Career Leap: How to Reinvent and Liberate Your Career

′Career Leap is a great leap forward for anyone navigating work in the 21st century!′
Bernard Salt, best–selling author of The Big Tilt

Has your career path hit a dead end? Are you wondering how you′ll get ahead?

Gone are the days of slowly making your way up the corporate ladder to retirement. Now, with the rise of freelancing and the gig economy, the workplace is becoming more flexible and independent which can leave hardworking people scrambling to find a way to stay relevant.

Career Leap addresses your worries and gives you a way forward. Featuring success stories from people who have made their own career leaps, this book sheds light on what you can do to reignite, reshape and liberate your career. It offers a fool–proof plan for getting your career back on track starting today. Chock–full of the techniques and practices needed to give you the confidence to change, it arms you with everything you need to make career leaps that count.

This is your personal guidebook to gearing up for fast and frequent change. Learn how to:

undertake a health check of your career and implement a career strategy let go of unhelpful expectations and fear of the unknown to remove career roadblocks stay alert to current employment trends to effectively plan your leap forward keep yourself challenged and equipped to future–proof your career.

Admit it, you′re ready to take the leap and this book will show you how.

Foreword xv

About the author xvii

Acknowledgements xix

Preface xxi

Leap online xxv

Introduction xxvii

Phase 1: ASSESS: Where are you in your career now? 1

1 Check: Are you future fit? 3

2 Realise: What is your potential? 15

Phase 2: ARCHITECT: Where do you want to be? 37

3 Explore: What are your options? 39

4 Choose: What will you progress? 57

5 Construct: What plan will you follow? 69

Phase 3: ACTIVATE: How will you get there? 85

6 Shape: What is your new career identity? 87

7 Influence: How will you enter the market? 101

8 Focus: How can you make each day matter? 117

Phase 4: ACCELERATE: How will you leap quickly and successfully? 133

9 Launch: How will you transition and land? 135

10 Advance: When will you celebrate and what will you do next? 151

A message from Michelle 159

Sources 161

Index 165

MICHELLE GIBBINGS is a career and change leadership expert and the author of Step Up: How to Build Your Influence at Work. She has a distinguished reputation across the Asia–Pacific region as a keynote speaker, adviser, facilitator and executive mentor for many leading–edge corporates and global organisations. Michelle′s work is focused on getting employees and leaders fit for the future of work.