As the holiday break approaches, I encourage you to leverage some quiet time to define your professional theme(s) for the coming year. In order to make progress, take more ownership, and be more intentional about your professional journey, taking stock of your situation and the road ahead is an important step. Your strategies, decisions, and attention will be driven by this theme.

Five Professional Themes

Where are you today and what’s next for you? What kinds of emotions do you experience when you evaluate your professional situation? As you read through these themes, note that you might see more than one that is relevant to you.

Consolidating & deepening

If you feel that you are in a good place professionally (role, level, organization) or have recently started a new role, your theme should involve making a success of your current situation. This can include enhancing your professional capabilities, making a real impact beyond the basic job description, developing key professional relationships and building your reputation.

Expanding & leaping

If you feel and have evidence that you are ready for your next professional step - a leap forward to the next level, a bigger role, higher performance, a bigger game, then your theme is expansion, growth, and potentially an upward career move.

Planning & laying the groundwork for future vision

If you are focused on a future professional vision - self-employment, a creative working retirement or launch of a passion project, and are ready to take steps to actively explore and start laying the groundwork, your theme involves moving that vision forward.

Changing & pivoting

If you have identified a desire to proactively pivot to a new type of role, a new industry, or to double-down on an area of specialization that you’ve been developing, your theme is taking the steps to make that pivot a reality.

Turning-around & fixing

If you find yourself in a bad professional situation like unemployment, poor job fit, poor company fit, a sense of insecurity, or a sense that you’re been wandering and not intentional about your career to date, then your theme is about taking the steps to get out of the crisis, improve your professional well-being and put you on a better course. There is power in naming in defining the problem or opportunity. Rather than let another year slip by, take charge by defining where you are at and what’s involved.