3 Pillars of Career Success | LSW#42
And what's often missing
Hey! It’s Sheril Mathews from Leading Sapiens. Welcome to my newsletter where I share strategies to help you get smarter at the game of work. Today’s edition is a first in a series on Organizational Savvy. It’s also an invitation to my upcoming small-group coaching cohort that dives deep into it.
Recent editions ICYMI:
The problem & the opportunity
The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent full of doubt.
—Bertrand Russell
Russell wrote that line a hundred years back. But nowhere is this statement more true than in modern workplaces.
How many times have you heard someone say the following:
My work should speak for itself.
I don’t like to play politics.
I have no idea how THAT guy made VP.
What’s interesting is that often people who say these things are also the most competent and fit for the job. Unfortunately, confident ignorance often wins out in workplaces over conscientious intelligence. This causes many folks to feel helpless, and just plain frustrated.
This is a problem on multiple fronts:
As a high-performing, competent individual, this obviously limits both your career & impact.
As a leader, your best talent is not rising to the top.
This is what management guru John Kotter was hinting at:
Beyond the yellow brick road of naivete and the muggers lane of cynicism, there is a narrow path, poorly lit, hard to find, and even harder to stay on once found. People who have the skill and the perseverance to take that path serve us in countless ways. We need more of these people.
So what is going on here and what’s the way out? Those apparently “ignorant”, whether they know it or not, are relatively good at the art of what i call organizational savvy.
3 pillars of consistently successful careers
A great part of the information obtained in War is contradictory, a still greater part is false, and by far the greatest part is of doubtful character. What is required of an officer is a certain power of discrimination, which only knowledge of men and things and good judgment can give.
—Carl von Clausewitz, On War
The war-strategist Von Clausewitz was talking about decision-making in the complexity of war. I would argue that our workplaces are even more complicated, just without the risk of loss of life (mostly).
Which begs the question: what is the equivalent of power of discrimination, knowledge, and good judgment in the context of careers and leadership? Or just plain everyday work life?
Consider this situation: you just got notified that you did not make it for that coveted Director role. Despite consistently high ratings and being well qualified, they went with someone else. What’s your initial reaction? Where do we usually go looking for answers?
When we think of improving at work, we look at two areas by default:
Self Competence. The ethos is of peak-performance and doing more and doing faster. Get better at productivity techniques, increase throughput, increase productivity, work harder and so on.
Technical Competence. Perhaps we need to double down on mastering the nuances of our craft. Become a better engineer, product manager, researcher etc.
Both approaches are valid, and you can make significant gains.
But here’s the problem: beyond a certain point in your career and role, it’s a level playing field — most folks are already pretty good at both of these. That’s the very reason why you were even considered for that role and made it to the interview.
What we forget is that both performance and skills happen WITHIN the context of an organization and everything that surrounds us. Thus, long-lived successful careers happen at the sweet spot that includes the third critical piece of organizational competence:
In 20 years of working in various corporate roles and 4+ years of coaching this is a consistent recurring pattern I’ve observed at various levels and stages of careers. Either folks are unaware of this problem, or they simply don’t know where and how to take action.
Look back at your own triumphs and defeats in the workplace and see if this pattern is true. I am curious about your take.
An announcement & invitation
In future posts, I’ll pick apart and highlight key aspects of organizational savvy.
Want to get a head start? Join me in my upcoming small-group coaching cohort starting on April 2nd. I have limited the class size to 12 to ensure high quality and attention to details. It comes with 3 individual 1-on-1 coaching sessions with me to ensure follow-up, and tailoring the strategies to your specific challenges.
More details at the link below. Have questions? Reply to this email or set up a call with me. I’d love to have a chat with you: https://calendly.com/sheril-leadingsapiens/coaching-advising
