The Right-and Wrong-Stuff: How Brilliant Careers Are Made and Unmade

by Carter Cast

David Dotlich and Peter Cairo, leadership coaches and authors of Why CEOs Fail, put it this way: “In our experience, leaders fail when they are routinely and philosophically cautious rather than situationally prudent.” By abdicating their very responsibility to make decisions and manage, these people instead push paper and create churn, forming committees and recommending further research studies to “illuminate the situation.”

“People who adapt well,” she told me, “have a sense of ‘nonattachment.’ It’s not that they don’t care, it’s that they aren’t so attached to the old vision or direction or boss that they can’t adapt and change. What they have is the flexibility of a tree that bends in the wind.”

A second and very common changing circumstance that can lead to derailment is becoming overdependent on a boss or mentor. When that person is transferred into another position or leaves the firm, we are left without an advocate and become vulnerable.

A third circumstance that can lead to derailment is difficulty identifying, understanding, and accepting fundamental shifts in the macroenvironment that are affecting our business and then failing to make the necessary adjustments in our jobs.

In a research study that examined more than two thousand managers across all organizational levels to determine whether behaviors associated with managerial effectiveness differed by level, the only factor that was significantly associated with effectiveness at each managerial level was what the researchers call “learning orientation,” a combination of learning ability and adaptability.

In a ten-year study of managers, Korn Ferry found that the higher an individual’s learning agility (which they determined through an assessment), the more career promotions he or she received.

They understand their biases and where they are too judgmental and can therefore mitigate any tendencies they may have in these directions. Self-awareness is their vehicle for setting personal development goals in order to improve their performance.

They view failure as situation-specific (not indicative of their ability level) and as an opportunity to learn. So, seek out experiences for purposes of personal growth and development.

Try your best to minimize the defenses that inhibit learning—such as fear of disapproval, of being seen as weak, and of being dependent, among others.

A third way to develop learning agility is being action-oriented and taking the initiative to accomplish learning goals.

People with learning agility are also reflective, examining their assumptions and methods and critical of their own problem-solving techniques. They attempt to understand unexpected results—why events occurred as they did and what they can learn from those outcomes. They have the ability to examine problems in unusual ways, processing information by integrating patterns, seeing contextual relationships, and connecting seemingly unrelated elements. Often called associational thinking, this ability is a key trait of innovative thinkers.

Learning-agile people are interested in hearing new ideas and in discovering new perspectives. They are good listeners, empathetic, and sensitive to cultural differences, and they are willing to adjust their behavior in response to their environment.

They took one or all of the following actions. First, they took the time to be crystal clear on what their new boss wanted, asking essentially, “What will I have accomplished in two or three years to make you say I did a great job in this role?” From that conversation, they made a list of the three to five key deliverables and then worked with their boss to establish key performance indicators for each.

Second, if the new boss wasn’t able to provide clear direction, they developed their own goals and objectives, with clear success metrics, and then ran them by the boss to ensure alignment.

they sought advice from other employees who had gone through the same or similar transitions, asking about challenges in the t...

Then, in the early stages of a job transition, they checked in with the boss on a regular basis—weekly or biweekly.

In Leadership Passages, author David Dotlich and his colleagues say, “Learning from a passage isn’t possible unless you let go of your past assumptions. In other words, you must admit that some of the very attributes, qualities, attitudes and skills that made you successful in the past won’t necessarily make you successful in the future.”

First, we must communicate effectively at least two levels down into our organizations—to our direct reports and also, in various departmental meetings, to their direct reports.

Second, it’s critical that we be able to secure needed resources for our team—whether it’s funding or support from other functional groups—so they can execute on departmental priorities. Third, we must learn to be, simultaneously, strategic and tactical.

In the first case, like Madonna, they “strike a pose.” They protect themselves by being rigid and aloof and acting with complete assurance. Then, when challenged with a contrary point of view, they become combative and aggressive, like Captain Fantastic. As a result, they build an emotional moat around themselves and people can’t reach them.

If you’ve received feedback that you’re not approachable, the next time you’re in a meeting and there’s a point of contention, when it’s your turn to weigh in, say, “I don’t know. This one’s a doozy. What do you guys think? I’m all ears.”

In the second case, you have the contrarian, whose favorite response to any challenge or proposed change is “yeah-but.”

The lesson: take the time to develop strong relationships, both laterally and with key influencers higher in your organization! The chances are just about 100 percent that you’ll need their help at some point. Part and parcel to this: be careful not to rely excessively on one boss or advocate. Cast your fishing line into multiple water holes. It’s not uncommon for a person to become overdependent on a boss—then the boss leaves or is transferred to another division and you’re all alone.

Leadership researchers Lombardo and Eichinger put it this way in their book FYI: For Your Improvement: “One of the requirements for higher-level management and career fulfillment is broadness and diversity. A single skill is never enough.” This single-minded orientation eventually derails the careers of talented people.

For people who are overly focused on their titles and their progression, I’d say ‘It’s fine and good to be ambitious, but more than anything you want to accomplish things and establish a track record.’ The good people always say, ‘What else can I do for you? What else can I take on for you?’”

I created the list by reading the leading books on marketing (especially Philip Kotler’s book, Marketing Management) and by asking senior-level marketers, “What skills set apart really good marketers?”

There are five reasons people like the Whirling Dervish have difficulty delivering on promises and run into career trouble: poor planning and organizational skills; difficulty prioritizing their work and staying focused on the high-impact activities; not understanding work flow processes (and often underestimating the time it takes to complete job activities); being a pleaser (not being able to say “no” and taking on too much work); and suffering from grandiosity (becoming enamored with “big ideas” and not staying focused on completing the fundamental tasks for which they are accountable).

People who have trouble delivering on promises are often pleasers who have difficulty saying “no” to requests for fear of disappointing their boss or coworkers. As a result, they overcommit and underdeliver. Pleasers also have a tendency to overpromise.

Be thoughtful and intentional about planning and prioritizing your work before automatically diving in and executing it.

First, take a look at David Allen’s Getting Things Done, or his follow-up book, Making It All Work. These books have very useful frameworks about mastering work flow.

Third, take the time, on a regular basis, to look at all the things on your plate and look for opportunities to prune!

The first and most important learning for those who recovered concerned themselves—self-reflection, leading to self-understanding, became the key that unlocked the door to their recovery.

But IQ is not as much of a predictor of future success as you might imagine. A host of studies indicate that IQ only accounts for about 25 percent of the variance in job success. In other words, three-fourths of performance is accounted for by factors besides that of raw intelligence.

Success is not a matter of perfection, of mastering all the competencies—the skills and behaviors needed to perform well in a job—that are laid out by an organization.

Both of these areas—thinking outside the box and having strong analytical skills—are crucial competencies for product marketing managers.

They act on their own initiative—they are learners who pursue a variety of self-starting methods to foster their continued professional and personal development and they seek out challenging assignments that will accelerate their skill development and allow them to realize career advancement opportunities.

They have emotional intelligence, which allows them to build positive relationships with others. In doing so, they avoid the interpersonal problems of a Captain Fantastic.

And third, they have tremendous perseverance and drive for results. They establish stretch goals, focus on the work that provides the greatest return on investment, and take personal responsibility for the outcomes of the group.

They adopt a positive attitude about their work, even when the business environment is tough. They know that energy and enthusiasm is contagious. (I have a saying: “Anyone can say what’s wrong. Be the one who says what’s possible.”)

According to a decade’s worth of 360-degree feedback data collected on business managers and leaders, issues related to having low EQ, “emotional intelligence”—being defensive, insensitive, arrogant, volatile, and lacking empathy for others—accounts for over 50 percent of the reasons for career derailment. The competencies rated the weakest by managers and leaders in the same ten-year study included “patience,” “listens well,” “understands others,” and “manages conflict effectively.”

The final EQ skill, social understanding, is the genuine desire to understand not only another person’s specific argument but also its subtext—the underlying reason for their perspective.

The second is having emotional intelligence. It’s your ability to understand others as well as being able to read how others respond to you. Without having strong EQ, your career is capped—period.

“The high-potential managers I work with have the ability to engage others as coauthors. They don’t need to take all the credit for the end result. Others want to work with them. What separates the good from the great managers is their ability to lead, and that starts with having good interpersonal skills.”

“If you don’t assume importance, you can never lose it.” Instead of trying to control people, Lao Tzu advises us to trust people and gently guide them from behind the scenes, leaving no trace.

Do you set challenging goals and make sure they’re measurable? Do you track your progress against them on an ongoing basis? Do you have a high bias for action—a sense of urgency to get things done? Do you have tenacity and willpower—an attitude that no matter what, even if you have to work late and on weekends, you’ll get your project over the goal line before time expires on the clock?

“Please be patient and concentrate on building skills in your area of expertise and creating meaningful business impact. Regardless of potential, actual promotions follow competency and performance.”

“First, avoid too much job-hopping. Throughout your career, you’ll need both mentorship and followership and you can’t get either of them if you’re only at a company for a few years. Second, you have to pick the right industry to be in. Trying to build a great career in a crappy industry—one where there are constant cuts and cost rationalization—won’t allow you to grow personally and will hurt your career. Growth solves most problems. So take the time to pick the right business to be in. Third—and this is really hard—try not to worry excessively. You’ll lose your energy and focus. If I’m nervous and worried about keeping my job or worried about making the wrong decision,

The five derailers—interpersonal issues, difficulty building and leading teams, difficulty adapting to change, lacking a strategic orientation, and not delivering on promises—sit in the denominator of the right stuff formula and, if not addressed, act as a divisor that cuts away at a person’s skills and competencies.

‘What is the end consumer trying to accomplish—what value are they seeking?’ ‘What’s getting in their way?’ ‘How would they like things to be different?’

Achievement is the need to constantly improve your performance and to accomplish challenging goals that are meaningful to you. If you’re highly motivated by achievement, the chances are good that you prefer working in environments with clear performance indicators, where your progress is tangible and can be seen on an ongoing basis. You are likely a person who seeks feedback in order to improve and advance. You are probably a person who sets clear goals, organizes your work effort, and measures your progress.