New Year New Job

It's getting close to the time when we all are going to be making our resolutions for the New Year - scary.  If you will be looking for a new job or looking to get promoted with your current company do this little exercise to make sure you are prepared when the opportunity is there.
Write down all of the words that you want people to use to describe you at work: ambitious, hard working, forward thinking, great mentor, etc.  With your list of adjectives handy write a newspaper article that would be published if you were to get the promotion.  Make sure to write all of the great accomplishments in your current role and describe yourself using all of the words from your list.
For most of us there is a gap between our list and our actual performance.  That doesn't make us bad or any less promotable it just means that we have a little work to do.  The good news is that now that we have our list we can hold ourself to it and make sure that we are performing like the person we wrote about who received the promotion.  When we step up our game and do this we will get the recognition we desire and when that new opportunity presents itself we will have already taken the time to make sure we are prepared.

Good luck.