Preface: How to build a successful career!

INTRODUCTION?

"Of the voluntary acts of every man, the object is some good to himself"??- Thomas Hobbes

In his book Leviathan, written in 1651, Thomas Hobbes rightly mentioned that a man is fundamentally selfish. Each of his acts is guided by unconscious self-interest. Will a man ever be inclined to work towards something that does not fulfill his motives and desires????

Born into a middle-class family with academician parents, I had spent my entire childhood learning my family values. These were based on idealistic political thinkers and playwrights like Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, George Bernard Shaw, and Tolstoy. Focusing on the future, saving for the future, fulfilling responsibilities, simple life and high thinking, focusing on performance, delivering on promises, and the likes... These values are prevalent in India and rest of the Asia. And these worked in the past. As we are globalizing American methods and management science are taking over the world including Asia and India. I saw India move from a closed economy to a globalized economy, which also led to changes in values, management systems, and therefore ways to succeed in a career.?

So, growing up was different from?childhood, and came with a new set of challenges, the most difficult of which was the process of unlearning some of my old behaviors. Joining a large organization after my engineering, I always believed that high performers have great careers.??

I was wrong.??

So, will you succeed if you perform????

Is performing the only way to succeed??

Will you not succeed if you do not perform???

Before delving into these questions, think about large organizations, with thousands of employees spread across the world. Each of them works towards one goal, the goal relevant to the organization.

If an employee performs, he delivers to the larger organizational goal.??

But does everyone truly care about the organization in such large organizations???

Each employee is fixated on achieving his own goals and catering to his aspirations.??

But what about the manager??

The managers in any organization are expected to be focused on how well their teams achieve the given tasks within stipulated deadlines to further the organizational objectives.?

However, managers are also human beings who would put their interests and egos ahead of the organization’s, if they can. This leads to politics.?

While performance is an essential foundation for careers, it is necessary and not a sufficient condition.?Effectively managing relationships with managers, peers, and stakeholders is?important. This leads to the importance of perception management.????

When the goals are properly set and jobs are judiciously allocated, team members contribute to the organization. In large organizations, the employees are visible only to the managers and not the leadership. Simultaneously, managers are the eyes of employees, a lens through which they view the company. An incompetent and self-serving manager fails to guide his employees. The availability of great managers is limited and investment in creating great managers is also limited. A lot of time the people and process set up does not ensure great management.??

In such cases where managers are not capable and team members are not aligned with the managers, what happens once the performance review is done??

Three outcomes:?

1. Most capable team members are fired?

1. Mediocre team members?are retained and may be promoted?

1. Below average are retained for firing during headcount reduction or fulfilling the bottom 10% exit targets?

This leads to mediocre organization over time that may fail in the next 5 to 25 years depending on the size of the organization. However, what happens to the people and their careers in 2 to 3 years, that has a long-term impact over the next 20 years??

Careers are so much more than something you pursue to earn money. Career management is an art. It is also a science.?

Where is the science??        

Science lies in what you do, how you do it, and how you optimize your work. Science is about performance. If you have the capability, and a positive attitude to perform and take ownership, performance becomes an algorithm that you can master and deliver. Performance is extremely important and provides a strong foundation for a successful career. This is essential and being a science is easy to master if you decide to.

Where is the art??        

The art lies in creating a positive perception and building relationships.??Art is always more difficult than science. It takes time, experience, and exposure to master it. Middle-class boys and girls are brought up with the value of performance focus and often miss the art of building careers. Those whose parents have worked with private companies, especially at senior positions have an advantage of learning the corporate dynamics at dinner table discussions while still at school.

Companies go above and beyond in search of great employees. But their real great employees, aka, the intelligent ones, are feeling left out. While the not-so-intelligent ones are up above, ruling the roost. This is not only unfair to the high-performing employees but also to the company, which has a weaker core.??

As I discussed in one of my earlier posts “mistakes I made...”, when my commendable performance, 4 times in a row, failed to make me a global head of a practice or a regional CEO. I realized how I failed to manage bosses and leaders in the USA or group HQ.?In my subsequent articles, I will be delving more into these aspects and how you can leverage my experience to build your career.

The misplaced notion of “if I focus on my performance only, my career will grow”, became just another belief that I had to unlearn.?

As an individual lower down the hierarchy, we may not be able to change the way organizations and people work. We may have to find ways to protect our interests and the organization’s interests. If organizations survive and thrive, we will have thriving careers. Moreover, leadership is focused on performance and ensuring the growth of the organization. Individuals have to be aligned with the organization as well. The leaders are high performers. Therefore, they are leaders. But they managed stakeholders and perceptions well.?

In this newsletter, I propose to share my learning in approximately 52 articles over the next year covering essential elements of career growth:?

1. How do we perform???
2. How do we manage stakeholders??
3. How do we manage relationships and perceptions??
4. How should we stay engaged??
5. How can we learn and grow???

We will start with individual contributors and frontline managers, moving to middle management, and top management, and finally, the fight to be the position of the CEO.?

We will try to create a plan for individuals to help them effectively manage their interests and the organization's. We will also discuss what organizations should do. This will include what role managers, skip managers, and leaders should play to help individuals build careers. As a result, organizations can attract, engage, and retain high performers. This will help create?high-performance organizations.?

I invite your comments and suggestions now and along the way to make the articles?more relevant to the audience.?If you find it interesting and useful, please like it, comment on it, and recommend it to your friends and colleagues.?

Let us continue to interact... and possibly impact careers...