Three priceless gifts of your career asset
It’s the season when everyone is thinking about meaningful things they can give to the people around them. Here are three gifts that stem from one of your most valuable financial assets—your career.
The career gift of your knowledge. Never underestimate the value of your years of accumulated knowledge. Companies rely on long-standing employees who hold a wealth of institutional knowledge in addition to the knowledge they hold about their given job or role in the organization. Institutional knowledge is like being a company historian—because you’ve been around for a while, you’re probably able to navigate company politics like a pro, likely to have great information on processes and projects that have been used in the past and you know leaders who’ve come up through the ranks. Knowledge about your job is also important and human resource departments are always looking for ways to “transfer knowledge” to up-and-coming career talent who will eventually replace retiring talent. You can share the gift of your knowledge by suggesting ways to capture it and transfer it to younger employees.
The career gift of your skills. Like knowledge, you’ve likely invested heavily in building technical skills related to your role. Through the years you may have had to call on different skills in different roles and collectively they contribute to your overall value as an employee. Each new skill you add to your toolbox adds value to your career asset and can be viewed as a gift you’ve given to yourself at some point that can then be given and shared with others.
The career gift of your experience. In financial planning, we note that past performance is not indicative of future performance; however, in the case of your career asset, it can be a great gift to offer others. Sharing stories of how you approached an important decision or how you addressed a difficult situation can truly make a difference to others. Perhaps you worked on a project years ago that shared common characteristics of a contemporary project. Sharing your experience of the highs and lows of the original could help the team anticipate potential obstacles and prevent them from delaying the project or limiting its success. Like sharing your skills and knowledge, your experience is heavily weighted when it comes to younger talent seeking to learn from the gifts of later-career members.
In this season of gifting, take time to reflect on all the gifts you can offer through your own career lifecycle. Those are gifts worth sharing that will be received with lasting gratitude.
Learn more about Career Asset Management or get a copy of Mike’s book, Career Asset Management: Getting Ahead, Staying Ahead and Using your Head to Maximize your Career Value at CareerAssetManagement.com
