5 Timeless Strategies To Advance Your Career

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So, you’d like to reach the next level of your calling. But you’re not sure where to start. These five practical strategies can help you make better choices.


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In South Africa, only about 6% of school starters gain a degree within six years of leaving school. If that’s not a staggering enough statistic for you – here’s another one: the rate of unemployment among graduates is rising fast, according to research from the University of Stellenbosch, doubling over the last 16 years.

While getting a degree will still increase the number of opportunities available to you, something is not adding up, and I believe it has something to do with the fact that traditional education systems are not moving fast enough to equip us for fast-evolving workplace realities.

So, where does that leave you?

Advancing your professional career can be a whirlwind of (in)decisions and uncertainty. While looking for your big break and figuring out exactly what path you want to take, there can be a lot of pressure not to misstep.

So, how do you keep motivated and moving in the right direction? Here are five fundamental principles to guide you that hold true across industries and experience levels and that I believe are as relevant today as they always have been.

1. Take time to discover your purpose

Let’s start with the big one: purpose. Remember that quote from Mark Twain.

‘The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.’

I don’t mean to be the guy who spoils the party by telling everybody they have a purpose, but I truly believe it: you, reading this, have a purpose. And if you know what it is, you’re the luckiest person alive. You have that quality that makes you happier, more grounded, and more productive.

Now, purpose takes a lot of time and effort to discover.

While great books such as Victor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning can provide you with a roadmap, we each have to forge our own path in the world. There is no other way to do this than to set out, explore who you are, experience new things, and discover what gets you out of bed in the morning.

2. Cultivate your resilience

As you move through life, even if you know your purpose thoroughly, you are going to find yourself hitting a lot of obstacles. The reality is that change is constant, no one can resist it, tough times will come, and you can’t escape them.

So, your only option is to accept that and cultivate your resilience. The late Nelson Mandela famously said: ‘Do not judge me by my successes; judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.’ It’s this kind of attitude that is more likely to help you achieve greatness.

Working with leaders and managers over the years, I've noticed that while they often want to be seen as ‘having it all’ – we are, after all, socialised to project strength and confidence – the truth is that they are just human. Often, people at the top are pretty lonely, and everyone is vulnerable.

The business leaders who go on to be truly great and the most effective are the ones who recognise that vulnerability and make friends with the fact that they don’t always have to be the strongest person in the room; they just have to be able to pick themselves up and keep moving forward.

3. Learn! Learn! And then learn some more

We are living in an era of continuous learning. Even if you have a degree already, you can’t rest on that.

The world of work is changing so fast that your best defence, and your best security, is to make sure you are always learning new things. This is something that employers seriously appreciate, according to Forbes magazine.

While Harvard Business Review reveals that major organisations such as Tesla, Apple and IBM no longer require candidates to have a university degree for an interview, formal education is still one of the best investments you can make in your future career. But short courses can also offer great exposure to new ideas in a fast and flexible format.

Whatever you decide to study, you need to consider where you study it! The World Economic Forum Future of Jobs Report 2023 says that 44% of workers’ skills will be disrupted in the next five years. We are in a race to skills obsolescence.

This means studying to acquire new knowledge and skills is only part of the answer; more essentially, we need cognitive development that leads to sophistication in thinking, managing and doing. And that is harder to teach and learn, which is why quality of education is critical to success. 

Look for a university, college or business school that is well respected and accredited – this gives you a guarantee that it maintains a high standard. Then, make sure the course fits your needs and schedule. Is the learning flexible enough to accommodate any unexpected bumps in the road? Will the degree or course give you global mobility?

4. Lean on others

It’s said that if you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, go together. Surrounding yourself with people who complement you and who can broaden your network is a tried-and-tested route to success.

And these days, there is no excuse not to reach out. Social media platforms can be a powerful way to advance our careers. That’s the very reason sites like LinkedIn exist – to engage with others, find opportunities and build your personal brand.

5. You hold all the cards you need

In his book, The Fifth Discipline, Peter Senge says personal mastery is not a destination or a definitive state but a process. Do we really need to hear, over and over again, that life is a journey, not a destination? Probably not.

But asking ourselves why we feel annoyed – or enlightened – when we hear clichés like the above is genuinely a part of personal mastery. We need to be able to understand and analyse our emotional responses if we are to become our best.

Such understanding helps us to build upon the things that affect us positively and learn how to navigate the things we don’t enjoy.

At its core, personal mastery requires three repeatable steps: defining our goals, being mindful of ourselves and our time, and taking action. Frankly, the bedrock of personal mastery is easy to understand. But it is harder to start. There’s a special forces saying: Start Cold, Be Bold” – You have to get going even if you don’t feel like it; because you’ll soon warm up.

It starts with getting enough sleep and physical movement. So, if this article has made you snooze or walk away from your computer, I’m ecstatic – that rest and exercise are only going to help you. But seriously, the point I am making is that you hold all the cards you need to build a joyful and purposeful life and career.

Play them. Enjoy it!

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