What You Need to Know to Map Your Path to Career Success

Frequently I engage with future leaders, students, folks early in their careers or those who are well on their way about the things they need to know to map their path to career success. We talk about their personal development plan and how important that they have one and own it.

They often ask what leadership lessons that I learned along the way. I start that everyone’s journey to leadership is unique. There is no magic formula to the C-suite. However, I have found that leaders share a standard set be behavioural competencies. These competencies are different at various levels of leadership. I offer these as the ladder of leadership. It is essential that you understand your superpowers and the areas you need to rely on others for help.

Principles as measures for decision making

Leaders also rely on a set of principles as measures for decision making regarding their careers. The principles serve as a foundation when challenges arise — and problems will arise. It how you deal with these challenges define you as a leader. We measure seven leadership styles.

Leadership Style	Description
Administrative Style	This leader follows normative rules and establishes regulation guidelines for operating. They are often distinguished as “coordinating” Vs “leading” or “managing”. Administrative Leadership style equates enforcing the rules as effective “leadership”. You will often find this leadership role in a situation where the work environment is dangerous and specific sets of procedures are necessary to ensure safety. Their emphasis or belief is that a good leader must first establishes good controls, rules, regulations, systems, policies and procedures.
Agile Style	This leader values the need to adapt to constantly changing conditions, with the ability to embrace new effective behaviors based on new requirements and the challenges of a chaotic, even volatile market place driving a magnitude of change, with the potential to confound by it daunting complexity and uncertainty.
Collegial Style	This leader had a “hands-off¨ approach. It is one in which the manager provides little or no direction and gives employees as much freedom as possible. All authority or power is given to the employees and they must determine goals, make decisions, and resolve problems on their own.
Directive Style	This leader retains control, influence and decision-making authority. The directive leader does not feel the need to consult employees, and employees are expected to obey orders and to receive “constructive criticism” without discussion or reciprocal feedback. The commanding leader tries to establish a motivation environment by creating a structured set of rewards and punishments.
Entrepreneurial Style	This leader is a primary force behind successful change. They are the “pace-setting” leaders whose direct reports have the most difficulty getting a handle on or predicting their needs because they go their own way, guided from within by some base of impulse, inspiration, revelation, reason or value unique to them alone. In leadership scenarios, where others may come to a common understanding, they often do not come to the same conclusion. It is usually admiration, loyalty and devotion among followers that provides an Entrepreneurial leader with credibility to lead.
Inspirational Style	This leader engages with others in such a way that leaders and followers constructively raise one another to higher levels of motivation, effective relationships, quality orientation and overall workplace productivity.
Utilitarian Style	This leader drives the workplace to maximize the greatest number of task accomplished from the greatest number of employees. The Utilitarian leader believes strongly in the concept that work produced should be the main or only criteria of one’s salary level. Utilitarian leadership is grounded in practicality, where decision-making centers around the issue of quality of effort or results, political correctness (or astuteness) and profitability criteria.

Today most organizations are looking for an agile leader. However, over the decades, the most effective leaders are situational leaders. With situational leadership, you apply the right leadership style depending on where your team is for the specific task or goal. You need to understand all of the leadership styles. Very few people have strengths in multiple leadership styles, so this approach requires hard work. Furthermore, when we are stress, we revert to our natural traits. It is essential that you understand them and how you react.

Leadership principles

Here are some leadership principles that have helped me in my career:

Ask good questions and seek advice

Many people think leadership is all about having the right answers at the ready. Yet, no matter how experienced you are — understand the importance of showing humility by asking questions and seeking out help.

"Great leaders understand that it’s not easy to translate vision into reality. And they realize they can’t do it alone. The most effective leaders are those who seek out what they and their company need. That kind of growth mindset is ageless.”— Chip Conley, author of Wisdom at Work: The Making of a Modern Elder

According to a study conducted by the Harvard Business School, asking questions in the workplace may cause others to view you as more engaged and intelligent. Although some may fear retribution, appear incompetent, or seen as annoying, an inquisitive nature is often a sign of competence.

Information sharing is very important in organizations. If everyone sat in their separate silos and never interacted with each other, they wouldn’t learn anything from each other. By not seeking advice, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to learn from your co-workers,” Alison Wood Brooks, Harvard

Become powerful

This effect is even stronger among people who feel powerful, Professor Gino found in another study.

People who feel powerful tend to resist the advice of others because they experience the advice as a threat to their own claim to power and feel competitive with their advisers.” Francesca Gino, Harvard

Although a fair amount of research about how people respond to advice has been published, much less has been done on seeking learning feedback. People believe that asking for help is inconsiderate — we do not want to bother others. However, the findings suggest that unless you are feeling anxious, there is little to lose if you seek advice. Being asked for help is flattering. Asking someone to share his or her wisdom, advice seekers stroke the adviser’s ego and can gain valuable insights.

When you are asking questions, people do not think less of you — they think you are smarter.

Create the right team

“The buck stops here.” — President Harry Truman

As a leader, you have the ultimate accountability. However, you can not do it alone. A leader is only as good as the team around them. In a leadership role, you are expected to hit full stride within 18 months. Job one is to surround yourself with experts who have different talent stacks — skills, knowledge, wisdom, accomplishments, and superpowers. It would be best if you had this diversity of thought and perspective as early as possible within your tender. Shoot for three months or less. Create an environment where your team is comfortable giving their opinion.

“You can’t sink half a ship.”

You and your team are in it together. When you wrestle with critical business decisions, you need to have a group that can talk freely about what they agree or disagree.

Opportunities are catalysts for change

“You always have a choice in how you respond to difficult circumstances. I’ve found that embracing mistakes or change as an opportunity can lead to incredible growth and possibilities. That’s important to remember when the unexpected hits.”—Lynn Good, Duke Energy

Disruption defines today’s business environment. You can complain that these disruptions are a problem or see them as an opportunity to grow. A growth mindset means you will choose the latter. Build the growth mindset within your team. A straightforward way to do it is to ask at the end of every meeting:

What went well?
What could be better?

Moreover, despite your best intentions, there will be significant setbacks and unexpected detours. Throughout my career and while serving as CEO for over 25 years, I have seen many setbacks and had to pivot often. Significant operational events can lead to profound changes in every aspect of our business.

You always have a choice in how you choose to respond to difficult circumstances. My approach is to embrace change or mistakes as opportunities — do not dwell on why it happens — be future focused. This growth mind leads to incredible growth and possibilities. It is essential to remember when the unexpected hits; it is people first. Support your team. You need them to help you come out on the other side on top.

Get perspective

“It is entirely possible that behind the perception of our senses, worlds are hidden of which we are unaware.” – Albert Einstein

As a leader you are visible. Your team needs to see you on the front lines. You need to see them in their environment. That is where the work is done. Most importantly, seeing it with your own eyes and talking with employees will help you gain perspective.

You also need to ensure you regularly visit customers, stakeholders, and shareholders. While all organizations exist to create value for shareholders, there are two necessary conditions fulfilled employees and satisfied customers. Fulfillment is an extremely high bar. It encompasses purpose, meaning, satisfaction and engagement. Fulfillment comes first — excellence follows.

In the digital age, replacing interacting with someone face to face, to listen to their ideas and respond to their concerns is a frequent mistake. Your in-person conversations and meetings help you get the pulse of the organization and communities you serve. It would be best if you saw the critical issues and challenges yourself. There is no substitute for road work.

Seek Organizational Alignment

“Bringing meaningful purpose, practical strategies, and goals together makes an organization’s aspirations more credible— and more likely to be achieved.”—McKinsey

Achieving alignment is a crucial ingredient for the success of any organization. It is critical that everyone on your team clearly understands your strategy, and that you are aligning where you spend your time, budgets, and the structure to the achievement of that strategy.

My approach to strategy-making is developing a set of answers to five interlinking questions. Team members are engaged in the process, and the answers share throughout the organization.

The questions cascade logically from the first to the last.

What are our broad aspirations for our organization and the concrete goals against which we can measure our progress?
Across the potential field available to us, where will we choose to play and not play?
In our chosen place to play, how will we choose to win against the competitors there?
What capabilities are necessary to build and maintain to win in our chosen manner?
What are the management systems that are necessary to build, operate and maintain the key capabilities?

My approach makes strategy easier and more meaningful.

It saves you from endless visioning exercises, misdirected SWOT analyses, and lots of uninformed big thinking. You are crafting your strategy in concrete chunks through iteration of the answers to the five questions. The result is that you get a better strategy that you can carry out, with much less pain and wasted time.

“Always focus on the front windshield and not the rear view mirror.” ― Colin Powell

However, even the best plans fall flat if you cannot communicate them. You must be able to inspire others. This ability does not come easily to everyone. “Inspire Others” is one of the ten essential behavioural competencies of C-Suite executives. So, start working on it and commit to getting better before you take on any leadership role. Embrace learning feedback.

Get help from experts. Rehearse your story until it becomes second nature. Communicating your vision is a skill that can be learned and developed, but you must put in the work.

A career is a marathon — not a sprint

It would be best if you kept growing and adapting to new risks and opportunities. However, it is a marathon, not a sprint. It would help if you planned accordingly. I continuously challenge myself to become better at how I approached my job. The challenges range from how I manage change to the issues that get my time and attention. Given the pace of change today, you need to understand that there is no endpoint in your development. You must be a lifelong learner.

It is constructive to think of your career in terms of career capital. Your opportunity to learn is an excellent barometer for determining whether it is worth staying in any job. Learning is how you build your talent stack — skills, knowledge, wisdom, superpowers, and accomplishments. Your talent stack is your career capital. Think of your salary as your return on career capital. Think of the learning at the organization as a dividend. Knowledge increases your career capital. It is yours to take with you. I encourage you to take full advantage of every opportunity.

“A great career gives you an ever-increasing opportunity to learn more. Even if you are not looking to change your role, ‘knowledge has to be improved, challenged and increased constantly, or it vanishes.” — Peter Drucker

Stay agile and competitive.

Many organizations today rely on expert talent sourced from anywhere in the world, in a variety of ways that fall outside the traditional employment model. The globalization of expertise and technology frees up companies to experiment with new ways of filling critical skill gaps while staying lean. You can learn a lot from these experts and become one!

“Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish” — Steve Jobs

Jobs was not encouraging Stanford graduates them to go hitchhiking to find serendipity. It was about being a “learn-it-all,” open-minded and adaptive to change. Moreover, also not letting others define what success should be for you. In the pursuit of happiness, a sense of security and perspective can make all the difference. A healthy dose of discontent and restlessness can quickly become a dreadful thing due to insecurity.

Concluding Thoughts

Spend time and create your set of principles, using examples based on your experiences, values, and beliefs. It will be time well spent.

There are two essential mindsets for you to develop to compliment your principles. Mindset change is not about picking up a few pointers here and there. It is about seeing things in a new way.

When you change to a growth mindset, you switch from a judge-and-be-judged framework to a learn-and-help-learn framework. Your commitment is to grow, and growth takes plenty of time, effort, and mutual support.

A dark horse mindset insight is useful in guiding you to a life of purpose, authenticity, and achievement, no matter where you are in your career. There are four critical elements of fulfilment;

Know your micro-motives and superpowers — you need to understand your behavioural DNA
Be open to opportunities to find fulfillment
Develop your talent stack to capitalize on the available opportunities
Do not set a destination — use gradient assent — capitalize on the opportunities

Being fixed on a destination rather than a direction is problematic from two points. The specific target may disappear before you get there. You may get there and be disappointed. The grass is always greener on the other side. With gradient assent you are learning, growing, and continuously discovering what provides you fulfillment, meaning and purpose.