We have already passed the half way mark for the year, and every quarter I review the previous goals that I set for myself in a work oriented fashion, and set new ones for the next quarter. This post is meant as a starting point for anyone who may be newer to thinking about progressing their career in a more concise manner.
My previous Time Management post has the points that I am going to discuss laid out in an Excel format, so if you find this method useful and would like to dive right into it, feel free to download the document and use it to suit your own needs. The main points involve decision making and planning, i.e. how do I make decisions and once I’ve made a decision, how do I commit to accomplishing the goal? The sections below provide a breakdown of the questions that I ask myself before committing to any new goals or responsibilities.
New Responsibilities: If I’m considering taking on new responsibilities, I first ask myself “What are the pros and cons of the new responsibility?”, and I base it off of the following points:
- What am I worried about?
- What are the benefits of taking on a new responsibility? Both for myself and the business
- Does it come with any conditions or are there any unreasonable expectations from your boss?
- Where can I add value?
- Where do I see this in the medium/long term?
Decision-Making Process: When trying to make a decision or set a goal I find it useful to use the following approach:
- Identify the problem
- Collect information
- Identify Alternatives
- Weigh the evidence
- Choose from alternatives
- Implement the decision
Planning Process: Finally, one I have decided to take on a new responsibility or commit to a new goal, I start planning. During planning, I set a timeline – “Do X by this period, do Y by this period”, and I accomplish this by answering the following:
- Determine your objectives (what you want to achieve).
- Establish a baseline (what your current impact is).
- Set targets (where you want to get to).
- Brainstorm actions (to get you there).
- Make a plan (who, what, where and when).
- Put your plan into action.
- Check your progress and adjust actions (if needed) to achieve your target (quarterly / weekly reviews),
- Take any lessons on board for future planning and celebrate success!
Top tip: Don’t try to do everything. Pick achievable and deliverable actions; save the rest for review cycle!
Example of Setting a New Goal
Most companies will ask their employees to set goals for the next year. While this is useful in tracking employee performance, I find that having a year between check-ins does not always work, and I personally prefer setting attainable goals for myself in shorter intervals. This ensures that I hold myself accountable throughout the year and it also helps me stop procrastinating for too long. As an example, my goal for this year was to skill up in Cloud penetration testing - this goal in itself seems good, but it doesn’t really show the steps that would help me get there.
Using the Planning Process above, suddenly my goal becomes a lot more strategic. I want to skill up in Cloud and I think this goal will take me a year. In order to accomplish this, I need to gain a fundamental understanding of the basics and the steps that I can take are as follows:
- Focus on a single cloud platform at a time, in my case I’m going to first attempt to skill up in AWS then Azure.
- Obtain the AWS Cloud Practitioner Certification in Quarter 1 of 2021.
- Obtain the AWS Solutions Architect Associate Certification in Quarter 2 of 2021.
- Obtain the Azure Practitioner Certification in Quarter 3 of 2021.
- Obtain the Azure Security Certification in Quarter 4 of 2021.
In order to obtain these certifications, I would need to set aside an hour per day in order to go over the content until the course has been completed and I can write the examination. I think that doing a single certification per quarter is reasonable and then after a year, I would have a solid understanding of two of the major cloud platforms in use across a large number of organisations, globally.
Final Thoughts
After I have ironed out the concerns that I had for any given scenario, I ask myself the following before making the commitment:
- Immediate: Will this have a negative impact on short term progression?
- Down the line what does this mean? Does it help me work towards previously identified goals? Will this be detrimental to my success / progression or will it help me advance?
- My thoughts? What do I think about this from a personal point of view - is it something that I actually want to do?
I hope this helps someone, even if it just helps you come to terms with organisation tactics that do or don’t work in your own situation.