How to Ensure Positive Career Growth

1. You are more powerful than you think you are.When the deck seems stacked against you, it is wise to remember that a spirit fragment of our Heavenly Father indwells your mind, and that little piece of God is your constant companion throughout eternity.He is constantly guided you to achieve the most magnificent destiny possible for you.There can be no reasonable fear in the mind of one who seeks to know, love, and be like God, for there is not power on or off our world that can effectively combat the noble desires of a human being who is in companionship with and following the will of God.No temporary setback can hamstring a person of unbending intent to pursue truth, beauty, and goodness.
   
   
2. An organization’s only memory is in its files. If it isn’t written, it didn’t happen and it isn’t true. The wise worker therefore keeps a written record of goals, accomplishments, and events (including words and deeds by political allies and enemies) that help or hurt both, and takes a copy home. Similarly, the wise worker ensures the organization’s permanent files contain evidences of positive things related to his career.
   
3. A wise worker continually solicits written and signed “success stories” from juniors and clients or patients, having them evaluate quality of leadership or quality of client care rendered by the worker and/or his juniors. This allows the worker to build an undeniable portfolio of accomplishments that can be used to corroborate the worker’s claims of accomplishments.
   
4. A wise worker periodically (at least monthly) aggressively informs his seniors of his skills and accomplishments, and makes sure that at least two levels above his immediate senior are aware of those skills and accomplishments. Failing to do this is the number one reason workers get fired. The only effective way to do this is in the form of a written commendation signed by one’s immediate senior, even when seniors only want to write evaluations once a year. Thus, the wise worker writes up his own truthful commendation, noting objectives achieved, expectations met and exceeded, related external achievements, papers and books authored and published, recognitions, awards, certificates, and honors received in and out of the organization, notable achievements of juniors and of the “team”, citations and letters of recommendation or appreciation by juniors and clients.
   
5. A wise worker always seeks to expand knowledge, ability, control, and responsibility, and to make such ambitions and skills clearly known to seniors who will be beneficially affected by such expansion. Together these equal personal power. Anyone who is threatened by or jealous of such expansion can become a political enemy. A wise worker will identify such persons and find ways either to convert them into allies or limit their power to obstruct the worker’s growth. Once the skills requisite to a job have been mastered, the wise worker always demands more responsibility and more money.
   
6. A wise worker is never afraid to quit a job. An organization bent on hamstringing a worker’s power expansion and unwilling to provide more money and more responsibility to accommodate the worker’s reasonable growth requirements does not deserve to have the worker in the organization. There are always additional organizations ready and willing to pay more money and give more responsibility to a powerful worker. Thus, the biggest pay raises usually result from quitting or getting fired.
   
7. A wise worker networks to create allies who will support him in political conflicts. Senior-level workers retain a personal Public Relations professional to build a positive and visible public image, both written and photographic. Senior workers ensure political enemies and allies are kept informed of all positive image building incidents (news articles, published works, speaking engagements, conference attendances, charitable activities, etc).
   
8. A wise worker is punctual and keeps himself cheerful, well-groomed, physically fit, properly nourished, and sufficiently rested to “look good” and perform well. A wise worker always takes full annual vacation for relaxation, plus all discretionary days off in order to handle personal matters and reduce job stress, and a wise worker does not skip lunches. Time off and breaks during the work day are essential to keeping emotional and spiritual batteries charged.
   
9. When faced with determined political enemies or unreasonable organizational opposition, the wise worker seeks to determine who is behind the opposition, and the full range of the opponent’s accomplishments, sins, and personal power, identifying also the opponent’s allies. The wise worker will use allies and personal meetings with opponents to glean information about the nature of and reasons for the opposition, always maintaining a calm and respectful demeanor. Wise senior level workers will engage a private detective to unearth sins and errors of political opponents, then determine which of the discoveries to reveal in order to undermine the enemies’ position and turn them into “dead agents” (discredit them). The wise worker uses only such pressure against an opponent as necessary to terminate the opposition. The wise worker knows and uses the principle of “A head on a pike.”

In the above list there are four things worth doing as a matter of priority and urgency to your career.

1. Commendations.Immediately start writing your own commendations, and encourage your juniors to do the same, then present them to your immediate senior on the first day of each month, every month, without fail, and stand in the senior’s presence till the senior signs it.
   
   
2. Client Critiques.Immediately institute a “success story” program in which you and your staff hand a critique form to every single client for whom you care at the time you have finished delivering the care.The form lets the client rate you and your service on a scale of 1 to 10 in the areas you deem are important (friendliness, competence, efficiency, thoroughness, sense of well-being, relief from distress, etc) and asks for a simple narrative “success story” regarding the experience in your office.The patient always signs and dates it, and the name must be printed so it is legible. These forms are summarized at the end of each month, and the scores tallied. The information is used to identify areas of weakness (which your team starts working on) and strengths (which your team talks about proudly with other workers.)The monthly tallies, with a highlight of several of the best narratives, accompany the commendation.
   
   
3. P.R. Hire a Public Relations firm and locate allies in the organization who will spread the factual “rumors” of your success and achievements in the press and among senior staff.These become a huge needle to poke a hole in the balloon of opposition your opponents float around the organization to defame or defeat you.When opponents hear and see the evidence of your success and how others appreciate you, it demoralizes them, and makes them loathe to attack you for fear of looking like fools.It actually prevents much opposition that might otherwise be there.
   
   
4. Investigator. Hire a Private Detective or recruit spies to dig up the dirt on your political opponents and their supporters.It is axiomatic that someone who is opposing you wrongly and who is attempting to defeat you using dirty tricks is himself dirty in other ways, and that he is hiding that dirt.When you discover it, decide what to reveal to him, and tell him in no uncertain terms, but politely and diplomatically, that he is wronging you and your beneficial activities.If he does not relent, meet with him again and present to him one of the evidences against him, and suggest it would be a shame for that and others to be revealed to colleagues and to the press.The kinds of things the detective will find include professional incompetence, plagiarism (especially while in college, but also in published works), misrepresentation of credentials, cronyism and nepotism, financial misdeeds and fiscal irresponsibility at home or in a past job, broken agreements, spousal abuse, sexual misconduct, philandering, support of evil causes, suppression of good causes, arrest history, and criminal history.Organizational executives almost never want these things revealed to their colleagues and public.