Many Aussie professionals believe they need to spend around an hour a day on advancing their career, but a global personal branding expert begs to differ, advising career management should take up less than 10 minutes per day.
According to a global LinkedIn survey, 66 percent of working Australians spend an average of more than 30 minutes per day on strategies to help them climb the corporate ladder.
But, according to personal branding expert Willian Arruda professionals looking to maintain a healthy and successful career need only to spend nine minutes per day, 45 minutes per week in total, on this.
“Fitting nine minutes of career management into your daily schedule is all it takes without adding stress or pressure,” he said.
“It also gives you complete focus, and educators to psychologists agree that the ability to focus one’s attention on a task is crucial for the achievement of one’s goals.”
He added that professionals should think outside the box and network outside the boardroom, advising that people must take advantage of todays digital world.
“Relationships require care and so building and maintaining them is a major component of successful career management. These days, we live in a highly connected and technology driven world, so building your online network on LinkedIn, is a critical career management skill,” Arruda said.
Career coach and Nourish Coaching director Sally-Anne Blanshard agrees.
“Career management should be a continuous journey, particularly as the work place and the way business is conducted are evolving. The good news is that it only takes allocating a small amount of time each day into their daily routine,” she said
Here are the career management activities the experts suggest employees spend nine minutes per day on:
1. Build your network – building and maintaining relationships are a major component of a successful career.
2. Maintain relationships by recommending and congratulating others in their careers – everyone enjoys being recognised and LinkedIn provides an easy way to do this.
3. Request recommendations from your network as credibility is critical.
4. Document achievements and wins on your LinkedIn profile to stay current and relevant.
5. Update your status every day and make sure your profile and photo is current.
6. Expand on your thought leadership; lead a forum or LinkedIn group; publish an article; start a blog; speak publicly or recommend books on the Amazon LinkedIn app.
7. Use the power of video and create a video bio of yourself for your LinkedIn profile.
8. Source staff – one of a manager’s hardest jobs. If you build your brand community, you’ll create fans who want to work for you.
9. Research – Make an effort to get to know more about your clients or partners and competitors. LinkedIn is a great place to start.
