You might use the less-successful career development strategies below when focused on surviving the day-to-day demands of your current role. We’ve all at one point or another succumbed to these default-mode approaches. Recognize any of these?

1. Not understanding how the talent management system in your company works overall – what it is, who is involved, and who is well regarded
2. Not knowing what factors are considered high potential and not using those to inform your development plan
3. Presuming you know what skills and experiences you’ll want or need later or in what direction your career will go
4. Not continuously and actively working on growing capacity and capabilities
5. Failing to intentionally build a portfolio of leadership skills and experiences early in your career when you have more leeway and less pressure to get it perfect
6. Not letting key leaders know what you’re up to and expecting them to discover it
7. Not investing a little at a time to build long...