Fact over fiction: what really drives successful careers
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If you’ve been reading our blogs for a while, you’ll know that we are passionate about supporting your career development and enabling managers to develop the talents of their teams to the full.
We have now launched a new LinkedIn group called, “Career Success & Research” to take this passion to the next level. Here we will share leading edge research, both our own and others, that throws fresh light on career and talent development and questions received wisdoms that might be rather less reliable than previously thought. It also gives us the opportunity to open the debate to you, our readers, to include your thoughts and insights. In fact, you may well like to suggest topics for future review and fresh research for us to undertake. Here’s a taster of what you might expect.
We undertook some extensive research for one of our clients, a leading global utilities organisation, to discover how their senior managers identified those with high potential for future senior roles. Here are the top 5 indicators they looked for:
1. Quality Networks
They were impressed by those with extensive internal networks, whose relationships were mutually beneficial, as these people were able to solve problems more effectively and had a broader and deeper understanding of the organisation and what was required to build success
2. Productivity
People able to produce good quality work on time without having to routinely work long hours, those with efficient working methods including the foresight to develop skills in others so work could be undertaken more effectively by the whole team not just themselves. When these people worked long hours it was to drive forward new initiatives
3. Step-Change
Whilst incremental change is always good, employees that provided a new way of looking at and solving issues stood out from the crowd. They were more likely to establish pilot projects to test their ideas and then share them across the organisation to build knowledge and capability. Such people built in time to reflect and use their networks to reach out to others when needing to tackle particularly difficult projects
4. Lateral Moves
People with an appetite for lateral moves which broaden their business understanding clearly show an organisation that they take their career development seriously, where money comes second to self-development.
5. Creating Highly Motivated Team
Developing the talents of others to strengthen the team and the organisation, creating a positive legacy when moving on, being known as a great manager to work for, always impressed
Join us in our new LinkedIn Group to read the full paper and much more.
We have now launched a new LinkedIn group called, “Career Success & Research” to take this passion to the next level. Here we will share leading edge research, both our own and others, that throws fresh light on career and talent development and questions received wisdoms that might be rather less reliable than previously thought. It also gives us the opportunity to open the debate to you, our readers, to include your thoughts and insights. In fact, you may well like to suggest topics for future review and fresh research for us to undertake. Here’s a taster of what you might expect.
We undertook some extensive research for one of our clients, a leading global utilities organisation, to discover how their senior managers identified those with high potential for future senior roles. Here are the top 5 indicators they looked for:
1. Quality Networks
They were impressed by those with extensive internal networks, whose relationships were mutually beneficial, as these people were able to solve problems more effectively and had a broader and deeper understanding of the organisation and what was required to build success
2. Productivity
People able to produce good quality work on time without having to routinely work long hours, those with efficient working methods including the foresight to develop skills in others so work could be undertaken more effectively by the whole team not just themselves. When these people worked long hours it was to drive forward new initiatives
3. Step-Change
Whilst incremental change is always good, employees that provided a new way of looking at and solving issues stood out from the crowd. They were more likely to establish pilot projects to test their ideas and then share them across the organisation to build knowledge and capability. Such people built in time to reflect and use their networks to reach out to others when needing to tackle particularly difficult projects
4. Lateral Moves
People with an appetite for lateral moves which broaden their business understanding clearly show an organisation that they take their career development seriously, where money comes second to self-development.
5. Creating Highly Motivated Team
Developing the talents of others to strengthen the team and the organisation, creating a positive legacy when moving on, being known as a great manager to work for, always impressed
Join us in our new LinkedIn Group to read the full paper and much more.