HBR Guides to Managing Your Career Collection (6 Books)

CHAPTER 3

Think Strategically About Your Career Development

by Dorie Clark

Your boss or HR leadership simply doesn’t have the time or bandwidth to properly think through how best to deploy your talents amid countless emails and meetings. Instead, we have to take control of our career planning to ensure we’re positioning ourselves for long-term growth.

Here are four ways to become more strategic about the process.

Force yourself to set aside time

When things get busy, time for strategic thinking is almost always the first to go. “Planning sessions” seem amorphous, and the ROI is uncertain. But going for months or years without regular introspection can lead you down a professional path you didn’t intend to be on. Instead, force yourself to make ...