7 Examples of Professional Goals and How to Achieve Them

From HR to your ambitious uncle, everyone wants you to set professional goals. Professional goals are like steps on the corporate ladder. You climb your way to the top.

Only problem? You don’t know what those goals should be.

If you view goal-setting as a mundane quarterly task, here’s a spooky thought: it’s possible you learned nothing new over the previous quarter. Don’t panic, though. We’ve got seven examples you can use as inspiration for setting professional goals and finding that next step on your corporate ladder. 🎯

1. Grow your network

Growing your network is a perpetual goal — you can never have a large enough network.

A large professional network is one of your most valuable assets. You can tap into your network to get advice, collaborate with like-minded professionals, or score your dream job.

You can’t grow your network on a whim, though. You need a proactive approach to networking and measuring your network’s growth. 

Here’s what you can do to grow your network:

• Look for a mentor within your network or organization. You can utilize and share this Mentorship Flow to start. 
• Join social media groups for your industry. 
• Engage with professionals on LinkedIn
• Connect with people in your alumni association
• Attend events

2. Upskill or learn something new

The competition is fierce. To grow, you need to up your game. Do what you do even better, or add more skills to your resume. Continuous learning is a healthy way to grow yourself professionally and increase confidence. But too often, people will get inspired, buy a course… and that’s it. 

Finish what you start. 🏁

Here are a few things you can do to upskill or learn something new:

• Take an online course: You can buy one from platforms like Udemy or directly from experts.
• Get a mentor: If you know an expert who’s open to mentoring you, mentorship can be an excellent way to grow. Here’s a Flow to help get started. 
• Learn by doing: There’s a lot of information online available for free. Start consuming and implementing it yourself. 

If you’re a manager, don’t miss an opportunity to find out what your direct reports are looking to learn and how they would like to grow. The best way to do that is through a Career Development Survey or get employee feedback.

3. Get organized

You’ll be surprised how easy your life can become when you’re organized. As a working professional, you’ve got tabs to keep. You may have a to-do list and keep an eye on tasks you’ve assigned to your team.  Instead of storing and processing all of that information in your head, or worse, in different places, use tools that can bring project management, communications and tasks into one place.

No one wants to be on the receiving end of an “I told you so.” And you won’t be when you organize your work.

Here’s what you can do to get organized:

• Set yourself up for success starting with your morning routine. Check out the key tips here. 
• Use Warren Buffett's 5/25 rule to help with prioritization. 
• Implement a Digital Planner to keep track of your tasks, goals and everything in between. 
• Don’t hoard tasks and clear them out weekly from the list
• Practice accountability

While you’re at it, why not check out how Assembly can help you get organized? 😉

It’s a powerhouse with a ton of functionality that helps you manage your work with customizable workflows.

4. Become a better presenter

Presentations reign supreme in the business world. Whether you work in an office or remotely, being an ace presenter will take you far. When you present well, your team will absorb the content better, you’ll make your boss happy, and build a valuable business skill. 

Everybody wins.

To become a better presenter:

• Learn from free resources on YouTube
• Observe presenters at your company or on TED talks
• Ask your colleagues, boss, or team for feedback on your presentations 
• Present and practice

5. Improve collaboration skills

Communication and collaboration are important skills at any level of your career. More so in a world that’s quickly moving to remote and hybrid working models. If you work remotely, you probably use several tools to communicate and collaborate, like Slack or Microsoft Teams. You can easily integrate Assembly with them to streamline your internal communications and keep everything in one place. Assembly is a great option for bringing your teams, tasks, and feedback into one place for best collaboration. 

You can set up Daily Agenda template to collaborate with employees. You can customize the content section to include repetitive agenda items or follow up with team members on assigned items using the comments section. 

Here’s how you can use the Daily Agenda template:

Here’s what you can do to improve communication and collaboration:

• Listen carefully
• Be brief and specific — use Assembly’s Project Feed template to share quick updates with your team
• Proofread before hitting send
• Set clear expectations — use Assembly’s AMA template to allow team to ask questions
• Play your team’s strengths
• Use the best collaboration tools

6. Learn how to manage time better

You want to optimize your schedule for maximum productivity. Learning time management isn’t only about getting more work done. It’s also about making time to work on yourself so you can learn a new skill, work on your side hustle, or spend more time with family. 👪
To get better with time management, you’ll need to hold yourself accountable for how you spend your time. 

You can do this with Assembly’s Time Budget workflow. The template can help you monitor how you spend time each week. It’s essentially an accountability partner that helps you monitor where you’re spending your time by asking a set of questions. 

You can also customize the template to include questions you want to ask yourself each week.

When trying to manage time better:

• Hold yourself accountable or use a tool for accountability
• Stick to a schedule
• Learn how to say no to things for which you don’t have time
• Don’t schedule activities back to back; always have a buffer

7. Start a side hustle

Building your own side hustle can be rewarding, but it demands hard work. Imagine working a full-time job, coming home, and working a few more hours. Doesn’t sound that glorious, does it? It’s only after you’ve built a solid foundation that you’ll start to reap the benefits of being a business owner.

To build the foundation, you’ll need to acquire multiple skills based on your side hustle idea. But this isn’t all that difficult when you have access to the internet. For instance, if you want to know a lot about finance, you can start a blog. You can learn blogging online using countless free resources, without spending on an expensive course. 💸

In most cases, you’ll have more than one side hustle idea. Keeping track can be tough when you’ve got a full plate with a full-time job. Assembly’s Idea Management template can help you organize each of your ideas and their details, so you don’t forget about them over time. 

Once you’ve settled on an idea, you can use the Product Idea Management template to give your idea a structure.

Here’s what you need to get started with your side hustle:

• Determine what you love doing or talking about
• Find a way to monetize it: this may require research
• Learn basics of business management, marketing, and finance
• Count your money

The Ultimate Goal 🥅

Your ultimate professional goal — in most cases — is growth. 

Growth comes in many shapes and forms and can be subjective. The professional goals we’ve mentioned aren’t exhaustive, of course. They’re examples you can use for inspiration.

Your professional growth is in your control. If you want to succeed, set goals and work consistently to achieve them. Take an organized approach by tracking your goals with Assembly. 

Live long and prosper. 🖖