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Developing Your HR Career Plan – Building Your Roadmap

Properly managing your HR career development is a critical component to being successful in your organisation as well as in finding fulfillment in your work life. While you won’t be able to control everything that happens in your career, such as the effects of corporate restructuring or personnel movements, having a roadmap that will provide you with a sense of direction and confidence will help you to stay focused and better see new opportunities to advance your career when they arise. Developing that roadmap will likely require some internal searching and external dialogue with colleagues, mentors and/or coach to ensure you are being realistic and on the right path. Regardless of what stage you are at in your career, there are some key points to cover to ensure you are adequately prepared to manage your development.

Assess Yourself

Self-assessment is a critical component to ensure you are heading down the right path — that you’ve identified the right ‘Destination’ — and should be the first step you make. It should involve reflecting on your values and what holds real meaning for you, assessing your own strengths and weaknesses, discussing your thoughts with unbiased HR peers or contacts who you can trust (e.g. colleagues, coach, etc.). Personality assessments such as Facet 5 or Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) are also very helpful by providing a base to start from and some indication of how fulfilling/satisfying you will find certain paths in your career.

Know Your Destination

After you have a better picture of your values, strengths and personality, you should start to visualize where you want to be and gain a deeper understanding of what is involved in the HR role. You can start by identifying the top two or three potentials and start to mentally ‘paint’ yourself in those HR positions; visualise what your daily activity will consist of, who you will be interacting with, and ultimately what you will be contributing to the organisation. You can do that over a 5 or even 10 year period, to make sure you can see yourself in such a position down the line.

Creating this picture may require you to do some research on what is involved in the role. You can do this by speaking with a mentor or other HR professionals currently in those positions, by reading industry magazines that highlight some of those types of positions, or by speaking with executive search consultants. For professionals in a similar role, you’ll want to understand some of their background and what they felt was required for the position, as well as any personality traits that are shared amongst them. You’ll also want to get a sense of what they like and dislike about their current position.

While the obvious focus is to look into your current industry, many opportunities may exist for you to contribute in your desired role in a different industry. Speaking with an HR-focused executive search consultant may be the best avenue to finding out more about these alternative options to consider.

Learn What it Takes to Get There

Now that you’ve taken a clear look at yourself and the place you want to get to, the question to answer is how to get there. Doing that also requires some research which might include holding conversations with key people, such as mentors, a coach and even your boss, that can help you identify the proper steps to get you from A to…H, S and ultimately Z. Your objective would be to lay out specific steps, strategies you need to employ, to ensure that you are doing the right things and anticipating opportunities properly, given the firm, your industry and, of course, you.

You can set this out on paper or in your computer — but at least somewhere for you to be able to review periodically — each week or at least each month. Whether in the form of steps or rungs on a ladder, symbolism may help provide that inspiration and significant reminder of moving forward and upward in your HR career.

Stay Current on the Market

To ensure you are heading in the right direction and staying on the road when driving a car, you need to pay attention to the road and the changes in the current conditions. Same goes for your career — where attention to the road means keeping your finger on the pulse of the HR market. The most effective way might be to build a strong, authentic relationship with an HR-focused executive search consultant you respect and trust. You can also involve yourself by attending your local chamber of commerce meetings or even attend networking events held by your favourite neighbourhood search firm!

Plan for Contingencies and Shifts

Rarely does a strategy work out perfectly as planned so you need to stay a little flexible yet maintain your determination, by modifying your path when issues beyond your control get in the way. This is especially true with a career plan that spans across years and involves so many variables.

To stay as flexible as possible, you should try to look ahead and consider what potential pitfalls might come your way and get a sense of how best to handle them. What would be your best alternative? As an example, a recent HR contact had a well laid-out path at her firm, including a mentor who was grooming her to succeed him, until the firm was acquired and he was made redundant. Her best alternative became to look outside the current firm for HR opportunities, but she was not networked and didn’t know the HR market very well, so she spent longer than she would have liked in a less than-ideal situation.

Staying current with the marketplace will help you to reassess your current and future options and allow you to know what steps you will take. As you review the alternatives to your laid-out plan, you might even find a more promising HR opportunity that ultimately becomes your new focus.

Keep Yourself Accountable

Keeping yourself accountable means staying true to what you want and not letting inconvenience or minor obstacles obstruct your path. If you’ve made the effort to assess yourself, identified your ‘Destination’, and know how you want to get there, then don’t let that investment go to waste. Start a routine to build the HR network, reassess your goals and overall direction and stay current with the market. You can do this through developing positive relationships with mentors, the community, a coach and a trusted HR-focused search consultant.

Your goal is to feel confident about and keep you in the driver’s seat of your HR career path — following the above guidelines will help you maintain that confidence and control. To your HR career success!

Garrett Weiner is an ICF accredited coach and career consultant, helping HR Executives across Asia to move forward in their career and personal development with a balanced, authentic and results-driven approach.

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