5 Ways to Take Responsibility for Your Career Development

Career development is often talked about in companies as they seek out ways to increase employee engagement and prepare current staff for greater responsibilities and promotions. Often this is thought of as training or mentoring opportunities and is considered the responsibility of the employer.

However, employees should take responsibility for their own development and find ways to add value to their career.

Here are five alternative and creative ways to take responsibility for your own career development.

Learn as much as possible about your company. You don’t need a formal mentor relationship or job-shadowing program to seek out information about your company. Set up your own meetings with people from various departments to expand your knowledge. Read company press releases and industry magazines and news reports. Be an active participant in company-wide meetings or cross-department discussions. Take part in a task force. The more you know about your company (and industry) the better prepared you are for taking on a new role or developing your leadership skills.

Take risks and accept failure. Success requires failure and so if you want to become successful in life you must learn to become comfortable taking risks and experiencing failure and rejection. Put yourself in position to try new things, such as learning to play an instrument, expanding your foreign language skills, or planning to give a presentation to your colleagues. These opportunities will stretch you to grow.

Attend conferences and meet people. Find an industry conference or two and register. You might also seek out a conference or workshop focused on some aspect of personal growth, such as weekend meditation retreat. These experiences will not only expand your knowledge and recharge your batteries, but they will provide an opportunity for you to expand your network by meeting new people and deepening relationships with those you already know.

Travel, read widely, and be curious. Cultivate a spirit of curiosity and inquisitiveness by traveling, exploring new regions and cultures, and reading widely on subjects that may be new to you. Consider checking out a foreign film from your library or seeing one at an independent theater you’ve never been to before.

Apply for other jobs. Even if you have no intention of leaving your current job you can sharpen your interviewing skills and gain valuable industry knowledge by applying for other positions, and interviewing at other companies. These experiences can strengthen knowledge of your field and increase your awareness of future opportunities.  

How to Deal with Past Failures & Mistakes When Trying to Renew Your Career

It’s possible you’ve made a big mistake or two in your career or at your current job and you’re trying to restore your career or reputation.

If you walked out and quit in the middle of an important presentation to the CEO, got embarrassingly drunk at the holiday party, or lost your temper with a client, how do you recover and move your career forward? How do you face an uncomfortable job interview where you’re asked to explain things?

Keep the following five things in mind as you deal with repairing your career for future job interviews.

Be patient. If you’re looking for another opportunity for a promotion at your current company it might take some time for trust to be restored. It takes time for wounds to heal, even when that wound is to your career. Focus your attention on rebuilding trust by pursuing excellence on the job without trying to force others to recognize the changes you’ve made. They’ll be recognized in time.

Be honest. If you have a job interview be honest about what happened and your role in the situation. If you were going through a divorce when you walked out on the presentation to the CEO that might help explain the stress you were under. Take responsibility for the mistakes you’ve made and demonstrate that you are fully prepared to take responsibility for your actions.

Don’t minimize. As mentioned above, you need to own your decisions and recognize the seriousness of your actions without attempting to pass blame elsewhere or make excuses. Facing a difficult situation head on with honesty and without minimizing will demonstrate integrity and show that you’ve made positive changes to your life and career. 

Share what’s been learned. You can lead others through your vulnerability by sharing your experiences with others and passing on what you have learned. Perhaps you can become known as an expert in your company on dealing with workplace stress because you’ve struggled to manage stress in the past. If you’re open and vulnerable, your biggest failures can lead to greater successes if you offer that failure to others as a teaching, learning, and healing experience.

Describe strategies to avoid a repeat. Finally, be clear with yourself and others, including an interviewer, just what changes you’ve made in your life and the strategies you now employ to prevent a repeat of the actions that set you back in your job or career.

An embarrassing failure does not have to be the end of your career if you are humble enough to be patient and learn from you mistakes.

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: 5 Brilliant (and Simple) Ways to Make a Good First Impression

This is our weekly roundup of some of the best career-related articles, interviews, blogs, etc., we've read during the week. We share them so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. Enjoy!

• 5 Brilliant (and Simple) Ways to Make a Good First Impression: "Something as simple as smiling when you talk or engaging with your eyes in a way that shows interest can go a long way."

• The 4 Reasons Why I Love to Fail: "On the flip side, instead of breaking our will, an embarrassing setback can harden it into titanium and give us the determination to do whatever it takes to achieve our final objective."

• An Entrepreneur's Guide to Confronting and Harnessing Anger: "For many of us, anger is just fear in disguise. It doesn’t matter what it is - fear of the unknown, fear of failure, fear of feeling small - fear can lead a person down a very dark path."

• What to do When a Personal Crisis is Hurting Your Professional Life: "These are all incredibly tough situations to navigate personally — let alone professionally. Should you disclose what’s happening to your manager and colleagues?"
• 10 Proven Strategies to Build Trust: "Anything that communicates listening, empathy, confidence, caring, is going to signal trustworthiness from a preconscious perspective. Those nonverbals register in our brains as signals of trust or distrust."

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: How to Get An Amazing Job Without Much Experience

This is our weekly roundup of some of the best career-related articles, interviews, blogs, etc., we've read during the week. We share them so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. Enjoy!

• How to Get An Amazing Job Without Much Experience: "If there’s something you want to learn, there’s a course, article, or video on it. All you need is the time to go through it."

• 4 Keys to Creating a Strong Desirable Workplace: "Ensuring that your employees are happy means taking a more holistic approach to their wellness and wellbeing. Offering wellness benefits to employees including health spending programs is one way to do this."

• What Happened When I Didn't Complain for 30 Days: "Once I started complaining, I couldn’t stop: forgotten passwords, misplaced homework assignments, those widowed socks that never find a mate, to name a few."

• The Smartest People Love to Fail, and Here's Why: "Resilience will keep you strong as you endure the less happy parts of following your dreams. A positive mental attitude will keep you following your dreams in the first place."
• 57 Female CEOs on How More Women Can Get to the Top: "Ambitious women may be hesitant to self-promote, driven more by a sense of purpose and a desire to contribute value and shape culture."

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: How to Always Be Ready for a Great New Job

This is our weekly roundup of some of the best career-related articles, interviews, blogs, etc., we've read during the week. We share them so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. Enjoy!

• How to Always Be Ready for a Great New Job: "Stay in touch with the folks you will rely on to vouch for you when the time comes to change jobs. It's much easier to update a warm relationship than to try and jump start a cold one."

• How to Make Your Workplace Joyful: "I actually think it's easier to have an extraordinary workplace culture in a smaller organization, simply because you touch your people more. As the leader of the organization, you're in touch with your people that much more."

• 9 Things Successful People Never Do in the Morning: "Successful people never find themselves getting distracted by the television or decide to watch just one show. Instead, they dive right into the tasks they want to tackle for the day."

• 20 Secrets to Avoiding Burnout: "Go to bed an extra hour early or go to a movie. Do things you haven't had time for. Go for a run. It's about allowing yourself to focus on yourself outside of work."
• How to Help Millennials Overcome Failure: "Help them to view failure as a toll booth instead of a roadblock. With a tollbooth, a price must be paid to move forward."

Daily Leap Career Video of the Week: Learning from Failure and One Strategy for Success

Each week we present our Daily Leap Career Video of the Week. The video we share presents news or advice related to career and life development, searching for a job, the economy and employment, and other career-related topics.

In the video below from Entrepreneur, author, Navy SEAL and editor of SOFREP.com Brandon Webb tells about learning from failure and shares the best business advice he ever received.

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: 4 Career Mistakes You Should Make by 30

This is our weekly roundup of some of the best career-related articles, interviews, blogs, etc., we've read during the week. We share them so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. Enjoy!

• 4 Career Mistakes You Should Make by 30: "But making some missteps and mistakes early on in your career is actually a critical part of growing -- both professionally and personally."
• The Best Way to Learn: "Learning is best done by people acquiring ideas from various sources, running experiments in their context, and then sharing their insights with their peers."
• Building a Better Company Culture in 5 Steps: "While you don’t want your employees failing 100 percent of the time, taking away the fear of failure can free up employees to not just win but win bigger than they ever would have had they been afraid to fail."
• Strategies for Dual-Income Families: "Lots of parents with big jobs work what’s called a 'split shift.' They leave work at a reasonable hour, spend the evenings with family, and then do more work at night after the kids go to bed."
• Do These 4 Things to Avoid Losing Your Mind as an Entrepreneur: "But in the end, listen to your gut. Create the business you want, on your terms and in your time. You’ll reap far greater rewards than revenue."

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: What You Need to Succeed

This is our weekly roundup of some of the best career-related articles, interviews, blogs, etc., we've read during the week. We share them so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. Enjoy!

• 8 Tips to Resign from Your Job Gracefully: "If your manager has a track record of taking feedback gracefully and generally makes it safe to be honest, you might consider sharing the factors that led you to look for another job."
• Why You Don't Need to Be Smart or Talented to Succeed: "You don't need to focus on padding your resume or hiking your GPA, you need to focus on understanding and improving yourself."
• Two Things You Should Do After Getting Fired: "Use the experience to learn how to change some workplace behaviors, whether [they're] personality-driven or communication-driven or something else."
• 7 Secrets to Entrepreneurial Success: "Jump past barriers and countless years of indecision by hiring a business partner that gives you the kick you need to stay motivated or a sales representative to get your product out in stores."
• Be Your Own Best Advocate: "So we all need a strategy for everyday negotiations that will allow us to come away not only successful but also still held in high regard by bosses and colleagues."

Daily Leap Career Video of the Week: Michael Jordan on Failure

Each week we present our Daily Leap Career Video of the Week. The video we share presents news or advice related to career development, searching for a job, the economy and employment, and other career-related topics.

In this video basketball great Michael Jordan puts failure in perspective: "I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

See the full video below:

Go Ahead and Fail! Why Failure is Actually Good for You.

I have an 8-year old daughter who is not the most confident little girl you have ever met. She changed schools this year, moving from a public school to a charter school environment that is much more challenging. So much so, that in August she had an F in math. I am proud to say that just two months later, she has raised her grade to an A-. Her reaction when I told her that she broke 90% was priceless. It inspired me to write to you about failure today.

So often, we don't take chances or make changes in our lives because of our fear of failure. I would like to encourage you to step away from that fear and give yourself permission to fail. In fact, I would like to show you that it can actually make a huge positive difference in your life. Here are some ideas of how failure can help you.

You Appreciate Your Success More When You Have Failed
I know for a fact that my daughter appreciates her hard work and her achievement of improving her grade so much more than she would have if she had been at that level all along. When you don't immediately get the outcome you are looking for, you often get discouraged or frustrated. However, when you finally achieve success, you know the hardships you went through to get there. It makes success that much sweeter.

You Grow and Learn When You Fail
Failure is not pleasant, it is not easy, and it is not fun. However, your attitude toward failure defines whether it can be a positive or negative experience. Remember Thomas Edison said that the hundreds of attempts to create the light bulb weren't failures, they were simply his way of discovering the ways it did not work. When you fail, take time to look at why and learn from it. Use the experience to motivate yourself to move outside of your comfort zone and grow in your abilities.

Failure Increases Your Chance of Success
It seems counter-intuitive. However, a Stanford University Psychologist's research shows that people who are open to growth and change, as opposed to having closed minds, are more likely to become focused on achieving success. The experience of trying something and failing gives you the advantage of experience over someone who has not had the learning experience of failure.

The Power of Failure. How to Turn a Mistake into a Positive Experience.

I love constructive feedback. To me, having someone help me see my weaknesses is akin to finding ways to get  better at what I do. I am not a glutton for punishment; I enjoy compliments as much as the next person. However, I think when I fail - as long as I face it with the right attitude - I become better during my next attempt. Here are some ideas on how to turn your failures into a learning experience.

Take an Outside Look at Your Actions
I often find myself surrounded by finger-pointers. When something goes wrong there are few people willing to step forward and admit to a mistake or failure, they instead get defensive. Try to separate your feelings when you respond to a mistake. Look at your actions from the outside, evaluate your actions as though they were made by someone else, and acknowledge your failure without trying to self-justify.

Actually Listen to Other People's Feedback
When we don't like the negative things that people tell us, we tend to dismiss them or chalk them up to the other person's shortcomings. Practice actually hearing criticisms from others and practice listening to that criticism without taking it personally. Ask questions of your critic to find out how they think you can do things differently the next time. Use this information to find ways that you can improve.

Surround Yourself with Informed, Trustworthy Peers
We all enjoy praise, but I only want sincere kudos that I have earned. Gather a trusted "advisory board" of peers that will give you honest feedback on when you have succeeded, when you have failed, and why they feel this way. Having the honest, frank and compassionate opinion of people you trust is an invaluable way to ensure you keep growing.