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Career Strategy for Career Advancement

Career Strategy and Leadership Development: Why They Go Hand in Hand

The transition from individual company contributor to manager, manager to director, director to vice president, or further up the chain from executive to C-Suite, requires a different way of thinking.

And that's not something that happens automatically with experience.

Moving into an advanced career level requires more than being good at your job. It requires understanding where you want your career to go and what it takes to get there.

People spend years developing their expertise, managing responsibilities, solving problems, and becoming valuable members of their organizations. But there comes a point when doing your job well isn't necessarily enough to move your career forward.

That's where career strategy and leadership development begin to overlap.

Being Good at Your Job and Being Ready to Lead Are Two Different Things

A highly skilled individual may have tremendous technical knowledge, excellent problem-solving abilities, and a history of strong performance.

But career levels where you now lead people and teams bring additional responsibilities.

Leaders are expected to make decisions, manage people, develop strategies, resolve conflicts, allocate resources, and take responsibility for results that extend beyond their individual contributions.

Career Strategy Helps Identify the Next Step

Before pursuing a one of these more advanced opportunities, you need to evaluate where you currently stand.

What have you accomplished and achieved? What are your current responsibilities? Have you already begun to lead without the title?

Just as importantly, what additional experience or capabilities would you need?

Career strategy looks at your whole picture, while connecting the dots to a more realistic job direction.

Development as a Leader Is an Ongoing Process

It’s not just about getting a promotion.

A new manager needs to learn how to delegate effectively, director has to learn how to strengthen financial or operational decision-making. An executive has to adopt a mindset of wide understanding of organizational strategy.

Bringing the Two Together

Career strategy identifies where a you wants to go next. Your development as a leader builds the capabilities needed to get there.

Instead of waiting for the next promotion or hoping an employer recognizes your potential, let’s take the time to evaluate your readiness, identify development opportunities, and take an active role to shape your career for the next level.

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Maureen McCullough is a veteran resume writer with over 25 years experience in the field, serving clients nationwide. With a deep understanding of hiring, job searching, nationwide job markets and candidate needs - she offers resume writing for all levels from entry level to executive and C-Suite.

In addition, she offers candidate value proposition services which improve what candidates bring to the table. These include career strategy, career transition, career development, executive coaching and consulting, interview preparation and LinkedIn profile optimization.

She is the creator of the exclusive FAR → Foundation → Accomplish → Rebrand™ executive career strategy framework which gives executive clients our best possible flagship service for their career advancement.

She is also the creator of the Resume Job Match Review, a sophisticated yet extremely practical structured analytical framework based on her own proprietary software which compares your résumé against job descriptions you wish to apply for, helping you cut down on mismatches.

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