Savvy Achievers

?? Work is more intense than ever before with ongoing waves of new demands, new ways of working, more complex interconnections and technological advances. The pressure is to remain human, agile, competent and relevant. An executive is often in the realm of not-knowing, half-knowledge, ambiguity and uncertainty.

Talented people know how to solve a problem. The most savvy know how not to get into the problem in the first place. Seizing the opportunities that change presents and using them as a source of advantage, while overcoming inertia, is often a challenge. The savvy executive uses change constructively. For them change is an iterative process as each action taken causes more change and a new reality – then a new set of problems to solve or opportunities to exploit. They choose to change.

Savvy achievers are more astute about the career curve recognising when to go upstream to develop a new strategy or further options. If not paranoid, they are highly aware and alert. These traits give them the insight to recognise a pending inflection point, triggering the necessary actions to avoid derailment or a career crisis. The life cycle of nurture, growth, peak and decline is applicable to careers. This is not schadenfreude. To break the road to decline, they start a second curve before the first one reaches its peak and before any distinctive competence becomes a liability.

Further reading: Focus Shapes Contributions

Having come to terms with the fact that some skills, while effective, have a use-by date they look for ways to renew capabilities, up-skill and re-position. Operating outside their comfort zone and pushing the boundaries of their adaptability, they create parallel paths to experiment with new possibilities, create new identities and test new directions.

The ability to recombine skills, competencies and experience gives them increased options to move between functions, divisions or industries to secure their career if needed. Their strategies are fundamentally about choice, difference and advantage. Rather than limiting their perspective, they adopt an expansive view. More than just repackaging their background, they stretch assumptions about how to evolve.

In charge of their careers, they find segues to suit their needs and unique capabilities. Using their track record to validate who they are and what they have done, they self-select, pursue ambitions, make their goals known and proactively make their career happen. It is as much about deciding what not to do as it is about what will be done. They have inherent resilience to move ahead, even in difficult times.

Further reading: Executive Resilience

Independent and action oriented, they are committed rather than compliant – they own the outcome. Being great advocates of accountability they take responsibility for their actions calculating the risk and actively managing it. Discerning, they trust, but verify.

Knowing their signature strengths and what makes their personal brand distinctive positions them more effectively within their organisations and among external communities. They use this to frame, control and influence others’ views of who they are and what they can accomplish. Their brand is an essential means for focusing attention.

Clearly executives and board directors always need to manage risks – and they need to be right a lot more than they are wrong – but the most curious and questioning ones learn to trust the idea of ‘intelligent failure.’ Mistakes teach something new, provided you assess the decision-making process behind the failure. This leads to the next idea and then the next. It is not failure – it is feedback.?A safe space is useful when mistakes happen.

They understand that corporate environments are highly interconnected – both through organisation structures and with external partners. This interdependency helps move ideas or business objectives forward. This also means that power is increasingly derived through people – through relationships and alliances.

It might be a cliché but that doesn’t make it any less true that “success breeds success.” They see opportunities where others see threats. These “movers and shakers” willingly try more different things to achieve greater returns.

Further reading: New Role Coaching Plan

Protecting their franchise is paramount. They want their authority and voice to matter. They actively seek to secure their special position with those who count, drawing on their consummate stakeholder management.

Voice is about being heard, clear visibility and the weight to negotiate prized career moves, key assignments and the right level of reward. They assess their value, credibility and currencies based on how close they are with the most senior leaders in the business. This gives them the clout to be involved in decisions. Executive decision-making is not just about strategy and technical expertise – it relies strongly on authority, political savvy, conflict management and trust.

Most on the fast track learn that the higher they are the more important are trusted and diverse contacts. They are highly connected with intricate network maps and coveted levels of social capital. These relationships are valued at a premium. They reciprocate not only on referrals, but act as candid thought partners helping each other to resolve specific problems, work through issues of change and transition, assess strategy options or provide expertise and special knowledge. It is a very potent coalition.

Further reading: Leader As Strategist

Given what they want to achieve in all domains of their life, savvy achievers have come to know what truly matters, have a ‘personal why’ and then set their choices accordingly. Effective at setting priorities, they regard time as having as an opportunity-cost. They can identify and work on those most critical activities that produce a real and significant business outcome.

These executives do have a self-determination that they will succeed. Their optimism leads to a belief that they can achieve, and importantly will achieve. They feel in control and rarely are victims of fate, luck, muses or chance. They believe there is a meritocracy.

This modus operandi means that they are more likely to achieve.

EVERY EXECUTIVE NEEDS A TRUSTED SOUNDING BOARD

“How do I choose a mentor-coach and what should I look for?" is a natural question. Look for someone who is compatible, but has enough of a contrast to bring new perspectives. Someone who has the expertise you would need to work through the 'how' and the 'why'; that you could trust and respect. You would want a good listener and someone who has your interests at heart to the extent that they will encourage a frank dialogue on both sides and support you through the changes that will need to be made.”- Dianne Jacobs

This article is part of our Insights for Action series and forms part of our mentoring and coaching work. Explore our Executive Reading List for new perspectives on leadership and governance. Join the mailing list to receive this and more.

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