Get Better at Getting Better

by Chandramouli Venkatesan

Get-better summary There are two distinct career life cycle stages—the early stage, when you are new in a role/company, and the mature stage, when you have spent enough time in a role/company. To be successful, you have to drive positive change; maintaining status quo does not create success. To drive positive change, you need: The ability to spot change. The ability to execute the change. At early stages, the ability to spot is high and the ability to execute is low, and vice versa for the mature stage. The key challenge is that both the change abilities are never high at the same time. To overcome that challenge, it is important that at each stage, you get better at leveraging the strength you have and get better at leveraging others to overcome the weakness you have. Early stage Leverage your strength in the ability to spot by writing down a ninety-day note on the next three-year plan or by doing a full strategy exercise early. Overcome weakness in execution by leveraging your boss or your team members to execute change. Mature stage Leverage your strength in the ability to execute by driving big change. It is important to go back to the change opportunities you spotted at your early stage for execution now rather than creating new ones which might lack the big picture quality. Overcome weakness in your ability to spot change by asking new people and being very open to what they are saying.