Strategy vs. Plan: How To Achieve The Career Of Your Dreams

The hours you spend at work make up a significant portion of your life, which begs the question: are you satisfied with your career?

Whether you’re just starting out in your profession or are in the prime years of it, it’s imperative that you take charge of your path. As much as your company leadership values you as an employee, they aren’t responsible for propelling your career forward. It’s on you to push yourself to where you want to be.

If you desire an engaging, fulfilling, and dare I say lucrative career, then you need a strategy and action plan.

The alternative is stagnation, lower pay than you deserve, and dissatisfaction with a huge part of your life.

Making a roadmap for your career is necessary, but it often falls to the back burner because it rarely feels as urgent as your day-to-day demands. However, many promising professionals have been caught up in the daily grind only to find that years have gone by, and they’re still stuck in the same role.

Don’t let that be you!

In this article, I’ll explain what a career strategy and plan are and how they work together. Then I’ll share an actionable framework for creating your own path to career success.

Strategy vs. Plan

“Strategy” and “plan” are often used synonymously, but they’re actually quite different. Understanding what each means and how they complement each other is essential to getting the most out of your career.

Your career strategy is where you want to end up in the future. It’s your destination, your North Star.

Your career path is the steps you’ll take and milestones you’ll hit along the way to your destination.

Neither can work effectively without the other.

A strategy without a plan to get there will never come to fruition, and a plan without a clear destination will leave you spinning in circles.

In the past, workers would often stay at a single company throughout their careers. They would work diligently and gain promotions, with the most dedicated moving into management positions until they retired. They didn’t need a strategy or a plan, just a company with which they were content to spend decades.

Today’s worker is very different. He or she builds a career portfolio. They gain promotions by moving from one company or role to another, building valuable skills and experience along the way.

Navigating these career jumps and creating the resume of your dreams takes intention and drive. A strategy and plan can help you get there.

Be The CEO of Your Career

Like a CEO takes charge of a company’s direction, you need to take charge of your career path. No one else is as invested in your future or as capable of bringing it to life as you are.

Once you start managing your career like a CEO manages a business, you’ll make huge strides toward your goals.

Though planning your path to success has to be purposeful, it doesn’t have to be difficult. If you follow these five steps to career success, you’ll watch your ideal future unfold.

1. Set Aside Time to Create Your Strategy

Devoting time to your career roadmap is often the hardest step because the payoff won’t be immediate, so it’s easy to put off. However, this is the most important phase because your strategy is your North Star. It’s what you refer to when you need to make a decision about an opportunity or challenge that comes your way. For example, if an opportunity leads you away from your North Star, then chasing it may not be the right decision.

Creating your strategy starts by assessing where you want to end up in 5 to 10 years. What is your ideal role? Responsibilities? Salary? Location?

Keep in mind that your career strategy is a guiding light, but it’s not a monolith. You can and should adjust it periodically. For example, you may participate in a project that reveals a passion or skill set you didn’t see in yourself but that alters the role you want to pursue. In that case, adjust your strategy. (You’ll likely also need to adjust your plan.)

If you find yourself struggling to take this first step, consider joining a mastermind group or partnering with a career coach. Either would be helpful in assessing what you really want out of your future and keeping you accountable for putting in the work.

2. Outline Clear, Measurable Steps

Once you know where you want to end up, you can reverse engineer the path to get there. Think about:

• Strategic career jumps you will need to make.
• Roles or positions you need to earn to reach your goal position.
• Skills you need to gain or improve.
• Certifications or degrees you need to earn.

You can keep your plan at a high level, or you can get more granular and outline the activities you need to do daily or weekly to achieve these jumps, like online networking, professional development courses, etc.

This step is like project management for your career. You outline measurable steps, set a realistic timeline, and decide which success metrics you will track, then check in with yourself regularly to assess your progress.

3. Build Strategic Relationships

They say that being successful in business is all about who you know, but success in your career is more about who knows you.

Think about who needs to notice you to be able to achieve your next career jump. Get yourself in front of those decision-makers! As you build new relationships, make sure they see you as an expert. It should be your name at the top of their mind when they’re looking for an expert to tackle a challenge.

4. Take on Strategic Projects

If you want to soar in your career and be known as an expert, you need to develop deep skills.

Begin by assessing your own strengths and how you can leverage them. Then, look for projects where you can use those strengths to make a real impact.

Pro Tip: You don’t always have to wait for your boss to assign you a project! Be proactive and look for problems you can solve, processes you can refine, or projects where you can innovate and add real value.

Doing so will make you stand out to leaders and give them a compelling reason to choose you over competitors seeking the same promotion.

But what should you do if your current day job doesn’t align with your North Star, and taking on new projects there doesn’t move you toward your goal?

Consider starting a side hustle.

While you’re still in your current position, you can gain skills and visibility in your new sphere, which can serve as a launching pad for your next position. The side project can also maintain momentum and positivity toward your goal and power you through any adverse conditions you may have at your less fulfilling 9–5.

5. Cultivate Your Reputation

According to a study by Wharton professor Matthew Bidwell, external hires get paid more and have worse performance evaluations for the first two years than their internal counterparts who are promoted into similar positions. According to Bidwell, hiring teams don’t know as much about external hires, so they tend to be more rigorous about things they can see on a resume, like education and experience. However, these are often poor measures of how someone will do on the job.

That doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to earn a new degree or leave a company you love to get a promotion. However, if you already have the skills to succeed in that new position, you need to learn how to toot your own horn a little around the people in your organization in charge.

Think about your reputation inside your company and out. You can work on developing a standing as a thought leader, speaking at conferences, or taking on a leadership role at a relevant professional organization. You want to raise your visibility and make sure that people see your talent.

Many people are modest about their skills and successes, but it’s possible to strike a balance where you keep your strengths visible but present them in an unpretentious way.

Nail Your Career Roadmap

Cultivating the career of your dreams takes intention and work, and you can get there quicker and more easily with a strategy and plan than you can without.

Leave me a comment below if you’re committed to building your career roadmap, and I’ll check back with you in a few months to see how it’s going!

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