Karani Nyamu is the Group CEO of Nairobi-based IT company Verve KO and also runs Kore Forests Ltd, a real estate firm.
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Among the many decisions a consultant has to make career goals is usually top on the list especially as you grow in the field. The pressure that pulls you in many directions checks in and by then most people tend to quietly abandoned their goals.
According to Karani Nyamu, the CEO at Verve KO Ltd, proper and well spelt out goals could be the difference between soaring in the consulting business or stagnating and eventually bowing out. Goals are those rough metrics that tell you where you are vis-à-vis where you planned to be. There are a number of aspects you have to take into account if you are to set proper and well spelt out consulting goals. Dr. Karani Nyamu proposes five major aspects to take into account as you build your consulting career.
- Proper Career Goals. Goal setting often tends to happen around the dawn of a new year accompanied by moments of celebrations and for many it goes further than that. The festive mood and happiness that comes with turning on another year makes them to resolve to raise your number of clients, work harder, set a higher profit goal, and so on. Make sure the goals are realistic devoid of exaggeration and self-deception.
- Have a Competitive Mind-set. More important than setting these career goals is your mind-set. The correct attitude will sustain you far longer even after the initial excitement has died down. As you start out in your career goals always plan out for setbacks and disappointments. The new career goals will come with increased office work and few extra work responsibilities that will force an adjustment of your schedule, factor that into your goals.
- Set Your Priority. Actually setting your goals now rather than later is better because it is set outside of the optimism that may blind you to the stakes involved in getting to be a better consultant. You don’t have to wait till you have been in the business for a while, you can set smaller attainable goals at any point in your career and purpose to follow through.
- Create Timelines. When coming up with career plans usually shoot for 2 to 3 year plans. Extended plans tend to wear down along the way while shorter plans tends to register inadequate progress in our career resolutions. Plan as much as possible, break down the career plans into actionable chunks and push towards them. Don’t merely wish or have a vague career goal, lay it down and break it down to realistic and timed pieces for working on. Always have an end date, put milestones and reminders for every few weeks days and months, be realistic and above all have a workable plan that is realistic.
- Cultivate Career Habits. Setting good, regular work habits is better than goal setting at any time. More often than not we are creatures of habits and building a good set of daily work habits when it comes to our career and work schedule works way better than having a plan on paper. Setting your goals now when you are sober helps you to correctly estimate the difficulty involved in achieving correct success.