If you are the CEO of your own career, then you can’t afford to overlook important self-advocacy practices that help you gain control over your professional success. Here are 10 critical steps to assert your influence over the shape of your professional future.

1. Have a clear vision about your future. Without a goal in mind, your career is like driftwood in the ocean, going where the winds and currents take you. Develop goals that align with the company’s goals. In developing your goals, assess what you’re good at and what you enjoy.
2. Build up your skills and experience. Seek out people and resources that can help advance your experience and knowledge, improve your skill set, and regularly provide you feedback.
3. Know your worth. Always tie your contributions to business results. Be specific, and don’t assume others see them. Back it up with data. Don’t be afraid of noting group contributions and giving credit where credit is due; it’s a quality highly appreciated by managers.
4. Spend more time listening than talking. Talk when you have something meaningful and relevant to contribute. Don’t speak just to hear yourself.
5. Work with your manager to find ways to increase your value. Volunteer for assignments that increase your value and recognition.
6. Build your network by forming relationships across the organization and within your industry. Get involved in industry group work. Find allies within the company that can help you.
7. When discussing career growth with your manager, be sure to set a timeframe for actions. This may include a promotion or recommendation to a selective professional education opportunity.  Make sure the timeline is agreed to by your manager.
8. Project self-confidence. That’s not always easy, but you can build self-confidence through positive affirmations, visualizing success, getting out of your comfort zone, listing out your strengths and wearing nicer clothes.
9. Keep all your interactions professional. Never allow your emotions to get the better of you in your everyday work or in career- or performance-related discussions.
10. Pick a corporate environment where you can excel. For instance, do you do your best work in the fast-paced chaos of a start-up or prefer the more consistent and stable environment of an established company? Do you prefer the companionship and cooperation of a smaller company or the less intimate setting of a big company?

The important aspect to this is to work for a growing company in a growing industry. Individual success is exceedingly more difficult when working for a mediocre employer or in a shrinking industry.

The journey to professional success, however you define it, is never a straight line, so don’t become discouraged by periods of stagnation or even a setback or two. The key is to never stop trying.

Please reference disclosures at: https://blog.americanportfolios.com/disclosures/