In your career, there are many opportunities to make positive things happen and avoid unfortunate mistakes. It is helpful to be aware of potential pitfalls. Beyond awareness, you need to have actions that can be taken to prevent or overcome suboptimal decisions.
The good news is that there are several women who are positive role models. Many women have successfully navigated the hurdles to high levels of success across many industries and functional areas. This indicates that the trail of success has been blazed, and it can be followed by many others.
Five key mistakes that women make and actions they can take to overcome them are:
„« Lacking a clear focus for career progress. A lack of focus on a career plan, path or personal brand is a huge opportunity.
The means of preventing this situation is to have a career plan that reflects your interests and skills. This is the foundation of a roadmap for your career.
Second build your personal brand that is in line with your career goals. Determine what you¡¦d like to be known for in your organization/industry. With that in mind, deliver it with excellence in the form of being a good leader, team member, provider of fresh ideas and maintaining a positive attitude.
„« Misunderstanding the importance of the boss. This is a huge miss, regardless of whether your boss is friend or foe, good or bad, brilliant or not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

Regardless of what you think of your supervisor, they are extremely important in your future and reputation. Their view of your performance and ability to influence others is significantly stronger than that of a subordinate or peer. Thus, it is important to stay aligned with boss.

Additionally, be receptive to feedback or direction that your manager provides. It is worthwhile to incorporate their feedback into your behavior or work product.

„« Confusing activity with results. It is easy to mistake attending meetings, handling e-mails and assorted other activity as a result.
Ensure you are building a resume of quantifiable accomplishments. Grow your organization¡¦s business, reduce costs, improve cycle time, improve profitability, etc. These are the type of results to strive for in your career.
Performance is still rewarded in organizations. Setting and achieving important business goals is always desired.
Another few proactive steps you can take are to employ best practices in your area of responsibility. You can stay abreast of best practices by reading voraciously and volunteering to represent your group, department or division at conferences.
„« Failing to develop strong people skills. This can significantly limit career growth.
Continually work to develop outstanding people skills up, across and down. It is not satisfactory to be satisfied with one or two of the three. All of your colleagues are important for long term career growth.
A means to build allies is to help others. The goal with helping others is that you create good will and other colleagues will be favorably inclined to assist you in your efforts.
„« Disregarding the need to develop effective communication skills. This can inhibit growth on several levels.
Package your communication well to highlight successes. Think in terms of your audience and their listening patterns. Work from high level to details.
For e-mails that are sensitive, employ the ¡§day after¡¨ rule. Give yourself some room between writing and sending the note. This will give you an opportunity to refine as needed.
Net, while there are several career mistakes that women make, they can all be overcome and most can be prevented.