The Patterns of Extraordinary Careers by Jim Citrin
About the Book
Jim Citrin and Rick Smith of Spencer Stuart, the world’s most influential executive search firm, set out to explore this question. The result—based on in-depth, original research—is sure to be the most important and useful book for anyone seeking to crack the code of how to build a rewarding, personally satisfying career. Like weather systems and financial markets, careers contain patterns. What Citrin and Smith found from their research and extensive experience is that people with extraordinary careers are guided by five straightforward patterns that can be harnessed
And used by everyone. These individuals:
• Understand the value of you by translating their knowledge and experience into action, building their personal value over each phase of their career • Practice benevolent leadership by not clawing their way to the top but by being carried there • Solve the permission paradox, the dilemma of not being able to get a job without experience and not getting the experience without the job • Differentiate using the 20/80 principle of performance by storming past their defined jobs to create breakthrough ideas and deliver unexpected impact • Do not micromanage their careers, but macromanage them by gravitating toward the things they are best at and have a passion for, and working with people they like and respect No one manages your career for you. But with Citrin and Smith as your guide, you’ll be able to understand—and act on—the root causes of success. And what better source for strategic career advice than Spencer Stuart, the firm that over the past ten years has conducted more than 60 percent of the searches for Fortune 1000 CEOs?
Author Biography
JAMES M. CITRIN, a prominent CEO and board director recruiter, leads Spencer Stuart’s Global Technology, Communications, and Media practice and is a member of the firm’s worldwide board of directors. He is the author of Zoom: How 12 Exceptional Companies Are Navigating the Road to the Next Economy and coauthor of Lessons from the Top: The 50 Most Successful Business Leaders in America—and What You Can Learn from Them.
Excerpt from the Book:
If you're like many professionals in business and finance, you probably feel as if your career is outside the realm of your control. You may believe that professional success and satisfaction is an ever-elusive mirage on the horizon.
Despite the generally strong global economy, many people feel insecure in their jobs, are out of work, or are thoroughly unfulfilled. Rather than throw in the towel on your aspirations, however, there is a case for optimism.
The Good News
On a personal level, you can manage your career more effectively than you may realize. There is a series of patterns you can follow to get on the right path, make midcourse corrections, or reinvigorate a stalled career. These same patterns can also be taught to students and children to increase the odds that they will realize their goals over time.
At a collective level, it is important to remember that despite the many problems in the world, we live in the most affluent society in the history of the world. In the U.S. and other developed economies, there are national cultures of meritocracy and hard work.
We also have the gift of mobility. Today, individuals are allowed to relocate and pursue opportunities to a degree that would have been unthinkable in decades past for most regions of the world.
The Best and Brightest
So what are the patterns for successfully managing a career, and where do they come from?
Three Patterns of Success
To crack the code, you should commit to the following with patience and perseverance:
1. Find the right fit. True success comes when you work in a position that plays to your natural strengths, is meaningful to you, and allows you to work with people you genuinely like and respect.
Surveys by the Conference Board and other organizations routinely find that job satisfaction is at a low point, with more than 50 percent of workers reportedly dissatisfied in their jobs.
A more discouraging statistic we found is that only 1 in 10 working professionals believe that they are in positions that play to their greatest strengths in areas that they are passionate about. In contrast, the vast majority of extraordinary executives believe that they are in positions that play to their strengths and passions.
So how do you move toward the right fit? First, make your career decisions with the following questions in mind:
· Do you like and respect the employees?
· Can you imagine having a best friend at work?
· Do you aspire to become like the most senior members of the organization?
· Does the role play to your strengths?
· Are you fundamentally interested in whatever it is that the organization does?
Second, develop and follow role models. Study the people who are living the life you want to live. Find out how they achieved their results, where they came from, and what actions they took over time.
Try to find creative ways to meet your role models and get their advice. Are they speaking at a conference? Can you convince their secretaries to give you a meeting?
Finally, be prepared to make trade-offs in the short term to achieve what you want down the road.
It is inevitable that there will be tensions between working the ideal job, achieving the compensation you desire, and being able to maintain the lifestyle you want in terms of time demands, control over your schedule, commuting, and travel. Try to find the right balance among these three competing forces and adapt over time.
2. Overcome the "Permission Paradox." It's the great catch-22 of seeking a career: You can't get the job without the experience, but you can't get the experience without the job.
This is what we call the Permission Paradox, and overcoming it is one of the patterns of extraordinary careers. Think of waiting tables at just the right moment when a movie producer walks in and discovers you, or of being a golf caddy for a business leader who likes your work ethic and offers you a job.
There are more realistic ways. Cultivate mentors who can give you the right introductions. Expand your responsibilities in your current role by volunteering for a stretch work assignment in the most troubled part of your organization. Pursue an advanced degree or industry credential that will give you access to new opportunities.
If you want to make a big change out of your organization into a fundamentally new role, make it a two step process. Try to move within your current organization, where you already have a track record and hopefully strong relationships. This will give you the required experience to move to a new organization in that same new role.
3. Make those around you successful. We call this Benevolent Leadership. Our research found that 90 percent of extraordinary executives focus as much or more on making those who work with them or for them successful as on their own success.
You'll achieve success -- guaranteed -- if you follow this practice and make those with whom you work successful.
Why? You attract the best people to work with you, and the best people generate the best results. People you've helped and supported will in turn become motivated to help you be successful. It's been said one way or another for thousands of years: What goes around comes around.
The more you give, the more you get in return. Don't think that you have to be at a certain level in the organization to follow this pattern. Benevolent Leadership works at any level, from intern to chief executive officer.
Go to Work
So what are you waiting for? You can begin thinking and acting differently in your career right now, and get on the path that leads you to your greatest hopes and dreams.
Jim Citrin and Rick Smith of Spencer Stuart, the world’s most influential executive search firm, set out to explore this question. The result—based on in-depth, original research—is sure to be the most important and useful book for anyone seeking to crack the code of how to build a rewarding, personally satisfying career. Like weather systems and financial markets, careers contain patterns. What Citrin and Smith found from their research and extensive experience is that people with extraordinary careers are guided by five straightforward patterns that can be harnessed
And used by everyone. These individuals:
• Understand the value of you by translating their knowledge and experience into action, building their personal value over each phase of their career • Practice benevolent leadership by not clawing their way to the top but by being carried there • Solve the permission paradox, the dilemma of not being able to get a job without experience and not getting the experience without the job • Differentiate using the 20/80 principle of performance by storming past their defined jobs to create breakthrough ideas and deliver unexpected impact • Do not micromanage their careers, but macromanage them by gravitating toward the things they are best at and have a passion for, and working with people they like and respect No one manages your career for you. But with Citrin and Smith as your guide, you’ll be able to understand—and act on—the root causes of success. And what better source for strategic career advice than Spencer Stuart, the firm that over the past ten years has conducted more than 60 percent of the searches for Fortune 1000 CEOs?
Author Biography
JAMES M. CITRIN, a prominent CEO and board director recruiter, leads Spencer Stuart’s Global Technology, Communications, and Media practice and is a member of the firm’s worldwide board of directors. He is the author of Zoom: How 12 Exceptional Companies Are Navigating the Road to the Next Economy and coauthor of Lessons from the Top: The 50 Most Successful Business Leaders in America—and What You Can Learn from Them.
Excerpt from the Book:
If you're like many professionals in business and finance, you probably feel as if your career is outside the realm of your control. You may believe that professional success and satisfaction is an ever-elusive mirage on the horizon.
Despite the generally strong global economy, many people feel insecure in their jobs, are out of work, or are thoroughly unfulfilled. Rather than throw in the towel on your aspirations, however, there is a case for optimism.
The Good News
On a personal level, you can manage your career more effectively than you may realize. There is a series of patterns you can follow to get on the right path, make midcourse corrections, or reinvigorate a stalled career. These same patterns can also be taught to students and children to increase the odds that they will realize their goals over time.
At a collective level, it is important to remember that despite the many problems in the world, we live in the most affluent society in the history of the world. In the U.S. and other developed economies, there are national cultures of meritocracy and hard work.
We also have the gift of mobility. Today, individuals are allowed to relocate and pursue opportunities to a degree that would have been unthinkable in decades past for most regions of the world.
The Best and Brightest
So what are the patterns for successfully managing a career, and where do they come from?
Three Patterns of Success
To crack the code, you should commit to the following with patience and perseverance:
1. Find the right fit. True success comes when you work in a position that plays to your natural strengths, is meaningful to you, and allows you to work with people you genuinely like and respect.
Surveys by the Conference Board and other organizations routinely find that job satisfaction is at a low point, with more than 50 percent of workers reportedly dissatisfied in their jobs.
A more discouraging statistic we found is that only 1 in 10 working professionals believe that they are in positions that play to their greatest strengths in areas that they are passionate about. In contrast, the vast majority of extraordinary executives believe that they are in positions that play to their strengths and passions.
So how do you move toward the right fit? First, make your career decisions with the following questions in mind:
· Do you like and respect the employees?
· Can you imagine having a best friend at work?
· Do you aspire to become like the most senior members of the organization?
· Does the role play to your strengths?
· Are you fundamentally interested in whatever it is that the organization does?
Second, develop and follow role models. Study the people who are living the life you want to live. Find out how they achieved their results, where they came from, and what actions they took over time.
Try to find creative ways to meet your role models and get their advice. Are they speaking at a conference? Can you convince their secretaries to give you a meeting?
Finally, be prepared to make trade-offs in the short term to achieve what you want down the road.
It is inevitable that there will be tensions between working the ideal job, achieving the compensation you desire, and being able to maintain the lifestyle you want in terms of time demands, control over your schedule, commuting, and travel. Try to find the right balance among these three competing forces and adapt over time.
2. Overcome the "Permission Paradox." It's the great catch-22 of seeking a career: You can't get the job without the experience, but you can't get the experience without the job.
This is what we call the Permission Paradox, and overcoming it is one of the patterns of extraordinary careers. Think of waiting tables at just the right moment when a movie producer walks in and discovers you, or of being a golf caddy for a business leader who likes your work ethic and offers you a job.
There are more realistic ways. Cultivate mentors who can give you the right introductions. Expand your responsibilities in your current role by volunteering for a stretch work assignment in the most troubled part of your organization. Pursue an advanced degree or industry credential that will give you access to new opportunities.
If you want to make a big change out of your organization into a fundamentally new role, make it a two step process. Try to move within your current organization, where you already have a track record and hopefully strong relationships. This will give you the required experience to move to a new organization in that same new role.
3. Make those around you successful. We call this Benevolent Leadership. Our research found that 90 percent of extraordinary executives focus as much or more on making those who work with them or for them successful as on their own success.
You'll achieve success -- guaranteed -- if you follow this practice and make those with whom you work successful.
Why? You attract the best people to work with you, and the best people generate the best results. People you've helped and supported will in turn become motivated to help you be successful. It's been said one way or another for thousands of years: What goes around comes around.
The more you give, the more you get in return. Don't think that you have to be at a certain level in the organization to follow this pattern. Benevolent Leadership works at any level, from intern to chief executive officer.
Go to Work
So what are you waiting for? You can begin thinking and acting differently in your career right now, and get on the path that leads you to your greatest hopes and dreams.
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