Self-Advocacy at Work

 


Self-Advocacy at Work

After landing your first career job, did you ever think: I will stay in this position forever. If you saw yourself advancing beyond your first role but now seem to have hit a roadblock, keep reading.

Traditionally, in the workplace, we feel networking or job shadowing is the key to advancing one’s career. Is this still true today?

Our friends on social media think the opposite. When it comes to advancing your career 50% of respondents selected “being good at what you do”. Some may be thinking if it was that easy, I would’ve been promoted or would have received robust job offers by now.

But advancing your career doesn’t stop at just being good at your job, you must learn to advocate for yourself. What does it take to be an advocate for yourself at work?

Gain clarity

To advocate for yourself, you must first have a clear understanding of what you want. Ask yourself what are my strengths? Creating a list of things you’re good at can help you nail down the type of work you want to do long term.

Create a road map

Where are you going? What is your end goal? Establish goals for yourself and start thinking about the steps you need to take to achieve them. Use SMART goals as a template to ensure you’re not procrastinating or creating a list of goals for fun. Goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely.

Find allies

Find other people that understand your career goals and what it takes to get there. Creating a group of allies can help you stay on top of your goals and be held accountable.

Manage up

Have you expressed your needs to your employer and how they can help you develop professionally? This development can come in the form of increasing responsibility or more training. If the employer is not interested in developing you, find a way around it. Ask a colleague to shadow or seek other genuine relationships to help build up skills (mentorships, networking, personal investment in training).

Self-advocacy can seem like a daunting task, but if you believe in yourself and have a clear vision of where you’re going it’s easier to notice opportunities to act on or speak up for yourself.


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