Finding Your Place Of Most Potential For Career Success

You have probably heard the analogy about a bottle of water priced differently in various settings. At a vending machine, a bottle of water is $1; at a nice restaurant, it is $4; and if you go to a professional sporting event, that same bottle of water is around $7. Similarly, our value and potential in the workplace fluctuates based on many factors. Developing relevant skills and positioning oneself where our contributions are highly valued is essential to maximize career potential.

We understand that no situation is perfect and that things are constantly evolving, but how can we continually strive to position ourselves to achieve our career goals? Throughout our careers, we must ask the right questions about our environment and behaviors for assessment, problem-solving and meaningful action to adjust and evolve so that we are always striving to position ourselves in the place of most potential. Below are 3 Environmental and 3 Behavioral factors for positioning yourself in the place of most potential.

3 Environmental Factors

1) A Great Manager

Have you ever worked at a terrific organization but also had a bad manager? If your answer is "yes," what was your experience? The responses employees give are almost always like the following statements:

• It turned the work I enjoyed doing into something I dreaded.
• It made everything more difficult.
• It was challenging to stay motivated and do good work.
• It negatively impacted both my professional and personal life.
• And the most common answer is always – I left the organization.

One of my favorite quotes about the importance of a good manager is from the Gallup organization, which says: "The talented employee may join a company because of its charismatic leaders, its generous benefits, and its world-class training programs, but how long that employee stays and how productive he or she is while there is determined by his or her relationship with their immediate supervisor." Companies spend countless dollars on excellent facilities, fair and equitable pay and state-of-the-art technology. Still, if the employee feels they have a bad manager, all these other factors are diminished because they will struggle to stay productive and motivated.

2) Ability To Leverage Strengths

Your strengths are an accumulation of your aptitude, values, goals, personality traits and passions that enable you to excel in certain areas. Our strengths also help explain what makes us unique and why we differ in the activities that we are successful with and find enjoyable. Meaningful work is a magnet for maximizing a person's effort, intellect, emotional intelligence and social intelligence. Scientific studies show that making progress towards meaningful goals is one of the major causes of the brain's release of a neurotransmitter called dopamine. This chemical is often called the "feel good" neurotransmitter because it provides feelings of pleasure and satisfaction. This dopamine release drives effort, productivity and well-being.

If our work contributes to our view of the greater good, draws on personal strengths and gives us meaning, we will be committed even during the most trying times. Research shows that we experience up to three times higher motivation, engagement and productivity levels when our work centers on meaningful activities. In addition, the Gallup Organization's research has shown that people who can focus on their strengths daily are six times as likely to be engaged in their jobs and more than three times as likely to report having an excellent quality of life.

3) Strategic Skill Set

One of the primary lenses organizations use to identify their high-potential employees has nothing to do with the employee's effectiveness or ability to take on more responsibility. The first rule of these programs is to align the identification of high-potential individuals to those with the biggest impact on accomplishing strategic goals. Employees with roles and skills that are seen as critical to the organization's success or that deliver a disproportionate level of value in accomplishing strategic goals have a distinct advantage in being seen as high-value employees.

Being seen as an employee who has high performance and potential can create many advantages for career advancement, which usually include one or more of the following benefits:

• Inclusion in strategic work projects
• Prioritized consideration for promotion
• Senior Level Mentoring
• Organizational commitment to their career growth
• Participation in leadership development programs

3 Behavioral Factors

1) Align Daily Actions To Your Long-Term Goals And Values

There is a passage from Alice In Wonderland by Lewis Carroll that says, "If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there." This simple quote illustrates the importance of knowing your desired destination. This concept is especially true when making decisions about our career success. I recently worked with a rising young executive, and we had our final leadership coaching meeting. During our conversation, I asked her, "What is the one big thing you need to do to continue your development as a leader?" She paused momentarily and then thoughtfully responded, "My most important focus for continuing my development as a leader is to be more deliberate about aligning my daily actions with my divine purpose."

With her powerful response, this high-potential executive shared one of the foundational elements for placing ourselves in the place of most potential. Clearly defining our desired career purpose involves introspection and reflection on what truly matters to us. Asking ourselves questions such as:

• What brings you fulfillment?
• What impact do you want to make in the world?
• What causes or issues resonate deeply with you?
• What professional legacy do you want to leave behind?
• What relationships do you want to nurture and establish?

2) Build Healthy Relationships

One of the biggest challenges for professional success is balancing the time and effort required to excel at the job tasks and building strong relationships. On the surface, the strengths of our professional relationships might not sound that important for career success, but they are. Demonstrating social skills has become essential for a person to thrive in today's workplace. The work environment has fundamentally changed how employees must perform. These shifts include:

• Colleagues and stakeholders who work across multiple time zones and cultures
• Increase in matrixed reporting complicating roles, authorities, and workflow
• Work that requires more collaboration from experts, stakeholders, and teams

High performers must be effective at their tasks, contribute to others' productivity and use others' contributions to improve their work performance.

3) Advanced Self-Leadership Abilities

Early in an employee's career, technical skills will separate them from being seen as high performers. As employees take on greater responsibility, their Self-Leadership skills become increasingly important. To be seen as an individual who can take on greater responsibilities, you must develop the skills for navigating important, complex and relational situations. The most successful employees share a pattern of foundational Self-Leadership behaviors that enable them to demonstrate self-awareness, emotional intelligence, inclusion, mindfulness, empathy, social intelligence and learning agility during challenging and complex situations.

The SOAR Self-Leadership Model provides a person-centric, practical, and research-backed roadmap for developing your Self-Leadership abilities. The four phases of the SOAR model are:

We Owe It To Ourselves

If you expect someone else to care about your career more than you do, you will always be disappointed. A narrow view of how and why people receive career opportunities can leave us feeling mistreated and frustrated when decisions are made that impact our achievement of career aspirations.

Being strategic about navigating your career is not manipulative or inauthentic. Being deliberate about selecting the right environment and demonstrating the right behaviors is essential for achieving your professional aspirations. Research shows that employees who find meaning and purpose in their work are happier, healthier and more productive. Focusing on these three environmental and three behavioral factors can help you find your place of greatest potential for career success.

NOTE: Tony Gambill previously published this article with Forbes Leadership Strategy on 07/02/24.

Learn more about my bio, content, and services at www.clearviewleaders.com

Read more of my articles on Self-Leadership and Leading Others at my Forbes Leadership Strategy Homepage

Learn more about my book on Self-Leadership at gettingitrightbook.net

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Tony Gambill is the President of ClearView Leadership, an innovative leadership and talent development consulting firm helping organizations, executives, and managers bring practical skills to Self-Leadership and Leading Others. He is the author of, Getting It Right When It Matters Most: Self-Leadership For Work & Life.