Polished Professional Image Blog

Polished Professional Image’s theme for 2008 is Take Control of Your Success. That means planning every step of the way. But why should you take control? Surely, the company that you work for has your best interest at heart, right? Surely, management knows what a great job that you are doing and will do the right thing by promoting and compensating you, right? Not necessarily. 

I attended the retirement party of a colleague that had worked at the company fifty-two years – that’s 5 2. Fifty of those years were spent in one department. So, did the company rent out a big banquet hall for the party? No. Did the company take over a restaurant for lunch or dinner? No. The “party” (cake - that’s right, cake - was served. Not cake and hors d’oeuvres or cake and coffee or cake and water! Cake) was held in a conference room – the executive conference room, but a conference room nonetheless. One executive officer showed up (the two that came in after the presentation don’t count). One! 

Okay, this is starting sound like a rant – well, it is, kind of. But it is to make the point that you cannot expect your company to appreciate your loyalty and do the right thing by you. You have to Take Control of Your Success. Set your goals, meet the right people, carry yourself in a professional way, find an advocate and if you have to, make a move! It’s your career, take control of it. 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 8th, 2008 at 1:44 pm and is filed under Success Tools. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.