Chances are, you have sometimes been charmed by (or felt jealous of) the returns people have received from their career growth. Of the meteoric rise of the class duffer to a high-profile CEO, of the academic seriousminded researcher you once knew who is minting money as a disc jockey, or the IAS officer who has moved to an international teaching assignment.

While you may like to credit the success of some of these to plain luck or good genes or both, some of them got there because they consciously decided to. Because they decided to lead their career, and invest in it, instead of just managing it.

Growth and achievement, like returns from investments, come from the capability to leverage potential and to manage what’s happening both in the current context and what is likely in the future. Individuals who know how to manage this are the ones who successfully transit between making history or becoming one. That really then is the difference between managing your career and leading your career.

If you want to lead your own career, you need to apply some principles of “change management”. Check your responses to the following:

Path finding: Are you able to find out a path for yourself? Are you aware of your ambitions (investment goals)? Your career (investment) motives? Are you reasonably clear on finding the next step and moving ahead on the chosen path?

Personal learning: Do you seek out constantly (in personal finance terms, do you keep abreast of money-making opportunities)? Are you using every chance to evaluate your strengths and weaknesses? Are you adding to your repertoire of skills and knowledge?

Positive political skills (networking ability): Are you utilising the ability of people you know to get you where you want to be? It could be a contact, a meeting, an early information…just about anyone who can help you in your career journey.

Personal resilience: Are you emotionally tough? Just as in the case of market corrections where your investments may take a hit, can you handle career setbacks and flops well? Having answered in the affirmative let us look at specifically what you need to do to help you reach there.

Be clear of your ambition: What kind of success inspires you? The clearer you are the better—it means you don’t wait for chances to make that a reality.

Evaluate your own competence: What is your technical competence? It could be customer service skills, exemplary planning ability, or the art of creative visualisation. Gauge the transfer -ability of your competence. What talents can eas -ily be moved from one job to another (investment churn) as you progress in your career?

Execute your dreams: Leading your career is about a personally driven mission. It is about taking proactive charge of investing in your career and not a passive laidback approach to seeing just where your career takes you. To bring it back to social science and what is applicable in the field of social learning, finally what really counts is self-belief. Do you believe in yourself? Are you worth investing in? Before asking someone else, do it yourself.

Pritha Dutt, Senior Vice-President, Feedback Ventures