3 Ways To Elevate Your Career, Your Business Or Both

Dr. Eric George, Founder and CEO of ERG Enterprises. Nationally recognized thought leader on entrepreneurship, investing and leadership.

Chances are you have big aspirations in 2025 and beyond.

Whether you’re an entrepreneur, leader or professional looking to level up your success, this article is for you.

It’s based on my more than three decades as a full-time physician, serial entrepreneur and investor—and what still helps fuel my professional success.

In this article, I present three timeless practices that can help you grow as an entrepreneur, leader or professional in the year to come and beyond.

1. Find A Mentor

As I wrote in a previous article, mentors represent an important vehicle for professional success. They serve as an efficient resource for discovering the answers to your challenges—which, for entrepreneurs, inevitably touch every corner and function of the business, including leadership, sales, talent acquisition, research and development, etc. Mentors can help you improve your decision-making and the likelihood your investments of time, capacity and capital pay off.

At the same time, mentors can serve as invaluable resources for networking, arguably the most important aspect of any profession. Not only do mentors play a substantive role in the growth of your career or business, they can provide you with access and an introduction to valuable connections that may serve as future partners, customers, investors, co-founders, employees and so forth.

How To Find A Mentor

• Understand who you aspire to become: Consider your regular professional activities and identify individuals who possess two qualities: You admire them and you aspire to their level of success (financially, intellectually, socially, etc.). Mentors should also practice in your chosen field—be it healthcare, finance or technology. Once you identify a shortlist, carefully consider who would make the ideal mentor, knowing you can have more than one.

• Talk it into existence: Be outright in calling your mentor a “mentor”—it’s a sign of deep respect and also an effective way to ensure you receive actual mentorship.

2. Set Expectations You Can Reliably Meet

Setting the right expectations is one of the most important, yet often overlooked conditions for achieving success.

Whether you’re growing a business you founded or helping another entrepreneur do the same, people depend on you to deliver. And in my experience, delivery is more about the expectations you set for yourself than the ones others set for you. Set them too high, and you inevitably disappoint. Set them too low and you likely fail to lead and motivate others to follow you. Setting the right expectations involves careful and thoughtful analysis to ensure that you can reliably meet the target you establish. This enables others to anticipate future outcomes and plan accordingly.

How To Set The Right Expectations

• Be mindful of your external signals: Stay conscious of what you say—again, verbally or nonverbally—that others may count on. As the saying goes, make sure you can “walk the talk.” Always consider the context and venue for any claims that you make.

• Be transparent: As long as the context and venue permits it, provide as much information as needed to give stakeholders a clear and reliable picture of what to expect. Let me emphasize “as long as the context and venue permits it.”

• Understand your role: Your communication signals aren’t the only things that set expectations; your professional title does, too. Take time to fully understand what others expect from you given your professional title or role within the organization. Ensure that you either fulfill those expectations or address them explicitly so other stakeholders can reorient their expectations.

3. Develop Your Personal Brand

Brands don’t just apply to companies; they apply to people too. That seems obvious when we consider the names of some the most accomplished business leaders, athletes, politicians and celebrities. Yet personal brands aren’t exclusively reserved for public personalities.

Everyone, at every phase of an organization, exudes a brand that conveys a style, ethos and image. In my experience, the people who recognize this stand the best chance of developing one that others find consistent, memorable, attractive and so on. In the same token, those who seem to overlook this reality are most likely to develop a brand that inspires the wrong associations.

For me, I’ve developed a personal brand that uses my background in medicine as a springboard in business. For decision-making, I lean on objective data and feedback from stakeholders to form an objective diagnosis and plan of action. I also take a patient-centered approach to my encounters with customers, employees and other stakeholders, ensuring I give their concerns and needs my time and full attention.

How To Develop Your Personal Brand

• Develop a point of view: Consider what you believe about life, success and your profession that matters to you and is appropriate for a professional context. Understand why you believe what you believe and the impact of this belief system. Together, this constitutes your point of view, which shapes how you view and approach the world.

• Socialize your point of view: Market your point of view when it has application and relevance for the present moment.

• Practice consistency: This shares some overlap with setting the right expectations. Convey your point of view consistently and don’t send contradictory signals.

Remember, There’s Always More Room For Growth

We always have plenty of room for growth, whether that means a new business deal, a promotion or a successful project. Yet in my experience, growth doesn’t come by luck or happenstance. It comes through intention and the investment of your time, talent, intelligence and effort. By investing your energy into the three factors we explored in this article, I believe you can optimize the return on what you invest.

So, don’t wait for that next business deal, promotion or win to come. Get after it.

Forbes Business Council is the foremost growth and networking organization for business owners and leaders. Do I qualify?