Determining your future in your current company

- [Instructor] Next align with your boss or don't. If your goal is to move up or across within your current organization, then it's a good idea to align with your boss before you make your plan final. The more your boss understands your career goals, the more they can support you in working towards achieving them. Your boss might be able to help mentor you, nominate you for company programs and job rotations, or suggest people to add to your network, but there are times when aligning with your boss might not be the thing to do. Before I became my own boss, I had the requisite development plan in place designed to move me up my company's ladder, but in the role I held, I had the good fortune of partnering with various coaches and consultants, and those partnerships helped me realize that starting my own leadership consulting business was what I wanted to do, so I crafted my own development plan. I started taking consultants to lunch and coffee. I'd asked them about how they got their start and what I should read and learn, who I should meet. I captured and followed their advice, and that became my secret ninja development plan, and now I'm running the business I dreamed of.