“The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.”

~Colin Powell

Problems, problems, problems. It seems that people are obsessed with problems and don’t know how to solve them. They complain about the problem. In reality, as Colin Powell says, it is a way to build a positive relationship with those around you, in spite of the problems.

Surely problems can also be used in order to create bonding between people. Very often, the problems might also be you. If someone trusts you enough to tell you that you are causing the problem, stop looking so vainly at yourself. Sometimes, one has to look beyond the obvious and consider the intention behind what has been said. If you learn to hold the belief that every behavior has a positive intent, then it’s going to be easier for you to listen not just from the head, but also from the heart.
photo credit: US Army Africa

photo credit: gibffe

I’ve been asked by people in corporate training programs about how they should develop themselves in their careers and it strikes me as very surprising that companies, no matter how much they commit to developing their people, often fall short on a variety of factors, particularly in career development and progression.

Some organizations actually develop their top leaders but not their entry level staff because of the belief that there is little reason why they have to focus on their new staff. Mostly, it boils down to budget constraints and the need to focus on those who are creating the biggest value at the moment. Unfortunately, that’s an undeniable fact. Individuals, therefore, must step up to the occasion in order to develop themselves.

Here’s what you should do if you have just graduated and have not got a career development plan.

First, do a personality profile that focuses on your personality type (not traits). Personality typing is a far better and much more stable form of personality assessment than a trait based assessment because traits are affected by skills while type is not influenced much by skills. You need to know where you stand in order to do develop yourself.

Next, understand your organizational structure and the promotion prospects. In life, our paths are not really planned for us. It’s essential therefore that you learn how to plan your own progression and different ways you can reach your goals.

Next, identify the skills and capabilities required for you to achieve the next higher levels of promotion. These skills and capabilities are not necessarily the technical skills for the job alone. You often need to develop one or more of the following skills:

• corporate leadership, strategic thinking, business acumen
• team leadership, motivation skills
• sales and influence
• communication, empathy and rapport
• public speaking
• and many, many more

Eventually, once you have a list of all these, you still will need a coach to guide your thinking processes and your expectations for working within the corporate environment. For example, it is easy for someone new in a large organization to have unrealistic expectations of how others should respond to them. I’ve found that the naivety comes from an ideal mindset and a lack of preparation in taking on the working world, corporate politics and others’ expectations of you.

Therefore, it is important for the coach you select to be able to provide you this kind of support, share skills and seek opportunities to raise your capabilities and prove those capabilities to yourself.

For more information on career coaching in Singapore, click here.