National Career Development Month
By Keona Campbell
November is National Career Development Month. The National Career Development Association established this month-long campaign to encourage career development and empower individuals to achieve their career goals. As someone who has changed their career path four times in nine years and coaches students and early professionals through their career plans, this is an exciting month for me to share insights on the importance of career development.
Why Career Development Matters
Providing impactful and actionable career development opportunities can lead to:
An understanding of how skills, abilities, identifies, interests, and values impact career decisions and lifelong learning
Leaders inspiring and empowering individuals to take charge of their careers while giving them access to the resources they need to be successful
Individuals exploring opportunities and creating learning paths with a clear purpose that they are invested in and passionate about
Organizations creating strategies to support succession planning by identifying and developing their future leaders for the long-term growth of their operations
Increased employee engagement and motivation leading to improved retention and performance rates
Ways to Drive Career Development
With the pandemic causing more than half-a-million US students to drop out of college, it's become even more essential to prepare students for the workforce. Organizations and companies play a critical role in developing the careers of their students and employees, even if that means their career trajectory leads elsewhere. Here are three impactful ways to drive career development within and outside of your organization this November:
Listen and ask questions - Be open to hearing your students' or employees' needs via a career conversation, survey, or assessment as you guide them through follow-up questions that encourage critical thinking. This self-reflection allows them space to assess their values, strengths, and motivations.
Reimagine Tip: An assessment we've used to guide our workforce development clients through their career paths is the SuperStrong Assessment.
Become a career connector - Connecting individuals with those in their intended career allows them to learn from personal career stories and challenges. This can remind them that career planning is an ongoing learning process and that paths tend to consist of unexpected turns and twists. Who knows? You or this individual can turn into a future mentor!
Reimagine Tip: One of my favorite career tools I use daily to build my network and connect with individuals in varying industries is LinkedIn.
Make it actionable - As you drive career development, it's important to remember that it is not a one-time activity and to consider the "what's next?" for your students' or employees' plan. To best hold them accountable for taking actionable steps, encourage them to identify small next steps weekly and share their progress (and wins) regularly with an accountability buddy.
Reimagine Tip: As a staff team, we keep track of our goals and plans via a platform called Asana. Learn how to track short-term and long-term goals with or without the tool.
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