68 | How To Identify Your Career Goals And Share Them With Others
Mar 14, 2022Season 4Episode 67
Welcome to Season Four! This season we are going to focus on opportunity. How to have the confidence when opportunity comes along, having the skills to seize it, plan for it and best of all, get the most out of it! Every episode has specific and actionable tools and advice.
We also have some amazing guests this season who all have similar stories of finding the opportunity when really they wanted to dive deeper into their current path or exploring a new career path. It's amazing the journey these folks take and I'm honored they share it with us.
In this episode, we will focus on creating strong goals that you can achieve and be excited about. It’s easy to say you are going to do something but if you don’t really understand WHY you want to do something, what that goal ACTUALLY should look like and HOW you are going to get there so you won't be stuck every time. So today we focus on making you sure you are setting the right goals and have a plan to achieve them!
You’ll specifically how to:
Identify your goals
Create tangible goals
Identify real and perceived blocks to work through
Share your goals with others to help both achieve them and create accountability
I’m Karen Weeks, the CEO & Chief Shine Officer (aka transformation coach) at KDW Coaching, the host of the Shine at Work podcast, award winning culture leader (currently leading the People team at Ordergroove), a speaker and published author. My purpose is to help career-oriented humans get unstuck so they can shine bright in business and in life. And I know how that feels, I navigated a career from theatre & the arts to HR (with lots of twists and turns there) to expanding my career into coaching as well. I live in NYC with my husband and furry babies!
Welcome to the Shine at Work Podcast! On this show, your co-hosts Karen and Dan will shine a light on your job search so you can land a role that lets you flex your strengths and progress your career in an environment you actually look forward to working in each day. From creating a stand-out resume, to confidently negotiating your salary, to finding your footing as a new manager, you can expect to hear actionable advice to help you shine your brightest in your role.
Karen D. Weeks is the CEO and Chief Career Coach of Shine at Work Coaching. She has over twenty years of HR experience, including as CPO at Ordergroove.
Dan Carr is a Shine at Work Career Coach with over a decade of recruiting experience helping high-growth startups expand with top talent.
Welcome to Season Four! This season we are going to focus on opportunity. How to have the confidence when opportunity comes along, having the skills to seize it, plan for it and best of all, get the most out of it! Every episode has specific and actionable tools and advice.
We also have some amazing guests this season who all have similar stories of finding the opportunity when really they wanted to dive deeper into their current path or exploring a new career path. It's amazing the journey these folks take and I'm honored they share it with us.
In this episode, we will focus on creating strong goals that you can achieve and be excited about. It’s easy to say you are going to do something but if you don’t really understand WHY you want to do something, what that goal ACTUALLY should look like and HOW you are going to get there so you won't be stuck every time. So today we focus on making you sure you are setting the right goals and have a plan to achieve them!
You’ll specifically how to:
Identify your goals
Create tangible goals
Identify real and perceived blocks to work through
Share your goals with others to help both achieve them and create accountability
I’m Karen Weeks, the CEO & Chief Shine Officer (aka transformation coach) at KDW Coaching, the host of the Shine at Work podcast, award winning culture leader (currently leading the People team at Ordergroove), a speaker and published author. My purpose is to help career-oriented humans get unstuck so they can shine bright in business and in life. And I know how that feels, I navigated a career from theatre & the arts to HR (with lots of twists and turns there) to expanding my career into coaching as well. I live in NYC with my husband and furry babies!
Welcome to the Shine at Work Podcast! On this show, your co-hosts Karen and Dan will shine a light on your job search so you can land a role that lets you flex your strengths and progress your career in an environment you actually look forward to working in each day. From creating a stand-out resume, to confidently negotiating your salary, to finding your footing as a new manager, you can expect to hear actionable advice to help you shine your brightest in your role.
Karen D. Weeks is the CEO and Chief Career Coach of Shine at Work Coaching. She has over twenty years of HR experience, including as CPO at Ordergroove.
Dan Carr is a Shine at Work Career Coach with over a decade of recruiting experience helping high-growth startups expand with top talent.
Hello my friends welcome to the shine at work podcast. I'm your host Karen weeks. As a transformation career coach and culture and people leader. My goal is to help career oriented humans get unstuck, so that they can shine brighter in business and in life. I believe that you deserve a career that lights you up. Because spoiler alert, it also impacts how bright you shine in your life. This season. Each week, we will focus on a key skill that you need to shine at work, and inspirational stories on ways to navigate your career. Because I know what it feels like when your light is dim. I made a career change from theater to HR, and now expanded to coaching. And at times in my life, I had to take a look deep inside to see what was most important, what made me shine bright, and make adjustments along the way. It's possible. I did it, my guest did it, and I help others do it every day. I hope you walk away from each episode not just inspired, but with some actionable advice. And I hope that you find it so valuable that you subscribe to the podcast, leave a review and tell your friends because we all deserve to shine bright in our lives, specifically at work. Okay, let's jump in into this week's episode. Before we start today's episode, let me ask you a question. How are those New Year's resolutions going? If you're like me, and lots of other people, I know by the way, you start the year off strong in January with a great plan to hit your goals. You hire the trainer, you sign up for the class, you start journaling, you get up early bookmark some job sites, all of the things that we think are going to take us to that place we want to be in the new year, then life starts to get in the way is slip a little you get distracted, you miss one week, then you really start to miss some of those goals and you don't see the impact you wanted. And your motivation drops and drops and drops, which is natural, you're not seeing the impact because you aren't taking the steps to get there. I've been there. I've been there this year. And like I said, we are not alone. According to a psychological study, 64% of people abandon their resolutions after just one month. Personally, I have not gotten on the peloton as much as I wanted to. It's not because I don't want to I love doing it. But something isn't clicking, I've got a blocker, and I can't figure out what that is. So I actually work with my own wellness coach to figure out what is blocking me from hitting that goal. So you can do the same, you can also be part of that 36% That actually hit their goals. And I can be that person to help you. I work with people one on one to help them get unstuck and shine bright in their career in life. My unstuck framework helps people specifically unshackle yourself from your current mindset, I let go the past and remove labels. Nail your new career target, identify where you want to go next, slay your skills. In other words, identifying your transferable skills. Talk to everyone. This is just networking one on one stuff that will go through so that you feel more comfortable reaching out to people, then we're going to unlock your new brand. So how do we position yourself through your resume through LinkedIn through telling your story for the thing that you're trying to achieve? Then you're going to crush your interviews, which is just a bunch of prep practice, and working through what kind of questions you might get and how to talk through some of the gaps that you might have. So that you can kick butt in your career, you're going to land the gig and set yourself up for success. So do you want to get unstuck sound like something that you might need a little help with. That's why I'm here. And the amazing thing is that it's not just about your career, it's actually about living the life that you want to live that's right for you in this moment. That's what this is all about. That by working together, you'll gain the tools that you need the support, you need the confidence, you need to identify the right career path, and land a new job to shine bright both at work and in life. So if all this sounds good, and you're sitting there going, oh my gosh, I don't want to be part of the two thirds that doesn't hit their goals so soon in their career. You can email me directly at Karen at Karen de weeks.com. Or use any of the links in the podcast to connect with me through my website, on my Instagram or through LinkedIn. Let's connect to help you achieve your goals this year and shine at work. Now onto our regularly scheduled programming. Hi, everyone, I am so excited to kick off our new season with a one on one episode just me talking directly to you focusing on goals. So this is why this is so important is in order to achieve what we want to achieve. We have to know where we're headed. We have to understand why it's important. We need to figure out who we're going to talk to who can help us with our goals. So yes, we can say we want to be healthier. But what does that actually mean? We can say yes we want a new job but we need to understand why because other We'll just be looking for another new job after that. So I know sometimes goals can be overwhelming, you hear things like smart goals, which is specific and measurable and timely, etc, etc. You may hear other acronyms, but really, it's about identifying some clear objectives that you have, the outcome you're trying to drive and how you're going to get there. Because once you know where you're trying to go, then you can create a path. And by the way, that path can adjust as you go. Literally, think about GPS, if you plug in an address, because you know where you want to go, that's your goal. As you are driving or as you're walking or whatever, it may adjust, because there is traffic, there is construction, there's an alternate route that doesn't take tolls, whatever the thing is, but the idea is that you can adjust along the way and still get to your goal. So that's what we're going to be talking about today, all about identifying your career goals, and then how you can actually achieve them by sharing them with others. So let's break down how you actually get to your goals. And by the way, I have a couple of worksheets that I use with my clients on goal setting, both for our time together, and you know, what they want to achieve while working with me, but also for their broader career and their life. And I'm willing to share with you if you want to DM me through any of the platforms that we're connected, or if we haven't connected, reach out to me on my website, and we can chat more. And those are the basis of what I'm talking about today. So that's sort of where this is grounded. Okay, so goal setting, how do you even identify what your goals are? This is going to be a lot of questions for you. So stick with me. It's okay, if it feels like 20 questions, because it's from these questions, that ideas will come. And you'll start to get some answers and actions. So this first section is all about the why and the what. So first, let's take a step back. What does success even look like for you? Let's talk about success in life first. So what is missing for you in your life today? Maybe your overall life is feeling good. And you know, it's about your career. But during one of my workshops, I literally had one of my participants say I thought I was coming in here to figure out my career. And I actually have other things in my life, I need to figure out too. So whether it's your full life or areas of your life, or it's about your career, what's working for you today, and what's missing, because it's in that missing part, where you're going to find your goals of what you want to achieve, most likely, sometimes it is this is going really well. And I want to double down and I want to do more of it. But we're gonna assume it's about something that's missing something that lives in that gap. So some things that often come up that I talked with folks are, is maybe you need more flexibility in your schedule? Or do you need a deeper sense of community? Do you want to be more creative? Maybe you sort of feel like you're in a rut? Do you need more headspace or more boundaries in your life? Do you need to make more money? For whatever reason you're saving up? You're in debt, you're trying to just have a better financial health. So what's missing in your life? First, like I said, often those are some of the categories that tend to come up when I'm meeting with folks. But it could be anything that's important to you, then where can your career help you fill those gaps? So let's kind of use those examples that I just talked through about what that might look like. So if you needed more flexibility, you may think do I need to have more flexible hours, like right now I have to check in at nine and I check out at five, but maybe I need to have more flexible hours. So I can work a little earlier or step away, if I need to, maybe I want to work remote, maybe my company has brought us back to the office or the work that I do has to be in person. And that no longer works for me. Maybe you literally need to change your hours. So it's less about flexibility and more about I need to start earlier or later. Maybe you want to go part time, maybe life has changed for you enough over the last few years that actually part time work or freelance work or something like that gives you the flexibility that you need. Again, these are just all examples of things that I talked to my clients about how I've personally felt about things in my own life, to help kind of spark the juices for you. So another category I mentioned is maybe you need a deeper sense of community. I've heard about this a lot, especially after some of the worst times of the pandemic and people felt really isolated. So again, sort of flipping that into the workspace. Do you want more team projects? Maybe you feel really siloed? In the work that you do? Do you want to go into an office now and then and actually interact with physical humans versus on Zoom calls? Do you need more social activities at work, even if they are virtual? Maybe you want to set up some more one on one meetings with key people in your organization? Maybe you even want to mentor someone? What are some ways you could get a deeper sense of community in your work if that's what's important for you. If you want to be more creative? Can you take on new tasks, create some documentation or training sort of share the knowledge that you have? Maybe you could be your team's liaison for a new initiative. work, or help build something new, even if it's not work related or you're happy with your work, and you just need creativity elsewhere, maybe you could think about a new hobby. I recently talked to someone who realized that their sort of nine to five life as long as they felt engaged with the work they were doing, they didn't need to be inspired by it. And they were going to be inspired by some volunteer work outside of work. If you need more boundaries, can you turn off your phone, turn off notifications? Make sure you're working with your managers about your hours? And what's expected in those quote unquote, off hours? Do you need to work for a company that's quote unquote, more stable if you're with a startup? Because in theory, maybe that's not as much around the clock or on call? Do you need to ask to hire someone with your workload, maybe you just have too much and you have no boundaries, because you can't stop because there's no one else to do the work. One thing I encourage you to do is when you talk to your manager, what can you recommend to help to get you more boundaries? A lot of the conversation we're having today is yes, this may be your goal. Yes, this may be the thing that's missing for you. But you have to talk to people and come with some recommendations or suggestions. Okay, rounding out the couple of things that might be missing in your broader life and how your career could help you if you need more money. First, let's ask why. Often, when I hear people talk about, the salary just isn't there, I need more compensation. They're not talking a couple of $1,000, or a couple $100, depending on sort of where you are in your life. It's because they feel undervalued, under market or the gap is big enough, that they really feel like they are not paid what they're worth. So that might be part of your why. Or as I mentioned earlier, maybe you're trying to achieve a Money Goal personally, or maybe your compensation structure isn't right, you have a bonus, but you're not motivated by a bonus, or you're not motivated by the other perks that are offered today. So what would motivate you further from a compensation benefits perks standpoint? How do you even talk about compensation at your company? Do you know where you fall within a comp range? Do you know what level you're at? Is there a calendar of when they do annual increases? And where are you in that cycle? Are you looking for an internal job change or promotion? What's driving your need for more money. And by the way, in today's job market that could be you just heard a really big number from a recruiter who called you and said, Hey, I'm hiring for such and such, you can make X dollars. And that's a lot more than you make today. So now you're wondering, could you get that at your current company, maybe you're really happy, but you can't get that number out of your head. So if you're looking for more money in your life, figure out the why. And then we can help figure out how you can achieve that goal. So what else from that sort of initial list might be missing for you? In my life, for example, in 2022, a couple of these things actually overlap for one of my biggest goals, my mental and physical health took a toll over the last year. So the thing that was missing for me was the space for health activities. Making sure I ate a good lunch met with my trainer actually breezed throughout the day. And other activities, I'm still trying to figure out. So I needed the flexibility to protect that time for my health. But obviously, I needed to talk to my manager about that I had to move things around on my calendar protect that time. So for example, now I make sure I log off at a decent time at the end of the day. So I can take a really short walk even just 10 minutes to recreate my commute, so that I can really make that transition from work to home, even though it's all in the same four walls. And I need to create some boundaries, I put my phone in my bag during dinner and on the weekend so that I'm not distracted by it. That was what was missing for me. And now is some areas that I want to make a difference with. And that's how I had to adjust my work to fit there. But what's missing for you? Okay, that was a bunch all up front, I asked you a ton of questions and asked you to do a lot of reflection. So let's take a breath. Literally take a breath. Clear your head. Okay. So isn't it amazing how refreshing a deep breath can be? Let's actually do that again. Okay, so what did you identify as the gaps that you want to fill this year? What is the different future look like? What does success look like? If you need to create boundaries? What does that look like? Literally? What does that look like? You need to put your phone away you need to do this, you need to do that. I am not distracted by that. It's a world where this doesn't happen. That's the goal of setting goals. Ironically, what does change look like? Then you take that change in turn it into something you can achieve? And it doesn't have to be huge, right? Maybe it's just literally my screen time is down by 10%. It could be that simple. It doesn't have to be these huge, audacious goals that sometimes you hear about and actually starting with those smaller things make a big difference. And we're going to talk about that at the end how you know you're trending to actually achieve your goals. So while my goal is not career related, specifically, though, obviously, my health and wellness has a huge impact on my career or my ability to perform and even career choices and how I designed my day to day job. I'm going to keep using it as an example. So you can see a tangible example of what this looks like. So my goal, have more time for health and wellness had to be more tangible. So I then turned it into, my goal is to focus on my health. So I have more energy, focus, make healthier food choices, and be more present in my life by the summer, so that I can enjoy the good weather and be outdoors in the nice weather as a run on sentence. The reason why I actually didn't make it prettier is because I want you to know, it's okay if your goal is a little messy. But there are things in there that are specific, I talked about the different areas of my health and wellness, I talked about the why I make it relatable, I make it time sensitive by having it be by the summer, I make it actionable making healthier food choices. So I wanted to sort of use that even though it's a gross run on sentence, it actually does check a lot of the boxes. And that's okay. I think, again, people get so obsessed about like, is the goal written? Right? And that's not the point. If it's tangible, and actionable, and achievable. Those are the things that matter. So now let's talk about how we actually make all that happen. What do you need to be doing differently than what you're doing today? Are there people you need to talk to you to help you fill these gaps? What are some of the baby steps you can take? Remember, habits are formed over time. And actually, we're going to talk about that more in a future episode, I'm so excited to have a habit coach join us, you aren't going to go from zero push ups to 25 Push Ups a day, you aren't going to go from total dissatisfaction at your job to a brand new career in like 15 days, you have to build it. And you have to figure out all the details along the way. And you're going to try something, it's not going to exactly work. So you're going to adjust and try again. So for example, in order to hit my health goal, I had to talk to my partner about our meals and food. I had to talk to my manager about carving out time for more movement during the day, I had to find the money to buy a standing desk, I had to decide to hire a personal trainer or go to a group class. I organize my day and my week for thinking in work time, not just meeting after meeting after meeting. So what do you need to change in order to make this work? What do you need to change in order to set you up to achieve your goal? And with that, what are the blockers that will keep you from achieving those goals? Both actual blockers? I don't have a personal trainer right now. So I had to find one and perceived blockers. I'm so busy in my day that I won't have the time. And then what are you going to do to remove those blockers? Do you need an accountability buddy to help you stay motivated? Do you need visuals to help you stay focused, like posted on your mirror? Or a vision board? Or a checklist every day? What do you need to actually help you remove those bunkers and stay accountable? So I mentioned earlier one goal setting framework that I really like because it helps you see if you're trending in the right direction. It's called OKRs, which stands for objective and key results. It's actually something a lot of companies use, especially tech companies to help with their business priorities. It's something Google started. Of course, if Google does it, everybody gets excited about it. But I actually really personally like it as well. So again, you don't have to use this framework. It's just something that works for me. So first of all, what is your key objective? You want it to be a little bit of a stretch? What do you want to achieve? For example, I'm in a job that energizes me a job that leverages X skill significantly more, I have more energy and focus. What is your key objective? What's the thing that you're trying to achieve? That's your Oh, in the OKR? And then what are some key results that will let you know that you got there, I applied to 10 jobs. I created a development map for my career. I took this class to improve my skills, I connected with 20 people in the new industry that I'm trying to target. I hired a coach. My goal is to have four walks every week. So whatever the different things are to show that if I hit these k Rs, the key results, all know that that will help get me to my objective. If my objective is I want to be in a job that energizes me. Some of those key results are I applied to 10 jobs. I updated my resume. I connected with 20 people in the industry I'm targeting that if I've done those that will help me achieve my objective of being in a job that energizes me. And then each week track how you're doing against those goals. What When did you have what blocker do you need to remove? What things do you need to do this week to help keep making progress? I applied to 15 jobs. Whoo. I got two interviews. I only found eight people to connect with. Why did you only hit those eight. Do you Need to expand your search? Do you need to ask for some introductions, those are some ways that you could help set your goals up as OKRs. Again, use a format that's good for you. Use a spreadsheet, use a Trello board, use a whiteboard, use a vision board, do whatever works for you. Those are just a couple of tips that might help bring it to life a little bit. The final way to bring it to life is to socialize your goals, host them somewhere, talk to your family and friends, talk to your boss or people in your network, I realized that might be a little sensitive. Because if you're looking to change jobs, maybe talking to your boss about that might be a little tricky. But my point is talk to people put it out into the universe, not to get a little woowoo. But it works. manifesting your goals is part of achieving them, you can actually open yourself up to new possibilities, because you've put it out there. And also you're just literally talking about it. You never know who might be able to help you. You may mention it to a neighbor, and they might know someone at a company you're interested in. Or you might mention it to a friend at a dinner party and their cousin does the work that you're considering. Or they just changed jobs internally and can share their advice on how they navigated their organization. That's actually how I met my own coach, a mutual friend connected us. I wasn't looking, I just knew I wanted to turn this opportunistic freelance coaching thing into something a little more. And boom, a year later, here we are, I have my whole my side gig. As a coach, I have clients, I am so proud of the results I've gotten. And that's all because I was introduced to that coach and I didn't even know I wanted a coach yet. So talk to people. Alrighty, how are you feeling? I know that was a lot. I told you this season is going to be chock full of actionable tools and tips and advice. That's always been my goal. But especially this year, every episode is going to have a very specific skill, or tip or focus to the episode as well as hopefully inspiring you. So we jumped right into the deep end, and I gave it to you in the first episode. I hope it was helpful. So let's recap. So you can be on your way to achieving amazing things this year with your goals. And by talking to people about them. First, identify what you want to change and why. Next, identify how you're going to fill those gaps. So that change actually happens, then figure out what are the perceived and real blockers that you need to work through. And then either figure out how you're going to work through them? Or how you're going to let them go. If they're perceived. How are you going to put them to the side so that you can keep moving forward? What does success look like? What is going to get you excited? My coach always says it's December 31 of 2022. What are we celebrating? And how are you going to measure and adjust progress against those goals? And finally, who are you going to tell about your goals? That's it. Simple, right? I know, it felt like a lot. As I mentioned, I have a worksheet that helps out. If you're interested DM me, and reference this podcast. I'm happy to share it with you. I'm also happy to do a free 30 minute chat with you to help you kick off your goals for this new year. I don't know if you've seen some of my posts recently. But two thirds of the population according to a survey, lose track of their goals and have already fallen off the wagon by February. Well, I'm recording this in February, my friends. And I want to make sure that you're part of the third of the population that doesn't lose traction so early on. So let me know how I can hope I really hope this episode was helpful. I hope all the leading reflecting questions really got your brain churning, and you wrote down a bunch of different ideas. The beauty of podcasts is you can go back into listen to it if you wanted to reflect to the first half and then hit pause and go back and finish it as you actually got some of those ideas in your head. Whatever is helpful, reach out to me. I am here to help you can and should shine your brightest this year both at work and in life. Thank you so much for listening to the shine at work podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode, please subscribe and leave a review. Leaving a review takes just a few minutes and truly helps other people find the podcast. If you want to learn more about how I work with people to help transform their careers, and shine brightly in their lives. Let's connect. I work with amazing humans one on one to help them make a career change, go for that promotion, set career goals and build a plan for success for a new job. I also lead group programs for new managers that are navigating this huge change in their careers and entrepreneurs who are building their teams for the first time. If any of that sounds like it could be helpful for you. You can email me directly at Karen Karen de weaks.com or message me through Instagram LinkedIn or my website. I just want to give a final shout out As always to astronaut go home for our music and novice studios for making the podcast come to life. Until next time, remember that you can and deserve to shine at work.