Go Where You Can Add Unique Value
Most MBAs tend to migrate to Mumbai, in part because of the sheer opportunity that metropolis offers as a result of numerous large enterprises headquartered there, but also because that’s where many other MBAs are going – so that must be the place to go! Moreover, since similarity is an important basis of interpersonal attraction, Mumbai will provide MBAs with much opportunity to hang out with people like themselves.
Successful graduates have often achieved that success by following the rules. So fresh graduates continue to follow the rules and pursue well-trodden paths.
Consequently, most newly minted MBAs from premier institutions, like their counterparts all over the world, follow what is expected of them and end up following the crowd – succumbing to the enormous social pressure to do what everyone else is doing. Often following the crowd is wise, but for career success, it almost always is not.
People need a strategy for their career. We advocate the following principles for career planning: 1) go where there is less competition; 2) find a job where you can add unique value; 3) be willing to find your own path – and not follow the crowd or do what is expected; and 4) perhaps most importantly, just like finance teaches there is a trade-off between risk and return in the financial markets, there is a trade-off between risk and return in careers as well. Playing it safe may be – and certainly feels – comfortable. But if you really want to accelerate your career, implementing a higher-variance, riskier strategy is the way to go. Joining a startup or starting up on your own post MBA will be the highest risk career choices but well worth taking.
And in the end, maybe the risk isn't that great. If things don't work out, you can always do what you were going to do in the first place. Over the course of a 30- or 40-year career, taking prudent risks, particularly early, seems very sensible. And who knows, you might wind up leading an important function at huge, rapidly growing firm – much earlier than even you expect.
Career success is not measured by where you end up in the first half of your career. What matters is where you are in the second half. Your investment in the first half matters most for that. The experiences you have developed in the initial years and how you have built that experience into learning for future are crucial.
What skills must you acquire to succeed in the second half of your career? Most often people make the blunder of assuming that getting a job done is the most critical skill. Yes, you have to get the jobs done, but that is just what everyone else will be doing. Several research studies have shown that a mindset for learning is most critical in getting things done on a sustained basis irrespective of one’s core competency. The moment someone thinks he or she has reached the pinnacle is when his or her unrealised potential gets wasted.
When you are in your early stage career, you hardly have time to acquire several new skills. But you need to be a productivity ninja to ensure that your learning is at the speed of your business. Tomes have been written on various skills that one needs to acquire but we have identified five core skills that will deliver rich dividends.
The first skill is about keeping fit physically and getting quality sleep. Both are critical for an alert and healthy mind. Finding time to do any physical activities ranging from yoga to cardio and weights for 30 minutes a day is part of the learning. Scientific evidence points to expanded mental capabilities with more oxygen to the brain. On the issue of sleep, hitting the bed by 11 pm and sleeping at least till 4 am is a must to remove the toxic proteins from your brain that are by-products of neural activity when you are awake. The liver functions to purify the blood during the “11 pm-4 am” cycle only and this explains the poor health of most night-shift employees. If sleep is deprived, you will think less smart and no boosters can repair that. It is a skill that will take some time to master given that the current generation mimicks night owls.
The second skill is about being explicitly optimistic. It is much beyond the “stay-positive mantra”. When adversity hits in terms of market setbacks, internal gaffe, or layoffs, being optimistic is challenging. Motivating the self is what drives most successful people. When the brain is taken over by the hard facts and imminent threats, the ability to see beyond that takes some skills. In the current world with much politics inside and outside, being pessimistic is easy. What is required is training the brain to be focused on what you intend to do and planned for your career. Perceived threats to your ongoing activities should be analysed and planned for. Experimenting with options is one way to clear out assumptions of the perceived threats. Once assumptions are proven wrong, brain will see beyond the pessimistic fog. Sometimes it will be necessary to vocally express the optimism so brain understands it better.
The third core skill to be built is about taking initiatives without being assigned anything. This is much beyond the call of duty. One of the youngest leaders in Unilever was known for taking such initiatives when none was called for. As a management trainee this budding leader went where no one ventured to and built a road in rural India where there was none. Initiatives will take you far in life and this skill can be built by taking active interest in an area that you share within the enterprise. The difference between intention and actual deed must be kept in mind. An initiative will succeed only if your intention is good and you actually set out to complete it without any laziness or fear. Some risk taking is warranted as well. Once harnessed, this skill will play out well all through your career and taking initiatives will come naturally to you.
The fourth skill is quite obvious but easily forgotten to really use it: The art of listening. Isn’t it possibly the easiest skill to acquire? Unfortunately for most, it is something they don’t do at all. Even as a discussion is on in the conference room, everyone else is thinking of what counterpoint he or she should make once the current speaker stops. Which in essence tunes them out from the current person’s points, and the ability to listen just met with an untimely death. The real art of listening involves focusing totally on what a person is articulating and is about comprehending and not thinking of what to counter it with. Learning how not to pass judgement without completely hearing the other person is a skill one needs to develop. Unfortunately most people think they are better than others in listening skills but research proves otherwise.
The final skill that will come most handy in your career progress is something fashionable these days: Emotional Intelligence or EQ. Although Daniel Goleman is being recognized as the guru of EQ, it was first mooted by Micheal Beldoch way back in 1964. EQ is the ability to identify and manage one’s emotions and the emotions of others. It includes three sub-skills: emotional awareness; the ability to harness emotions and apply them to tasks like thinking and problem solving; and the ability to manage emotions, which includes regulating your own emotions and managing the emotions of others. According to the supporters of EQ, this is the critical factor that separates the wheat from the chaff. Amongst the many skills that were tested in workplaces, EQ was the strongest predictor of performance. 90% of top performers have been found to be high in EQ while only 20% of bottom performers have high EQ. The incentive to learn just got a boost with the finding that every point increase in EQ can add Rs 75000 more to your annual income. What’s more, it will make you happier at work despite toxicity at workplaces.
A misplaced wisdom of yesteryear in India was that if you choose medicine as a career, you would have to learn all your life. That is so dated today. For success in any career, you have to continue learning all your life, if you expect to add unique value.
This article is authored by Dr. Jeff Pfeffer, leadership guru and professor of organizational behaviour at Stanford Graduate School of Business & Dr. Muneer, Co-Founder and Chief Evangelist of the non-profit Medici Institute.
