a couple of other required components to reach maximum potential in just about any career.

The first is focus. Without focus, it is difficult to rise to the career heights of which you are capable. Focus means knowing where you are going and what you are going to end up doing. Most people have a vague idea of what their focus is—i.e. “I want to be the CEO of a company”—but they don’t have specifics in mind that allow them to write clear, definable goals, including action items and timelines.

It is interesting to note that less than 5 percent of the population keeps written goals—and to me, it’s not surprising that this same 5 percent controls most of our nation’s wealth. From this, you might deduce that anyone with written goals is bound to be successful. As you will see, it is not quite that simple.

My research indicates there’s a very good reason why most people don’t have goals. That’s because in order to write them you have to decide, specifically, what you want to achieve. That’s tough when most people aren’t really sure “what they want to be when they grow up,” even as working professionals who have been in their careers or at a company for years. Without a well-defined path, it is almost impossible to write an effective goal. To announce that you want to be “the number one salesman in the company” is actually more a hope than a goal.

This realization required me to delve further into the true components of career success. I adjusted my research, asking different types of questions of job seekers that ultimately led me to new conclusions. First, I analyzed the specifics of a person’s career progression. All too often, I have found that people have progressed as a result of someone else’s decisions: “Bill, you’ve done a fantastic job! We’d like to move you to a new position. Congratulations!” There are several other ways this can happen, but the point is that in most circumstances, the person moves to the next level because of someone else’s vision—not their own. Yes, it is success. But is it the right kind of career achievement? Is it meaningful success?

Now let’s look at the career progression of the “ultra-successful” person. Here, I find that the person’s success has derived from his or her own vision. By this, I mean they knew where they wanted to be and as a result, they did things—consciously or even subconsciously— that helped them achieve this vision. The things they did are their links to success, the consistent, daily activities that build the network, get the exposure and create the momentum in their work lives. These activities are essential because each can be assigned to a concise (and usually measurable) goal. Once this type of focus is found, only then we can strategize to get to the next level.

We at Professional Career Solutions understand the importance of focus—so much so that it is the cornerstone of our operation. We take every step necessary to obtain complete focus with each of our career change or career search candidates, so that our efforts can be translated to consistent activities, timelines and accountability. All are necessary to achieving real and predictable success.

Obtaining this type of focus is very difficult for most individuals without some help. Why? Because you can’t consider what you don’t know. For instance, if I were to ask you to make me a list of all the things you didn’t know that you could do, it would no doubt be a short list! In fact, there are 33-thousand classifications of ways to earn a living. How many do you figure you’re probably overlooking?

Your decisions are only as good as the information you have when you make them and, all too often, you simply do not have the information you need to truly focus. Without the focus, the goals are hard to state. Without the goals, the action plan is fuzzy or frustrating, ineffective or nonexistent.

If you need to rethink or establish your career goals and create a workable action plan to move forward with them, there is no better ally than PCS. Our services give you the chance to make an investment of time on a unique exploration—to discover your own personal focus, with the professional assistance of knowledgeable people who really care.