Is Growth Synonymous with Getting a Title?

I recently had a discussion with a friend that has had a profound impact on how I view growth. Maybe I should have known this, but the dialogue we had made it clearer.

For those of us pursuing a career, particularly in corporate life, we easily fall into the trap of thinking that growth will be defined by having a position in a bureaucratic structure. Generally, this involves being either head of something, all the way up to being the CEO if you have such capabilities and networks, with networks being the operative word. This is also not helped by the fact that organisations seek to reward on the basis of these titles in a number of cases, and not on the basis of contribution. It is only natural therefore that one may seek to get a job with a title as an affirmation of progress. Needless to say, this also means better income, benefits and all the things that go with it.

As we had a discussion, we were thinking about where I am now, and where I could grow. In the discussion we now had to confront the issue of whether I see myself being at the most senior level in an organisation. Even though I said yes, the most striking part of the conversation was when he asked me to explain why. The more we spoke, the more he seemed to create confusion in my mind. This he did by getting me to confront who I am, and what it is that people seek or value in me. His question was whether having a responsibility in a bureaucratic structure does not take away something that I already am contributing to the world.

We moved the conversation from being about me to a general discussion on people’s approach to careers. In that discussion we started to look deeply at the meaning of happiness and satisfaction in a career. It was through that dialogue that it became re-emphasised in my mind that having a bureaucratic title may not necessarily be the best thing for everyone who seeks growth. In essence, my friend argued that growth is a comprehensive process, of which organisational structure captures only a part. Growth is also an intellectual and emotional process.

The challenge we have generally is that, whilst it may be true that growth is not the same as getting a title, the world we are in starts to reward only that form of growth. The onus is on the individual to re-frame their growth story to the things that have meaning for them. If it is about leading others, is it possible to do this through a series of multidisciplinary projects, of high impact, that involve people, which are valued by one’s organisation? If growth is about intellectual recognition, is it possible to increasingly get assignments that require you to show thought leadership, and thus be recognised on that basis.

Of course, the above growth paths do not have to be mutually exclusive. You can lead others and show thought leadership at the same time. The point, however, is about one being able to define for themselves what is the meaning of growth for them and thus to take the path that will lead to real satisfaction. Whilst this process is harder because we always struggle to get to know ourselves very well, it is much better than expanding energies fighting a corporate battle for a title that may not lead to your happiness.

I have seen how, in the quest to satisfy an ego by getting the next highest position, or trying to get someone you like to get the next highest position, organisations have lost valuable people who may have been better capable but were either ignored or deliberately frustrated. This focus on titles can lead to unbelievable waste of talent and loss of focus.

Whilst my discussion with my friend did not solve all questions about the long-term growth path, it did illuminate for me the things I need to think about and also understand better what the world values in me. It may be that a title might be what I need to have, but it does not have to be. I am much wiser.

Vexing Question of Career Options

Yesterday I got into a discussion that was about something positive which raises so many questions. In these blog conversations, I have written a lot about things which relate to difficulties because maybe something positive is not happening and one experiences what I call “growth dilemmas”. However, when I had to ask myself in this conversation as to how would I deal with a situation where I had too many possible career or job options, some of which I would never have thought about, I realised also that positive developments may bring their own dilemmas.

Various questions come to me. How do I know which option is best for me? What if something may look best but something else could be better? If I also had a very good current job, why would even such options entice me? Why would I even start thinking about them at all?

Suddenly I realised that the answers to these questions are not easy. Actually, as I write this, I think you as the reader might be disappointed because I am not sure if I can provide answers. There are no easy answers, but maybe a framework exists. I invite you, as you read this, to share with us how you would or normally deal with this situation.

Carlos Ghosn (Chairman & CEO of Renault and Nissan respectively) highlights three simple yet important elements that one should consider when taking such career decisions. One is to do something that you like or have a passion for. Secondly, it is to do something in an environment that you like. He then adds that you need to go for something where you are able to experience diversity (find him on LinkedIn Pulse http://www.slideshare.net/LinkedInPulse/carlos-ghosns-crazy-good-career-advice).

One thing that is clear to me is that opportunities will not come the way we expected them, at the time we expect them, and from the sources we expected. They will come because, as it happens in life, those who need each other tend to find each other. Yes companies may use tools like recruitment processes to get there, but they are trying to find those that they need. And those of us in employment are looking for the companies that need us. And why do they need us and why do we need them? Maybe those questions are really the basis of the framework for a solution in addition to what Ghosn talks about.

A lot of us tend to only want to focus on a company, its brand and the title or position of the job that presents itself as a career opportunity. The greatest challenge, though, is coming to terms with who you are. An opportunity may come because of a technical qualification and some work you may have done. But in essence it is critical to think of who you are or who you have become through your life experience.

What is it that drives you and you know you can do? What is the kind of environment that you need in order to be able to do that? These are your needs and any opportunity needs to satisfy these needs. Of course you need a good paying job, but I have found that this is not the first question one should ask or worry about. This is essentially because your knowledge of what you are worth for such an opportunity will arise after a conversation with those who are presenting it to you, and their sense of your value will also come after such a conversation.

But then you may ask, how do I get to know what drives me and the environment that I want? I would argue that most of us know this; we just refuse to spend time creating the clarity about it in our minds. We get driven a lot by what others define life should be about, and we make decisions because that is what others want us to do. When the simple thing should have been deciding based on what we like. Of course this is written from the perspective of too many options. We need a complementary discussion as to what to do when we have too few options and we need to find employment just as a sheer necessity.

Vexing questions. No simple answers.

Building Relationships for Career Growth

I had a very interesting conversation recently with someone relatively experienced in the corporate world. In our discussion, I found it interesting that she thought in the main her work was relevant, and seemed oblivious to the value of networks and relationships. We spoke briefly about this, but it got me thinking about the related concepts of work, career, excellence and relationships.

Below I put together the kinds of things I highlight in conversation on this issue. Even though I have numbered them, they are not sequential and also not discrete, but should be read as a package. I welcome feedback on other aspects of them that I have not covered, but I trust you will find the issues raised provoke thoughts.

1. Whilst relationships do give you a leg-up in the workplace, firstly it is what you have done that gives you credibility. You have to work very hard to ensure you get into a phase of excellence so that you become somebody credible, especially to those who matter.
2. What you have done may give you credibility, but knowledge of it will create presence for you. It is not your boss’ job to make this knowledge, but your own. The tools you use to do that constitute for me the real art in personal brand development.
3. Spreading the knowledge about your work should be done with utmost humility. It is best done by others on your behalf. But, you may ask, how can I get others to do this my behalf when they have nothing to gain? The trick is for them to have something to gain from doing so or to feel they have to do so.
4. You need to establish the kind of relationships such that people will voluntarily spread the word about what you have done, thus enhancing your credibility, and / or encourage you in seeking to achieve your goals.
5. These relationships should be founded not on what you get, but on what you are able to give. If you give a lot, you will get a lot in return. It may not come to you directly, but, if people have received something from you, they always have a psychological need to give something back to you. They may not always even realise they are doing so.
6. The paradox in this process is that you are trying to get you individual brand to show, but must at the same time seek to ‘belong. As one leadership professor I encountered once wrote, “To accentuate individuality, heighten belonging”.
7. Your most important relationships may not be in your functional line of work. Spend time understanding the stakeholders who are really significant and / or are listened to by those who are significant. This also includes those who are likely to be impacted by the success of your work. It may work better if you invest in these relationships. Remember, you are not in this process for just some social interaction. It is a really rational process about your career development, being enhanced by using those age-old things every human being has: emotion, need for support and affirmation.
8. Most people spend too much of their time trying to get time with the most senior executive in their company. I find this to be such a drag of an effort for two reasons: firstly, senior executives are smart enough to see when they are being used just to advance a person’s agenda; secondly and more importantly, they do not have the time to be spending on things which do not have the apparent value for them at the time. So, rather than focus on getting to the senior executive’s calendar, spend the time on linking the work you do with what is on the senior executive’s agenda. And get those close to the senior executives to speak about this work. Over time they will want to have time in YOUR calendar.
9. You have to be genuine in your interactions with people. Human beings have this uncanny way of reading insincerity, and it can destroy all good efforts on your part.
10. Be comfortable with getting things wrong in the process. Since the process is not scientific, things will not just happen, and some efforts will not succeed. You will also not realise if you are making progress immediately, but over time you will get the signals.

However, all of the above is meaningless unless you invest time, quality time, into the process. And you will do this because you know the potential outcome.

Go ahead. Make meaningful relationships that will help boost your career. As I once wrote, do not be an island.  Even the most famous researcher is not recognised unless his / her work touches or engages others.

Finding one’s Ideal Job: A Lesson from Systems Thinking

In a career-related conversation I got into with colleagues recently, we engaged on how one gets to the job that they want or would like. More specifically, the issue was more about how does one deal with the fact that they may not like their current job, which was a real case for more than one person in the dialogue.

In our dialogue, we looked at the implications of focusing on the fact that one does not like their current job. The danger with this approach, I contended, was that, in life, when you remove what you do not like, it does not necessarily mean that what remains is what you want. And thus the difficulty is figuring out the place that one wants to be, and also the route to get there. I argued that sometimes, because the future is so far away, it may look impossible to get to. My advice was to borrow from the concept of Idealised Design, popularised by leading systems thinker Russell L. Ackoff (1919-2009).

Essentially, Ackoff’s approach is that the best way to deal with a problem in a system is to use dissolution, which is to redesign the system that has the problem or its environment so as to eliminate the problem. This approach was developed to look at organisations, but I stretched the discussion in our dialogue to get my colleagues to imagine their individual life as much of a system as an organisation. In this approach, using an individual’s life as the system, it would suggest its future trajectory is redesigned, and it would now consist of those elements that would make one reach that career goal. For this to happen, though, the precondition would be that those elements that characterise the individual should be scientifically feasible, capable of surviving in the current environment and also, be able to get the individual to adapt to different conditions.

In this model, it presupposes that the individual’s characteristics as we know them no longer exist, and the individual now has new characteristics that the individual would have designed to have they want. In this case, the individual visualises themselves as if they are already in the job that they want, rather than think about how to get to it. They would think about what they would have as characteristics in this idealised future job state. This approach would firstly simplify thinking about how to get to the future as the individual would work backwards from the idealised future state. Secondly, because one would not be constrained by the challenges they see in getting to that future, the individual would see an enlarged concept of what is possible or feasible. Thirdly, and no least important, this process would enable creativity.

I argued with my colleagues that if all of us spent more time doing this, than worrying about the difficulty of getting to the future we want, we had a better chance of defining the things we need to do today to get to that future.

This approach, however, does not mean one’s mind needs to only stay at the ideal state. My advice was that this should be married with a real focus on what would need to be done in the present to enable that future. Because the individual is already engaged in some form of work, how do you ensure that you remain energised to pursue this ideal? In that instance, rather than focusing on the fact that you may not like the current job, maybe if one spent their energy practicing those elements of the current job that relate to the characteristics of the ideal future job, then they are preparing themselves for that future job.

One of my colleagues then indicated that this makes absolute sense for her because of the saying from the Laws of Attraction that Energy Goes Where Attention Flows. This is also the beauty of a systemic approach, as it allowed for mutually reinforcing approaches to be used in looking at the problem. Through the idealised design approach, we had been able to get to a point where the individual sees their future state today, and also starts to practice the characteristics of that future state in their current job. She argued that by focusing on the positive aspects of the current job that relate to that future, than focusing on the negatives they do not like, then they are building faster to that future ideal state. They would attract the necessary positivity that would potentially attract to them those who could enable that future job.

Anyone can define the right future for themselves, without being constrained by the challenges of the present.

Migration, Diversity and Growth: A Personal Reflection

These past few weeks my beloved country has been in the news because of the prejudicial and violent actions of a few against foreign nationals, particularly those from our own African continent. From a different perspective, this has me thinking about the role of migration and diversity in a person’s own development. I have thought it best to do this through a personal reflection, which will show again the absurdities of those who pursued these barbaric actions but also the value of looking at migration in a positive way.

The first notable personal growth experience that was impacted by migration was during my secondary schooling. The apartheid education system had been designed such that it would make it either extremely difficult or almost impossible for black students to achieve anything in fields that required science and mathematics. Dr Hendrik Verwoerd, an apartheid education architect, is quoted in the 1950’s as having said "There is no place for [the Bantu] in the European community above the level of certain forms of labour ... What is the use of teaching the Bantu child mathematics when it cannot use it in practice? That is quite absurd. Education must train people in accordance with their opportunities in life, according to the sphere in which they live."

I happened to grow up in one of the so-called independent homelands created by the apartheid governments. One of the things that the education department did in this homeland was to allow for teachers to be sourced from other countries, such as Ghana and Mauritius, for subjects where there was a shortage. These immigrant teachers were to be a source of benefit for me as the school I went to had world-class mathematics teachers that were not the norm in similar black schools. It was through them that I was able to pass enough to get into an engineering graduate school.

When I studied engineering, a number of my professors came from many countries outside of South Africa. They brought knowledge that South Africa did not have, but which would be useful in developing a generation of professionals. I saw them as human beings who were not taking from me but adding more to what I was, and had chosen this country as the place in which they could display their knowledge and abilities.

I then myself became a migrant when I decided to study outside of my own country. In a class that was filled with students from more than twenty countries, it was a learning experience that ranks as the best personal decision I ever made. It was through the learning I made from others that I enhanced my own understanding of diversity, and I learnt critical tools that have been invaluable in my management career. In particular, I learnt the value of tolerance as a personality trait, and the importance of diversity, in all its forms. I had been welcomed in a foreign country as a human being.

I then had an opportunity to work in an exciting economic development project in my country South Africa. The development of this project required skills some of which we could not find in South Africa.  An immigrant British-trained engineer, who had worked on similar projects in the Middle East, was one of the critical people we had who played a role in ensuring a better understanding by many of us of the challenges that such a project entailed, and the steps needed to progress it. We also benefited by bringing back South Africans who had worked on projects in other parts of the world, in order to create a world-class team that could service demanding customers from all corners of the world.

In the same project, in one of my executive role, I had the responsibility of creating a research unit that we had defined as critical to our success. Two of the skilled professionals we brought to work in that unit were originally from Cameroon and Benin, and had become permanently resident in South Africa. We had a dream of training young economics graduates in one of the country’s poorest provinces, and also provide critical data and information to the provincial government which would be of use in designing policies that would positively impact the lives of ordinary people. These two professionals, working with other South Africans, put their heart and soul to their work in their adopted country, including training these young economists. We welcomed them with open arms. They were critical to my own success and I learnt a lot from them.

I now work in an African-focused financial services institution and my career success will be defined by how I understand the world, by me being able to interact with others, and by some who have decided to be migrants in my country, even if for some it is temporary and by some who decide to migrate to other parts of the continent. And it is in working with a diverse group of people, who have different professional backgrounds, origins, gender and race that I have come to appreciate more its value.

Whilst there are many South Africans I could also honour for how they have impacted on my growth, the recent experience has brought to my mind the need to see how those who are migrants have been critical to my success. It also has, in my mind, brought to focus the absurdities of the actions of a minority that has sought to damage our country and potentially deny us the possibility of learning and engaging others.

Migration can be a positive force and we can use it for as part of our development as it enriches the human experience. There is so much to learn about the world from others.

Growth and an Insecure Superior's Shadow

An ongoing challenge for many of us is how to ensure consistent growth. I define growth in broad terms, beyond just getting the next higher position or a better pay packet. It is about an increase in the level of your knowledge, exposure, experience and networks. It should reflect an increasing level of responsibility, and more complexity in assignments requiring the use of multiple skills.

I have recently had to assist two people who had to deal with their desire for growth when they were under an unmoving shadow of insecure bosses. The paradox of the situation is that it is in the interest of the boss for the employee to show the best they can do, as it will make the boss look good. But an insecure boss may not want the subordinate to have an exposure lest they either start to be more valued than them, or the boss potentially loses a key person on whom (s)he depends. How do I generally approach this type of a problem?

I start with the acknowledgement of the reality. There is nothing unique about bosses who make the mistake of thinking that the subordinates belong to them, and the fate of their careers is also dependent on them. It also happens that over time a subordinate will start to believe that they need the boss for their career, and thus never get out of the superior’s’ shadow. These superiors forget one very important fact, which is that they have nothing but a “custodial responsibility” on what are the assets of an organisation. The organisation’s leaders have the right, in fact the responsibility, of deploying the employees where they will ensure customer value and maximise returns for shareholders (if it is a profit making organisation) or maximise the level of services to the public or relevant stakeholders (if in public services).

I said once they acknowledged this reality, then they needed to be clear about what they wanted to achieve. Going back to basics, I highlighted the importance of knowing self, which I have written about before. In going through this process of knowing self, I confronted them to be very clear about their full potential. It is an important step as in a way it influences one’s ambition.

I followed this with challenging them to take a more external view of opportunities, rather than relying on the world as framed by the superiors who were the cause of their unhappiness and frustration. This view was not necessarily external to their respective organisations. But then, if you take an external view, what becomes the important next step?

The most critical is the process of having conversations with those external to your current environment. This required them to start building a new value network wider than their current one, which was limited to the areas where they worked. It needed them to have a deeper understanding of the business challenges and opportunities that existed in the environments external to their own. It required them to be very clear what value they bring and why the current position limited their ability to add this value. After developing a deep sense of these external opportunities, and having a clear sense of who they are and what capabilities they bring, they were able to start matching the opportunities to their capabilities and ambition.

Subtly, by going through this process, one of them was able to use the fact that her organisation has a responsibility to ensure that it uses its human resource to its full potential to her advantage. She used the knowledge that an organisation is not beholden to the whims or needs of a particular individual, even if that individual has a seemingly powerful position. And she did it using tactics that limited conflict between her potential new superiors and her current boss.

Although they either did this or are in the process of doing it, I have emphasised the need for them not to speak negatively about the current boss. Most executives do not like to deal or engage people who come across as complainants. I emphasised the importance of framing the argument around the context of their growth potential, their capabilities, the desire to add value and why the current environment was limiting in that context. The current boss should come out as a player in the environment rather than being the environment. I did not see it as a positive action to come across as simply just whining about the boss.

Paradoxically, they had to find some positives in the experience of an environment that they were finding no longer worked for them. This was important because they should ensure they do not devalue themselves in the process of being critical of the current state. If they hated the current boss and environment so much that they did not value anything, they would be giving the potential new superiors leverage in positional and remuneration discussions to undervalue them. A lot of us spend too much energy on the getting out part (which I think is negative energy) than on the potential to create something new (which is the positive energy that enables you to see more). I emphasised the need to focus on the latter.

One of them has found a new opportunity that will take her career to the next level, and she credits our dialogue as being crucial to opening her eyes to her own potential. It fits the definition of growth I used at the start. The other one is at early stages of the journey, but I am convinced she is in the right direction.

The message is to go on tackle the world. To get out of the shadow of an insecure boss, but use the experience has gained as leverage for the next opportunity.

For Success in 2015

It is the beginning of a new year, in which many of us will set objectives. From a career perspective, it also provides an opportunity for us to chart proposed moves, and make choices that will have the most impact. For me, the first step to think of how to progress is to acknowledge the current destination. This means I appreciate that something has happened in my life that has led me to where I am today. I draw from that to think of how to progress. While it is true that you cannot just rely on the same thing you have done if you are expecting a different result, it is just as important to realise that it is what you have done that gives you your current credibility.

I have thought of those things that make the goals easy to achieve and have proven to work. I have drawn these from many wonderful conversations I have had this past year, lessons from others as well as restating things from my book on the lessons that have led me to where I am today. They are not the only ones, but to me are the most critical, especially in the current period.
 
These are the things I would suggest must be on the menu for continued success in 2015:

Be yourself: This first route is to ensure that you are authentic. Be true to who you are, know where you are strong, and where you need others. Proactively ensure that those critical to your success can feel your strengths, and are able to appreciate them. This authenticity will also form the basis of trust, and you are likely to differentiate yourself from a crowd where everyone is trying to fit in but do not show their true value, self and character. People buy you.

Aim for excellence: Future success is unlikely unless we practice the art of being excellent. In your current assignment, whether a job or a vocation, you have been given a theatre in which to practice how to be excellent. There is a difference between excellence and perfection. Excellence is about doing the best you can and drawing on all one’s strengths and knowledge. Unless you practice and understand what it takes to be excellent, you may not be developing the skills that enable you to transition your current assignment in order to excel on a sustainable basis. No one else will do this but you.

Focus on the present: Leadership trainer Phil Nuernberger, in his book Strong & Fearless: The Quest for Personal Power reflects that there are two twin demons that impact on us. One is fear and the other is self-hatred. Self-hatred is related to guilt and is about the past, and we spend too much time focusing on the things that did not go down well (see discussion on mistakes below). Fear is about the future and is related to things that may or may not happen in future that we do not have control over. If we focus on the present, we seek to prepare ourselves for whatever future we want, on the basis of who we are, our capabilities, personality, et al. This enables us to focus on the things we can do now to create the future we want, rather than have our minds and energies being taken up by things we either cannot change or control.

Wear mistakes with pride: The Russian revolutionary. V.I. Lenin once said “Show me a man who has never made a mistake, I will show you a man who has never done anything” [gender-specific language not mine]. It is in the process of doing rather than inaction that we make mistakes. Acknowledging the mistakes we make, and taking responsibility proactively, is a much more sustainable approach to learning and development, than the desire to be seen to be perfect.

Develop yourself: The world is seeing so much change that we have to reinvent ourselves every few years. New skills are being required that we did not even know were needed five years ago. The impact of technology is such that those you either serve as customers or work with as colleagues are undergoing such transformation that you may be overtaken. One powerful tool you have is to focus on your ongoing development, whether by studying further or gaining relevant new skills. Without this, success will be hard to come by.

Enable your creativity:  One of the best ways to differentiate is through the creativity and innovation you put in your work. Develop these creativity skills by learning to do something different that takes your mind to a different level. Go to a cooking course. Learn a new language. Learn pottery. Teach. Do a writing course. Just do something that is different from the linear processes that we find in business. Do something new. Do something now.

Create networks: Your value is not just in what you do, but also in the networks you have. The networks are the basis for it to be recognised, and rewarded. Both internal and external to your organisation, build the networks that will provide a platform for you to express yourself, that will help promote and support you. Networks are like investments, which continue doing work for you in your absence. It is not just in what you do that you will succeed, but in whom you get to know to help you succeed. Commit to extending your networks in 2015. Do not be an island.

Be generous: As a person, you have been blessed with wonderful skills and abilities that go beyond your job. Whatever these are, find a way to share and give back to others that need them. Sharing with others creates such goodwill, and it will also payback for you later. It also provides an opportunity for you to learn about yourself through how others respond to you, and you use this knowledge to project yourself to the world.

Read: I do not want to say too much about this, but just to emphasise that without reading, you are not helping your mind and thus yourself on the route to success. The mind needs to be exercised, and you also need to improve your knowledge. Read.

Be inquisitive: George Bernard Shaw, in his book of plays entitled Back to Methuselah, said “You see things; and you say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say, "Why not?”. Ask why is it that you cannot do what your customer is asking. Why could you not design the job you want? Enquire. Research. Look. Listen. Read. And through that you will see a lot more possibilities than you anticipated.

To end, I would like to leave you with this quote that is likely to be my mantra in 2015. It is about ignoring the negative noise that will seek to stop you in your journey. The quote is about “The Man in The Arena”, and is taken from the speech “Citizen in a Republic”, delivered by former US President Theodore Roosevelt at the Sorbonne, Paris on 23 April 1920 [gender specific languages not mine].

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat. "

Have a successful 2015.