How to Build an Exceptional Career Path

Most people think career success comes from making the perfect decision. It doesn’t. It comes from making timely, values-aligned ones. Especially when the next step feels unclear. One of my clients, a brilliant VP, spent 3 months stuck on a single choice: “Do I speak up about being overlooked, or wait for my work to speak for itself?” She called it strategic patience. But it was really fear disguised as overthinking. We ran it through this framework. She made the call. Six weeks later, her promotion was fast-tracked. She was finally seen, heard, and most importantly, included. Because here’s what I tell every high-achiever I coach: You don’t need more time to decide. You need a better way to decide. Try the 2-Minute Decision Framework™ (Career Edition): 1. QUICK DECISIONS → Handle it NOW For low-stakes tasks that clog your mental bandwidth: → Can you respond to that email in < 2 minutes? → Is the request low risk and easily reversible? → Are you spiraling on something that just needs action? ✅ Do it. Momentum builds trust and confidence. (Your career doesn’t stall in the big moves, it drips away through tiny indecisions.) 2. TEAM DECISIONS → Resolve it TODAY For collaborative work or project bottlenecks: → Who’s recommending this approach? → Who’s doing the work? → Who’s accountable for the final call? ✍️ Assign roles. Align expectations. Move forward. (Most team confusion comes from no one knowing who’s driving.) Use this anytime you’re: – Leading a cross-functional project – Navigating performance reviews – Building team trust through shared clarity 3. CAREER DECISIONS → Make it THIS WEEK For decisions that affect your growth, visibility, and voice: Use the 3–2–1 Method: → 3 options: Brainstorm career paths, scripts, or solutions → 2 perspectives: Ask two mentors, not the whole internet → 1 call: Choose the path aligned with your long game 🎯 Clarity > complexity. Every time. This works for: – Deciding whether to advocate for a raise or promotion – Considering a lateral move for growth – Navigating visibility or speaking up on tough issues The truth is: courageous careers aren’t built on perfect plans. They’re built on small, aligned decisions made with intention. That’s C.H.O.I.C.E.® in action. So here’s your coaching moment: 🔥 Pick one decision you’ve been avoiding. Run it through the framework. Make the call within the next hour. Then ask yourself: What changed when I finally decided? ❓ What’s one career decision you’ve been sitting on too long? Share it below, or DM me, and we’ll run it through together. 🔖 Save this for your next “Should I…?” moment 👥 Tag someone who needs this framework in their toolkit Because alignment isn’t found in overthinking. It’s built through C.H.O.I.C.E.®. ➕ Follow Loren Rosario - Maldonado, PCC for tools that actually work in real life. #CareerCoaching #LeadershipDevelopment

A recent conversation with a mentee trying to navigate the next steps in their career reminded me of an essential rule I always emphasize: You own your career, therefore you have to be in the driver's seat. They recently received some feedback from their manager that was confusing as it didn’t align with previous feedback. The conversation on next steps was very vague. Reality check: waiting for clear guidance or validation from others can leave you stuck in neutral. Instead, you must proactively manage your own career path. Here are a few things I suggested: 1. Do a Self-Assessment You need to understand your strengths, weaknesses, passions, and career aspirations. Identify what excites you and where you see yourself in the future. Remember they can all change due to new experiences and gaining new skillsets. 2. Seek Constructive Feedback While feedback from leadership is valuable, it’s important to triangulate. Reach out to mentors, peers, and others in your function that you admire for their insights. Feedback is just one piece of the puzzle. Use it as a tool for improvement, not as a definitive roadmap. You never know when you might run into an unconscious bias. 3. Continuous Learning and Development I’m ever curious and always looking for learning opportunities. Look for opportunities to learn from other functions. The business world is continusly changing, and staying on top of the game, requires investing time to learn. Stay informed about your current industry trends but also look for best practices in others. 4. Advocate for Yourself People can’t read your mind, so they don’t know what your career goals and aspirations are. Don’t be afraid to articulate them to your leadership. Express your interest in new projects, responsibilities, or roles that align with your goals. 5. Adaptability and Resilience Career paths are rarely linear. My own has been a lattice. Be adaptable. Embrace challenges and view setbacks as learning experiences. Being in the driver's seat of your career means taking an intentional role in your professional development. While others can give you guidance, the ultimate responsibility for your career lies with you. What else would you tell him?

You are probably familiar with Amazon's "Start with the press release" or working backwards method for product releases (link in comments below). This week I had the idea to do that with my career development. Almost certainly, I am not the first to think of this, but thought I would share my version. 1) Start with the announcement - write the announcement of your next role no matter how far out that is. Include the unique strengths, skills, and experiences you are bringing to the position. 2) Create your future resume - write the resume/CV that got you the next role. What is in that future version that you don't have on your resume today? 3) Use the announcement and resume as guiding principles to get clear on any gaps and to make informed decisions on where to invest your time next 4) Start collecting the experiences you need with intention 5) Continually reflect and adjust as needed, career development is never a straight line and you don't know what you don't know yet. I am a fan of prioritizing growth and development even (especially?) when you are enjoying where you are today. Today is always the best day to do anything, so am off to write my future resume. 😃

The one critical piece of career advice I wish I’d known 10 years ago: → Work in silence on your abilities but also build your visibility.  At 21, I used to believe: If I keep my head down, and work 5X harder, everything will fall into place. Yes, hard work is important but it’s not enough to get you the pay or title you deserve. There are lot of people out their exceptional expertise and ability but they are not where they should want to be because they lack visibility. Okay, how do I build visibility while I work on my skills? 1/ Document your journey: +positive feedback +milestones you achieve +the contributions you make +actions you take to bring growth 2/ Network and build relationships: +connect with hiring managers, colleagues +people from other departments across your org +ask about their dog, kids, their menthol health 3/ Become the go-to person: +if you work as a developer +consistently learn and share with others +the more you do this, the more you’ll build yourself +as an expert on the matter, and that’s what we need. It goes for everything, whether you’re job searching or looking to get promoted. The playing field is leveled, it’s easier to build skills now more than ever. The important factor is how you communicate those skills. So, the next time someone asks you: -why should we hire you? -or why do you deserve the raise? You can tell them exactly why.  – P.S: Building relationships is how I got a 6-figure job offer I didn’t even apply for. Will tell you the story in the next post. 

Do this one thing to change the conversation with your manager at the next one-on-one. 👇 Invite your manager to learn about your career story. Managers are not mind readers to know who you are and where you want to go. You may not have deeply internalized that story with clarity and conviction yourself. Ten years ago at Microsoft, I started to run workshops across the company to help colleagues create their career stories. The initial goal was to develop internal clarity of the story that could then be used to invite managers and colleagues to support their career journey. Stories have a way of bringing out the inner spirit of people. After hearing your story, stakeholders will always find a way to support your career plan. Leaders may only know how best to help if they hear who you are and what you want. I also worked with Microsoft talent development programs teaching colleagues how to craft career stories presented in front of leadership teams. This practice was a game-changer for the individual and the manager/team. The process drove accountability for people to take responsibility for their careers and for managers to create a safe forum to hear and support the stories. The result was mutual value. Imagine telling your career story with three to five slides - here is who I am, here are potential pathways I see (career roadmap), and the development I need to excel in my current role and reduce the friction to transition to a possible next role. Ryan Reed was a Microsoft colleague that attended one of my workshops and crafted his story. The career roadmap he discusses in this podcast is the map that guided his climb to an IT executive. He also uses this practice to champion professionals in his organization to create their career stories and use the career roadmap to guide and support talent development. ❤️ Everyone loves a great story; what is yours? See the comments below for a link to listen/watch the podcast and hear how Ryan uses career stories for himself and his organization. #career #talentdevelopment

Most folks suffer from a serious lack of career imagination. Here's how to expand your view: -- Picture your next career move. - A one-up promotion - A nearby lateral move - Maybe striking out on your own These are all logical moves. Maybe even the right ones. But have you considered every angle? -- In their excellent book, Decisive, bestselling authors Dan and Chip Heath tackle the tough practice of decision-making. And their first tip ... 👉 Widen Your Options Dan and Chip argue that most of us don't think expansively about our options. Instead, we narrow the focus to a few obvious choices. In doing this, we limit our potential. We close doors. -- Don't close doors on your career. The next time you're thinking about career moves, widen your options. Consider possibilities that range from logical to bonkers. This will help you: - Identify viable roads - Feel confident in your decision - Max out your life's work Here are 3 ways to imagine new career opportunities. -- 1️⃣ Talk to lots of people Like our decision-making, we tend to have predictable social circles. We talk to: - Coworkers - Neighbors - Old friends But how often do we dive into new circles of people? How often do we connect with folks who do work WAY outside our knowledge area? Probably not that often. Here's the good news. LinkedIn is a treasure trove of potential conversations. People you can meet and talk to. So reach out. Strike up a conversation. Ask open-ended questions. You may uncover a new path. -- 2️⃣ Launch side projects Before founding Develop Daily, I tinkered a lot. - I wrote on Medium - I launched a dad-themed ecom store - I created social content on whiskey marketing These efforts didn't go far. But they taught me a ton. AND They helped me explore options along the way. I learned that I prefer writing over video. I don't care for retail. I want to spend my time talking about learning and career development. This didn't happen overnight. So consider that project (however crazy). -- 3️⃣ Take advantage of career tools We live in the Information Age. Within seconds, we can access information that previous generations couldn't possibly imagine. Take advantage. Grab a career assessment tool, like StrengthsFinder. Map your strengths, then start looking up careers that align with your strengths. And don't miss out on the power of AI. Here's a fun prompt to drop into ChatGPT: --PROMPT-- Please act as a career coach. I'm exploring career options and want to think outside the box (aka, I want to imagine career options that aren't obvious based on my skills and past experience). Below are lists of my skills and past experience. Please recommend a few career options that I should research further to see if they might be a good fit. Skill 1: Skill 2: Skill 3: Experience 1: Experience 2: Experience 3: --END PROMPT-- -- 💭 How do you imagine new career opportunities? #skills #learning #careers

Giving back what we have learned is a way for others to identify their potential and grow in ways you couldn't even imagine. Thank you to Monroe County Family Coalition for the invitation to speak to some incredible local women at various stages in their life's journey. Having this opportunity was not only a blessing but one of the most rewarding parts of my weekend. The discussion this time was around, centering on what I have learned through my experiences, research, mistakes, and my reflective self-discovery journey: "The World of Work Today: Finding Purpose & Passion While Driving Impact" We all want to do something that we love to do, playing more to our strengths in an environment where we feel safe and that we belong while surrounding ourselves with people who enable us to become the best versions of ourselves. However, our approach is usually to look forward rather than reflect backward to design our personal and professional destination of success as well as happiness. When we are doing something that we love and we set the right intention our ability to positively impact someone else's story becomes infinitely more possible. Here are some of the keys for anyone who was not able to join us this time! 1. Start Your Self-Reflective Journey Begin by understanding yourself, your strengths, weaknesses, values, and goals. Looking backward to move forwards may seem counterproductive but this is critical to designing that "vision board for both personal and professional success." Arming you with the information you need and providing clarity to what you want. 2. Intention Drives Our Attention & Action This ultimately becomes of personal and professional mix tape, what are you listening to? 3. Find Your Tribe Once you have a sense of self, find like-minded individuals or communities who share your interests and goals. They can help you uncover strengths you never knew but also give you ways to effectively translate these skills and strengths while interviewing. 3. Mentors and Sponsors Identify mentors who can offer guidance based on their experience and sponsors who can advocate for your professional growth. Understand the difference as they both serve a purpose in our customized development and career path. 4. Network to Get Work Your Network is your net worth as they say and also when it comes to finding new careers, it is about who you know not what you know in most cases. Just look at Influencers, they understand the power of social capital. 5. Build Your Brand Develop and showcase your personal brand. This involves crafting a compelling narrative about yourself, highlighting your strengths and unique qualities, to give them more insights about your potential than a resume ever could. By contributing to the success of others you will learn from their wisdom, strengthen your network, and could just be the spark that someone else needs to achieve their dream and full potential. #giveback #community #rochesterny #leadup

3 Ways to Advocate for Career Growth and That Promotion You Want!   I commonly get asked how I can advocate for myself or speak up about moving up within a company I work for. What do I need to say to my managers to tell them I am looking for something bigger?   Are you looking to take your career to the next level but unsure how to get noticed?   Here are 3 ways to be your own advocate and show leadership you're ready for more:   1. Schedule a Career Development Meeting: - Script: "Hi [Manager Name], I'd love to discuss my career development goals. Would you be available for a meeting in the next couple of weeks?" During the Meeting: - Discuss your accomplishments and how they've benefited the company. - Express your interest in specific growth opportunities or future projects. - Ask for feedback on areas for improvement and a development plan.   2. Take Initiative and Lead Projects: - Script (to a colleague): "I noticed we're facing a challenge with [X]. I have some ideas on how to tackle it. Would you be interested in brainstorming together?" Benefits: - Showcase your problem-solving skills and ability to take ownership. - Gain valuable experience outside your current role. - Get recognized for your proactive approach.   3. Shine During Meetings and Presentations: - Script: "[Summarize key point]. Additionally, I'd like to suggest [your idea] as it could potentially [positive outcome]." Tips: - Be confident and articulate your ideas clearly. - Back up your suggestions with data or previous successes. - Be an active listener and build on others' points.   Advocating for yourself doesn't have to be loud.   Be proactive, take initiatives, and demonstrate your value, and you'll be well on your way to achieving your career goals!   Let me know what you’d add to my list!   #careerdevelopment #promotion #leadership