Myself and our Operations Director, Jenny, recently attended the digital project management conference, Deliver Conf 2020, that took place in Manchester recently. Over the course of the next week, I’ll provide highlights and key takeaways I took from each talk. Despite the coronavirus outbreak disrupting proceedings, Deliver Conf worked hard to ensure everyone, whether they attended in person or viewed the talks live online, could access high-quality talks.
The conference started off the proceedings with a talk from Crystal Richards – who was in the U.S. and couldn’t be there in person due to the coronavirus. However, that didn’t stop Crystal from delivering a very engaging and energetic talk from the other side of the world!
Centred around the ‘Choose your own adventure’ book concept, Crystal’s talk demonstrated that this approach needn’t be limited to fiction; we all have the ability to choose our own career adventure.
So how can we do this? Crystal gave us her 4 tips.
Stop Comparing
In today’s society, we constantly evaluate and compare ourselves to others, in all aspects of life.
Social media is full of individual’s only showing their best selves, which heightens this tendency and is causing us to spiral out of control; we’ve fallen into the comparison trap of beating ourselves up when we don’t meet these unattainable standards.
Crystal’s advice? Run your own race – you are your own competition. Someone else’s career achievements and path may not fit with your own intentions.
Examine Yourself
A periodic self-assessment will help you to reevaluate your career goals. For example, you should ask yourself what your talents and strengths are and what your definition of success looks to you. Asking these questions regularly will allow you to check whether you’re still on track with your goals.
Lessons Learned
We learn from past bad decisions. Crystal stressed the importance of mentors as a resource; just make sure you aren’t the ‘askhole’ who hounds for advice, or worse- asks but doesn’t take guidance on board.
On the flip side, unhelpful comments such as ‘follow your passion’, ‘do what makes you happy’ and ‘YOLO!’ can lead to frustration. Whilst these are said with the best intentions, you’re better off using your own judgement.
Find your Tribe
Crystal’s final tip is to network with like-minded individuals at conferences and events. They will be able to provide an objective, critical opinion, whilst understanding the challenges of your sector.
If networking doesn’t appeal to you, you can always find an accountability partner instead. Meeting periodically will give you a chance to revisit your career goals and strategies together.
Crystal wrapped up her talk by stressing that, ultimately, we make the decisions that are right for us, both in our professional and personal lives.