Are you wondering what you should do to ensure a successful career? Whether you have just started your career or have been in the workforce for a few years, you are probably grappling with this question. There’s good news! While each job measures success differently, there are five behaviors which, when practiced every day, can put you firmly on the path to a fulfilling and impactful career.

Follow your curiosity. The best opportunities often spring from unexpected people and places, and the optimal way to place yourself on the path of serendipity is to follow your curiosity about what’s going on around you. The key is to develop an awareness of what your brain is naturally drawn to, and follow through.

These ‘curiosity hooks’ can emerge from anywhere: from conversations with colleagues over lunch, from an email exchange with your manager, from a blog post, from an unexpected detail of an otherwise routine analysis, etc. When an idea or a topic hooks your brain, don’t ignore it. Explore further and be open to where it leads. This could mean taking an online course, joining an interest group at work, or attending a conference.

A great way to fan the spark of curiosity into a flame is to develop a reading habit. Some of the world’s most successful people read constantly and when asked about the secret of their success, their reading habit always comes up. Set aside at least 30 minutes a day to read up on a topic that intrigues you. The topic doesn’t matter — it is the quality and sophistication of the ideas that do. If it makes you think and forces you to synthesize complex ideas, it is worthwhile.

Go the extra mile. Whatever work you have been asked to do — exciting or boring, urgent or leisurely, with a great team, or not — execute it as if it will be presented to the board of your company. The reality of corporate life is that you never know which of your projects will catch the attention of the right people; so it is good to get into the habit of doing everything extremely well. More importantly, you will gradually develop a reputation for being consistently exceptional and that is a gift that will keep on giving.

Stay the course. Almost no project at work proceeds in a straight line. The path is a meandering one and often it is a rollercoaster as well. Difficulties and obstacles are inevitable. The real question is how will you deal with them?

The great German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche had an answer: “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” When you start to work on any project, clarify to your satisfaction the project’s “why” and how it fits into the long-term goals of your team and your organization. When you run into roadblocks, pause and remind yourself of the project’s purpose.

There’s a famous story about President John F. Kennedy visiting NASA; he saw a janitor with a broom and stopped to ask him what he was doing. The response was, “Mr. President, I'm helping put man on the moon.” A sense of purpose can elevate you above your day-to-day difficulties and help you stay the course.

Communicate in a structured, top-down manner. When asked about your work, try to distill it into three key, high-level “bullet points” and communicate that. If people want to learn more, unpack each of the three things you said to the next level of detail — and so on. Think of it as a layered approach where you reveal more and more detail as needed but not before. Even in seemingly informal work settings, when asked about work, rather than a casual, rambling answer, get into the habit of condensing your response into a few key sentences on the fly. Soon, it will become second nature, and you will develop a reputation as a crisp communicator.

Be quick to give credit. President Harry Truman said, “It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.” Truer words have not been spoken. Become known as someone who always recognizes the contributions of others and puts the team first. It will attract talented people to want to work with you, and your teams will be vastly more productive. It will also signal to the organization that you are a person so confident and secure in your abilities that you don’t need to hoard credit, that you are happy to share it freely.

In conclusion, irrespective of the role you play in your organization, these strategies are proven, relevant and immediately actionable and will put you on the path to a successful and rewarding career.

Sources Consulted

●         https://fromthegreennotebook.com/2017/11/04/the-janitor-who-help-put-a-man-on-the-moon/

●         https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/books/review/grit-by-angela-duckworth.html

●         “The Pyramid Principle” by Barbara Minto (https://www.amazon.com/Pyramid-Principle-Logic-Writing-Thinking/dp/0273710516)

●         https://www.azquotes.com/author/14817-Harry_S_Truman

Anu Chitrapu is an executive at Bank of America with over 20 years of work experience in Corporate America. At the Bank, as the Executive Sponsor of the Asian Leadership Network, Boston she has moderated or participated in several panels on achieving career success. She is also a speaker at events and delivered the keynote address at the 2018 Miami Dade NAF conference to 1500 high school students. Anu is passionate about women empowerment and gender equality and is on the board of a few different organizations that focus on these areas. Anu is the current President of TiE-Boston. Anu holds an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management.

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