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Top Career Experts Share Their Best Tips For Success In 2016

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I want you to be able to start the year with your career on the ideal trajectory, so I reached out to the leading experts in career/talent management – people for whom I have tremendous respect. It is an eclectic group of gurus, but they share a few traits: they are super smart and respected in the community, and they are generous about sharing their expertise. Their advice is as diverse as they are; yet all of it comes from a proven path to success. Put this wisdom to work and watch your career soar in 2016.

Triggers author, Marshall Goldsmith, who was recognized as the#1 Leadership Thinker in the World suggests you “Imagine that you are 95 years old and just getting ready to die. Imagine that you have been given a beautiful gift. The ability to ‘go back in time’ and help the ‘you’ who is reading this have an even better life. What advice would the ‘old you,’ who is facing death, have for the ‘you’ that is reading this now? Do that!”

Marketing strategy consultant Dorie Clark, whose latest book, Stand Out, was named the no. 1 Leadership Book of 2015 by Inc. magazine, shares this advice: “Create a personal board of directors. Time is our most important and limited resource, and yet far too many of us are reactive when it comes to our scheduling. The people that we spent time with are the ones who emailed us and say, let's get coffee. Instead, take the time to think about who are the 5 to 6 people that you most respect and want to spend time with. Then, make a plan to be more proactive in reaching out to them in 2016 so you can learn from them and give back.”

“Step back and ‘unlearn’ everything you've ever known about building a career,” says career strategist and workplace consultant J.T. O’Donnell, who is the CEO of CAREEREALISM, one of the top three career blogs. “In the last several years, there's been a dramatic disruption in how we work. Today, every job is temporary, and studies suggest as much as half our workforce will be Independent Contractors by 2020. We are in a gig economy now. Those that see it and embrace it will survive and thrive. Those who bury their heads in the sand and try to keep building their career the old-fashioned way will suffer.”

“My top career tip for 2016 is to make sure your professional network is generationally diverse,” says Lindsey Pollak, the leading voice on millennials in the workplace and author of Becoming the Boss: New Rules for the Next Generation of Leaders. “The most successful people this year will be those who can communicate with Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, Gen Xers, Millennials and the up-and-coming Gen Zs. Members of the different generations tend to think differently about issues such as work/life integration, entrepreneurship, people management, marketing, social media and more, so a multigenerational network will inspire you to try new strategies in your career this year.”

Ora Shtull, New York City’s sought-after C-Suite Executive Coach and author of The Glass Elevator, says, “Everyone can benefit from a two-step strategy for blasting their career upward in 2016. Most professionals intuitively grasp the first step, but it’s the second step they often ignore. The first step is: Change your Act. To advance professionally, enhance your presence, delegate the weed pulling, and engage in meatier strategic work. The second step is: Change your Audience. To avoid stalling on your personal path to success, extend your reach and deepen your connections both internally and externally.”

And to make all this work, you need to establish some new habits. So I reached out to the bestselling author of Better Than Before, Gretchen Rubin, who shared this piece of wisdom: “To change our habits, the most important step—and a step that oddly, most habits experts seem to ignore—is to understand ourselves. There’s no shortage of habits advice. Start small! Do it first thing in the morning! Reward yourself! But the fact is, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution—but when we tailor a habit to suit our particular idiosyncrasies, we set ourselves up for success. A good example? Morning people and night people. Sure, it sounds sensible to exercise first thing in the morning. But if you’re a night person, you’re at your most energetic much later in the day. If your New Year’s resolution is “Get up an hour early each day to exercise,” you’re not setting yourself up for success. Because you’re a night person.”

Applying this sage advice from these revered thought-leaders will help you accelerate your success in 2016. Make a plan to integrate these techniques and actions into what you do and how you do it. Track your progress throughout the year. Adjust, refine and measure. Then pat yourself on the back!

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