Data shows that if you want to get hired, stay hired and grow your career you need to embrace five very important skills/ competencies, build a powerful personal brand and continue to grow professionally. Becoming a top talent requires more than using your expertise to meet the needs of your organization. It necessitates using your talents, creativity, and expertise to think outside of the box and advance the success of your team, program, and company. Degrees, certifications and work experience will not necessarily dictate your career trajectory. Company executives are seeking so much more out of business continuity, resiliency, risk management, crisis management, and security professionals today. So, what traits do top talent professionals exhibit?
1) Be a Leader from Within
A top talent intuitively knows the appropriate time to step in or step back. He/she focuses on the program’s success. Great leaders tend to be inclusive, humble, self-directed and mission-focused and inspire others to action. An employee who exhibits leadership ability is generally well respected by co-workers. They have demonstrated competence and are often known to seek feedback (both positive and negative). A top talent shows genuine concern for the well being of the group. So, ask yourself, are you or could you improve on being a team player, champion/ inspire others, listen to others and be an active contributor in the business continuity profession?
2) Possess Insight
This is so crucial in the business continuity profession and we hear it all the time from our hiring managers! As a business continuity professional, one must understand the intricacies of an organization. You must understand your audience and the message to deliver to promote/ elevate the program. A top talent develops trusted partnerships across an organization, and they have a deep understanding of the business. Furthermore, they take the time to assess and incorporate the organizational culture to ensure the program’s success. Can you communicate your program’s value proposition?
3) Be a Creative & Critical Thinker
A top talent embraces change and enjoys the challenge of working in a dynamic environment where everything isn’t predictable. They tend to be more innovative and flexible in their approach to solving problems and have an entrepreneurial spirit. Are you responding to changing program goals? Do you seek out creative solutions and simplify the process? Are you evolving and open to new ideas? Do you incorporate other methods/ strategies used across the organization?
4) Are You Passionate?
Another key to your success! How you portray your passion for the profession and program will dictate how responsive others are to you. Do you really love what you do? Do you keep it fun and share your enthusiasm with others across the organization? If you’re excited about what you do, and you can communicate and share your passion with others it will go a long way in driving your program across the entire organization.
5) Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence is essential and critical within the business continuity profession as one must understand how to interact with others across the entire organization. Top talent knows his/ her talents and doesn’t need to broadcast them to fellow employees or to their superior. Are you calm under pressure? Do you learn from failure? Do you foster a positive attitude versus one of blame? Do you own it?
Aside from these five traits, top talent professionals are aware of their personal brand and the impact they have on their team, program, and company. Let’s just face it, it’s human nature to assess others in order to predict future behaviors. And your personal brand is being built brick by brick in one-on-one conversations, group discussions and how you portray yourself within an organization and across the business continuity profession. Are you aware of what your personal brand is? How does social media impact your personal brand? Do you champion, motivate, inspire others? How well do you collaborate within your team and across the organization? Do you over-deliver? What makes you unique and how do you add value? It’s also so important to protect your personal brand as one bad decision or behavior can destroy what you’ve taken years to build.
Lastly, top talent professionals continue to grow and challenge themselves. They are always testing themselves professionally and stepping outside of their comfort zone. It’s important to invest time in yourself. What’s your career strategy? Where would you like to be with your career in the next 3 to 5 years? Have you taken the time to conduct a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis on your career? Top talent also seeks out opportunities to better themselves. This doesn’t mean leaving your current employer, rather are you evolving and seeking opportunity within your current organization? Additionally, are you an active contributor within the business continuity profession and do you give back?
Becoming a top talent in the business continuity world is so much more than degrees, certification and work experience. We hope that as you enter a new year, that you consider some of these points and take some action items to elevate your career trajectory.
Here’s a link to the full presentation on “Become a ‘Top Talent’ Using These Five Traits & More”. As always, we welcome the opportunity to connect with you. Additionally, please be sure to sign up for our updates via the links below.
Hiring Manager Newsletter: https://info.avalution.com/business-continuity-recruiter-jobs BCM Jobs: https://www.bcmanagement.com/business-continuity-jobs BCM Research: https://www.bcmanagement.com/bcm-program-research
Cheyene Marling Managing Director, BC Management CMarling@BCManagement.com 1.714.969.8006
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