Sept. 4, 2018

Five tactics you can use to advance your career

These tools from Human Resources can do a lot to help you progress toward professional success

Fall means the beginning of a new academic year, but it can also mean a fresh approach to your career.

Fall means the beginning of a new academic year, but can also mean a fresh approach to your career Riley Brandt, University of Calgary

As we bid adieu to summer and welcome the beginning of a fresh academic year, many of us on campus are preparing for the year ahead. Take advantage of the exceptional resources available to University of Calgary employees and consider including these five tips from HR experts in your professional plans.

1. Understand yourself

What are your strengths, aspirations, limitations, and drivers? You’ll never know if you don’t ask. Take time for an honest look at where you’ve been and where you want to go with the Employee Guide to Self-Reflection. The guide is just one of the many useful tools offered through UNavigate — a program designed to help all employees explore their unique and individualized career growth at the university.

2. Start a career development conversation

When managers and employees share open dialogue about career development, everyone can benefit. Ask yourself or your employees some of these career-minded questions and discuss the answers at an upcoming one-on-one meeting:

What are some of the work projects you’re most proud of, and what do you think you might want to do next?
What are two to three new skills you’d like to learn on the job? What about those skills interests you?
What professional goals would you like to accomplish in the next six to 12 months, and what makes you say that?

Go the extra mile to get prepped for your next one-on-one and take a 30-minute Career Conversation eLearning course. Find it and others on the Connect to Perform site — follow the apple to Take the Training.

Connect to Perform is a people-focused approach to performance management.

3. Set meaningful goals

Commit goals, stretch goals, and development goals — do you know the difference? Goals serve the core work within your role, but they can also take you beyond the basic expectations of your job and carry you to the next level. Check out sample goals, take a goal eLearning course and more through the Connect to Perform site — follow the apple to Take the Training.

4. Up your one-on-one game

One-on-one conversations between employees and their managers are key to increasing clarity and satisfaction, building trust, and promoting growth — but finding the right formula for effective one-on-one meetings doesn’t always come easy.

Access resources to help make the most of your regular one-on-ones, including a meeting guide, a 20-minute course for managers and employees and sample questions that will spark any professional discussion. Visit Connect to Perform and follow the apple to Take the Training.

5. Learn something new

New skills and knowledge can inspire and enable you to take on new challenges. On top of the tremendous selection of free programs and workshops available through Training and Development and WellBeing and WorkLife, UCalgary employees can also access academic and continuing education courses through the Tuition Support program. Oh, and don’t forget the thousands of free instructional videos available to faculty and staff at lynda.com — check out the most popular Lynda.com courses of 2018.