Tinukemi Olaoye

Professional. Entrepreneur. Coach. Author. Teacher.

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Seeking Career Direction: Skills

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Some weeks ago, we began a short series on Career Direction. The tips in this series will help you to gain good clarity for career decisions, especially if it involves a major career change or advancement.

In the last post, we looked at the role of Prayer. Today, we’ll be addressing the topic of ‘Skills’. Taking stock of the skills that you have is a big deal when it comes to making career decisions.

A skill is a special ability or expertise that you acquire by formal or informal training and practice. It is the most important factor in any career. Your skills may come from the practice of your talent or natural ability or from deliberate learning.

There are three important ways that the knowledge of your skills will help you in your quest for career direction:

1. You will have an idea of just what you can do and where you fit in. The most basic requirement for any career or promotion is skill. If you know the skills that you have, you will know the kind of work you can do.

2. You will understand how and where you fit in the world of work. This way, you’ll have an idea of which direction to turn. You will increase your level of confidence. Skillfulness equals proficiency and competence. As you take stock of your proficiency in certain skills, you will become more confident in your abilities and what you have to offer a potential client, customer, employer or boss. This will help you as you take steps or make changes in your career.

3. You will know how to get better. Having an idea of what you can do will help you to make the right decisions on where to focus your development efforts. If you have a specific career in mind and you know the set of skills required for that career, knowing what you do have will help you to determine if you can be effective in that career. You will also know the specific skills you need to go and learn or acquire to help you to function optimally in your desired career.

There is hardly anyone without some kind of skill, regardless of its level of proficiency. Your technical skills and people skills combine to make you a unique individual and understanding them will help to make your career decisions easier. Next week, we’ll discuss ‘Opportunities’.

**I explore the subject of skills more deeply in my upcoming book Create Your Ideal Career. This book also contains an exercise that can help you to discover your skills and rate your level of proficiency in them. If you would like to get this book or you would like more information, please visit www.TinukemiOlaoye.com or send an email to services@tinukemiolaoye.com.

5 Ways to Gain Clarity for Career Decisions

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​It’s all well and good to encourage people to take action when it comes to building a purposeful and successful career. Unfortunately, people can only take action when they know just what to do- and many people actually have no idea of what they need to do and the steps they need to take. If they knew the right thing to do, perhaps they might do it.

That’s what we’ll address today- how to gain clarity to make the right decisions and take the right actions for your career:

1. Pray for wisdom. See, when you don’t know something, you don’t know it. When you’re not sure, you’re not sure. Acting like you know something when you don’t know is simply not smart. I believe in a God who gives wisdom without reproach, no matter how many times you seek Him for it. And on the plus side, there’s no situation too twisted or messy that He can’t figure out a way. Ask Him for clarity and direction.

2. Clarify your personal motives. When you need clarity, you cannot avoid some introspection. You will need to decide what you believe you want and why you want it, whether the reason is good or bad. You can at least be honest to yourself. And this could help you know the right step to take.

3. Make use of good resources. Get access to relevant materials and resources like books, audios, videos, programmes. They will give you information. When you are better informed, it is easier to make the right decisions.

4. Seek counsel from trusted people. You may have all kinds of friends, colleagues, relatives and other associations, but even you know the kind of people you can talk to. Open up to them and seek counsel. If you can afford to, you can also hire the services of a professional coach to help you get clarity. Professional coaching truly works.

5. Take action. When you have some measure of clarity, no matter how little, take some kind of action, even if they are baby steps. Greater clarity usually follows action. There are certain things you may not be able to see from your current position. When you move, things have a way of becoming even clearer.

Making the right decisions for your career is not as difficult as you may imagine it to be. I pray that as you seek clarity, you will get it, know it and follow through on it. 

Learn-As-You-Go

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Do you have an idea of what you’d like to do, but are not quite sure of how it would go every step of the way? I’m here to encourage and challenge you.

Nobody really has 100% certainty about every little thing concerning their vision, whether it is a business or a ministry or vocation of some sort. Not even the ‘successful’ people out there. Every one has to follow the ‘Learn As You Go’ principle.

This is how it usually goes. You get a vision or idea of something that you want to do. If you’re a godly person, perhaps, you even prayed about it and got some extra clarity and conviction that this is the way for you to go. The next thing you do is sit down and write that vision as clearly as possible. For many people this is not a challenge. A pen, notebook and a couple of hours later, that’s done and dusted.

Then comes the challenge for many people. Perhaps you’re one of such people. You’re waiting for the vision to be 100% clear with all the steps and plans clearly identifiable. That never happens. The vision or the steps to actualize it may not be 100% clear. I want you to know that that’s okay. Run with whatever percentage of clarity you have now.

Even if you draw up a military-style kind of plan or strategy for your vision, you will need to change it every now and then as life happens, and that’s okay, too. You need to do what every great person does. You need to ‘Learn As You Go’.

Let us describe your vision with the letter Z. That’s your destination, as you see it. Now, to get to Z, you need steps A, B, C, D…X, Y and everything in between. If all you have right now is step A, jump in with it, and step B will show up. Before you’re done with step B, the next step will become clearer.

Clarity follows action. If you’re waiting for perfect clarity, it won’t happen with an idea inside your head. You will just find yourself stuck. You need to implement what you do know as much as you can. When you start, the steps will keep getting clearer and arranging themselves.

So, what do you have right now? Run with that. As for the rest, you will Learn As You Go.

You can be ALL that you were created to be.

Are You Stuck?

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Are you stuck? Do you find yourself dragging through life? Everyday has become a dead-end routine, and you just do things on auto-pilot. Perhaps, you’re just confused, and you’re not sure what you want anymore. Or maybe, you have an idea of what you want, but you’re not sure that you’re on the right track.

What do you do in this situation? I’ll tell you.

The first thing you need to do is deal with the number one reason why people get stuck: No Vision or Unclear Vision.

Picture this: You’re walking on the road with your eyes closed. Would your steps be sure? No. you would be taking hesitant, unsteady, uncertain steps. That’s what it’s like with no vision or unclear vision.

With ‘No Vision’, you don’t know what you want, and you don’t know where you’re going, so you’re just drifting along with each day as it comes.

With ‘Unclear Vision’, you have an idea of what you think you want, but you’re not very clear or very sure. Perhaps, you even had a clear vision at some point. But since life happens, somewhere along the line, you became busy, distracted and unfocused. And the vision lost its clarity. Now, you’re just stuck and frustrated.

When you’re new to a part of town, and you’re not sure of the directions to the place you need to go, you tend to walk or drive slowly. But when do you know where you’re going, you movement is surer and faster.   Your next step is pretty clear, isn’t it? It’s time for you clearly define what you want out of life, especially in the area where you feel stuck. When you’re not moving at the pace that you desire, you need to go back to the subject of vision.

It’s time for you to go back to the drawing board and get a completely clear vision for your life or for a specific area of your life. No clear vision, no real progress.

It’s your ONLY life. Make it significant.