"How can I get on track for an executive position?" Here are top five tips for executive career advancement. Even if you aren't interested in reaching the corner office, take a look at this list to see what you can use to help you move your career forward.
- Identify 3 to 5 executives you would like to model and start learning everything you can about them, their work, their business philosophies, and the charities they support.
- Read, read, read. What? Periodicals: Forbes or Fortune, Business Week, Harvard Review, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times. Books: New York Times nonfiction bestseller list plus some of favorites such as The World Is Flat; Now, Discover Your Strengths; A Whole New Mind; and Primal Leadership.
- Make sure your name is findable in Google. How? Start a blog, write and publish online professional articles, get quoted by the media, give presentations. What else? Caution: Beware of your "digital dirt."
- Proactively build your contacts database by networking on purpose. Build long term, reciprocal, professional relationships. Remember the Golden Rule.
- Beef up your communication skills. Have you ever considered learning a foreign language? Business is conducted in a global economy. Become versatile.
