Beyond Resolutions

Published January 2, 2010

New Year's resolutions often center on working harder and doing more. However, vowing to hit the pause button this year may be your best move. Contemplation, not action, may help you take more productive steps in your career.

"Time passes quickly and people are so busy just living their lives that they don't often take time to reflect," says Beth Banks Cohn, founder and president of Manalapan, N.J.-based business consulting firm Banks Consulting. "This is a natural point in the year to think about goals and make a fresh start if there are things you want to do differently."

The poor economy and job market put a different spin on the process of personal assessment. "This year people who have jobs feel a little lucky just to have jobs," Cohn says. "That level of uncertainty can get in the way of reflecting. The tendency would be to focus on working as hard as possible to keep the job, but that may or may not be the best strategy."

While it may be human nature to work nonstop in the face of possible employment cuts, the end of the year offers a good excuse to take a moment to breathe.

"It's more intense this year. People are running to keep up," she says. "But it makes it even more important to really take time to reflect on what's going on in the year and where you are."

Begin by taking a big-picture look at your overall career satisfaction and progress. Cohn recommends writing down some of your company's accomplishments during the past year and how you specifically helped meet those goals.

"It's important to see how you as an individual have contributed to the progress of your organization," Cohn says. "We get caught up doing activities and don't often step back to have that conversation with ourselves." Think not only about the tasks you completed but also how you felt while doing them. This reflection can start off your personal assessment positively and help put a finger on tangible contributions that you can share in later job evaluations or interviews.

Knowing your accomplishments also can you to better know yourself as an individual. Developing your personal brand is the key to strengthening, improving or rebuilding a career, says Dan Schawbel, author of "Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success" (Kaplan, 2009). Knowing who you are, what you enjoy and skills in which you excel can help you better market yourself to others and find (or create) a well-fitting position.

To define your own brand and pin down where you are and where you would like to be, Schawbel suggests writing a list of your strengths, weaknesses and opportunities in your specific market.

Next, evaluate the skills you bring to your position.

"You always want to take stock and make sure you are up-to-date for the job you're doing and potentially your next jobs," Cohn says. "Whatever level you're in, you want to be on the cutting edge and to be informed about what's going on in the industry."

Pay attention to the goings on of the company to assess whether you possess the skills necessary to keep up in the future. If your company is experimenting with a new way of marketing, different online strategies or a new selling approach, look for classes to learn more. In addition, make an effort to gain knowledge about other areas of the company to gain breadth and increase your marketability. This will make you a well rounded and thus more valuable employee for the upcoming year while the job market struggles to recover.

Consider if adding courses or degrees would be a wise plan for the New Year. Calculate the time, cost and potential payoff of further schooling to decide if the timing is right. Employees who work for companies that begin the fiscal year in January may find them more inclined to consider footing the bill for education that delivers relevant skills, Cohn says, since they're starting fresh with new budgets. Schawbel suggests thinking beyond traditional classes.

"Soft skills such as reading, writing and presentation skills are increasingly important," he says. "If you aren't a good communicator, then you have a lot of work cut out for you this year."

Look to deepen your knowledge by using top bogs, video channels and tapping other resources on the Web. "If you do that, you might not even need to take a class again," Schawbel says. "You should learn every single day because the world is changing too fast to wait for the next class to open up."

Finally, think about freshening up your networking skills. The timeless skill is essential, particularly now. Reach out to colleagues and former colleagues to build relationships with those around you. If you haven't already, get familiar with social media networks, such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Position yourself for the career you would like to have and incorporate social media into your daily life to reinforce your brand to yourself and connect with others.

"Be the real you," Schawbel says. "Everyone else is taken and replicas don't sell for as much."

- Written By Melanie Wanzek