Three things to do to raise your human capital for social impact success
1. Find and develop a mentor relationship.
The structure of mentorships varies widely: Mentorships can be formal or informal, of a short, fixed duration or open-ended. Mentorship could simply be a casual arrangement—monthly lunches or a phone call every few months—initiated by an individual in a new position who occasionally seeks out a more experienced colleague’s advice on a particular strategy or project. Can’t find a mentor…hire a career coach to accelerate your next career move?
2. Become like a laser beam and focus your energy on a mission that you are passionate about.
An expert as defined by Merriam Webster is: having, involving, or displaying special skill or knowledge derived from training or experience. You need to decide and then focus your energy to grain training and experience. It will be more fun to research, learn, network, and attend trainings in an area that you get really excited about. You may find that developing your expertise in a particular area actually produces career leads searching you out because of your deep knowledge.
3. Conduct a needs assessment on the strategic community you want to serve.
Once you have focused your energy on a particular mission you can research more deeply. What do you need to learn or do to add high value to the community or organization? When you deeply research and learn what are some of the big challenges facing a particular community you begin to build your credibility and expertise in that sector.
