Strategize to Win

INTRODUCTION

When Expect to Win was published in 2009, we were at the beginning of a historic fiscal crisis. The real estate bubble had burst and we headed into one of the most severe downturns of consumer confidence that I have seen in my professional career, and began a period of labor unemployment not experienced since the seventies. Many people, across all industries, at all levels—entry, senior officer, exempt, nonexempt, from the boardroom to the post office—found themselves either without a job or restructured out of one, stagnating in their profession, or taking any position just to have an income. Rather than consider how a particular job might add to their skill set and prepare them for their dream job or career, many recent graduates accepted jobs to ease worries about paying off school loans or because they feared being out of the job market for too long. As a result, during my travels around the world, I have met many people who are having difficulty figuring out what career to pursue, how to make the most of the first few years of their career, and how to position themselves for success.

I have also spent time with people with five to ten years of work experience who are struggling with managing change, and are trying to figure out how to navigate the choppy waters of their careers, as their companies have downsized, they have been demoted, their job descriptions have changed, or their bosses have left or were fired. Some of these professionals are also in a quandary about why their careers haven’t progressed the way that they envisioned back when they finished their academic or experiential training. I’ve also found that many of these professionals are struggling to read the career signs, those subtle messages that are often communicated in behavior rather than words in most corporate environments. As a result, they are puzzled about what will fulfill them professionally and personally, and how to redirect and reposition themselves and their career successfully. Further, I have talked with people who are ten to fifteen years into their jobs who always wanted a meaningful career, but rather took a job just to have one, and now, because they have “put in so many years on the job” or have family or financial obligations, they don’t know how to decide what they really want to do for a career, or are afraid to take the leap to start something new.

Strategize to Win is a direct response to the people I’ve met and the questions they asked while I was on the road talking about Expect to Win. My hope for this book is that both young and mid-level professionals will find the answers and tools they need to get started in their career, to get “unstuck,” to redirect and crystallize their paths, and to position themselves to manage their career through any economic cycle or any corporate political environment and continue ascending toward success!

In this book, I will define a process of deciding on a career trajectory, and more important, define a process of positioning yourself for the opportunity that you want, no matter what stage of your working life. Whatever stage we are in, we all have to reposition ourselves for new opportunities. Whether you are looking for your first job, want to move up in your company, or leave it for a competitor or an entirely new industry, you will need these tools in order to enhance or insure your success. I will also address what you must do to be successful once you land a position. Because what got you there won’t be the thing that will keep you there: the skills that helped you land a position won’t be the same skills that will insure your success in that role. Last, I will also identify and clarify issues that are often murky for young and mid-career professionals and help them develop the key answers they need to create strategies for reaching the level of career success to which they aspire.

STARTING OUT

CHAPTER 1

Choosing a Career in Today’s Economy

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

—Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu

Congratulations! You’ve just graduated or are soon to graduate from college. Or maybe you’re just leaving the military. Whatever the case, you’ve worked hard and completed years of extensive education and training. You should be proud of yourself, what a wonderful accomplishment!

The problem is, you’re asking yourself: “Now what?”

After all of those years of hard work and dedication, you find that you have no real idea of what career you would like to pursue.

Or perhaps your situation is different. You’ve been out of college for a few years. After graduation you accepted a job because you needed one. You had student loans and bills to pay, perhaps a family to support, or other financial obligations. But now, a few years later, you find that this job, this company, or even this career is not for you. You’re frustrated, bored, and unenthusiastic. You’d like to make a move, but you have no idea what job, company, or career you are interested in. Worse, you have no clue how to begin to do anything to change it.

If any of these scenarios sounds familiar, you are not alone. Together, we are going to walk through a framework that will help you to sort out the appropriate next move in your career journey. Notice, I did not say that we are going to figure out what your entire career will look like.

Not yet.

That’s too ambitious and overwhelming. We’re going to start with the first step and determine the best next career move for you.

The End of the Ultimate Career Plan

It’s true that the quest for the “ultimate career plan” was once all the rage. But in today’s professional world, that kind of thinking is out-of-date. There was a time when advancing as a professional with one company, like IBM or Chase Manhattan Bank, over a twenty-five- or thirty-year period was the epitome of success. That kind of track record meant you had made it. You enjoyed the highest level of success and your financial and cultural status reflected that.

But today, aspiring to one career, with one company, doing one thing for two or three decades or more just doesn’t make sense. The environment we live in is dynamic and fast-paced. Technology has massively restructured, redefined, disrupted, and in some cases even destroyed industries and businesses. In the twentieth century, it was possible for a company to maintain its leadership position over decades; but today, given the fast pace of technological innovation and the leadership life cycle in most corporations, it is difficult for one company to maintain the number one, or even number two, position in its industry for even just ten years.

In fact, it was just a short time ago that moving from one company to another was considered a negative on one’s résumé. But today, success requires you to take a different approach to career planning. The new, more sensible, strategy is to consider your career in six to eight modules of five years each. And these modules could potentially be at five or six different companies. For example, you may choose to do two five-year modules with Company A in one type of role, leave to complete your third module at Company B, and then return to Company A in a more senior role. If you aspire to success and to working for a leading company in a leading industry, making changes like this is a given.

Here’s why.

To remain an industry leader, a company must continually reinvent and reposition itself by making significant and consistent financial, technological, and cultural investments. The truth is, most companies just don’t do that. If the company you work for isn’t constantly reinventing itself to remain at the forefront of innovation in its industry, and you are determined to wo…