This essay is by P C Raguraman.

Most people expect to grow professionally and this is both normal and healthy. This growth is typically evidenced by a larger role with increased responsibilities and greater stature, especially at senior levels.  Unfortunately, this growth is often desired without any proper planning and consequently, expectations are frustrated.  The following steps can serve as a simple and effective guide to planning and achieving professional growth.

• Know thyself
  It is important to know where you are.  A realistic self-assessment of your own qualifications, skills and capabilities, as well as your current performance levels, is a good first step. Do you know if your current performance is in line with what is expected in your current role?  Are your current skills adequate for doing your job competently?  Can you rate your skills?  Is there more to achieve in the current role?  While 360 degrees feedback and your supervisor’s views are important, performing this self-assessment effectively and quantifying current performance levels can lead to greater motivations to improve.  Understand that your job may have constraints that may prevent you from being effective. It would make sense to compare your performance with that of others in a similar role.  Talking to others’ bosses will give you a greater perspective on how to assess your role.
• Where do you want to go?  What will it take to get there?
  Learn of opportunities at the next level in your organization and do a similar exercise of mapping your skills against the expectations of the next position. It is not true that only new skills are needed in the new role; expectations of competencies for the new role have expanded today to include skills and knowledge of the previous role as well.  This is crucial if you are going to review your team’s performance effectively.  Listing the gaps in your skills and addressing them through training or mentoring is always better than jumping into a new role and then trying to cope. Many fail in their new role because they don’t do this.  When assessing gaps, it is best to understand the highest expectations (not the bare minimum) from multiple sources of the new role that will qualify you to be an outstanding performer.  A little amount of research and talking to people at the next level will help you identify the right performance targets before analyzing your readiness.  Armed with the above analysis, present your case for the next role to your leader. This spadework will also provide you with the confidence to perform.
• Stay alert to the job’s needs and don’t stop learning
  Since job requirements and success criteria can change quickly in a dynamic environment, you should be able to adapt quickly to changing needs.  A sure-fire way to fail is to think you have “arrived” and that no further learning is required.  In the IT industry, you may be required to perform tasks of multiple roles.  For example, as a Project Manager, you are expected to manage your project and at the same time be a Technical Lead and a good Software Engineer. As a Delivery Manager, apart from managing client expectations and multiple projects, you are also expected to be as detailed as a Project Manager and understand well the technology being used. As a Business Unit Head, you are expected to build the business, manage clients, and also review project management and technical issues at a detailed level and offer solutions. When you stay aloof from what your team does, your ability to assess them and understand their roles suffers which can also lead to expensive hiring mistakes.
• Invest in your team
  You succeed only when your teams do.  Their success will have a direct and immediate beneficial impact on your performance, career growth and any job-related stress you may have.  Understand what skills they need (both “hard” and behavioural) to be effective.  Through training, mentoring, monitoring, new opportunities and guidance, you can make them successful.  Your leadership efforts are also critical to keep them motivated and productive.

Growth can be stressful and can come sometimes with a heavy price such as ill health and a poor work/life balance; it need not always be thus.  Take responsibility for your own career and stay interested in growing in every way, every day.  In addition to all of the above, engage the services of a reliable mentor or coach who can act as a sounding board, help you stay on the right track and get you prepared well to face the challenges of the new role successfully.