Five Patterns of Extraordinary Careers, James Citrin & Richard Smith
1. Understand the Value of You – understand how value is created in the workplace, translate that knowledge into action, build personal value over each phase of your career.
2. Practice Benevolent Leadership – create a following that carries you.
3. Overcome the Permission Paradox – get experience without the job.
4. Differentiate using the 20/80 Principle of Performance – do your defined job exceptionally well and storm past predetermined objectives to create break-through ideas & deliver unexpected impact.
5. Find the Right fit (strengths, passions & people) – make decisions with the long-term in mind. Migrate toward positions that fit their natural strengths and passions and where they can work with people they like & respect.
Lao Tsu (6th Century BC) – “A leader is best when people barely know that he exists. He is the teacher who succeeds without taking credit. And, because credit is not taken, credit is received.”
William James – “The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.”
Elizabeth Dole – “By the end of my days, the question is going to be, ‘What did I stand for? Did I make a positive difference for others?’ That is what is going to matter, not all of the other more shallow things.”
Denys Gounet – “It is easy to sit back and discuss theories, but unless you have an understanding of what can really be implemented, it doesn’t mean much – start with your feet in the mud. Upgrade the team taking on each role directly, even for short periods, to gain an intimate understanding of how value is created and the potential opportunities that may exist.”
* Getting along with others is critical in any job setting. However, leadership requires making tough decisions, upsetting the apple cart and disappointing people. If everyone likes you, you have probably had little impact on the organization.
* High impact performance requires making tough calls, differentiating performance among peers and choosing winners & losers. Avoiding these tough decisions will ultimately lead to complacency. Staying in the middle is mediocrity.
Greg Brenneman – Think about business by dissecting the problem into the most important component parts. Then work on creating a plan for each component. In order to be a great company, you need to develop and implement a great but simple plan anyone can understand. 4 cornerstones to a plan:
* Market Plan – What are the issue facing the company? What are the markets you serve? Where are you going? What do you have to do to be successful?
* Financial Plan – How do you fund your efforts?
* Product Plan – How are you going to deliver a service that customers value and want to buy?
* People Plan – How are you going to create a place where people like coming to work?
Provide focus, challenge previous assumptions, and create an environment where break-through thinking around critical objectives can flourish.
Make the complex simple (not to be confused with simplistic). However complex an issue is, step back and simplify it so everyone can understand it, remember it and address it.
* Doing something that is directionally correct, even if it isn’t perfect, is much better than having a perfect plan that doesn’t get done.
* Extraordinary careers; play to your strengths, set your passions free, and fit in naturally and comfortably with your work culture.
* Compensation and prestige tend to be trailing indicators of success.
* It is important to look more to the success you will likely have in any given role, the value you will create, the lasting positive impact you will have – and know that eventually pay, prestige and peer approval will follow.
* A career is a long-term journey and being overly concerned with reporting structures or keeping score in the short-term adds little real value. Don’t confuse title and promotion with building competency and capability.
* Often those physically and emotionally trying times were the best due to the bonds of friendship and teamwork that are forged in adversity.
* Three critical facts of organizational life:
o Individual career success benefits the entire organization.
o The strongest performers contribute a disproportionate amount of value to the company.
o Performance and productivity are maximized when resources are aligned with the most critical organizational needs.
o Balance in aggressive bias toward action with the patience of knowing that positive results will eventually appear.
o Lead with subtlety and pure intentions. Small efforts to create the occurrence of the success patterns can have incredible impact on a career over time.
1. Understand the Value of You – understand how value is created in the workplace, translate that knowledge into action, build personal value over each phase of your career.
2. Practice Benevolent Leadership – create a following that carries you.
3. Overcome the Permission Paradox – get experience without the job.
4. Differentiate using the 20/80 Principle of Performance – do your defined job exceptionally well and storm past predetermined objectives to create break-through ideas & deliver unexpected impact.
5. Find the Right fit (strengths, passions & people) – make decisions with the long-term in mind. Migrate toward positions that fit their natural strengths and passions and where they can work with people they like & respect.
Lao Tsu (6th Century BC) – “A leader is best when people barely know that he exists. He is the teacher who succeeds without taking credit. And, because credit is not taken, credit is received.”
William James – “The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.”
Elizabeth Dole – “By the end of my days, the question is going to be, ‘What did I stand for? Did I make a positive difference for others?’ That is what is going to matter, not all of the other more shallow things.”
Denys Gounet – “It is easy to sit back and discuss theories, but unless you have an understanding of what can really be implemented, it doesn’t mean much – start with your feet in the mud. Upgrade the team taking on each role directly, even for short periods, to gain an intimate understanding of how value is created and the potential opportunities that may exist.”
* Getting along with others is critical in any job setting. However, leadership requires making tough decisions, upsetting the apple cart and disappointing people. If everyone likes you, you have probably had little impact on the organization.
* High impact performance requires making tough calls, differentiating performance among peers and choosing winners & losers. Avoiding these tough decisions will ultimately lead to complacency. Staying in the middle is mediocrity.
Greg Brenneman – Think about business by dissecting the problem into the most important component parts. Then work on creating a plan for each component. In order to be a great company, you need to develop and implement a great but simple plan anyone can understand. 4 cornerstones to a plan:
* Market Plan – What are the issue facing the company? What are the markets you serve? Where are you going? What do you have to do to be successful?
* Financial Plan – How do you fund your efforts?
* Product Plan – How are you going to deliver a service that customers value and want to buy?
* People Plan – How are you going to create a place where people like coming to work?
Provide focus, challenge previous assumptions, and create an environment where break-through thinking around critical objectives can flourish.
Make the complex simple (not to be confused with simplistic). However complex an issue is, step back and simplify it so everyone can understand it, remember it and address it.
* Doing something that is directionally correct, even if it isn’t perfect, is much better than having a perfect plan that doesn’t get done.
* Extraordinary careers; play to your strengths, set your passions free, and fit in naturally and comfortably with your work culture.
* Compensation and prestige tend to be trailing indicators of success.
* It is important to look more to the success you will likely have in any given role, the value you will create, the lasting positive impact you will have – and know that eventually pay, prestige and peer approval will follow.
* A career is a long-term journey and being overly concerned with reporting structures or keeping score in the short-term adds little real value. Don’t confuse title and promotion with building competency and capability.
* Often those physically and emotionally trying times were the best due to the bonds of friendship and teamwork that are forged in adversity.
* Three critical facts of organizational life:
o Individual career success benefits the entire organization.
o The strongest performers contribute a disproportionate amount of value to the company.
o Performance and productivity are maximized when resources are aligned with the most critical organizational needs.
o Balance in aggressive bias toward action with the patience of knowing that positive results will eventually appear.
o Lead with subtlety and pure intentions. Small efforts to create the occurrence of the success patterns can have incredible impact on a career over time.
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