One of the most common questions I get from talents when profiling them for organizations is: “Are there opportunities for growth in that organization?”
It is increasingly becoming one of the most important sources of motivation for prospective employees when looking for a job, the singular most important being the paycheck of course! Candidates are constantly on the lookout for those opportunities that would successfully close their skills gaps and present opportunities to acquire new skills. During exit interviews, it is not uncommon to hear employees use ‘lack of growth opportunities’ as a major reason for leaving an organization.
When organizations are looking to hire, they usually look for talents with certain skill sets and competencies and the reasons are not far-fetched. The business of most organizations is to generate revenue, earn profits and keep the business viable. It is a ‘no-brainer’ that organizations would want to hire talents that are specifically equipped and gifted with the knowledge, skills and abilities to attain such critical business outcomes. But suffice it to say that no employee is a total package, in other words, the ‘perfect employee’ does not exist. Even if an employee ticks most of the desired boxes, as long as a business is growing and expanding, the employee must grow and upgrade his/her skills alongside.
So, whose responsibility is it to ensure growth in an organization?
Is it realistic for employees to put the onus, 100%, on the organization, knowing fully well that the organization is in the business to make money, and as such need ‘ready-made talents’ to achieve this objective? Is it also fair game for employers to desire a ‘perfect employee’ with little or no skills gap, knowing the current state of the educational system? Wouldn’t it be a case of ‘shortchanging’ oneself for an employer not to provide avenues for growth and upskilling, knowing that the more competent an employee is, the higher the productivity and performance?
I would think that it is fair game for both the employer and employee to take responsibility for growth and development in an organization. For the employer, it is a huge advantage to your brand, to be known as the ‘growth and learning organization’. It makes you an employer of choice, regardless of your size and also helps you attract and retain quality talent. It also decreases turnover rate, saving the organization a ton of resources, while also increasing high performance and productivity. Opportunities for growth are not just created by training, but also through an intentional/strategic system of mentoring and coaching, job shadowing, job rotation, networking opportunities, clearly defined career trajectory etc.
However, as an employee, it is more important to you that you take responsibility for your growth and development, regardless of the organization’s disposition towards that. According to Eric Nightingale, American motivational speaker and author, “Jobs are owned by the company but you own your career”. Essentially your career is in your hands and acquiring higher skills and competences should be your priority and your focus. The truth is that no one owes you a career and your career development & growth is entirely and solely your choice. To leave it in the hands of someone else is simply handing too much power over to someone else. Whether the company has growth opportunities or not, as soon as you decide to take on a job role, you must have a career plan. You need to determine what skills you have already for performing on the job, what additional skills you need to acquire, what competences you need to develop if the job role is to be expanded or if you are to take on additional responsibilities. You also need to aim to be better than when you came, to add more value than the previous employee in same role and to leave the organization, even more skilled and more competent than when you were hired.
What practical steps can you take to achieve this?
- Develop a CEO mentality. Take a wider/broader view and approach to your job. Have a panoramic view of the entire business by becoming well-acquainted with other business units/departments, what they do, their methods and processes, how their business processes are linked and interwoven with your own job role, your unit and the organization as a whole. A ‘CEO mentality’ views the entire business as one and understands that each unit is linked to the other and can have implications for the ‘bottom-line’ of the business. This will definitely affect the way you work, improve your work ethic, give you knowledge about the entire business as well as an edge over your peers. It is disturbing to see employees who have no knowledge of the business apart from their own job role, who have no idea how other business units operate and as such cannot answer questions or proffer solutions to problems in the organization. Having a broader view and knowledge of the business in its entirety gives you the power to add value, over and beyond your job role and this is what commends you for promotion and increased responsibilities. The higher you go, the more you grow but you cannot get there by working in silos or with a narrow perspective.
- Create and innovate. One of the most annoying statements an employee can make is, “it is not in my JD (Job Description)”. In other words, if it is not within your job scope, it will not be done or even attempted. Promotion or recognition comes when an employee goes above and beyond his job scope to create more value in the organization. The more you create, initiate and develop, the more competence you gain and all these skills end up in your CV, giving you enormous advantage over others. For example, as a HR executive, if you are hired into an organization that has no HR policy, Employee Manual etc. don’t wait to be told, create it. If you haven’t done it before, learn how to do it and develop it. You just got an opportunity to upskill and show leadership qualities by taking the initiative. It is important to note that it doesn’t matter whether the organization uses what you have created or not; it doesn’t take away your skill. You just gained an experience no one can take away from you.
- Have a personal T&D plan. It is important for you to create a personal training & development plan that will enhance your productivity, improve your competence and abilities, according to your desired career trajectory. For instance, if you have identified that you want to build a career in HR, identify the different levels of HR job roles like HR Generalist, HR Coordinator, HR Manager, HR Business Partner etc. and identify the key skills and qualifications required to function at these levels. Have a plan for acquiring these skills, set goals and timelines and go for it. How? Read. Network. Get a career mentor/coach. Get more qualifications. Use the resources in your organization to learn. Just don’t stay stagnant.
- Self-awareness is key! Identify your strengths and weaknesses. Focus on your strengths and delegate your weaknesses. Seek help where your skill set is not strong so that you can focus on your areas of core competence. There is no need to try to prove that you can do everything when you can actually focus on mastering your key skills and strengths. Typically, and in an ideal situation, when an employer sees the personal efforts of an employee to add value and be the best on the job, there is usually tremendous support given towards that employee. You will be doing yourself a favor if you are can correctly ‘diagnose’ yourself, your competences, your abilities, your capacity, your areas of improvement, your areas of high performance and the goals you need to set in order to be the best version of you possible. These are things you do not wait for an organization to do for you. You do it for ‘you’ because you know it gives you leverage and advantage in your field.
“Find what you are good at, become excellent at it and pursue those opportunities where those skills are in high demand”
Eric Sinoway
Stay on top of your game in chosen career field. Keep up with the trends. What are the skills in demand? What are the goals you need to set and action plans to achieve them, long term or short term? It is ideal for an organization to provide opportunities for learning, growth and development and to ensure that one’s career trajectory is steadily moving upwards. However, your career is ultimately in your hands and no one can have better plans for you than ‘YOU’.
Send me an email for Career Coaching, Mentoring or for a customized training & development plan: soluchi@ttmcgroup.org
Follow on all social media handles:
Twitter: @thehr_doc
Instagram: thehr_doc
Featured Image Source: Envato
You might also like:
- Connect Nigeria Webinar: Unlock the Secret to Crafting Unbeatable Offers!
- How to Prepare Your Business for Q1 2025
- How To Market Your T-shirt Business Offline
- Consumer Technology: Smartphone Penetration in Nigeria
This post will assist the internet users for creating new weblog
or even a weblog from start to end.
Here is my web site – Lululemon leggings features
I got this web page from my buddy who informed me about this
web site and now this time I am visiting this
web page and reading very informative posts here.
Helpful information. Fortunate me I discovered your website unintentionally, and I am shocked why
this coincidence did not came about in advance! I bookmarked it.
My developer is trying to convince me to move to .net from PHP.
I have always disliked the idea because of the costs.
But he’s tryiong none the less. I’ve been using WordPress on several websites for about a year and am nervous about switching to another platform.
I have heard very good things about blogengine.net.
Is there a way I can transfer all my wordpress content into it?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Your way of telling the whole thing in this post is truly nice, all be able to effortlessly know it, Thanks a lot.
I must thank you for the efforts you’ve put in writing this blog.
I am hoping to check out the same high-grade blog posts
from you later on as well. In fact, your creative writing abilities has inspired
me to get my very own website now 😉
Heya i am for the first time here. I found this board
and I to find It really helpful & it helped me out much.
I am hoping to present something again and aid others such
as you aided me.
I’m not sure where you are getting your information, but good topic.
I needs to spend some time learning more or understanding more.
Thanks for magnificent information I was looking for this
information for my mission.
Awesome article.
A person essentially help to make severely articles I’d state.
This is the very first time I frequented your website page and thus far?
I surprised with the analysis you made to make this actual post incredible.
Excellent job!
Wow! In the end I got a website from where I know how to actually get useful facts concerning
my study and knowledge.
Hello to all, the contents present at this web
page are truly amazing for people knowledge, well,
keep up the nice work fellows.
Ahaa, its pleasant dialogue regarding this piece of
writing here at this weblog, I have read all that, so at
this time me also commenting at this place.
Thanks , I’ve recently been searching for information approximately this
subject for a long time and yours is the best I have came upon till now.
But, what about the bottom line? Are you certain in regards to the supply?
This is a topic that is close to my heart… Thank you!
Exactly where are your contact details though?
If you would like to get much from this post then you
have to apply these strategies to your won blog.
Piece of writing writing is also a fun, if you be familiar with after that you can write otherwise it is complicated to write.
my homepage … Benefits of Steiner education
Hі there, the whoⅼe thing is going nicely here and ofc᧐uгse every one
is sharing data, that’s actually fine, keep up writing.
Feel free to visit my homepage … How to approach investor for Shadow Teacher company
It’s very straiցһtforward to find out any matter on web as compared
tߋ textbooks, as I found this рost at this website.
My page – #Parentsontheyard
%%
Feel free to surf to my site … Ligo Partners
%%
Look into my webpage :: Ligo Partners
Their Key Opinion Leaders won’t carry a ton of weight, but not less
than it places merchandise on customers’ radar from a person they admire.
An influencer’s major upply off injcome is typically through selling merchandise they consider in aand commonly
use. A press release promoting the opposite report suggests
that the typical price paid to a doctopr for a “scientific speech” is more than $3000.4 Typicallyy these speeches are delivered at
academic occasions sponsored by companies.
Because of that, KOLs often have local notoriety becaue they aren’t
selling themselves on-line. However the terms aren’t actually interchangeable.
Because influencers reside and die by their followings, they’re managing feedback like looppy all through the day.
If you need someone who’s participating with customers in the feedback part,
you is likely to be higher served by an influencer as
a substitute of a KOL. However if you wish too psh for more engagements and sales,
you’ll be able to lean on a KOL’s experience too push awareness-stage customers to buy.
That being stated, in cae you are opposed to compromising your imaginative and prescient, then tthe
kind of funding that offers someone else a voice in your compoany mayy not
be the very best direction for you. In consequence, they stated, some VCs are acking away from investing in the
latest round of YC startups. A number of buyers avised Insider these adjustments had led startups to hunt greater valuations
in funding rounds so as not to quit outsize fairness in theor firms.
As we dscussed in a previous section, some accelerator packages will requjre that you simply relocate wit a view to
take part. Inspiring businesses too become extra entrepreneurial, Yellow Walnut connects small and enormous firms to encourage and study from each other so as too build
successul businesses. In that time, they’ll give you access to their community,
connections, knowledge, and a comparatively small amount
oof funding to your startup. The money comes in the
type of two notes, or monetary instruments utilized by buers that convert the VC money put into a startup into
an fairness stake ass soon as the startup raioses extra funding.
It is value noting that startup accelerator startup packages
additionally exist hat assist non-revenue organizations, thee ploace
the intended outcome is a few type of human or environmental benefit rather
than monetary gain.
Certainly. And That I have experienced it. Let us go over this query.
Useful іnformation. Lucky me I dіscovered your sitｅ by accident, and I am stunned why tһis accident
didn’t took place earlier! І bookmaгked it.
Stop by my web Ьlog; All my father Childs are using this top 1-on-1 company in USA
I am truly grateful to the holder of this web site
who has shared this enormous piece of writing at at
this time.
Here is my web site: tracfone coupon
I ρay a vіsit dаy-to-day a few webѕites and information sites to
read articles, however this weblog prοvideѕ quality based
writing.
my wеb page: Earning Money In College
Having read this I thought it was rather informative. I
appreciate you taking the time and energy to put this
article together. I once again find myself personally spending a
lot of time both reading and posting comments.
But so what, it was still worth it!
my webpage: tracfone special coupon 2022
Christmas marketing ideas
save shipping costs on Etsy
Thank you for any other informative web site. Where else may I
am getting that kind of information written in such a perfect method?
I have a challenge that I’m simply now running on, and I have been on the glance out for such info.
Feel free to visit my web page – Boundaries
Hi there! I know this is kind of off topic but I was wondering which blog
platform are you using for this website? I’m getting fed up of WordPress because I’ve had issues
with hackers and I’m looking at alternatives for another platform.
I would be fantastic if you could point me in the direction of a good platform.
Feel free to visit my web page; 3rd grade math brain teasers
mgnifіcent post, verу informative. I wonder why the otһer
experts of this sector don’t гeaⅼize this. You must proceeԀ ʏour writing.
I’m surе, you have a huge readers’ base alrеady!
Also visit my homepage … valentine’s day
best printer for small business
driver setup
packing orders small business
Read more
I was able to find good info from your blog posts.
From printer labels to thermal labels, shipping labels, and return labels, we offer a comprehensive range of products designed to meet all your business needs. Our labels are crafted with precision and durability in mind, ensuring they stick and stay intact through every process. Whether you’re organizing your office, managing inventory, or streamlining your shipping operations, our labels provide the reliability and performance you can trust. Discover the perfect labeling solution that adds efficiency and professionalism to your workflow.https://betckey.com/