5 Ways to Recognize Success in Your Career

Success at work is not merely a matter of promotions and increased salary, though being accessible to our jobs 24-7 often makes it difficult to step back and evaluate success in any other way. But career success can be assessed in various ways.

Here are five ways to view your career success without considering your salary as the primary factor.

Added Responsibility. When you’ve gained the trust of your company and supervisor and have been handed additional responsibilities, such as new tasks or projects, managing an important account, or overseeing the work of others, you know you’ve attained a degree of success. You would not be provided these responsibilities without attaining the trust of your company, and your company’s trust in you is a strong indicator of your level of success.

Growing Network. In a successful career your network of contacts and colleagues expands, grows, and deepens regularly through networking events, working closely with colleagues and customers, and attending workshops and conferences.

Balance. You can view success through the lens of the balance you experience between your career and your personal life. This does not mean you never feel stressed, nor that you don’t take work home with you but that you are able to set aside your job when you need to recharge and are able to enjoy your family life and hobbies.

Job satisfaction. A strong indicator of your success is your satisfaction at work and people tend to be satisfied in their job when they are able to use their strengths, skills, and interests to do meaningful work that provides a positive benefit to society.

Learning Opportunities. No one likes to be stagnant in their job and career, and successful careers enable you to constantly learn and grow in your profession through continuing education, trainings, workshops, and on-the-job experience.

When you are successful in your job and career in these areas you will often discover that you are satisfied with the financial aspects of your career, too.

5 Ways to Feel More Independent at Work

As we celebrate our country’s Independence take a few moments to evaluate your own freedom. How independent are you at work? Do you go in each day and depend on someone else to tell you what to do?

An important part of the enjoyment we get out of our work is the degree to which we are self-sufficient and direct our own work.

While your work routine might be not be flexible due to the needs of your company, you still have some opportunities to gain some independence and variety at work. Try these five approaches to feeling more independent on the job.

Take on greater responsibilities. There are likely other tasks you can take on in your job. Don’t be shy. Talk to your manager and volunteer to do more. It might not result, immediately, in a pay increase but it will expand your abilities at work, make the job more interesting, and increase your odds of gaining a promotion in the future.

Learn new skills and gain additional knowledge. Similarly, seek out knowledge and skills in other areas at work. The more you know about your company, the field you work in, and the various tasks required to do the job well, the more employable you’ll be and the more your employer will trust you to get things done.

Mentor or supervise others. Demonstrate your knowledge of the job and your leadership abilities by volunteering to mentor new employees. Seek out opportunities to supervise or manage the work of interns. You’ll gain valuable managerial experience and demonstrate your ability to move into roles with more responsibility.

Expand your network. Just as it’s important to learn as much as you can about the work of your company and your field, seek to meet new people, particularly within your company and in areas you are unfamiliar with. You might not only gain a new friend, but also a new opportunity to move into another job later down the line.

Work at home. If your company allows employees to work at home take advantage of this perk. Working from home provides freedom you don’t always feel when stuck in an office, cubicle, or at the plant, and allows you to demonstrate your ability to get things done without close supervision.

Paying attention to these areas can help you increase your freedom at work, expand your opportunities, and increase your enjoyment on the job.

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: How to Make Your First 90 Days at a New Company Count

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 Make Your First 90 Days at a New Company Count: "Regardless of your experience, title or level of authority, you have a lot to learn about your new role and organization. Tap into the wisdom of those who’ve been there for a while as well as those who may be somewhat new."

• Got 15 Spare Minutes? Here's How to Make it Count: "You can use small pockets of time to catch up on social media and scan emails, but your ultimate goal should be to help you, your client, or your team move forward."

• 10 Unmistakable Habits of Utterly Authentic People: "Authentic people, on the other hand, are accountable. They understand that they -- and no one else -- are responsible for their own lives, so there’s no point in complaining."

• To Succeed as a First-Time Leader, Relax: "Evidence-based mindfulness strategies, such as meditation and controlled breathing, can empower new managers to navigate challenges including delivering a critical presentation, running a contentious meeting, or making a high-stakes strategic decision."
• Ready for a New Job?: "Although it is more strategic to start with outlining your ideal position, the reality is we all invest an inordinate amount of energy into thinking about what we don't like."

5 Characteristics of a Great Employee

Sometimes it feels like being a good employee simply requires us to keep our head down, plug along, mind our own business, and get the work done.

However, that might have been true years ago but today's great employees take initiative and bring a passionate approach to their work.

Below are five additional characteristics of a great employee.

1. Team player. Great employees know that to be successful others on the team need to be successful and so she works well with others in the company, helping them to achieve their goals.

2. Curiosity. To be a great employee one must be curious about the company you work at, curious about all the divisions and areas within the company. curious about the company's competitors, and curious about how to make the company better and more effective.

3. Humility. Instead of glorying in success and taking credit, great employees will deflect praise in humility, understanding that successes require a team.

4. Communicates effectively. Great employees understand the importance of (and practice) good communication. In addition to excellent verbal communication skills, good employees know that effective written skills are important, too. Good communication also means avoiding gossip, and speaking positively about your job and company.

5. Takes responsibility. Every employee will experience some failure in the workplace at some point but it is the great employee who will get back up without blaming anyone else, take responsibility for the failure, and move forward to make things right.

What other characteristics does a great employee have?

High Five Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: 11 Secrets of Irresistible People

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!

• 11 Secrets of Irresistible People: "Whether interacting with their biggest client or a server taking their drink order, irresistible people are unfailingly polite and respectful."
• 4 Ways to Overcome Digital Distractions and Be More Productive at Work: "Being highly productive and achieving beyond the mediocre level can still be done — it just requires two companions: presence and commitment."
• 5 Ways to Make Enough Side Money to Eventually Quite Your Job: "Nearly everyone dreams of quitting his or her day job, whether it's tomorrow, next year or in the next decade. However, there is a wide chasm between 'dreams' and 'action'."
• 5 Habits of Creative Working Parents: "Yes, spending time with your kids is important, but so too is finding space in your life for the people who help energize you about your creative work."
• 6 Character Traits to Consider Before Becoming an Entrepreneur: "Jumping into entrepreneurship isn't something to take lightly, as there are many things to consider before you do. At some point, you have to stop the questioning and business planning to take the plunge."

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: 9 Tactics to Land You the 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!

• 9 Tactics to Land You the Job: "Ask for the job enthusiastically. If they say they are 'still looking,' ask what for and explain how you are a perfect match, and then ask again."
• 11 Career-Related New Year's Resolutions: "Want a raise or a new job? Better work-life balance?"
• Veterans and the Holiday Job Search: "When a job seeker displays initiative in setting up informational interviews during the holidays, she communicates that she is resourceful and hard-working."
• 6 Qualities of a Non-Toxic Employee: "Look for employees who are good with taking direction and take full responsibility for their work."
• 6 Strategies to Transform a Job You Hate into One You Love: "Knowing that by sticking it out, you’ll be gaining skills that will aid you in getting to the next level in your career, and that can help to keep you engaged."

6 Qualities of Effective Leaders

Leadership is a highly discussed topic, with many good books published each year on the subject. But for those who don't have time to read all those leadership books we've identified six of the top qualities you should strive to cultivate if you want to be a good and effective leader.

1. Effective leaders listen more than they speak. Leadership is not about making great speeches or
telling everyone else how to get the work done. A great leader spends much of his or her time listening to others in an attempt to better understand both the situation at hand and the people involved.

2. Effective leaders praise others instead of themselves. A good leader knows that others are the key to success and praises the members of his team rather than making himself look good. An effective leader is humble and doesn't waste time trying to impress others by constantly promoting his own "individual" successes. Very few successes are "individual."

3. Effective leaders take responsibility instead of passing blame. When things go wrong, as they inevitably will, great leaders take responsibility and acknowledge the mistakes rather than blaming them on others.

4. Effective leaders serve others. Leaders who focus on others, on the team, and work to serve the needs of the team and of customers will generate greater trust and respect. Leadership is about serving others and serving well.

5. Effective leaders lead by example. A good leader knows that she must do the hard work and not simply expect or demand others to work hard. Effective leaders work hard, demonstrate appropriate work-life balance, and show the appropriate way to communicate and treat clients, co-workers, and customers.

6. Effective leaders never stop learning. A great leader understands that he does not possess all knowledge and continues to learn. He or she is curious about the world and about others and strives to continue to learn more about being a better person and a more effective leader.

Daily Leap Career Video of the Week: 5 Rules for a Great Life

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 the video below, Brendon Burchard shares the five rules for a great life, starting with having a clear vision for your life.

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: 5 Keys to Being a Great Mentor

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!

© Bellemedia | Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos

• 5 Keys to Being a Great Mentor: "The goal of coaching is to help your mentees build up confidence in themselves... most people do not succeed because they have a great deal of self-doubt and therefore they self-sabotage."


• The 10 Commandments of the New Economy: "We need to have a longer time-horizon than the next earnings call. The communities we live in and the earth we inhabit both demand our attention and investment."


• 5 Steps to Improve Your Networking Skills: "No matter whom you’re trying to build a relationship with, treating that person as a friend rather than a business contact will take you much further with the relationship. So, think about how you would approach a potential friend."


• How to Brag About Your Accomplishments: "What these results seem to suggest is that when deciding whether to (honestly) brag or (deceptively) humblebrag, would-be self-promoters should choose the former — and at least reap the rewards of seeming sincere."


• Sending Professional Emails: "Getting into the habit of writing business documents more formally – even if they are only emails – will help you establish a professional image in the long run."

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup

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

© Bellemedia | Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos

• Improve Your Networking Skills  -- Right Now: "Try to listen more than you talk, be thoughtful in your interactions and generous with your time when you can."


• How to Have a Year that Matters: "Rugged individualism is nice in theory, but the truth is: if you're going to make a difference, you're probably not going to make it happen all by your lonesome. So who are your mentors and allies, friends and peers? Who's at your back, manning your sails, crewing your boat?"


• How to Be a Career Prepper: "Begin seeking opportunities to meet people who work outside your company and build mutually beneficial long-term relationships. Also begin creating a personal reputation of excellence, on- and off-line."


• 4 Ways to Figure Out Your Future: "For one week, invest an hour every day to research. Check out top job lists, browse career exploration sites, or just read your favorite section of the newspaper. Your goal? Write down any career that catches your attention. This exercise can stretch your vision of what opportunities actually exist."


• Why You're Not a Leader: "True leadership isn’t found seeking the spotlight, but seeking to shine the spotlight on others. The best leaders only use 'I' when accepting responsibility for failures. Likewise, they are quick to use 'we' when referring to successes." 

Three Steps to Step out of Victimization

If you’re a morning person and you live with someone who isn’t, life-at times-can be an exercise in patience. And it was for me recently when, yet again, we were late to a yoga class. This time I was especially annoyed because, as I feared would happen every time before, class was full. So much for establishing a focused connection with my body or improving my dismal flexibility. With my bottom lip out I trudged toward the elliptical machine, fuming over the circumstances that led to me missing class. I irritably and obsessively mulled over my wife’s unreliability. And then, in a flash, it hit me:

I was being a victim.

Being a victim is a common yet futile state to be in. You fail to see your role in your problems, surrender your power, and stay in a perspective of negativity. Victimization can be especially dangerous in the career realm because it creates an attitude of helplessness, entitlement, and hopelessness. You can fight entitlement in your career in these three ways:

Take responsibility: When you take responsibility you see how you have influenced your situation-good or bad. In my situation, I blamed my wife for being late without considering what I had done. Didn’t I agree to go to class with her? Didn’t I know that she wasn’t a morning person. Didn’t I expect to be late? Thus, who was really responsible for my misery? Me. Whether your career is not going in the direction you want it to go, you dislike your work environment, you don’t feel that you are being challenged enough at work, or whatever reason you are feeling dissatisfied, approach it from a place of responsibility and note all of the ways that you are contributing to your misery.

Empower yourself: Once you take responsibility, you can take it upon yourself to make changes. What are you going to start doing and what are you going to stop doing? Who do you need to talk to about it? What are you able to do and what aren’t you able to do. If there’s something you don’t know, who can you talk to that will know? Get clear and specific about your options and the steps necessary to change.

Cultivate optimism: I once heard a quote to the effect of “you shouldn’t worry about things you can change, because you can change them. You also shouldn’t worry about things you can’t change, because you can’t change them. What else is there?” You can’t make permanent change if you aren’t in an optimistic space. Focus on the positives that will come out of your decision, or-if you decide to do nothing-focus on the positives that come from that decision since you made it from a place of empowerment.

My wife and I are fine, of course, but I learned a powerful lesson in the futility of being a victim. Let responsibility, empowerment, and optimism guide you to better choices and a better livelihood.

Knee-ded Career Satisfaction Therapy

I’ve been thinking lately about people unhappy in their careers but don’t want to make the leap to ones that are more fulfilling. I’ve also been thinking about my knee.

I injured my knee in a charity race last year and-seeing no significant issues-my physician recommended physical therapy. I met with a physical therapist who gave me a regimen of stretches and exercises that would get me running without pain again.

That was a year ago. I didn’t follow through with my plan and I sheepishly met with the physical therapist again to give it another go at it.

What the heck prevented me from doing the exercises? The question plagued me, but got me curious. The answers I came up with correspond with reasons why those dissatisfied with their careers tend to stick with them. Not unlike us physical therapy failures, “dissatisfied, yet comfortable” denizens of career drudgery share these characteristics:

A “small inconvenience:” The minor pain I experienced in my knee didn’t significantly hinder my daily activities, not unlike how the small inconveniences of an unfulfilling career don’t significantly hinder this group of workers. Their careers aren’t unbearable, but they also don’t produce passion. In both situations, neither party kept sight of the more fulfilling alternative so the pain-small, but bearable-continues until something has to be done.

Slow, incremental progress: The doctor made it clear to me that I shouldn’t expect to get better soon; it would take months before I would experience progress. Without the immediate payoff, I wasn’t motivated to prioritize my physical therapy. People dissatisfied with their careers get caught in the same trap: the timeline to transition to the career they love is too long (and often filled with obstacles). So they stay put and complacent, intimidated or put off by the lack of instant results.

Plummeting priority: The barrier of slow progress and only minor pain keeps the “desired state” from being a priority. I didn’t make it a point to create a schedule and stick to it to help my knee get better; it wasn’t a priority. Those stuck in career drudgery rationalize by saying “well, it’s not what I want to do, but it’s not that bad…” Without making what you want a priority-with no intention or action-it will never happen. And the pain will remain.

If you feel that you may be missing out on something special career-wise, or want to work through your feelings of disenchantment, reflect on the following questions:

What joy in your career are you currently missing out on?

What fears are keeping you from taking action?

What career dream have you never acted upon, and what would it take to act upon it?

What time will be the best time for you to make the career move you want, and why then?

Pain in any form isn’t good, especially if you are missing out on true joy because of it. I’m committed to rehabilitating my knee; I hope you that you rehabilitate your career.

Feel Free to Make your Own Choices, but Take Responsibility for Them

It is great that we live in a free country, where we are free – for the most part – to live our lives the way we choose. However, I find it disturbing how many times people are not willing to hold themselves accountable for the choices they make.

I have been a member of a networking group that meets on Saturdays for the last 6 years. The group has met on Saturdays for longer than I have been a member. As much as I wish these meetings were on a weekday, I knew when I joined the group that if I wanted to attend meetings, I would have to give up one Saturday a month. Recently, a new member has been very vocally and passionately lobbying to change the meeting day because of a conflict with her religious beliefs.

I respect this new member’s religious beliefs and understand her frustration. However, I feel as though the meeting times were very clearly stated when she joined, and now she expects the entire group to change in order to accommodate the choices that she has made. This is the perfect example of not taking responsibility for the choices you have made.

In order to be successful, and ultimately happy and fulfilled, you must acknowledge and accept that your life is your responsibility. You are in charge. No matter how much you try to blame others for the events that take place in your life, each choice you make will either positively or negatively impact that life. Of course, there are things that happen to us that are out of our control. However, we can still control how we react to them. Here are some tips to take charge of your own destiny:

• Change the tune of the voice in your head. Do you find yourself constantly blaming others or making excuses for yourself? Own up to your mistakes and learn from them. Look inside and see how you could have handled a negative situation differently.

• Listen to what you say to others. Do you blame your parents, your social status or your boss’ leadership style for your failures? What role did you play in creating a bad situation, missing a deadline or producing work that was not up to standards? How can you change to ensure it does not happen again for the same reasons?

• Change your patterns. Listen to that voice in your head and how you talk to others. Take control of the excuses and stop blaming other people or events. When you start to take accountability, you realize that you really have more control than you originally thought was possible.

• Don’t get defensive. Accept constructive criticism with an open mind. Evaluate other people’s opinions and objectively identify if you can change your approach to improve your future outcome. The only way to truly improve and get better is to accept feedback and make positive changes. You will not always agree with the feedback you receive. However, take the time to analyze the feedback and see if it will help you grow; don’t just dismiss it outright.