Women often overemphasize being good at their jobs over being good at their careers. They spend hours refining their PowerPoint presentations. They pride themselves on responding to every email within two hours, whether it is urgent or not. They say yes to every request from their boss, regardless of what won’t get accomplished as a result.

Obviously, you need to be good at your job to have a successful career. But being good at your job is just the price of admission to moving ahead in your career. To reach your full potential at work, you need to be good at your career too. You need to intentionally spend time on those things that are going to get you stretch assignments, increase your visibility, get you recognition, and ultimately lead to raises and promotions. You need to develop the mindset that, in addition to spending time on the projects which are sitting on your desk and calling out for your attention, you're also going to invest time and energy in activities that are important to your career in the long run. These actions may not have immediate payback, but over the course of a career, they will result in your achieving your most ambitious career goals.

Here are a few examples of what being “good at your career” might look like:

• Consistently staying in touch with the people who are in your network – the people in other departments in your company, the classmates you went to school with, your co-workers at previous jobs, or the people you know from activities you're involved in.
• Consciously expanding your network to include people who can help you achieve your long-term goals – people who are in a position to hire or recommend you for the job you hope to have, or people who can provide you with mentoring advice.
• Affirmatively asking for stretch or visibility-enhancing assignments, not just waiting for them to be offered to you.
• Investing time (and maybe even money) developing skills that will be necessary in the job you aspire to – budgeting or mentoring skills, knowledge about your industry, or comfort in public speaking.
• Regularly tapping into your network to get advice on challenges you face. Who can help you with a new project you are undertaking because they have already successfully completed a similar project?  Who can advise you on navigating the politics of getting a raise?  Who can suggest strategies for succeeding in a male-dominated organization?

This week, no matter how busy you are, add one career-enhancing activity to your to-do list.  Make this a habit.  It will pay off handsomely over the course of your career!