There is a good chance you are unsure about your professional aspirations or you have not given the idea much thought. It is essential to know one’s own strengths and weaknesses when developing a career.
In this post, we will highlight the most important steps you should take to properly identify your main objectives and the effort needed to ensure they are achieved.
1. Strengths
Think about and write down any activities which, over the course of your life, you have felt passionate about, where you showed your maximum potential and which motivated you intrinsically, regardless of whether or not they were obligatory. You may need some help from someone who knows you well to complete this step properly, as they will be able to provide an outsider’s perspective on your most outstanding features.
2. Role Models
Now identify role models with whom you have worked in the past – both in academic and professional settings – and note down their strengths in terms of enhancing talent. Here, it is essential to identify attitudes and types of behaviour that not only benefit the individual but also the group as a whole. Within an organisation, results will depend on various people and you should be ready to develop your ability to work in a team.
3. Action Plan
For this step, you should focus your attention on your weaknesses or areas where there is potential for growth when compared to the role models identified in the previous stage. Write down a series of ideas for improving on your weaknesses. You should say what you intend to do in quite some detail at this stage. For example, if one of your weaknesses is being disorganised, you should write a daily time plan in order to improve on that and also write down the specific actions you will undertake.
4. Conclusions
Finally, together with the conclusions you have reached, propose three positive adjectives to describe yourself and another three that describe how you would like to be in the near future. Bear in mind that some of the most outstanding qualities in a person are: knowing oneself well; being able to anticipate the challenges we will find most difficult; and making an effort to try and improve our ability to tackle tough situations.
Whenever you apply for a job, it is essential that you express your objectives and goals clearly, as well as the aptitudes and attitudes you will adopt in order to achieve them. In any case, it is absolutely fundamental to view your skills as something that can always be improved upon. This is crucial for finding the motivation to work on them and being able to move towards achieving the goals we set ourselves. Furthermore, this process should be ongoing; it is not something you do just once but is something that should be instilled within you, becoming an integral part of how you think and act.
Ana Gómez Regidor
Development Dep. Acciona S.A.