Goal setting is a powerful tool to help you find a career that you will find interesting and fulfilling.
Before setting specific goals for your career, whether for finding a new job or advancing in your current company, you should spend some time to ensure that you are clear about what you really want in your career. This is a critical component of executive coaching.

This article provides some simple ideas and practices you can use to get clear about the career you want. Then, you can use goal setting to help you get there.



Getting Clear on Your Career Goals
1. Discover your purpose

The first step to gain clarity about what you want your career to be is to think about your life purpose.

Why are you here? What do you want your life to be like?

Remember that you will be spending a good portion of your life at work.

One of the best ways to achieve fulfillment and satisfaction is to ensure that your career choices reflect your true purpose in life.

2. Consider your talents, interests, and passions

Start by making a list of all your talents, skills, and abilities. Include all the things that you are good at, or that come easily to you.

In addition, think about any specialized knowledge that you poses. Do you hold a degree in a certain are? Are you an expert on a particular topic or field?

3. Identify your driving values

Your driving values determine the aspects of a job or career that provide the most motivation and fulfillment.

Understanding your driving values can help you make the best career and work choices based on what is right for you.



Here are some of the common driving values:

Income - Making money
Power - Ability to take action (start something, make something happen)
Influence - Ability to influence or direct others
Variety - Work on a variety of different things, use different knowledge & skills
Lifestyle - Free time to pursue interests
Autonomy - Make own decisions, choices, direction
Intellectual Challenge - Solve problems, complexity, thinking
Altruism - Do something that will benefit others
Security - Financial responsibilities/taken care of
Recognition - Being recognized by others for your work
Affiliation - Working with others, networking, groups, social
Leadership - Ability to lead/guide others, mentorship
Achievement - Accomplishing something significant
Mastery - Becoming very good at something
Growth - Opportunity to develop talents, abilities, knowledge
Advancement - Opportunity to advance in career
Responsibility - Being responsible for an outcome
Environment - Having a pleasant & comfortable environment
Status - Personal status (title), prestige of firm, etc.
Contribution - Contributing to something bigger than yourself
Freedom - Freedom to do what you want, when you want
Fulfillment - Work that you find rewarding
Identify the top 10 values that you consider to be most important in choosing the best job or career. Then rank them from 1 to 10.

Use this list to help you make future decisions about your career so that they are based on what is most important for you.

Strategic Career Plan
A strategic career plan is a document that combines all the elements we've described here.

It includes:

Your purpose statement
Your vision for the next 3-5 years
Your values
Your guiding principles
More information about developing your strategic career plan will be available soon.