IT Career Development Top 10 Lists
This article applies to: IT Career Framework Resources
Personal and Professional Development Top 10 Lists
- Personal development "Top 10"
- Professional development "Top 10"
- Top 10 ways managers can support staff development
- "Ted's Top 10" leadership characteristics
Personal development “Top 10”
- Practice being accountable; take responsibility for your actions, including your mistakes.
- Embrace change.
- Seek development opportunities outside of work (volunteer, join professional organizations, help at school).
- Be healthy and strive for balance in life so that you can be “fit to lead.”
- Be authentic (be yourself)
- Value and manage your relationships; avoid burning bridges with people and organizations.
- Take risks. Be willing to “fail forward” or try something new.
- Figure out what you want. From there, decide what your objectives/goals are. Focus on running toward what you want instead of running away from what you don’t want.
- Chunk your goals—don’t eat the whole elephant.
- Invest in yourself. Pick up new skills. Take advantage of Cornell resources: free speakers, classes, online training and books (Skillsoft, Lynda.com), HR training and programs.
Professional development “Top 10”
- Let people know what you want and where you want to go. Take charge of your own career.
- Realize career development is your responsibility.
- Seek out stretch opportunities. Don't wait for assignments and tasks you want to be given to you; ask for them.
- Collaborate.
- Build and expand your networks.
- Challenge yourself by leading at every opportunity. Challenge others and yourself by asking questions. Don't be timid.
- Say yes and know when to say no.
- Seek and be willing to give feedback
- Show up (be at work, be engaged, do your work, be reliable and productive)
- Find and/or be a mentor. Coach others.
“Top 10” ways managers can support staff development
- Know your staff. Take time to understand what they want. Actively listen. Develop insight into what satisfies each individual.
- Demonstrate you value your staff and have confidence in them. Recognition and praise go through the manager, criticism stops at the manager.
- Invest in your staff's development: provide opportunities and flexibility, delegate responsibility.
- Provide clear, frequent and timely feedback.
- Set clear expectations; be honest about what the job entails.
- Create a team culture: risk taking, collaboration, continuous learning.
- Empower staff. Give them authority to make decisions. Avoid micro managing—provide guidance. Allow staff to take risks and make mistakes. Coach: don't solve the problem for them.
- Network so that you know what opportunities are out there for your staff. Avoid thinking in terms of "losing" good staff—think about what is best for IT@Cornell.
- Lead by example.
- Actively manage work; remove obstacles; be appropriately involved and available.
"Ted's "Top 10" leadership characteristics
Contributed by Cornell's CIO (2010-2015) Ted Dodds
- Ask why and what, before asking how.
- Practice Respectful Candor (pt. 1): with those in the room.
- Practice Respectful Candor (pt. 2): with those not present.
- Abandon the world of judgment, of others and yourself.
- Be yourself. Improve yourself. Don’t “fake it ‘till you make it”. You’ll be found out.
- My favorite of Covey’s 7 Habits: seek first to understand, then to be understood.
- Manage your time strategically. Find time for all Cornellians. Forget the hierarchy.
- Read widely – from woodworking to world history – and ask yourself how different perspectives can make you a better leader.
- Control is a poor substitute for accountability.
- Practice persistence and patience, but mostly persistence.
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