6 Unavoidable Real-World Facts About

Managing Career and Priorities

They say experience is the best teacher, but sometimes that experience can involve the
expenditure of time, frustration, and the thought I wish someone had given me this advice
rather than having learned the hard way.
Here are six things I have learned in the real world about managing career and priorities ...
things they don't often teach in business school.

Managing Career and Priorities

Real World Learning #1
If you don't plan and manage your own career
don't expect someone else to do it for you

It is naive to believe that an employer has your best

interests at heart. Employers invariably have their own
best interests at heart, and if these align with yours
thats a bonus and this may be the case at a certain
time, and not the case at others.
I believe if you have a good employer you should seek to
satisfy your career aspirations within that company as
the first option. Always remember your employers level
of commitment to you is probably in writing
somewhere and it amounts to maybe 1, 2 or 3
months notice or, if you read your contract carefully,
this as severance pay and for no reason you have any
control over, you could be called to an unexpected
urgent meeting at 5pm one day where you will be told
this is your last day in the oce. You may have no control over what is done and what is
communicated thereafter and it is not unheard of to be figuratively shot in the back on your
way down the stairs.
Thinking that would never happen to me is also nave. This is not an encouragement toward
disloyalty to your employer, but take a cold look at the reality of your employer's true
commitment to you. Why should your commitment in return be any greater?

Managing Career and Priorities Real World Learning

#2
I have so much to do today I must spend
the first two hours in prayer

Martin Luther was also right, regardless of your type or

level of religious persuasion. In this classic paradox he has
two things to say:
Firstly, keep your priorities in the right order and don't
allow short term demands and pressures to prevent you
from giving your best to your higher calling, be that your
God, your family, your dreams and your desires or
whatever that may be.
Secondly the more busy you are, the more important it is
to resist the temptation to rush into things headlong but
to stand back, consider, plan, prioritize. I cant emphasize
the work prioritize enough.
When you are under pressure to do many things in a
limited time frame it is very hard to resist the temptation to simply make a start but without
planning and thinking carefully that could be the wrong place to start, and actually cause you
more eort to undo and start over in the right direction.
This is easy advice yo give in theory but very dicult to implement in practice: that doesn't
mean it is bad advice ... but as the old saying goes, it can be tough to stay focused on your
objective of draining the swamp when you are up to your armpit in alligators.

Managing Career and Priorities

Real World Learning #3
Icarus was right. If you fly too close to the sun the

wax holding your wings on will melt, and down you

go!

Your work occurs within the eclipse shadow cast by your

immediate superior, and this association whether
warranted or not may present both challenges and
opportunities.
When a CEO leaves for any reason, his/her direct reports

are likely to be in the direct firing line for the new CEO. Conversely when a superior is
promoted or given another position, theres a good chance their gravitational pull may benefit
you as well.
This issue can be beneficial or harmful and is like having a patron or sponsor - when the going
is good for them it is likely to benefit you as well, and vice versa.
Naturally there is a flip side and that is if you happen to be closely aligned to a ratbag, then
chances are you will be tarnished by that person's reputation - as the saying goes 'if you lie
down with dogs, you'll get fleas'.
The best advice is take time every now and then to consider your position vis-a-vis your close
alignment with current or former superiors, how this is likely to be perceived, and whether
that is likely to be detrimental or advantageous to you. And always remember - perception is
reality.

Managing Career and Priorities Real World Learning

#4
The biggest mistake a strong leader can make is to surround themselves
with similar people.

Regrettably its also the most common mistake made by

those in senior leadership roles. Type A leaders the
ones with attributes like energy, vision, drive, capability,
ambition, (and their houseguests of impatience, arrogance,
intolerance, hubris and so on) often find it dicult to see
value in those who dont exhibit the same characteristics,
and so over time tend to surround themselves with clones
of themselves.
This tends to be a blind spot to many leaders who are able
to point out this weakness in others but are unable to
apply the same analysis of their own attitudes and
behaviour.
This leads to imbalance and is something a wise leader will
seek to avoid. Relatively few senior leaders have the selfconfidence as well as insight to see this as an important
issue.
And it's not unheard of for a previous leader's 'unbalanced' team to be 'rebalanced' by his or
her replacement, and under the delusion of 'diversity' simply re-creating an equally unbalanced
team that is a reflection of the incoming leader's bias and blind spots.

Managing Career and Priorities Real World Learning

#5
The second biggest mistake a string leader can
make is to weed out those who don't agree with

him or her, which leads to becoming cut off from

any dissenting or diverging perspectives.

In the days of the Roman Empire when a conquering

Caesar would return to Rome and head a procession in
which the people would praise and applaud him, it was
the role of his most trusted bodyguards the
Praetorian Guard, to accompany the chariot and
whisper remember Caesar, thou art mortal lest he
start to believe the adulation of the people.
Far too many CEOs would see such words as negative,
or disloyal and the giver would be quickly unwelcome.
The result can be the individual leading an organization
becoming completely cut o from any real
communication that doesnt get sifted by someone who
is pre-selected only to transmit in a certain way. Its a
big danger and more common that it should be.
Allowing and heeding dissenting views can be uncomfortable however a good leader needs to
take care to have channels of communication where advice and information can be obtained
from all perspectives, and not censored deliberately or innocently by a group of individuals all
with similar outlooks.
In large organizations with a professional Board or independent external Directors, it is
imperative that Directors take on this task of challenge, provision of alternative perspectives or
the 'devil's advocate' role if the CEO demonstrates a reluctance to be exposed to this from
subordinates.
Managing Career and Priorities Real World Learning #6
It takes a special type of person to both survive and prosper in large

companies for any length of time. Performance and ability are just small
parts of the equation.

Just as intelligence tests can be described as a way to rank people according to their ability to
answer intelligence tests, so too long term success in a corporate situation may have very little
to do with performance or capability, and more to do with the ability to adapt to the corporate
culture and survive the changes of manager you are exposed to.

Often, one measure of this ability to survive and prosper is

the capability to manage upwards, in a way that is wanted
by an individuals leader. Depending on the style of leader,
this can mean a demonstration of loyalty, support, or
agreement that has more to do with political correctness
than choosing and implementing the course of action that
would be of greatest benefit to the company and its
shareholders.
The term 'cultural fit' although somewhat imprecise in its
definition is a much greater determinant of an individual's
career progression in a large organization, and it is not
uncommon to see individuals advance who have not shone
brightly when it comes to performance or innate ability,
but they have performed well in managing and building
relationships and the perception of being loyal and well
aligned with the corporate culture, and thus a 'safe' choice.
For those who recall C S Lewis's 'Narnia Tales', Mr Beaver
explains this point well when he is referring to the hopedfor return of Aslan, the lion. 'Safe? Who said anything
about safe? Of course he's not safe! But he's good. He's the King'.
Aslan would have never had a successful 40-year career with regular promotions in any large
organization or MNC that I can think of, which is just as well because it just wouldn't be the
same if everyone was looking forward to Aslan's return because he was once the local Branch
Manager before becoming Regional Director Central Narnia before being posted to the
corporate oce and would be making his first visit back to wintertime Narnia as recently
appointed VP Climate Change Strategy.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

David Christensen is a highly experienced Asia Pacific business executive and

consultant who has lived and worked in 14 dierent countries and is presently
based in Bangkok, Thailand. He writes on a variety of subjects which are
consolidated in his business blog site, InversionPoint.com.