Corporate Survivor with Mei Phing : Career Growth In The Corporate World - Ep238: Career MISTAKES this year = GROWTH next year.

Starting point is 00:00:00 Welcome to the Corporate Survivor Podcast, where we talk about how to grow your career confidence, build your skills and value, increase your salary, and the many lessons we learn in the corporate world. For more career support, click on over to www.mayping.com. This is Mayping, your corporate leader turned career coach. I hope you enjoy, like and subscribe. Is that time of the year again where you're either feeling, yes, I'm so proud of the growth and progress that I've made this year, or you're telling yourself,

Starting point is 00:00:37 dang, I don't even know how this year went by because I don't feel I've gotten any closer to the career goals that I said I wanted to achieve at the beginning of this year went by because I don't feel I've gotten any closer to the career goals that I said I wanted to achieve at the beginning of this year. So regardless of whether you're feeling A or B, I'm here to tell you that it's okay. So welcome, welcome back to the Corporate Survivor Podcast with me, Mayping, ex-corporate leader, turned career coach and founder of the Corporate Survivor, the ultimate career program for 95 professionals just like you. So now that we are at the year end, I have noticed across social media, YouTube, Spotify, and everywhere else, there's actually a lot of content around how to make 2025 your best year

Starting point is 00:01:11 yet, how to make the next 12 months super awesome, how to make the next 12 months, how to make the next year, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Everything that is very hunky-dory, everything that's very positive, everything is very happy. However, I think one thing that's important and it's not really talked about is reflection. It's actually learning from things that has happened in your career this year, in your workplace, or even your job search this year. The main lessons that you can learn and more importantly, a new perspective and gaining feedback from the things that have happened to you this year. Like I said, whether it's in your career or your workplace, I feel like there's not enough reflection exercises. I think a lot of people are just looking forward towards the new year and just kind of like

Starting point is 00:01:54 sweeping the rest of the stuff under the carpet. And I'm here to tell you that that is not the best strategy. And if you truly want to progress and grow in your career and, you know, advance in the working world, in the working world, in the corporate world, it is so important to recognize the things that maybe you could have done better and maybe some of the areas of improvement or development that you want to bring on in the next 12 months. So I'm going to give you a very, very simple strategy. If you are someone who is maybe feeling like, hmm, I think I could have done a little bit more this year, or maybe I'm not as satisfied with my work performance this year. I think I could do better. But the thing is that

Starting point is 00:02:27 you might not know exactly where to start. And all this rah-rah-rah stuff that you see online, it feels like, you know, there's a lot of like hype, but maybe nothing that is like too practical, too, you know, non-BS that you feel that you can implement. So I'm going to share with you this very, very simple method. And it's something that I've also personally used at the beginning of every year to make sure that I focus on the right thing at the right time now it's a very simple reflection exercise and I'm just going to ask you a couple of questions I think it's really important that take out a piece of paper or notebook and actually be honest with some of the things that you're going to write in here now first question is what did your boss

Starting point is 00:03:02 say about your work performance this year? Actually write down the key points from the conversation that you have had with your boss during your year-end performance review. Now, this is actually tangible feedback that we want to bring forward to the next year to demonstrate to your boss that you have actively taken action to work on your boss's feedback. So this is really, really important to demonstrate progress, to demonstrate that you are proactive to learn and to improve. So that's the first point, which is what did your boss say, right? What feedback did your boss give you in this year's performance review? Now, second one,

Starting point is 00:03:35 what are some of the areas that you feel that you could have done better this year? So this is an example of where your mindset, or maybe your your skill set or maybe it's your courage or your confidence that is holding you back. So for example, you are someone who is very introverted, someone who is very quiet. And one of the ways that you might be holding yourself back is that you are afraid to speak up or you are so focused on working hard, but you don't talk about the contributions that you have made. You don't talk about the good work that you have put in. This could be some areas that you are holding yourself back as well. And some of these points may correlate with some of the feedback that your

Starting point is 00:04:12 boss has given you as well. So a lot of things in the working world, the corporate world is all kind of like connected. So it's so important to note it down so that you can see the connection. And the last question I have for you, and just to kind of like tie everything in a bundle, is what are the few things that you want to focus on in the first three months of the next year? Now, a lot of times when we say that, oh, you know, it's a new year, you know, I want this year to be better.

Starting point is 00:04:37 It's very vague. It's very high level. It's very rah, rah, rah, rah. But at the end of the day, like why so many people give up on their new year resolutions even before January ends is because it's, the goals are not specific enough, and usually when you think about a time frame of 12 months, it feels like it's too long, and by the time you don't see momentum and you don't kind of, like, see the end goal in mind,

Starting point is 00:04:58 it's very easy to get distracted, it's very easy to just give up, right? So, I want you to kind of, like, think about your year in quarters. So, you're actually looking at just give up, right? So I want you to kind of like think about your year in quarters. So you're actually looking at just three months and what is the one thing that you want to focus on in three months. So I'll give you an example.

Starting point is 00:05:12 So currently I have a career program. It's called the Corporate Survivor. And in there is really where I teach my three-step framework, which is get clear, get confident and get visible. And usually at the beginning of the year, I have a career strategy

Starting point is 00:05:22 and work planning session that I do with my members. And one of the things that I walk them through is to actually break down their year by quarters. And we either focus on get clear, which is no clarity, understanding the culture, the role, like rebuilding relationships with people, or we could focus on getting confident, right? So that's around corporate skills. That's about communication, relationship building, critical thinking, productivity, or maybe you are ready and the only thing that's missing

Starting point is 00:05:50 is actually getting visible. So it's actually practicing how to speak up, how to make sure that you're updating your progress to your boss and so forth. Or maybe on the flip side, you are someone who is kind of like looking for opportunities. So this is where the get opportunities

Starting point is 00:06:02 is definitely something that could be focused on as well. But we look at it on a three-month basis. So it's a lot easier for you to kind of like focus on the specific actions that needs to be taken over a period of three months. And then you can kind of break it down to every week or every month if you want. And overall, it will feel a lot more achievable compared to looking at it at a full year. And before you know it, you might actually just give up. So this is just a very, very simple strategy that I'm sharing with you. And I want you to approach it from a self-reflection angle, but also the element of like, okay, I am committed to improve.

Starting point is 00:06:35 And how can I take that one step at a time? And how can I do something that I feel is achievable, right? The main goal is actually to feel like the steps and the actions that you're taking is achievable. Because if it feels unachievable, you're not going to do it, right? The main goal is actually to feel like the steps and the actions that you're taking is achievable because if it feels unachievable, you're not going to do it, right? So before you look into any like fancy strategies and any of like the big stuff, oh, how to thrive and stuff like that, it's like, okay, we're going to learn how to survive first, then we will thrive in terms of like the next phase. So focus one thing at a time, really think about the three questions I've given to you, take out a piece of paper, take out a notebook,

Starting point is 00:07:06 and really write it down. You'll find that there's so much clarity once you're able to pull it out from your head because it will move you away from the overthinking part, feeling negative about it, to something that's a little bit more objective. So make sure that you do that. And let me know what are the results

Starting point is 00:07:21 if you're watching on YouTube or you can drop me a message on LinkedIn and Instagram. So with that, I'll see you next episode. Bye.

Corporate Survivor with Mei Phing : Career Growth In The Corporate World - Ep238: Career MISTAKES this year = GROWTH next year.

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