In the Loop

Here’s where career professionals like you get to dive deeper.

The Loop is all about unique perspectives, answering real questions, and fresh ideas to navigate the ever-evolving workplace. Whether you're figuring out your next career move, looking for strategies to move beyond surviving and thrive in your current role, or seeking extra motivation, you’re in the right place. Consider this your space to stay informed, inspired, and one step ahead—so you can keep your career in motion with confidence and clarity.

Let’s get you in the loop

Personal qualities to help you thrive in 2025

Buoyancy

The ability to stay emotionally, mentally and physically resilient, generally optimistic and positive. Looking after your wellbeing.

Ideation

Bringing ideas, suggestions and recommendations to the table that are workable, innovative and well considered. Being curious and asking questions.

Initiative

Taking the needed action. Not waiting to be told to do something within your area of responsibility and authority. Proactively looking for opportunities for beneficial action. Preparing yourself for future needed actions. Not waiting until you are completely exhausted or frustrated before the action you need to look after yourself.

Drive

The ability to get things done and deliver right results in line with the direction of the business. The ability to overcome obstacles and deliver results at the right time, to the right standard, with relationships in tact.

Ownership

Taking responsibility seriously. Behaving as if it was your own business and stepping up beyond the limit of your responsibilities when it may be needed.

Inspiration

Being able to motivate yourself, update your skills and knowledge and keep yourself progressing without constant extrinsic motivation.

360 Thinking

Basically this is critical thinking. The ability to think all around an issue and consider all aspects. This is using data, human insights and creative thinking to create the best possible solutions.

Elasticity

Being flexible, willing to change, stretch without bending as things change all around you. Not being bent out of shape emotionally as you travel through challenging moments.

Positioning for a salary increase

Wage strategies are driven primarily by goals of aligning wages with workers’ productivity and performance so we know that being productive and increasing our skills and knowledge is key. Productivity increase doesn’t just come with getting faster at doing tasks. It comes as a combination of;

  1. becoming more confident with the task

  2. reducing interruptions / increasing focus time

  3. using tools to automate or streamline processes

  4. not doing tasks that no longer serve / delegating or getting support

  5. running a time-box type schedule (where tasks are allocated time in the diary)

  6. reducing stress (clarity is affected by stress levels)

  7. break tasks down to small bites and check off your progress

  8. work in 30 minute intervals with a short walk/movement in between.

Ongoingly improving your productivity will help position you for a salary increase, but the timing may be related to when the company reviews salaries, sometimes only on an annual basis. Increasing our skills and knowledge is about making the most of the learning opportunities available within the organisation, funding some of our own learning, accessing coaches and mentors and using the myriad of free learning online. Proactivity is the key here - as a company looks very favourably on people who take initiative to progress their skills and knowledge without waiting for the company to provide guided learning pathway. Salary increase consideration can also be affected by our attitude and the personal qualities we operate by. Take a look at the next article on the high priority qualities for the now age.

Transition Out Wisely

What if you want to quit the company but you like your career and don’t want to damage it in the process. Totally ok and doable. Here’s some tips;

  • Continue to be the high performer / valuable player / solid contributor you have always been. Your reputation will go with you and you’ll not burn any bridges.

  • Be clear about why you want to quit (leadership? Lack of progress? No opportunities….?) so you know what you need in your new job.

  • Do a professional and generic exit discussion. Don’t aim to ‘tell the real truth’ to HR or your manager - just let them know you’ve enjoyed your time, learned a lot and it’s time for you to take on new challenges. That way you’ll not damage your reputation or burn bridges.

  • Offer to train your successor and/or provide documentation to help with the transition.

  • Make sure your work is all up to date and filed appropriately.

  • Look for small joys in each day so you can sustain yourself through the sometimes lengthy transition out of there.

  • Find things that inspire you for your next role and get ready for it in everyway you can - but not on the current company time.

Your perception stack

Perceptions that form as you start your career can shape you - or you can shape you with intention and vision. Our perceptions can become our reality which can actually hijack your ability to make great progress and enjoy quick career success. For example, you might perceive that someone in the team is slacking off which is very annoying. While this could be true, it’s never the full story. So rather than letting only your perception drive you, let them be one information source. Go to other sources, perspectives from others and even take a less jaundiced view. Maybe they are actually doing something else for a leader that you know nothing about. You’ll probably find that with other insights, your perception might just change. Letting our perceptions create us is what most people do, but that’s the tail wagging the dog. Why not let your perceptions inform you but not dictate to you? Go on, we dare you.

Meditation 2.0

With mental fitness, wellbeing and mental clarity being at the forefront of productivity at work, it’s worth taking a look at the growing trend of work-based meditations. The word meditation simply means to be familiar with. We all get a mind and we get to choose where to point it. Meditation is about taking our thoughts and intentionally making them serve us for the better. Where you might be telling yourself “I’m overworked / stressed / stuck”, you can actually tell yourself a different story even if the right now reality doesn’t match. Our thoughts become things so you’ll move towards whatever you are thinking about and focusing on. Why not try some different thoughts such as “I’m doing really well / feeling fabulous / things are lining up for me / I’m very safe / I can get through this workload because I’m very productive right now”. Then put some emotion into the thought and focus on it for at least 10 minutes. Imagine how you would feel if that were true. Soak in that emotion and try and feel it in your body. When you combine a clear intention with an elevated emotion, your mind, body and life all get a real boost. Go on. Give it a go.

The Quietly Wonderful Things

While so much has changed / is changing / will change, there are some constants involved in our careers. And that feels wonderful. - to know that some of the things which you put in place in your early career will never need to change.

So what are they? Well, as you’d probably guess, they are the qualities we bring to the table. How we show up. For example, if decide to build a reputation for finishing things well, you’ll always be able to apply that quality. Or if your default is intentionally great listening skills, then you’d better know that that is a quietly wonderful thing. Same with taking initiative, being proactive, kindness, respect, hard work, discipline…..the list goes on. But it does feel good to know that how you are (which you can design from the very start) will stand you on solid ground of progression in your career regardless of the job, the company or the country.

Learning Loop

It used to be the case that companies provided every bit of training you needed. They sometimes even provided a classroom environment and took you off the job for a period of time, so you could learn in a risk-free environment. Now that does still happen at times, but as a new professional, it’s worth you knowing that most companies do expect you to take ownership of your own learning and ability to keep up with changes. This is because the pace of change is so great that if you were to be pulled off the job to learn everything, or even given every bit of training, you’d never get anything done. So it’s like a loop - you learn that new AI tool and 6 months later you need to use a new one. It’s a loop because there is no end point but also loops are not boring!