Article / Topic: Reaching Your Potential

Written By:  Robert s. Kaplan

June-July: 2008

Summary

Ambitious professionals often spend a substantial amount of time thinking about strategies that will help them achieve greater levels of success. They strive for a more impressive job title, higher compensation, and responsibility for more sizeable revenues, profits, and numbers of employees. Family, friends and colleagues often heavily influence their definition of success.

Taking responsibility for your career starts with an accurate assessment of your current skills and performance. Most people can detail their strengths; they often struggle to identify their weakness. It’s up to you to take control of this process by seeking coaches, asking for very specific feedback, and being receptive to input from a wide variety of people at various levels within your organization. This gathering of feedback needs to be an ongoing process because as your career progresses, you will face new challenges and demands.

If you’re assessing a potential job move, you need to know what will drive success in the new position and, then, ask yourself whether you enjoy those key tasks. In your current job, identifying how to spend your time and develop your skills.

These four steps are helpful for HRM to handle the continuous improvement 

Reaching your potential requires certain proactive behaviors- but it starts with a basic philosophy. Managing your career is 100%your responsibility and you need to act accordingly. Be wary of conventional wisdom. Have faith that, although justice may not prevail at any given point in time, it should generally prevail over time.

Ref –Page, No   45
HBR