Successful Career Strategy: An HR Practitioner's Guide to Reach Your Dream Job 3662667908, 9783662667903

Table of contents :
Preface
About This book
Who Should Read This Book?
Objective of This Book
Contents
List of Figures
1: Introduction
1.1 The Importance of a Clearly Defined Career Strategy
1.2 Let’s Start
2: Define Your Career Aspiration
2.1 Aspiration Versus Ambition
2.2 Connecting to Your Deep Desire
2.2.1 Challenges to Connect to Our Deep Desire
2.2.2 Ways to Access Our Deep Desire
2.2.3 Relevance of the Deep Desire for Your Career Strategy
3: Career Strategy: A Five-Step Approach
3.1 Define Your Dream Job
3.1.1 Lifestyle
3.1.2 Type of Job
3.1.3 Personal and Professional Development
3.2 Expend Your Experience Base
3.2.1 How to Expand Your Experience Base
How Robust Is Your Experience Base?
3.3 Assess Your Experience and Competence Gap
3.4 Monitor Constantly What New Opportunities Come Up
3.5 Be Audacious!
4: Evaluate Career Opportunities
4.1 Six Steps to Assess a Job Opportunity
4.2 The True Weight of a Position
4.2.1 Structure of the Organization
4.2.2 Governance and Delegation of Authority
4.2.3 Process Responsibility
4.3 What Is the Right Salary?
4.4 How Many Changes Can You Do at Once (Company, Function, Country, etc.)?
4.5 Prioritization of Job Opportunities
4.5.1 Prioritization Matrix
4.5.2 Mapping of Career Options in the Matrix
4.6 Stakeholder Engagement Plan
4.6.1 Establish the List of Stakeholders
4.6.2 Take Stakeholder’s Perspective
4.6.3 Personal Aspects
4.6.4 How to Define Your Stakeholder Engagement Plan?
4.7 A Simple Tool to Make Better Career Decisions
5: Drive Your Career Development
5.1 You Are the CEO of Your Career
5.1.1 Components of Career Management
5.2 Set Up Your Personal Career Advisory Board
5.2.1 Why to Set Up Your Personal Career Advisory Board?
5.2.2 How to Select the Board Members?
5.2.3 What Is a Personal Career Advisory Board?
5.2.4 What Topics Should Be Covered in the Board Meetings?
5.3 Drive Your Development: On the Job!
5.3.1 External Consulting
5.3.2 Internal Consulting Advice
5.3.3 International Experience
5.3.4 Job swap
5.3.5 Shadowing
5.3.6 360° Feedback
5.3.7 Peer Coaching
5.3.8 Online Learning
5.3.9 External Best Practice Sharing and Expert Groups
5.4 Reverse Succession Planning
5.4.1 Limitations of Traditional Succession Planning
How to Establish Your Reverse Succession Plans?
5.4.2 Discussion with Rolf Peiffer
5.5 The Diamond Principle of Career Management
5.5.1 Two Career Phases
Communication
Time Management
5.6 Your First 100 Days in a New Job
5.6.1 The Action-Oriented School
5.6.2 The Listening-Oriented School
5.6.3 Who Is Right, the Action or the Listening-Oriented School?
5.6.4 It Depends on You
5.6.5 It also Depends on the Situation
A Crisis May Require Shortening the Time for Listening
The Question of Your Predecessor
Time to Prepare
5.6.6 Conclusion
5.7 Write Your “Life CV”
5.8 Think Big! Baby Elephant Story
5.8.1 Do We Have Virtual Ropes Around Our Necks?
6: Assess Company Culture
6.1 The Unwritten Rules of the Game
6.1.1 The Visible and the Invisible Part of the Iceberg
6.1.2 How to Learn More About These Unwritten Rules?
6.2 Internal Competition
6.3 Breaking the Disempowering Spiral
6.3.1 What Is Blocking Empowerment?
6.3.2 The Vicious Spiral
6.3.3 Breaking the Spiral!
6.3.4 Change the Perspective
6.4 Trust Management: How to Enhance Trust in Your Organization
7: Deepen Your Self-Awareness
7.1 How Can You Learn More About Yourself?
7.1.1 “Who Am I”
7.1.2 What Sources Can I Use to Learn More About Myself?
7.1.3 Leadership Is a Lifelong Learning Journey
7.2 Be Narcissistic and Love Your Weaknesses
7.3 Leverage on Feedback for Your Career Development
7.3.1 Barriers to Feedback
7.3.2 Recommendations
7.4 Make Good Usage of People Assessment Tools
7.4.1 Am I a High Potential?
7.4.2 Should Employees Be Informed About Their Potential?
7.4.3 Leadership Assessments: Pros and Cons
7.5 Art–Work Balance: What Art Can Bring to You Professional Development?
7.5.1 Interview with Dr. Tom Sommerlatte
7.6 Energy Management
7.6.1 Take Good Care of Yourself
7.6.2 How to Become a Corporate Athlete
7.6.3 We Are Responsible for Our “Machine” (Body and Mind)
8: Grow as a Leader
8.1 Servant Leadership: Think of Leadership as a Service to Your Team
8.1.1 Traditional Perspective
8.1.2 Leadership as a Service
8.1.3 Leadership Is a Lifelong Learning Journey
8.1.4 Ask Your Team About Your Leadership Service Level
8.2 Why We Need to Reduce the Power of Leaders
8.2.1 New Leadership Behavior Is Required
8.2.2 We Need to Reduce the Power of Leaders
8.2.3 Empower the Teams
8.3 What Leadership for Self-Organized Teams?
8.3.1 Leadership Transformation
8.3.2 Leadership Profiles
8.3.3 Influencing Skills
8.4 Millennial Leaders: How Do They Operate and What We Can Learn from Them?
9: Make a Great Career Start
9.1 Career Start: How to Choose Your First Employer?
9.2 International Experience: How to Gain It Early in Your Career
9.2.1 International Exposure Is a Competitive Advantage
9.2.2 Develop Your Inter-cultural Sensitivity
9.2.3 How to Acquire International Work Experience?
9.2.4 How to Prepare the International Job Search
9.3 Are Internal Consulting Firms a Smart Career Option?
9.3.1 Internal Consulting/Project Management Office
9.3.2 Large-Scale Reorganization Projects
9.3.3 Smaller Organization Projects
9.3.4 What Are the Key Success Factors of Such a Team?
9.3.5 Could This Be a Good Career Move for You?
9.4 Use Social Media to Ensure Your Profile Is Visible in the Job Market
9.5 Steps to Shoot Your Video CV
9.5.1 Content Comes First
9.5.2 Technical Equipment for the Shooting
9.5.3 Shooting of the CV Video
9.5.4 Post-production
9.5.5 Publication
10: Conclusion
10.1 Career Planning Is an Ongoing Learning Process
10.2 Time Matters

Citation preview

Sven Sommerlatte

Successful Career Strategy An HR Practitioner‘s Guide to Reach Your Dream Job

Business Guides on the Go

“Business Guides on the Go” presents cutting-edge insights from practice on particular topics within the fields of business, management, and finance. Written by practitioners and experts in a concise and accessible form the series provides professionals with a general understanding and a first practical approach to latest developments in business strategy, leadership, operations, HR management, innovation and technology management, marketing or digitalization. Students of business administration or management will also benefit from these practical guides for their future occupation/careers. These Guides suit the needs of today’s fast reader.

Sven Sommerlatte

Successful Career Strategy An HR Practitioner’s Guide to Reach Your Dream Job

Sven Sommerlatte Bad Kreuznach, Germany

This work contains media enhancements, which are displayed with a “play” icon. Material in the print book can be viewed on a mobile device by downloading the Springer Nature “More Media” app available in the major app stores. The media enhancements in the online version of the work can be accessed directly by authorized users. ISSN 2731-4758     ISSN 2731-4766 (electronic) Business Guides on the Go ISBN 978-3-662-66790-3    ISBN 978-3-662-66791-0 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-66791-0 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer-Verlag GmbH, DE, part of Springer Nature 2023 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer-Verlag GmbH, DE, part of Springer Nature. The registered company address is: Heidelberger Platz 3, 14197 Berlin, Germany

Preface

Dear reader, your decision to buy this book is certainly based on your desire to define a robust career strategy for your professional development. That is a wise initiative, because it should give you as such already a competitive advantage in the job market. Based on my many years of career counseling I can say that surprisingly only few people do have a clear strategy for their career. This is particularly astonishing, considering the fact that many of these individuals I interacted with have significant business responsibility in the companies they work for. Many professionals seem to underestimate that strategic reflection and positioning is just as important at the individual level to give orientation and structure to our career development as it is required at company level to steer the business. Because of a lack of longer-term strategic career planning, people tend to follow “pre-defined” career pathways following the expectations from their social environment or jump on opportunities with the idea that “it will work out for me somehow.” This can lead to missed opportunities, if they understand too late, what their real dream job would have been, which would have given them true professional satisfaction and fulfillment. It may also lead to a situation where valuable time has been lost due to career moves that don’t help achieving the ultimate career target. The time lost due to such “unproductive” career steps might end up being v

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so significant that the dream job comes finally out of reach. I would therefore recommend making your career strategy a priority and using the tools in this book to define and implement this strategy efficiently. This book is based on my many years of experience as head of HR, during which I always placed special focus and interest on career counseling and career development. During my many interactions with leaders and with people who are at the start of their career, I gained detailed insight into the questions people have when it comes to career planning. Through social media I had a chance to interact with thousands of people on topics related to career strategy. Both my YouTube channel and my LinkedIn publications offered me the possibility to exchange with individuals in many different career stages and to understand their needs and expectations. This was also a great opportunity to share my career advice with a broad audience and to test and further improve my career planning and career management tools. As Chief HR Officer of a large corporation I also know what the company perspective is and what the expectations and requirements are from an employer perspective. In my company we work constantly on improving our talent acquisition and people development approaches, which gives me the possibility to connect the individual perspective with that broader company perspective. The advice you will find here is based on that broader perspective. In this book you will learn about the structure that you should give to your career strategy. Furthermore, you will find here a broad range of tools and methods that can be used to assess career situations and to prepare important career decisions. I have included many examples of people who I could advise in challenging situations where they had to make tough career decision. These could be situations you are confronted with today or that you might face in the future. I hope that these examples will help illustrate the more theoretical parts and that they will make the book lively. It goes without saying that these examples are completely anonymized, even if they very often correspond to career counseling situations, I have encountered over many years of HR work. As a matter of fact, I have always given priority to time spent with talents in my organization to understand their career aspiration, to exchange in depth on interrogations they may have regarding their professional development and of

 Preface 

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course to offer pragmatic advice. All that experience is summarized in this book. I hope that this reading will be useful for you in whatever career stage you may currently be: You might still be at the beginning of your professional development and wish to get more clarity on the type of company or organization that could offer you the best career start. You may also seek for a better understanding of the career pathways that are available, and which may not be so easy to apprehend. Chapter 9 is specifically dedicated to career starters, but the preceding chapters should offer valuable information on how to structure your career after a successful start has been made. Others of you might be already in the typical career acceleration phase that kicks in if you have been identified as a potential in your organization after having made a good start. During that phase a range of options might come up. Choosing the right options considering your longer-­ term career objective will be critical. You might also be at a stage where you have interrogations about the sense of pursuing the career you have had so far. You may have some more fundamental questions concerning your future development and wish to explore alternative options. Finally, some of you may wonder how you can offer better career advice to others. You might lead a team and have the desire to truly live up to your responsibility to support your team members with career counseling. Or you might be a parent and wonder how to best address the topic of professional development with your kids. In the Chaps. 1 to 8 you will find a structured approach to define your career strategy. But my strong recommendation is not to put this topic ad acta, once you have established your personal career strategy following this method. Planning for your career should rather be a recurring activity. The US president and commander in chief of the allied forces during the second world war is known for having said that: “a plan is nothing, planning is everything.” The deep wisdom in this statement is that a plan is valuable only if it is constantly updated and adjusted. Ideally the work on your career strategy should be an ongoing process where you monitor, for example, developments in your industry sector that could be relevant for your career. You should also update your plan based on new

viii Preface

experience you are gaining or opportunities that have come up (e.g., during a discussion with a headhunter). Finally, you will learn about the importance of setting up your personal career advisory board that should meet at least once per year. This career advisory board meeting will obviously be another opportunity to update your career plan and ensure that the advice you have received is properly integrated. So as you see, career planning should not be a onetime action, but should rather be seen as an ongoing process in order to ensure that the direction you give to your professional development remains the right one. Many of the tools and methods that you will read about here will be useful also at a later stage, especially if you are confronted with career decisions. You should therefore not put this book away after the reading but rather keep it at hand. I would also recommend that you share this book with the members of your career advisory board to ensure you have a common understanding of the approach to take before you start the work. Just make sure they return the book to you after the reading ! Please engage into this work on your career strategy in a playful way. Excessive ambition or obstination would end up getting into your way. A true learning spirit is advisable where you keep all sensors open for observation. This observation should fore and foremost be directed to yourself in order to understand your deeper needs and aspiration. You should also use any new experience as a key to assess even better your strengths and your areas for development. Leverage on the tools in this book to draw learnings from all professional situations you get exposed to so that you can project yourself even better into the future in view of your dream job. I wish you to have fun in this adventure and of course: every success! Bad Kreuznach, Germany

Sven Sommerlatte

About This book

This book summarizes many years of career counseling experience. From my interactions with hundreds of talents, I have been able to gain a deeper understanding over time of the issues that professionals are facing when they think about their career progression. I have established a career management framework and developed several concrete tools and tips which are outlined in this book. I have included many concrete (anonymized) examples of individuals who I met over the years in order to illustrate the concepts. These examples cover a broad range of career situations, they address different company settings and include people from all over the world in order to be as divers and rich as possible. In addition to my individual career counseling experience, I had the opportunity to collect feedback from thousands of individuals through social media on that topic of career management. My YouTube channel as well as the Linked-In publications and my blog have found great resonance. The response I got though these online media has allowed me to further enrich my pallet of career counseling recommendations in order to provide adequate advice to people globally with the most diverse career challenges. As HR leader of a highly successful company, I know about the strategic decisions that companies must make in view of growing their talent base. Attracting, retaining, and developing our talent base is indeed a strategic success factor. This strategic perspective complements to the

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About This book

bottom-up counseling experience. Changing the way companies traditionally look at career management in order to make our HR processes more transparent, engaging, and participative is a critical requirement in my eyes to respond to the expectations of our future talents in the digital age. As an example, succession planning should no longer be a black box, but an open exchange with the active involvement of team members, managers, and HR. This constant search for more innovative approaches to talent management and the research on organizational learning for my Ph.D. are forming the theoretical and academic foundation of this book. In this book you will find a broad range of practical advice and tools to define and implement your career strategy. This starts with a 5-step approach to formulate your career plan. Concrete tips are offered for each of these steps. This book also addresses many of the career management challenges you will encounter (finding the right employer, changing career orientation, choosing between job options, etc.). It offers concrete advice and support on how to best cope with these situations. Each chapter contains a QR code that refers to introduction videos related to the topic. This allows you to combine watching and reading and will make the career strategy journey even more lively.

Who Should Read This Book? The target audience are young professionals who are at the beginning of their career. They very often lack insight into how companies operate and on how to steer their professional development in the most efficient way within these organizations. They might be tempted to jump onto the next exciting opportunity without having a longer term plan and might thereby miss out on the more relevant and valuable opportunities to grow their experience base in view of their career aspiration. The many examples and career stories in this book will make the tools and concepts more tangible for them, even if they don’t know the intricacies of the corporate world yet so well. I believe that this book can be also of great value for people who are already more advanced in their career but who wish to step back and think about where they stand and where they want to go with their career.

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They might never have taken the time to do so and might look for a well-­ structured approach to undertake that reflection. Some might be standing in front of tough career choices and might need tools and advice on how to take the right decision. Finally, all leaders have a deep responsibility to help develop their teams. But many managers fear the one-to-one exchanges with their team members on that topic, because they are worried that they will be ask for a promotion and that they will not be able to provide a satisfactory answer. Many leaders often don’t know how to engage into an open career counseling conversation. This is not necessarily about the next promotion. Team members seek for open and honest feedback and advice on how to manage their career, not necessarily looking just for a next job immediately. This book will help managers to be more skillful in these conversations with their team members and to thereby become better team leaders.

Objective of This Book From my long career counseling experience, I know about the pitfall of being shortsighted when it comes to career management. Many talents spend much more time on the strategy of the business they support than on their own career strategy. This book calls upon each one’s responsibility to steer his/her career toward a purpose-led career aspiration. The objective of this book is to help talents connect to their deep desire, it encourages candidates to make audacious career decisions, and it provides guidance on how to select the professional environment that best matches personal preferences. This book is a plaidoyer to look at career as a life-long learning journey that can help grow as a leader and as a person.

Contents

1 I ntroduction  1 1.1 The Importance of a Clearly Defined Career Strategy   3 1.2 Let’s Start   4 2 D  efine Your Career Aspiration  5 2.1 Aspiration Versus Ambition   8 2.2 Connecting to Your Deep Desire  10 2.2.1 Challenges to Connect to Our Deep Desire  11 2.2.2 Ways to Access Our Deep Desire  12 2.2.3 Relevance of the Deep Desire for Your Career Strategy 13 3 Career  Strategy: A Five-Step Approach 15 3.1 Define Your Dream Job  19 3.1.1 Lifestyle  20 3.1.2 Type of Job  22 3.1.3 Personal and Professional Development  24 3.2 Expend Your Experience Base  25 3.2.1 How to Expand Your Experience Base  26 3.3 Assess Your Experience and Competence Gap  29 xiii

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3.4 Monitor Constantly What New Opportunities Come Up  30 3.5 Be Audacious!  32 4 E  valuate Career Opportunities 35 4.1 Six Steps to Assess a Job Opportunity  37 4.2 The True Weight of a Position  41 4.2.1 Structure of the Organization  42 4.2.2 Governance and Delegation of Authority  43 4.2.3 Process Responsibility  44 4.3 What Is the Right Salary?  45 4.4 How Many Changes Can You Do at Once (Company, Function, Country, etc.)?  46 4.5 Prioritization of Job Opportunities  47 4.5.1 Prioritization Matrix  47 4.5.2 Mapping of Career Options in the Matrix  50 4.6 Stakeholder Engagement Plan  51 4.6.1 Establish the List of Stakeholders  52 4.6.2 Take Stakeholder’s Perspective  52 4.6.3 Personal Aspects  56 4.6.4 How to Define Your Stakeholder Engagement Plan?  57 4.7 A Simple Tool to Make Better Career Decisions  57 5 D  rive Your Career Development 63 5.1 You Are the CEO of Your Career  65 5.1.1 Components of Career Management  65 5.2 Set Up Your Personal Career Advisory Board  66 5.2.1 Why to Set Up Your Personal Career Advisory Board?  66 5.2.2 How to Select the Board Members?  67 5.2.3 What Is a Personal Career Advisory Board?  67 5.2.4 What Topics Should Be Covered in the Board Meetings? 68

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5.3 Drive Your Development: On the Job!  68 5.3.1 External Consulting  69 5.3.2 Internal Consulting Advice  69 5.3.3 International Experience  70 5.3.4 Job swap  71 5.3.5 Shadowing  71 5.3.6 360° Feedback  72 5.3.7 Peer Coaching  72 5.3.8 Online Learning  72 5.3.9 External Best Practice Sharing and Expert Groups  72 5.4 Reverse Succession Planning  73 5.4.1 Limitations of Traditional Succession Planning 74 5.4.2 Discussion with Rolf Peiffer  76 5.5 The Diamond Principle of Career Management  79 5.5.1 Two Career Phases  79 5.6 Your First 100 Days in a New Job  81 5.6.1 The Action-Oriented School  81 5.6.2 The Listening-Oriented School  82 5.6.3 Who Is Right, the Action or the ListeningOriented School?  83 5.6.4 It Depends on You  83 5.6.5 It also Depends on the Situation  84 5.6.6 Conclusion  85 5.7 Write Your “Life CV”  85 5.8 Think Big! Baby Elephant Story  86 5.8.1 Do We Have Virtual Ropes Around Our Necks?  88 6 A  ssess Company Culture 91 6.1 The Unwritten Rules of the Game  96 6.1.1 The Visible and the Invisible Part of the Iceberg  96 6.1.2 How to Learn More About These Unwritten Rules? 98

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6.2 Internal Competition 102 6.3 Breaking the Disempowering Spiral 104 6.3.1 What Is Blocking Empowerment? 104 6.3.2 The Vicious Spiral 104 6.3.3 Breaking the Spiral! 106 6.3.4 Change the Perspective 106 6.4 Trust Management: How to Enhance Trust in Your Organization106 7 D  eepen Your Self-Awareness111 7.1 How Can You Learn More About Yourself? 114 7.1.1 “Who Am I” 114 7.1.2 What Sources Can I Use to Learn More About Myself?116 7.1.3 Leadership Is a Lifelong Learning Journey 116 7.2 Be Narcissistic and Love Your Weaknesses 118 7.3 Leverage on Feedback for Your Career Development 119 7.3.1 Barriers to Feedback 120 7.3.2 Recommendations 122 7.4 Make Good Usage of People Assessment Tools 123 7.4.1 Am I a High Potential? 123 7.4.2 Should Employees Be Informed About Their Potential?125 7.4.3 Leadership Assessments: Pros and Cons 128 7.5 Art–Work Balance: What Art Can Bring to You Professional Development? 132 7.5.1 Interview with Dr. Tom Sommerlatte 133 7.6 Energy Management 135 7.6.1 Take Good Care of Yourself 135 7.6.2 How to Become a Corporate Athlete 136 7.6.3 We Are Responsible for Our “Machine” (Body and Mind) 136

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8 Grow  as a Leader139 8.1 Servant Leadership: Think of Leadership as a Service to Your Team 141 8.1.1 Traditional Perspective 141 8.1.2 Leadership as a Service 141 8.1.3 Leadership Is a Lifelong Learning Journey 143 8.1.4 Ask Your Team About Your Leadership Service Level144 8.2 Why We Need to Reduce the Power of Leaders 144 8.2.1 New Leadership Behavior Is Required 144 8.2.2 We Need to Reduce the Power of Leaders 145 8.2.3 Empower the Teams 146 8.3 What Leadership for Self-Organized Teams? 147 8.3.1 Leadership Transformation 147 8.3.2 Leadership Profiles 148 8.3.3 Influencing Skills 149 8.4 Millennial Leaders: How Do They Operate and What We Can Learn from Them? 149 9 Make  a Great Career Start151 9.1 Career Start: How to Choose Your First Employer? 153 9.2 International Experience: How to Gain It Early in Your Career 155 9.2.1 International Exposure Is a Competitive Advantage155 9.2.2 Develop Your Inter-cultural Sensitivity 156 9.2.3 How to Acquire International Work Experience?156 9.2.4 How to Prepare the International Job Search 157 9.3 Are Internal Consulting Firms a Smart Career Option?159 9.3.1 Internal Consulting/Project Management Office159 9.3.2 Large-Scale Reorganization Projects 160 9.3.3 Smaller Organization Projects 160

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9.3.4 What Are the Key Success Factors of Such a Team? 9.3.5 Could This Be a Good Career Move for You? 9.4 Use Social Media to Ensure Your Profile Is Visible in the Job Market 9.5 Steps to Shoot Your Video CV 9.5.1 Content Comes First 9.5.2 Technical Equipment for the Shooting 9.5.3 Shooting of the CV Video 9.5.4 Post-production 9.5.5 Publication

161 162 162 163 165 166 166 167 168

10 C  onclusion169 10.1 Career Planning Is an Ongoing Learning Process 169 10.2 Time Matters 172

List of Figures

Fig. 1.1 Introduction video for this chapter (▶ https://doi. org/10.1007/000-­97p) Fig. 2.1 Introduction video for this chapter (▶ https://doi. org/10.1007/000-­97q) Fig. 3.1 Introduction video for this chapter (▶ https://doi. org/10.1007/000-­97r) Fig. 3.2 Career aspiration Fig. 3.3 Career opportunities Fig. 3.4 Career options Fig. 3.5 Current experience base Fig. 3.6 Expanding the experience base Fig. 3.7 Reaching the dream job Fig. 3.8 Pyramids Fig. 3.9 Experience base Fig. 3.10 Be bold and dare Fig. 4.1 Introduction video for this chapter (▶ https://doi. org/10.1007/000-­97s) Fig. 4.2 Prioritization matrix Fig. 4.3 Assessing attractivity and likelihood Fig. 4.4 Mapping career options in the prioritization matrix Fig. 5.1 Introduction video for this chapter (▶ https://doi. org/10.1007/000-­97t) Fig. 5.2 Diamond principle

2 6 16 17 18 18 18 19 19 26 30 33 36 48 50 51 64 80 xix

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List of Figures

Fig. 6.1 Introduction video for this chapter (▶ https://doi. org/10.1007/000-­97v) Fig. 6.2 Iceberg framework Fig. 7.1 Introduction video for this chapter (▶ https://doi. org/10.1007/000-­97w) Fig. 7.2 Nazis by Caravaggio (drawing from Eva Sommerlatte) Fig. 8.1 Introduction video for this chapter (▶ https://doi. org/10.1007/000-­97x) Fig. 9.1 Introduction video for this chapter (▶ https://doi. org/10.1007/000-­97y) Fig. 10.1 Introduction video for this chapter (▶ https://doi. org/10.1007/000-­97z)

92 97 112 120 140 152 170

1 Introduction

An introduction video to this chapter is available in the Springer Nature “More Media” app. Please open the app and scan the icon or use the link (Fig. 1.1). Career counseling is my passion. Interacting with people to help them discover their true career aspiration is therefore a permanent source of inspiration for me. As HR leader, I have frequent opportunities to meet with talents who seek advice at different stages of their career development: • Young professionals, who seek advice on how to best start their career. • Employees who must choose between several attractive job offers and want to ensure that they take the right decision.

Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-­3-­662-­66791-­0_1. The videos can be accessed individually by clicking the DOI link in the accompanying figure caption or by scanning this link with the SN More Media App.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer-Verlag GmbH, DE, part of Springer Nature 2023 S. Sommerlatte, Successful Career Strategy, Business Guides on the Go, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-66791-0_1

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S. Sommerlatte

Fig. 1.1  Introduction video for this chapter (▶ https://doi.org/10.1007/000-­97p)

• People who are confronted to difficult career choices because of changes in their personal environment or restructuring decisions on company side. • Others who understand that the pathway they have chosen might not be sustainable in the longer term and who want to give a completely new orientation to their career. I also had the opportunity to exchange with people from all parts of the world on the topic of career management. As part of my business trips, I always save time to exchange with groups of talents from my company on questions related to their career. These discussions have been a great source of inspiration and insight for me. In addition, whenever possible, I spend time in universities and business schools to meet with students who seek insight into the corporate world and who want to know how to best navigate it. These discussions are always rich and stimulating. They have allowed me to better understand the expectations that the new generations have for their professional life and what they ask from their future employers. The self-confidence with which these expectations are expressed has often positively surprised me. It is not unusual to hear: “I would expect flexible working and emphasis on life-work balance. That is a pre-condition.” This clarity is refreshing.

1 Introduction 

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1.1 The Importance of a Clearly Defined Career Strategy Being clear on your needs and expectations is indeed of the essential. The lucidity in which some students are expressing it (by the way, equally in emerging countries) should guide us. Your needs and expectations should indeed be the starting point of your career strategy. This strategy should help you respond in the best possible way to your deeper aspirations. All too often these remain unclear or implicit. Still too many people engage blindly into a pre-defined career path. This leads not rarely to situations where individuals look back at some point in time and regret the choices they have made. Because they have not consciously made these decisions. They had no plan. They responded to opportunities, usually with a simplistic criterion in mind: is this a bigger role? A clearly defined career strategy allows to make such career decisions consciously and with a robust longer-term plan in mind that is anchored in your deeply rooted aspirations. This allows you to fully own your career choices, instead of following expectations that may come from your social environment or be guided by pre-defined career pathways. To successfully define your career strategy, you need an understanding of how to do that. It’s a simple methodology that you will find outlined in this book. You also need advice on how to set up a governance to support you in the implementation of that strategy. It is important to draw on the support of others and to conduct robust stakeholder management. You will find here plenty of practical tips. During the past couple of years, I have shared advice on career management in a series of videos on my YouTube channel and other social media. The rich feedback has allowed me to gain even better understanding of the questions people have and to fine-tune my career strategy concept. I am delighted that there is the opportunity here to bring that together in this book. I hope it will find the same positive resonance and that it will be helpful for you.

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1.2 Let’s Start Let me first ask you two simple questions: • How much time have you spent over the past 2 years to think about your career strategy? • And how much time have you spent working on the strategy of the business that you support or that you oversee? As many of us you have probably spent quite some time on the business strategy and little or no time on your individual career strategy. Why is that? Probably because many don’t really know how to define their personal career strategy. Maybe also because they believe that career opportunities will come up and that it is not really something that can be planned or forecasted. That would be quite wrong. Just like a company we must set a strategic direction for our own professional development. We should make informed choices based on deep insight about ourselves and about our professional environment. We also need to draw on the advice of people who can bring relevant perspective and who can challenge our assumptions. In short: we are the captain of our career development. Leaving that to chance might lead to many missed opportunities. This book will provide practical tips and tools that will help you define in implementing your personal career strategy.

2 Define Your Career Aspiration

An introduction video to this chapter is available in the Springer Nature “More Media” app. Please open the app and scan the icon or use the link (Fig. 2.1). You certainly expect from this book help to accelerate your career progression. Most of those who bought this book are likely to have ambitious career targets. You want to put all the chances on your side to reach those—fast! But before pushing on the career accelerator, you should first reflect on what you aspire to. Clarity on what you strive for and on the direction you wish to give to your career development should be the starting point.

Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-­3-­662-­66791-­0_2. The videos can be accessed individually by clicking the DOI link in the accompanying figure caption or by scanning this link with the SN More Media App.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer-Verlag GmbH, DE, part of Springer Nature 2023 S. Sommerlatte, Successful Career Strategy, Business Guides on the Go, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-66791-0_2

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Fig. 2.1  Introduction video for this chapter (▶ https://doi.org/10.1007/000-­97q)

Please take a few moments to think about the following questions:

• Are you clear on your deeper professional aspiration? Have you made a conscious effort to make that aspiration explicit? Did you write it down? • In your past career decisions, did you follow the traditional vertical career progression, maybe just because that is what others were expecting from you? • Are you building your career plan based on a clear understanding of your talents and personal preferences? What are these? • Is that plan playing to your strength? Do you fully leverage these strengths? • Does your career allow you to bring yourselves fully in as a person? • Are you clear about your deeper desire? Have you had opportunity to check this? This introspection should help you find the North star for your career strategy. It is the anchor point and therefore of great importance. This first chapter will guide you in that thought process. The Example of Eugene Let me share the exchanges I had with Eugene a couple of years ago. Eugene had come to Paris with the clear idea in mind: to complete his business school and to engage into a finance career in a large corporation. This

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was certainly also the expectation from his family, who had made certain sacrifices to pay for his studies and for an international semester abroad. Eugene succeeded his studies with an MBA and made a great career start in a large French cooperation. He moved up the ranks quite easily at the beginning and got a lot of satisfaction from his job. Finance was not really his passion, but he was good in mathematics and it was therefore quite easy for him to learn fast. He liked his colleagues. This did compensate the fact that the content of his job was not giving him much personal fulfillment. What he really loved was the countryside and the vineyard of his family. He regularly went back home over the holidays to help manage the chateau. It had become his hobby. He saw his job as a source of income, but his real passion was in the rural area where he had grown up. Then came a situation when a job opportunity he was expecting to get did not materialize. It was the first time in his career that he was not being able to move up as planned. He knew that other options would come up and nobody in the company saw this situation as a problem. His line manager confirmed to Eugene that he was perceived as a strong talent and that the company would support his professional development. But this situation triggered a thought process. Eugene started to step back and take a more holistic view on where he stood in his professional life and what he was expecting longer term. He remembered the initial excitement he  had to get to know the world of international corporate finance. He remembered that he was associating certain ideas about that type of job and that type of life. This was based on assumptions he was making, not based on any evidence he had. In a way he took it for granted that this is what he wanted and what he “should” do. He reached out to me for career counseling. In my interactions with Eugene, it became clear that the real issue was not related to that missed job move. That “failure” (in his eyes) had prompted a more profound reflection on his side. What did he truly want to do in his life? His deep connection to the vineyard became more obvious to him, but it took time before he admitted to himself that this is what he really wanted to do. He had never allowed himself to even question the career path that his parents had offered him, with certain financial sacrifices on their end. An open discussion with his family brought clarity. His skills were needed to run the family business, and everyone was excited to have him “back.” His decision was to take the management of the chateau when his father would retire. In Eugene's case, an external event provoked a deeper questioning. Fortunately for him, this came right in time. Don’t wait for such an external event concerning your career. We have only one life. Make sure that your professional activity really matches your aspirations. That is what the following section is about.

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2.1 Aspiration Versus Ambition We are in the daily race for higher objectives and we constantly strive to over-achieve. Sometimes that ambition overshadows what we truly aspire to. Aspiration is related to our deeper desire. The closer we get to our aspired state, the more fulfillment we experience. We should be careful not to miss this in the rush. This section might help you set the right priorities for your career strategy. Let’s First Look at What These Two Terms Have in Common Superficially, both words are close, they are even sometimes used as synonyms. Both terms speak about a projection into the future. They both designate a state that we wish to reach. In both cases there is action and energy that is associated with this desire. There is a motivation to reach that future state. This motivation could be related to a physical performance in sports, to certain material goals, to business performance, or to career objectives. On the face of it both words, ambition and aspiration, are positive. What Is the Difference Between Aspiration and Ambition? I believe that there is a fundamental difference, which is related to the source of energy. Ambition is usually driven by a spirit of competition. It is related to standards and over passing these standards. Aspiration is rooted in your deep desire. It is like an inner force that pulls you to aim for higher goals. It is more deeply connected to who you are. It is connected to your deep desire and to what you truly value (e.g., the wine yards and not the life in corporate finance, as outlined in the example above of Eugene). Reaching these goals will provide you with fulfillment, meaning, and profound satisfaction. It will allow you to become the best version of yourself, because the closer you get to the state that you aspire to, the more you can leverage on our talents and strength. You will be able to operate in “your space.” This could ultimately get us closer to what the Greeks have called ataraxia: the absence of desire for more. The state of fulfillment where nothing more is needed, where we are serene and generous.

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What Is the Difference? Ambition is related to performance. Very often it is about outperforming others. That motivation is a less deeply intrinsic one, because it is triggered by a specific situation or context (e.g., the launch of a new product or a sports game). Very often certain external factors reinforce that “will to win.” That is the case, for example, if an audience is watching (e.g., in a sports stadium). Ambition is largely a performance in the eyes of others. In the case of an ambition, the objectives are usually explicit, and success is highly visible. We see here the difference to aspiration, which is more something we achieve for ourselves. It might go unnoticed for the others. They might simply see a greater happiness or serenity but may not perceive what is triggering this. What Are the Implications for Your Career? There is of course nothing wrong with ambition. In sports for example this has tremendous virtues. It is thanks to the encouragement of others that athletes break the records; there is, for example, a real positive symbiosis between the football players and the supporters in the stadium. But if your career has this as its main source, complete fulfillment may not be reached for two reasons: • Because the ambition is calling for always more. You have hardly reached one objective or beaten one record when you want already more. • Or, because once you have reached the goal, there is nothing more to aspire to and you might fall into an empty hole (“what am I going to do now that there is no objective anymore to run toward?”). Ambition is an energy that vanishes once the ultimate target is reached. Aspiration in the contrary is an energy that sustains once the desire state has been reached.

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The Example of Fabien Fabien wanted to be a pilot since he was a kid. After many years of studies and a tough selection process he finally reached his career goal. For a number of years he was excited about this new life and about the successes he had in the airline, where he was promoted to larger aircrafts. But deeply inside, it became clear for him that he had achieved what he wanted to achieve and that this job was no longer offering him real satisfaction. He progressively lost interest in his job started to look for satisfaction in his hobby: cooking. First, his friends had the pleasure to enjoy his talent in the kitchen. Finally, Fabien decided to change jobs and to make a living out of his hobby. He invested his savings to buy a restaurant. Very soon, the success of the restaurant had proven he had been right in making this courageous decision. Fabien, who had become over the years sometimes a bit moody, was again the “old one” as we knew him for years: a very relaxed and engaging person who loved to be with people. Quite obviously, this new job was offering him the deep satisfaction and would likely be fulfilling in the longer term.

I believe that this has quite important implications. We should of course have a healthy dose of ambition. But we should be careful not to get trapped in our ambition and lose sight of our true aspiration. It requires some efforts to connect back to what we truly aspire to. We should be careful not to miss this in the rush of events. Working on your personal career strategy is a good opportunity to connect back to your deep desire.

2.2 Connecting to Your Deep Desire As said in the introduction, our deep desire should be the North star for our career strategy. But we are often disconnected from it. In this section I will outline why we find it sometimes challenging to be clear about that deep desire and I will outline some simple ways to connect back to it. Let me first share what I mean by deep desire. Our deep desire is like a source of energy that is coming from profoundly within us. In that sense it is like oil that is coming from far below the surface. Except that our deep desire is specific to each one of us and

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that it has a direction. In that sense it is like a vector. It is a source of energy that is pointing toward a goal, which we could call our personal purpose. Let me outline with another example what the deeper desire is. The Example of Magdalena As a teenager, Magdalena was a passionate athlete and was part of the national team in her discipline. Competition, performance, and camaraderie—this is what she felt passionate about. When she started her professional career in HR, she kept a close link to her sports club, although she could not continue to compete at the national level. In her job she specialized in personal development and became a certified coach. She could see a link between the challenges top athletes are confronted to and the challenges corporate leaders are facing. Just like athletes have to prepare mentally and physically for competition in order to reach their top performance, managers have to prepare for challenging situations they face. As an example, the annual shareholder meeting might require from a CEO his/her full presence and reactivity. Having good sleep, being mentally balanced and physical fitness might play an even more important role than being perfectly well prepared. Just as an athlete, the leader has to have that self-­ awareness to know how to master high stress situations in order to be able to best cope with the business requirements. After 14 years of career in different large corporations, Magdalena had the increasing desire to return to her first love: the world of sports. She offered her sports club to use her expertise as corporate coach and made the constatation that she could easily transfer her professional expertise to sports. Two years later, a restructuring gave her the possibility to exit her company with a severance package. She became a freelancer and specialized in coaching for athletes. Today she is very successful and recognized in this field. She is still surprised that she could combine her passion for sports with a processional activity. Sometimes she wonders, if she should not have paid more attention to her deep desire already earlier. Maybe she could have made that step already earlier.

2.2.1 Challenges to Connect to Our Deep Desire So why is it sometimes difficult to connect to our deep desire, if it is of such importance for us and very specific to each of us individually?

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First, it is coming from deeply within us and it is therefore a bit hidden. It is not something tangible. We need to find a way to access it. That requires introspection and self-awareness, which we need to learn. Second, we have a skilled incompetence that is making it a bit more difficult for us. This concept of the skilled incompetence has been developed by Chris Argyris (on organizational learning, 1993). Basically, we have become so good at problem solving that we have become to some extent “incompetent” in our ability to connect to our deep desire: When we wake up in the morning, we have the agenda of the day in our mind. We are focused on what we need to achieve in the days and weeks to come. That makes us blind to our more deeply rooted aspiration.

2.2.2 Ways to Access Our Deep Desire I would like to propose here a few simple ways to connect back to our deep desire. Introspection We can use leisure time for reflection and introspection. In the Latin language that is called OTIUM, which is the opposite to Negotium, the activity of conducting commerce. There are many moments during the day (when we are playing sports, when we are under the shower or when we are relaxing) when we have these daydreams. These daydreams point in the direction of our deep desire. I would therefore suggest paying attention to them. Usually, we don’t. We forget them straight away. If you pay attention to these daydreams and if you explore them a bit further by opening a few of the doors in your mind and checking what is behind these mental doors, you will see that this will give you access to your deep desire. Practicing meditation is of course a great way to do so. What Are You Good At? I would suggest reflecting about: • What are your strengths?

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• What doesn’t cost much effort, because it is something you have a natural talent for? • What are you enjoying most? What offers you pleasure when you need to refill your batteries? • Think back: What have you always been better at than your friends and classmates? I don’t suggest doing that in a competitive sense, but in the sense of exploring what is the natural inclination that you have. This is usually directly connected to our deep desire, because we like what we are good at. A root worthwhile exploring! What Did I Aspire to as a Kid? You might have noticed that kids are sometimes surprisingly clear about what they want in their lives. When you ask, they can usually tell you with great conviction the jobs they want to have, the lives they aspire to, who they admire, and whose example they want to follow. It is worthwhile thinking back at those dreams you had as a kid, because they might point you in the direction of your deep desire. Of course, you need to take into account that you had only limited information about the world. You may therefore need to use some judgment in order to come up with a meaningful interpretation of these childhood aspirations.

2.2.3 Relevance of the Deep Desire for Your Career Strategy Such introspection is very relevant for your career strategy, because your deep desire feeds the vision for your career development. I would recommend placing that deep intrinsic aspiration in the very center of your career strategy. This will not only help you defining where you want to go and what you wish to achieve, but in addition, it will probably also open a clearer understanding on how to get there. Please notice that this may “deviate you” from a purely vertical career progression. That traditional pathway is the one we typically follow without being more deeply connected to a deeper desire. It is the predefined

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pathway that we all too often follow blindly, without questioning it. Our attention is fully focused on achieving the next career step. We ask for a “career ladder” to know what effort is required to get to the top. But does that really correspond to that desire we have? Is it really playing to our strength? Is this meaningful for us? Very often these questions are not asked—or possibly too late. As soon you are connected back to your deep desire, once you have put your deep desire back into the center, new options might come up. Hidden creative potential and childhood talents might be unleashed. You may find ways to explore alternative roots to a predefined vertical career track. You may turn ambition into aspiration. Whatever the direction you take, being connected to your deep desire will help you to have a clearer and more robust career strategy. The following chapter outlines the five steps to define that strategy. As you will see, defining the vision for your career based on your deep desire is the first step.

3 Career Strategy: A Five-Step Approach

An introduction video to this chapter is available in the Springer Nature “More Media” app. Please open the app and scan the icon or use the link (Fig. 3.1). This career strategy framework is simple. It helps you assess where you stand today, where you wish to go, and how to get there. The five steps that I will outline in this chapter are the backbone to answer these questions. You will find additional tools in the following chapters. As an example, Chap. 4 addresses the question how to make career choices, which is an important aspect for the implementation of your career strategy. The purpose of this section is to outline the guiding principles step by step.

Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-­3-­662-­66791-­0_3. The videos can be accessed individually by clicking the DOI link in the accompanying figure caption or by scanning this link with the SN More Media App.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer-Verlag GmbH, DE, part of Springer Nature 2023 S. Sommerlatte, Successful Career Strategy, Business Guides on the Go, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-66791-0_3

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Fig. 3.1  Introduction video for this chapter (▶ https://doi.org/10.1007/000-­97r)

1. Define your career aspiration. 2. Manage your experience base. 3. Assess your experience and competence gap. 4. Monitor new opportunities. 5. Be audacious!

Since I have shared that approach in my YouTube channel, more and more people who seek career counseling come with a draft career plan that is based on these five steps. Many have shared that this simple approach has helped them to think about their career strategy, which they never had the opportunity to do before in such a structured way. Take time to do that. As mentioned in the introduction, we invest days and weeks every year to define and to review the company strategy for the business we support. It is certainly worth investing a couple of days also to thoroughly define your career strategy. Once this is done, you should regularly get back to it and review its assumptions to confirm if that is still relevant for you. Changes may have occurred on your side; in the organization you work for or in the market environment which need to be reflected in an updated version of our career strategy. Or you may have successfully made the next career step that you were planning and that would also require an update of your plan. Your personal career advisory board (see Sect. 5.2) could assist you in reviewing your career plan and the updates to help steer your professional development.

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Example: Florian’s Next Career Move I will use the example of Florian to explain the methodology. Simple graphics will illustrate the approach step by step. Florian is looking for his next career move. As you see in the graphic below, Florian has made three career steps so far. These steps are indicated by the gray lines. The dot on the top of these three lines indicates his current position. Florian has also defined his dream job, which is illustrated by the star (Fig. 3.2). Several career opportunities come up, which are represented here with arrows. But none of these opportunities are accessible to Florian (Fig. 3.3). The dotted arrow (Fig. 3.4 on the left) would be accessible, but it does not really go in the direction of Florian’s defined career aspiration (still represented by the star). The opportunity indicated by the arrow in Fig. 3.4 on the right-hand side would be much better. But I am still not sure if it would be the optimal choice, because we also need to take the experience base into account (see the triangle in Fig. 3.5). As we can see, Florian’s experience base is still quite narrow. This is normal because he is still standing at the beginning of his career. A lateral move, as indicated with the arrow in Fig.  3.6 would allow expanding his experience base. Such a lateral move would allow Florian to gain new product knowledge, to acquire new functional expertise, or to add, for example, an international experience. Obviously, we would recommend Florian to undertake this expansion in view of the skills and experience that his targeted position requires. Once his experience base is broad enough, Florian might be able to reach his dream job in two additional career steps, as we can see in Fig.  3.7 (black lines).

Fig. 3.2  Career aspiration

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Fig. 3.3  Career opportunities

Fig. 3.4  Career options

Fig. 3.5  Current experience base

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Fig. 3.6  Expanding the experience base

Fig. 3.7  Reaching the dream job

So, let’s investigate the five key steps more in detail, keeping Florian’s example in mind.

3.1 Define Your Dream Job In the second chapter of this book, I wrote about connecting to your deep desire, understanding your true career aspiration and defining your career objectives on that basis. This is precisely the first step in the process of defining your career strategy. I will not belabor here again how to connect back to your deep desire. I would simply like to offer some additional advice to help translate your aspiration into the description of a concrete career objective—your dream job.

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The more specific you are in the description of your career objective, the better it is. Keep in mind that this career objective will help you steer your career development. It will help you make the right decision on the pathway to that objective. The more precise that objective is, the clearer your career plan will be. My experience shows that many people find it hard projecting themselves into the future and imagining the job they want to have. But even more importantly, people miss out on being sufficiently clear on the implications that dream job has on their life–work balance. The following questions may help clarify this.

3.1.1 Lifestyle • Are you mobile now? If yes, under what conditions? • Would you move alone? If you would move with your partner/family, what are the requirements? If they stay in the home country, are you OK to commute? • Will you be mobile in the future? What could limit this mobility (e.g., your kids going to school, your parents needing support, etc.)? • In which country/countries do you wish to live? Are there certain geographies that you would exclude (e.g., for safety, cultural, schooling, or other reasons)? • Are you prepared to spend time traveling? Certain jobs require up to 50% travel time (and sometimes even more). Where would you set the limit? The way that question is answered often changes over time. Sometimes because of family constraints. Sometimes because the dream of traveling might change after having spent a lot of time in airports and transportation. • What level of stress and pressure are you prepared to put up with? This is not easy to answer because stress levels can’t easily be measured. But some introspection should help you find the answer. Try to think back to stressful situations. How did you react? Did you keep calm when others started to panic? Are you someone who can put up with high pressure over extended time easily? As an indicator you may think back to the exam phase in your studies. How did you respond to that situation compared to others?

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We tend to forget sometimes that our job can have a very direct and significant impact on our lifestyle and that we can have a direct influence on this by the choices we make. Be mindful of that. Try to project yourself (and your partner/family) concretely into these situations and try to be clear on what would work for you and what not. I emphasize this because I have been able to observe many situations where people ended up regretting their decisions. A frequent example are issues in the family. Other drawbacks may come from inter-cultural challenges during an international move. Any anticipated repatriation is highly disruptive personally, but also for your career. You may have missed other opportunities because of that move. You regret that later. Similar “career accidents” that could have been avoided through better anticipation: • Moving into publicly exposed roles might become quickly exhausting for more introvert individuals. • Highly competitive environments may be suitable for some who get energized by that and who deal with it in a playful way, but it may not work for others who may find this nerve racking. • Operating every day in a foreign language, even if it is English, may be more challenging for certain and easy for others who like to adjust to a different setting. • Some may have no issue living in a crowded third world capital where others may find it unbearable after a certain while. • Certain jobs may require that you are disturbed during your free time, if there is an urgency. Some have no issue to cope with that, others may find it unbearable in the long run because they feel that it makes it impossible for them to disconnect and recharge their batteries. • You may have jobs with disruptive working hours or other jobs that require being on stand-by. Be sure that you can handle that in the long run before engaging in such careers. These are just a few of the challenges that people have encountered during their careers and that I have been able to observe. The list goes on and is long. The simple conclusion is: try to be clear on what works for you from a personal and family perspective. Don’t compromise on any aspect you feel strongly about.

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It goes without saying that these lifestyle questions must be discussed with the family if you have one. The needs, desires, and “no-goes” of your partner and of your kids need to be factored in. Otherwise, it will not be sustainable, and families break up because of misalignment of professional and private requirements. Often these situations could have been avoided through open dialogue and better anticipation.

3.1.2 Type of Job Like the lifestyle topic, you should try to be as clear and specific about the type of job and job environment that you prefer. It makes a significant difference if you work in a large multinational organization or in a smaller boutique firm. Some like to work with different people every day, be connected to colleagues around the world and change teams frequently. Others prefer a more stable, family-like environment. What is your preference? You should also project yourself concretely into the role you aspire to. Many aspire to take a large leadership role. You need to be mindful of the fact that this comes with many difficult people decisions that need to be made when you head up a large group. • You may need to address under performance of some of your team members. • You need to be available to listen to people’s concerns and problems. • You will get confronted with conflict situations. In other words: it may get messy at times. That is human. Some are good at dealing with this type of stress. Others struggle with it. I believe that it is quite easy to assess yourself from that perspective looking back at similar situations. My recommendation is to listen to yourself. There is no point in targeting a role, if you know that the day-to-day requirements are fundamentally not your cup of tea. Check what kind of work context matches your needs. Another important dimension that I encounter frequently in career counseling situations concerns the creative dimension. All too often, people come later in their careers to the conclusion that the administrative

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requirements of their jobs become a burden for them. They start to look for career opportunities where they can better express their creativity. Let’s face it: management jobs in large corporations contain a significant part of bureaucracy. That is due to the procedures that large companies use, to decision processes that can be slow and hierarchical, to the reporting requirements that exist in such organizations, and to the approval workflows that employees have to follow for travel planning, expenses management, etc. If these are constraints that you are not prepared to put up with, you should avoid such large organizations from the beginning. Many other sectors exist, where you can focus more of your time on creative activities and where the administrative constraints are less present. Some jobs allow for flexible working, others may not. Is that flexibility something that is important for you? What about other job-related requirements such as traveling, urgencies, etc.? Be clear about these aspects upfront. A useful exercise to explore all facets of a job consists of projecting yourself into a typical day. Go through that hypothetical day hour by hour and think about it to understand if it corresponds to your aspiration. Connect with people in your environment or through social media who do the job and asks them questions. You will be surprised how openly they will answer your questions. Frequent Flyer Card Story A while ago, I was sitting next to a gentleman in a long-distance flight. He took the earphones off when dinner was served and indicated interest to engage in a conversation. My frequent flyer card had fallen off my pocket and this was a good pretext to start the discussion about advantages of these cards. Not an unusual conversation among travelers, when you know how your life can be made easier thanks to a comfortable airport lounge with WIFI. You might also have noticed that these cards are sometimes as important as aristocratic titles in the “ancient regime.” A gold card owner feels entitled to look down on someone who is only silver. I was therefore even more surprised when he told me that he is happier the lower the level of his card is. I asked him why he felt like this with raised eyebrows. The gentleman explained that he had traveled very extensively during his entire career. He was now considering that the status of his frequent flyer card (platinum, gold, silver, bronze) was inversely proportional to his live quality. If he got downgraded to silver that meant that he did travelled less over the past couple of months and that he could therefore spend more time with his family and that he was less fatigued.

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Personal preferences may indeed differ between individuals. For some, every night spent in a business or first class seat is a privilege. Others dream about being downgraded in their frequent flyer program.

3.1.3 Personal and Professional Development Finally, you should be clear about the question of your development. Personal and professional development is one of the most important motivations that you will have in your career. Find a job where you are eager to learn more all the time, because that corresponds to your passion. It is a great privilege to be able to grow in your career thanks to the fact that you constantly learn more about a topic that you find fascinating. Let Me Share Two Quick Examples of Linda and of Johann Linda is fascinated by law. Learning more about the complexity of corporate law is of great interest for her. She thrives in her role. She is looking forward to every training opportunity and is keen to expand her knowledge into new areas of corporate law. Her job allows her to do so, and she loves it. Johann is her colleague. He very successfully completed his law studies, but his true passion is history. He does his job and is quite good at it, but his job is for him “just a job.”

Your career ambition should be connected to your deep desire as outlined above in Chap. 2, because this will help you clarify what you truly aspire to and what direction you want to give to your career development. Your deep desire is also connected to your strengths and to the activities that you find naturally motivating and rewarding. Once that is defined, you will be able to assess, if a career opportunity allows you to expand your experience base in view of your career aspiration. Some opportunities may look attractive at first glance but may not go in the right direction.

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3.2 Expend Your Experience Base Once you have defined the position that you wish to reach in your career, you should assess what skills and experience are required for that role. To do so, you should first assess your current experience base. You can then measure the gap between where you stand today and the required skills and experiences. This will allow you directing your career development in such a way that you expand your base in view of those requirements. You may need, for example, to gain broader product experience or to acquire additional functional skills or to obtain an international experience. Very often, a lateral move is the best way to broaden your experience base. The Example of Christophe Christophe had gained broad commercial leadership experience. He started his career in sales and moved later to marketing leadership responsibilities. He has also been able to gain exposure in the field of public affairs. This had allowed him to reach a country head role in a large car manufacturer. His ultimate career aspiration was to take the CEO responsibility—a highly ambitious objective. He knew that it was still too early for him to make such a move at age 34. He reflected about his experience base and the experience that would be most beneficial to add in order to be even more competitive when he would apply internally or externally to a CEO role. He noticed that he had completely neglected gaining experience in the production and supply chain part of the company he worked for. It had never crossed his mind that this could be a highly valuable addition to his profile. As future CEO of a company in his sector, having gained insight into these functions would without doubt be a highly valuable competitive advantage for him in the job market. In his company such cross-functional moves were rather the exception. Production was a world apart. When he engaged with the global manufacturing head and his HR partner in a conversation to explore such opportunities, he received very positive resonance. They were convinced that such a move would help them build the bridges with the commercial teams in the organization. He was promoted to become the head of a large manufacturing plant first and quickly moved up to a regional manufacturing role.

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3.2.1 How to Expand Your Experience Base I would like to use the analogy of the Egyptian pyramids to explain the concept of the experience base. If you have a broad base, then the pyramid can be high. With the career progression it is similar: If you have a broad experience base, then you will be able to go far in your career (Fig. 3.8). It is not only about how broad your experience base is, it is also a question about how robust, how solid this experience base is. We will look at both aspects here.

The Example of Linda Linda has started her career in sales force management where she had the opportunity to lead a large team. Later she moved into marketing as brand manager. An attractive opportunity came up in finance as category level controller, which she was selected for because her knowledge of the business was assessed as a plus. Many of her colleagues who started in that company with her are still in sales. There is now a significant difference in terms of experience base. After just a few years!

Fig. 3.8  Pyramids

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The functional experience that we could see in that example of Linda is important. But other elements can constitute your experience base, such as inter-cultural experience if you have worked in different countries, or broader industry experience if you could work in different industry sectors. How to assess your experience base? I would recommend conducting a systematic inventory of the experience you have been able to collect during your career so far by going through your CV in quite some detail. Your experience base may include: • Direct people leadership responsibility at different levels (e.g., product, brand, category, country, zone, regional, or global level). • Functional people leadership (or dotted line responsibility). • Project leadership responsibility. • Sales or budget management experience. • Headquarters’ experience. • Involvement in strategy and organizational design initiatives. • Change management. • Exposure to different industry sectors. • International management skills. • Inter-cultural experience. • Multi-country management responsibility. • Language skills. • You should also be specific about the functional and technical skills you have been able to acquire. This list is not exhaustive but will hopefully give you a sense of the way you can assess your experience base.

How Robust Is Your Experience Base? Now let’s look at what it means to have a robust base. Let’s take the not so unusual example of a person who has grown through the sales force management route, but who has never had marketing experience and who wants to become a General Manager. In certain companies and

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industry sectors that might be quite possible, especially if that person has been successful in her/his past positions. In certain industry sectors— especially those where marketing plays a very important role—that might not be an option. Differences may exist even between companies within the same sector. One company may consider that having had exposure to marketing is a necessary step in the career path for a GM position, other companies may be more flexible. It is important to find that out as part of your career planning so that you can steer your career development in the most efficient way. I would also recommend making a competitive analysis, assessing the profiles of the other candidates for these roles. If you can’t easily access information on profiles of your potential direct competitors, you might be able to find out about the profiles of current incumbents. This will be indicative of the selection criteria recruiting managers and HR are likely to use when you will be in a position to apply for that type of role. Moving to a new function or sector may have a price. You may have to accept a lateral move instead of a promotion. The company will invest into your development and might not be willing to give you a higher level of responsibility or a higher salary compared to where you are today. This is a strategic decision also on your side. Make sure you make such a lateral move only if you see it as a truly valuable addition to your experience base. I am frequently asked if that will not look bad on the CV, if there is no clearly visible career progression. You should not worry about that. If you can explain why you have made that move and why that has allowed you to gain valuable experience in view of your career aspiration, any HR leader would applause such a smart and courageous career decision. An Example from My Own Career Development Let me share an example of my own professional development. Thanks to fortunate circumstances, I have been able to move quickly up the career ladder in HR. My background as management consultant and a first experience in compensation and benefits gave me credibility. Directly after that C&B role, I was appointed as Zone HR leader for Africa. It was a director level role and my first sizable leadership responsibility. Only 2 years later, a

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regional HR leadership role became vacant because my line manager left. I was offered the role. I remember how proud I was to be a VP. The learning curve was very demanding, but I was successful. I could have started to look upwards to the next vertical move, but a smart senior HR leader pointed to a gap in my CV. I had never been a country HR director. That wise person told me that this could become longer term a weakness, especially if I wanted to take a Chief HR Officer responsibility at some stage in my career. Having had that operational experience was mandatory in his eyes, especially in terms of industrial relations management. How right he was!

To summarize: you need a broad experience base with strategically relevant experience in view of your career target. The pyramid of your career will be high if you manage to achieve this with a robust career plan—if possible, right from the start.

3.3 Assess Your Experience and Competence Gap Once you have defined your current experience base and the vision of where you want to be in the future, you can assess the experience and competence gap. That is the gap between your experience base today and the experience that will be required to be selected for the position you wish to achieve. The more specific that is done, the better it is. You can use, for example, the job description of that future position. It is usually not so difficult to obtain it. You may get it from HR or from a person who holds that position today. If that is not possible, you may find it online. Be very specific in defining this competence and experience gap. The better you can describe this gap, the easier it will be to define concrete actions to fill it in a structured approach. Your next and the following career steps should be defined purposefully in order to best respond to those requirements. Training and project assignments may also be used to gain additional experience in view of being best prepared to achieving your career ambition.

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Fig. 3.9  Experience base

You may use a simple table such as the one here below to map (1) your current experience (2) the experience you think is expected in your targeted dream job and (3) the plan how to gain that experience in your upcoming career steps. This table below is of course just illustrative. You will adjust it to your requirements. Pease note that you may add a column to specify how critical certain experience elements are (e.g., using the high-medium-low scale) (Fig. 3.9).

3.4 Monitor Constantly What New Opportunities Come Up New opportunities may come up at any time. Many of these opportunities will probably be out of reach. Others may not go in the right direction, as we saw in the earlier example of Florian. But some opportunities should be considered, and we should therefore be constantly alert so that we can identify those early enough. This vigilance is illustrated by the concentric circles and the white arrows checking what opportunities may exist.

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The French have a great word for that stage of being vigilance. They talk about being “aux aguets.” The best translation is to be alert or to be watchful. To be “aux aguets” is mostly used for animals that are in the hunting mode. They are full of energy and focused, ready to jump if they identify a target. The ancient Greek word of Kairos is another good way of describing this moment, where we can grab an opportunity. Kairos means the right, critical, or opportune moment. There are many missed opportunities, where people did not pay enough attention to what is going on in their environment. Sometimes they expect that they will be called, if an interesting career opportunity comes up for them (“management or HR will tell me, if they believe that I would be a good candidate for this or that role”). Instead, we should be the engineers of our career strategy and we own its implementation. We are ultimately responsible for it. Neither HR nor our managers. You should certainly expect their support and advice. But you should not delegate that key responsibility to anyone. It is therefore highly recommended to engage with people about your career development. You should be proactive, reach out, share your career perspectives and seek feedback from key stakeholders who can support your development. Discuss your profile with your manager to collect her/ his feedback. The clearer you are on where you wish to go, the easier these conversations will be. Make your career development a top priority for yourself, not something that is at the bottom of the pile. Otherwise, it will be dealt with too late and opportunities may have come in the meanwhile that you may have missed.

The Example of Inga As HR leader I interact with hundreds of talents every year. That gives me a privileged observation position on how different individuals manage their professional development. Recently Inga stood out in my eyes. She had come out of a difficult experience, where the role she had taken was not right for her. While she had been perceived as a strong potential previously by the management team, she was not given much attention in the last talent review meeting. Her position had been backfilled and she was given time to search for a position internally, while doing some project work.

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Inga’s determination stood out. In our career counseling discussion, it became clear to me that she had taken all the necessary learnings from that recent failure. She was serene about that. She did not try to justify her performance. She showed great willpower to give a new orientation to her career and to pursue it successfully. To be honest, I had first some doubt if she would be able to find an attractive new position considering the less favorable light that was now on her profile. Inga did not wait for me or any of my HR colleagues to offer her new job opportunities on a silver tablet. She undertook a highly efficient stakeholder management campaign. And she was successful. Only 6 months later she was offered an attractive new role in an emerging country. She clearly demonstrated that she is the captain of her career. Well done.

3.5 Be Audacious! Opportunities may come up which you would not dare to consider at first sight because of the gap between your current experience base and the skills or the experience that are required. In case that gap is very significant, it might not make much sense to apply. But in some other cases, you might be able to bridge the gap and stretch into the new role, if you are audacious. Attractive opportunities might be accessible if people perceive your determination to put in the extra effort. That will certainly be required, especially at the beginning of the new assignment. You should be very clear about this with yourself. If you come to the conclusion that you can put in that energy and to that extra mile, you should be explicit about this willingness. Demonstrate your high level of motivation and apply for the role. You might discover that there are no stronger candidates available and that you are given a chance. Such stretched assignments can become a real career accelerator and turning point in your career (Fig. 3.10). There is nothing wrong to apply for a position, even if you are not selected. The interview process is very often a great opportunity to make yourself better known. If you have indicated interest for a role that you finally don’t get because of the experience gap, that may allow you to send a signal to management about your ambition. This might very well place you in a pool position for the next attractive opportunity.

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Fig. 3.10  Be bold and dare

In certain cases, you might need to search for the right next step externally, as we will see in Franck’s example below. Whether you are searching internally or externally, the same career principles apply concerning the experience base, the need to watch out for opportunities and the recommendation to be audacious. Example of Franck Franck had started his career in management consulting. He later moved into a large insurance company. First as chief of staff of a regional president and later in sales force management. He felt that he was ready to take the responsibility for a country. He had expressed that desire to his manager and to HR several times. Feedback was positive in principle, but other candidates got promoted while he was kept in the waiting loop. After consultation with his personal advisory board (see Sect. 5.2) he started to reach out to some of the competitors. He took the decision to search externally. He positioned himself with self-confidence as country head candidate and was successful. He was quickly offered a job. Retrospectively, he understood that this external move was necessary to break out of the perception people had in his previous organization, where he was still seen as the junior person in the chief of staff role. You may know the saying that you can’t become a prophet in your own country. If the prophet is the son of a fisher man, he will always be seen as such and cannot expect to elevate himself in the eyes of others to that level of a wise man. It is sometimes similar in our companies. Perceptions might be difficult to change, and it can be advisable to do what Franck did. To break out and make a fresh start.

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But moving into a new company requires careful evaluation of the new opportunity, even more so compared to an internal move where you know the environment to expect. In any case, you should put all chances on your side to ensure you make the right choice. You will find below some help for that.

4 Evaluate Career Opportunities

An introduction video to this chapter is available in the Springer Nature “More Media” app. Please open the app and scan the icon or use the link (Fig. 4.1). Career decisions are maybe among the hardest to make in a lifetime. They are also among the most important decisions we make, because they have such a massive impact on our lives. The career you choose, the company you select, the decision to move abroad in order to gain international experience, etc. all these are choices that will determine to a large extent the type of life you will have. The disruptive decision to leave an organization that you have been part of for many years, the option to start a new career all over again (for example, if you move from the private to the public sector), the decision to pursue an artistic occupation because that is your passion, etc. are life-changing decisions. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-­3-­662-­66791-­0_4. The videos can be accessed individually by clicking the DOI link in the accompanying figure caption or by scanning this link with the SN More Media App.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer-Verlag GmbH, DE, part of Springer Nature 2023 S. Sommerlatte, Successful Career Strategy, Business Guides on the Go, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-66791-0_4

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Fig. 4.1  Introduction video for this chapter (▶ https://doi.org/10.1007/000-­97s)

The decision to keep the status quo is also a very significant one. Not to change means not to take risk, but it could also be a missed opportunity. Career decisions are not only very important, because life changing, they are also particularly complex. They are usually taken with limited information. You don’t know what exactly the recruitment team is looking for, nor who the other candidates are. That leads to an inherent level of insecurity. It is also very challenging to fully anticipate what the new job will be all about and if you will be successful in it; if the company culture will work for you; if the people you will be working with will become great colleagues or not. Furthermore, time is a major factor when managing your career. Career decisions should always be taken with a longer-term perspective. Many of us tend to overlook that a bit. We have spoken about the importance to have a North star, a vision for your career. The questions should therefore be: “What will be the following move that I can make if I take this role? Will that put me in the right direction? Is that going to give me the competitive advantage needed to be selected for the next career steps?” The Example of Eddie I would like to share the example of Eddie, who is 42 years old. He wanted to become General Manager in a country but had so far done only Marketing. An attractive global marketing role had come up at headquarters level when we started our career counseling interactions. Eddie was

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very keen to take that global role, because it was a great promotion. He thought that this move would make him more credible later on to take GM responsibility, because he would have had exposure at global level. Eddie was right in principle, but he had underestimated the time aspect. In 3 years, other candidates would most likely line up with marketing and sales experience. Eddie would however not have added sales management to his experience base. It became clear to him that he had to move directly into a sales role now in order to be ready to take that GM role in 3 years. It was a tough choice for him not to take that prestigious global marketing role, but he did send a clear signal to the organization concerning his determination to get ready for the GM position after a couple of years in a commercial sales role.

From my observation I can say that the time dimension might be the one that is most underestimated. You should always ask yourself: “How many career moves do I need in order to gain the experience needed to reach my career target and how much time does that require”? In some cases, a disruptive move may help to accelerate your career progression. Being bold can help, as we saw above. It is obviously easier to be audacious if you have the right decision tools to make such career choices. The following chapters focus on how to make informed career decisions. You will find a toolbox that will hopefully respond to any career situation you may be confronted to.

4.1 Six Steps to Assess a Job Opportunity In this section, I would like to outline a simple framework to assess a job opportunity. This should allow you to make the right choices in view of the career opportunities you wish to pursue. As a side effect this can also be a great preparation for the interviews if you decide to apply for a given role. It’s a six-step approach. Step 1: Read the Job Description Carefully It is important to take the time to read the job description carefully and to ensure that every part of it is fully clear to you. It is very likely that you will need more information about certain of the expectations or

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requirements, because a job description is obviously a summary. Take the time to put down all these questions you may have. I would also recommend that you project yourself into the role based on that job description. Imagine how you would go about certain of the tasks that are outlined there. This might trigger questions, because you might want to check if the way you would plan to tackle certain of the requirements would correspond to the expectations. These questions should of course be used in the interview process. This first step of the assessment is therefore a great preparation for the interview. The fact that you have taken that time to really think more deeply about each one of the aspects will most likely be perceived very positively. But above all it will help you understand if that role is attractive for you. It will help you ensure that you have a robust understanding about the role before you make that career decision. Finally, I would recommend paying attention to your gut feeling and ensure capturing your instinctive first impressions, when reading the job description. These will be useful in the subsequent assessment steps and can easily get lost, if you do not write them down at that first reading of the job description. Step 2: Conduct a Due Diligence of the Company In the second step, you should conduct a thorough due diligence of the company. You will most likely find a lot of information online about the company, its structure, strategy, and products. In addition, you should search for information about the market sector that company operates in to understand what the future growth perspectives are and what market or technological trends might impact that sector. It is obviously important to analyze the competitive positioning of the company and what its financial health is. You should be able to find information about this in the publications of financial analysts, especially if that is a publicly listed company. I would suggest that you follow the recommendation from Warren Buffet, who does invest only if he understands the company strategy. The same applies here, because a career decision is at least as important as an investment decision. You should consider applying only if you have a positive overall impression about the current and future positioning of that organization.

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Experience shows that it is much more fun to work in a company that is doing well instead of a company that is struggling or even fighting for survival. Your due diligence will help you assess this. And you should of course here again capture any questions you have which will show that you have well prepared the interview in case you apply for the role. Step 3: Check Purpose, Values, and Company Culture Please ensure that you dedicate enough time to understand the purpose and values of that organization as well as its company culture. It is crucially important to ensure that these aspects match your needs and expectations (see also Chap. 6 on company culture). As an example, some companies have a high level of internal competition. This might suit candidates who find this stimulating, but it might not work at all for others who might look for a more friendly company culture. You can find a lot of information on these aspects in social media and through testimonials of employees. But you might also leverage your personal network to reach out to people who might know the organization from within and who can share their impressions. In case you still have points that need clarification concerning purpose, values, or culture, it is also possible to bring those up in the interview phase. The recruiters will usually be willing to share the information to help you make the right decision for yourself, because it is equally important from a company perspective that candidate profiles match with the company culture. Step 4: Conduct Your Self-assessment As a next step, I would recommend that you put yourself into the shoes of the recruiting manager and that you assess yourself (see also Sect. 4.6 on stakeholder management). You can take the job requirements and the specifications concerning the profile as they are outlined in the job description and compare this to your profile. • Do you have the required technical expertise? • What is the product, industry, and supplier experience you can bring?

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• How have you dealt with certain situations in the past that were comparable to what is expected in that job? • What is the leadership and people management experience that you bring and does that correspond to the level that is expected here? • How does your personality match with the specifications? This self-assessment will help you clarify if that role brings the right level of stretch. If the gap is too big, you might struggle. In case your current experience level is too close to the role, that will not be a sufficiently stimulating learning experience. It is therefore helpful to assess this carefully and to be able to check the different facets of the role to get a more detailed understanding of the gap in view of both the technical and the leadership related requirements. This will of course also help you understand where your strengths are in view of the job requirements and is helpful again for the interview preparation. Step 5: Define Your Career Strategy We saw above how to define your personal career strategy. I emphasize the importance of defining this strategy because it will serve as a compass for your future career choices. It will help you evaluate if a job opportunity is a relevant step in light of your career aspiration. In other words, it will allow you to go beyond just assessing a job opportunity in view of the short-term future, but allow you to understand if that next role matches with the overall career plan that you have established for yourself. One of the key questions concerns the experience base: does that role offer you the possibility to expand your experience base in such a way that you will be better prepared for subsequent steps that will bring you closer to your career aspiration? Does it bring you the relevant additional functional, managerial, or international experience you will need to be ready in the future for the job you want to reach? Step 6: Check Alignment with Your Personal Needs It is important not to neglect the personal aspects related to a specific job opportunity. That includes, for example, the question of location and of distance between the workplace and your home. You should also carefully

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consider what life–work balance that new role would offer you (see also Sect. 3.1 on the impact of you career choices on your lifestyle). You may want to check the travel requirements, if that is relevant, and it could be worthwhile understanding possible international mobility expectations the company would have related to that specific role or even possible future roles you would aspire to. Any of these points that cannot be clarified based on the information that is available in the job ad should be clarified with the recruiting team during the interviews. Being clear about your personal needs is an important basis to make the right career choices for yourself. These six steps should allow you to gain all the necessary information you need when applying for a position and to be best prepared for interviews, in case you decide to compete for that role.

4.2 The True Weight of a Position In this section I would like to share a few tips to gain better understanding of the “size” of a role. Usually, candidates focus mainly on three aspects: the grade, the hierarchical positioning, and the size of the team reporting into the role. That is also the information that is usually visible in the upper part of the job description. It is advisable to explore this further in order to get a better understanding of the real weight of the role. We will take a closer look at the following aspects: • Structure of the organization • Governance and delegation of authority • Processes and RACI The Example of Martin Martin works in the cosmetics goods industry. He has made a fast career in the marketing function of a company where marketing is king. When a disagreement came up with his line manager, he decided to accept the offer from one of their competitors. One of the main reasons why that new position looked attractive to him was the direct reporting to the region

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head. He saw this as a step-up from his country level reporting in a previous role. Soon he found out that this was quite a miss-judgment. Whereas marketing was king in the previous organization, country general managers had all the power in the new company. Although on paper his new position looked like a bigger role, his decision power was reduced. Martin was used to a situation where no important brand-related decision could be taken without consulting with marketing. Now it was rather the contrary. Marketing could make proposals, but the final decision and the promotional budget was in the hands of the operational leaders. In other words, he was higher up in the hierarchy, but had less power. A tough lesson he learned about the real weight of a role.

4.2.1 Structure of the Organization Companies can be structured in several different ways. The most common options are the functional, geographical, and the business unit structure. A combination of these organizational options is possible in the form of a matrix organization. Here two of these options are combined, which leads to more complex organizational configurations. Such matrix structures are particularly frequent for support functions (e.g., a finance position is dedicated to a business unit. It has a dotted line to the business unit leader and full reporting line into the finance function). What is important to point out is that there is no configuration that is better as such. Instead, each one of these options has advantages and downsides. The decision to select one model should be driven by a clear understanding of the precise strengths and weaknesses of the selected option. The right organization is one that best responds to the specific internal needs of the company at a given stage of its development and to the market requirements that the company is facing. The more complex the organization structure is, the more difficult it might be to understand the exact weight of a specific role. It is therefore advisable to explore that more in detail. I would like to illustrate this using the example of a marketing manager position and compare it in two different structures: the functional and the business unit organization. In a functional organization the company is structured along its key functions such as sales, marketing, and production. These functions are

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headed up by an executive leader who sits in the highest governance body. In our example, the global head of Marketing can be expected to have a robust position within the company, which speaks for the strength of the Marketing function in that company. The business unit structure follows a market or consumer segmentation. Here the leaders of business lines are at the executive level. The functional leaders (including marketing) are in that case at the second organizational level reporting to the business unit heads. The strength of the business unit configuration is that it ensures strong customer focus at the highest level of the organization. The downside is that the functional teams are more fragmented. Marketing teams are sitting in each business unit without a leader who is federating them at corporate level. This can lead over time to a weakening of the functional capabilities because each of these marketing teams in the business units will progressively drift apart and develop their own approaches. Gaining a good understanding of the company structure and assessing its impact on the weight of the position you aspire to is therefore an important step.

4.2.2 Governance and Delegation of Authority As we could see, the title of a role does not always give enough insight about the real weight of that position. Other aspects must be taken into consideration, such as governance and delegation of authority. Governance defines the way decisions are taken. The ability to have impact depends on the decision bodies that you will be part of. That includes cross-functional bodies and project teams. It may also include external governance bodies, such as industry associations or expert groups. Significant influential leadership can be exercised internally or externally through such governance bodies, in addition of course to the management team that role might be sitting in. I would also recommend gaining a clear understanding on the delegation of authority that is attached to the role. Especially in complex organizational configurations, the level of that delegation can be an important indicator on the actual decision power that is attached to the role.

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Use the job interviews to gain more insights into these aspects if they are not fully clarified in the job description.

4.2.3 Process Responsibility Finally, the question of processes is of importance. In many cases, multiple processes are somehow connected to the position, especially at leadership level. It is important to understand those, you would have responsibility or authority for. This is not a question that gets frequently asked in the interview process, although it is of critical importance. Processes are the lifeblood of an organization. They allow you to be connected to many other parts of the company. They offer multiple opportunities to exercise direct or indirect influence. The aspects of governance and process responsibility can often help to counterbalance a situation where the positioning of a role in the formal organization structure is maybe not optimal as we will see in the following example of Janine. The Example of Janine Janine is marketing head of a business unit. The executive committee members understood that the absence of a top marketing role at corporate level could lead over time to a degradation of marketing skills, which is an inherent risk of the BU model due to the lack of functional leadership at group level (as we saw in Sect. 4.2.1). The decision has therefore been taken to ask one of the BU marketing heads to implement a cross-BU marketing excellence program. Janine applies and is tasked with this additional responsibility. This includes the creation of a marketing academy with high quality programs in order to maintain a high skills level in this function and to help attract top talents. That program has also an objective to promote common ways of working (such as a common brand planning approach) across the organization. Janine also implements a cross-BU talent management initiative to promote the career development of marketing talents across the organization. This marketing excellence program offers Janine a broader responsibility within the Group. Even if her role is not positioned at board level, her role offers her the opportunity to gain significant impact across all BUs.

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4.3 What Is the Right Salary? The compensation and benefits question is an important aspect of your career strategy. As a start, I recommend ensuring that you have full clarity concerning your current compensation. As HR professional I find it surprising to see how many senior business leaders struggle providing information about these aspects, especially when it comes to benefits. It is not a good signal to send to a recruiter, if you lack clarity about your current compensation and benefits. That shows a lack of interest in these matters and a lack of preparation. It is also not very clever from a negotiation point of view, because you send the signal that these aspects may not matter to you that much. The main reason why you should negotiate your salary well is that is it important to feel that you get a fair remuneration. Compensation experts talk about base salary as a “hygiene factor.” My interpretation of that term is that your mind is at rest if you feel that you have the right salary for your job. Whereas you may experience lasting mental unrest if you are convinced that you would deserve a higher salary. I would therefore recommend being quite upfront and transparent, especially if you join a new company. Regrets because of a missed opportunity to discuss this question with the recruiting manager or with HR could disturb your start in the new role. This being said, there is no full objectivity when it comes to compensation. What may be perceived as a relatively low salary by one person who has people in her/his environment making a lot of money might be perceived by another person as a decent remuneration for the same job. It is also important to understand that the level of compensation may vary quite significantly between different industry sectors and between countries. That makes the salary question even more complex. But there are possibilities to place this topic onto a rational ground. You may ask your future employer if they make their internal salary ranges available to external candidates. Some might not spontaneously do so but may decide to give you that information if you ask. Companies increasingly opt for transparency concerning that topic. Furthermore, benchmark data is available online. I would recommend conducting that investigation and to come well prepared into the compensation discussion.

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Finally, don’t underestimate the importance of benefits, especially the medical and the pension coverage. Ensure you obtain comprehensive information and that all aspects are clear to you. Medical coverage and pension benefits are the most important topics to cover.

4.4 How Many Changes Can You Do at Once (Company, Function, Country, etc.)? I am regularly counseling people who want to undertake a transformational career change. As you know from the previous chapters, I am very much in favor of challenging the status quo. Finding your true career aspiration may indeed require a deeper change. But the question is how to best make that change happen.

The Example of Petar Let me give you the example of Petar. He used to be a procurement leader in Australia, working in a technology company. He decided to go for big change. He moved with his family to France and studied supply chain management. During the studies he discovered an interest in the pharmaceutical industry. Right after his studies he wanted to move into a brand-new career trajectory. Let’s step back and reflect on his situation. What is the change he was planning to undertake? There is a change in geography with significant cultural differences. There is a change in industry from technology to pharmaceuticals. And there is a change in the functional area of responsibility from procurement to supply chain management. The question we discussed was how feasible it is to make these three significant changes all at once. There is obviously no right and wrong. It depends a lot on a person’s learning ability. It also depends on the commitment someone can make to dedicate time and energy into that next career step. Petar had also to look after his young family in a new country. My recommendation was to decide what change was a priority for him. His decision was that moving into the new functional area of responsibility that he had just acquired knowledge about through his studies was the most important. He managed to find a job as a consultant with a supply chain specialization. His first assignments were closer to the technology industry, but progressively he was able to move to the pharma sector.

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I guess that is a good example of how to manage change step-by-step, but with determination.

4.5 Prioritization of Job Opportunities Example of Alice Alice was confused when unexpectedly, five different job opportunities came up quasi-simultaneously. She had to decide which ones to pursue. It was a tough choice, because all five options were quite attractive in her eyes. The challenge Alice was facing is that these options were hard to compare: three opportunities were within her current company and two were external job opportunities. She was hesitating to leave her current employer, because she felt strongly connected to the values of that organization. But the external options were also highly attractive. One of the external offers was in a dynamic start-up and the other external option was in a non-­ profit organization. Alice thought that these could be great organizations to work for. The jobs—especially the one in the non-profit organization— were highly appealing in her eyes. What made Alice’s decision even more difficult was timing. The career option that she was most attracted to in her current company was not available immediately and she was not certain to be selected for that role. She struggled with the question if she should take the risk of missing the other opportunities and wait for that one to become available, knowing that she could in the end be empty handed if not selected for the role she was betting for. She also had questions related to the commuting time between her home and the office. The two external job opportunities were quite remote from her home and would have nearly doubled the commuting time.

Alice needed a structured approach for that complex decision process. The prioritization matrix outlined below helped her to make the right choice.

4.5.1 Prioritization Matrix This simple tool is based on a classic two-dimensional matrix with “attractiveness” on one dimension and “likelihood” on the other dimension (Fig. 4.2).

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Fig. 4.2  Prioritization matrix

These two dimensions are each composed of several factors. Attractiveness (a) The company You should start with an assessment of each of the companies that you consider. That includes the company strategy, their financial health, and growth perspectives. You should be able to find a lot of information concerning these aspects, especially if these are publicly traded organization. There is also the possibility to ask the company directly for information. (b) Company culture, purpose, and values It is also essential to gain an understanding on these “softer” aspects and to assess to what extent they are in line with your personal values and expectations. Again, use the publicly available information. Social media—such as Glassdoor—can be a great source of information. (c) Match with your career strategy The assumption here is that you have already worked on your career strategy and that you can use that as input. Please refer to Chap. 3 if you wish to revise your strategic career plan. The point I want to make here is that you should outline how each one of the career options matches with your career strategy. An important aspect concerns the experience base. You should check if that specific position will allow you to expand your experience base in

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order to make you fit for your career aspiration (for details on that topic, please refer to Sect. 3.2). (d) Personal aspects Finally, you should check the more personal aspects such as questions of life–work balance, questions of location and geography and the compensation aspects. Rate also these aspects for each option. How Likely Is It That You Would Be Selected for This Job Option? You can then move on to the question of likelihood, which answers how likely it is that the role will be available for you. (a) Timing You may check timing. Is the role vacant and already advertised or do you expect it to become available in the future? It is obviously more likely to have access to a role that is already available. In some cases, it is worthwhile considering a role that corresponds to your career aspiration, even if it is not free at this specific point in time. But you should reflect that in the assessment of the likelihood-evaluation. (b) Competitive environment You should also assess the competitive environment: Do you believe that there are many good candidates competing for that role (in that case you would rate that option lower in terms of likelihood to be selected) or would you expect that you are a very strong candidate and maybe one of few who are able to compete for the role (in which case you would rate it high)? (c) Gap assessment Finally, you should check the gap between your profile and the role expectations. If there are skills or experience gaps between your current profile and the job expectations that are hard to overcome, this would of course impact the likelihood of you being selected for the role. Attractivity and Likelihood-Evaluation Table I would recommend listing the criteria concerning attractiveness and likelihood in a table (see Fig. 4.3). You should add a column for each one of your career options and assess these options against the different criteria.

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Fig. 4.3  Assessing attractivity and likelihood

I suggest using a simple “low, medium, high” scale, but you can of course also choose a more detailed scale. This will allow you to come up with a score for each of the two dimensions (attractiveness and likelihood) for each one of your career options. These scores can then be used in order to map the options in the prioritization matrix.

4.5.2 Mapping of Career Options in the Matrix This prioritization matrix will allow you to be very clear on where to focus your time, efforts, and resources. The recommendation is obviously to target options in the upper right-hand quadrant, which are the most attractive and the most likely ones (Fig. 4.4). You may decide to expand this. You could, for example, decide to include the options that are very attractive but a bit less likely, because you could choose to invest extra efforts in order to increase your chances also for these options. But other options are probably not worth being focused on.

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Fig. 4.4  Mapping career options in the prioritization matrix

4.6 Stakeholder Engagement Plan The starting point is to gain clarity on who you should consider as stakeholders in view of your career strategy. I would argue that it includes all those individuals who are somehow involved in the recruiting decision process, either directly (recruiting manager) or indirectly (people who the recruiting manager may ask about you). Stakeholder management is the activity of positioning yourself in a favorable light in the eyes of these direct or indirect stakeholders. To do that successfully, the key factor is to take the perspective of each stakeholder and to look at your profile with “their eyes.” It is useful to be quite detailed and specific in this analysis. We will see below how. Stakeholders can have three perspectives on you: positive, neutral/ indifferent, or negative. Feel free to add further graduations (e.g., very positive, positive, slightly positive, etc.). As we will see below, each of these perspectives may require specific actions. It is obviously not the same to reinforce the positive view someone has on you versus convincing someone who has a rather negative perspective to change their opinion. It is also important to understand that a stakeholder may have an overall view on your profile, but this view might be composed of different facets. Someone may, for example, highly value your technical expertise but may not be convinced of your leadership skills. The key success factor

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of a stakeholder engagement plan is to understand as precisely as possible how a stakeholder evaluates these different aspects of your profile. That will allow you to be specific and efficient in your stakeholder management actions.

4.6.1 Establish the List of Stakeholders Establishing that list of stakeholders for each of the positions you are targeting as part of your career strategy is obviously the beginning. If you have several career options that you want to be considered for, you will have such a list for each of these positions. My recommendation is to keep the list of stakeholders for each position short. From my experience five is a good average. This may go up to ten stakeholders as a maximum. As mentioned earlier, the list may contain people who are directly or indirectly involved in the decision. It is advisable to limit the list to people who have strong influence and to rather go in-depth in the analysis and action planning for each of them. In other words, it is better to have strong impact on a few key individuals, instead of spreading your stakeholder activity too thin over many individuals. This could include: • • • • • • •

Recruiting manager People from the team who would be your future peers Senior management HR Talent acquisition/recruitment team External headhunter Other influencers (people whose opinion could be requested as part of a recruitment decision)

4.6.2 Take Stakeholder’s Perspective The next step is to put yourself into the shoes of each of the selected stakeholders and to assess your profile from their perspective. As we saw,

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it is useful to be as specific as possible, because a person may value certain of the aspects of your profile and may be more reserved concerning other points. You want to get the clearest possible understanding of that. Ideally, you will have done that in such a systematic way, that you will have a clearer understanding than the stakeholder has him/herself on your profile. The person might not have taken the time to assess your profile consciously in such detail but may have stayed at a more general evaluation. That would be rather positive. It means that you are one step ahead of them. That makes it easier to influence the corresponding stakeholder positively. Several of the aspects we outlined in Chap. 3 (five steps to assess a job opportunity) will be useful here again (we used some of them already in the prioritization exercise). We will summarize the key points here with the stakeholder management perspective. Job Description Look again at each of the elements of the job description, but this time from the angle of each stakeholder. Ask yourself the question how you believe that they would assess your profile in view of the tasks, responsibilities, and requirements outlined in that job description. You may conclude that some would rate you positively and other maybe less positively on certain aspects. The Example of Yoshiko Let me give you an example. Yoshiko was an experienced controller. She had the full support from her functional line manager—the CFO—who valued her strong technical skills, her reliability, and her agility. The CFO was in favor of allowing Yoshiko to make a big step-up. A great opportunity came up in one of the Business Units. Yoshiko applied. That role reported to the business unit Head, who was the recruiting manager. That manager was known to value the decisiveness of his finance partner, particularly in the context of an ongoing deep restructuring. That had been made clear in the job description. The business unit head had expressed doubts about Yoshiko’s leadership in the past. Yoshiko was aware of that. She knew which strengths to leverage on in the different interviews. But more importantly, she was fully

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aware of the business unit head’s doubts. She came very well prepared to the interview and was able to illustrate concrete examples where she had a decisive impact on a project. She managed to trigger an open conversation on the expectations of her interview partner. They spoke about that ongoing restructuring. Yoshiko had prepared suggestions for an action plan to support this from a change management perspective. She convinced the business unit head who felt that his needs had been understood.

As we see in this example, different stakeholders may assess or emphasize different role requirements in a different way. Placing yourself into their shoes might help you to identify questions they may have and gain a good understanding on how you could best convince them of the contrary. You may be able to do that in such a subtle way, that the individual may not even notice that you are purposefully addressing one of their doubts. Company Culture The question of the cultural fit is increasingly considered by recruiters. In some cases, this is even becoming a decisive criterion. Try to project yourself and to understand in what sense your profile may match with that company culture or where there might be a gap (for more details, please check Chap. 6 that is dedicated to this topic). You should of course be convinced first, that you will feel good in that culture. Otherwise, I would not recommend even applying to the role. There could be aspects that you wish to explore and understand better from the perspective of different stakeholders. The team members may, for example, be able to share with you a view that is a bit different from the recruiting managers perspective. As indicated above, a lot of information on the culture and leadership style of companies is available on social media. I recommend making usage of it for that part of your stakeholder analysis. Self-Assessment Through the Stakeholder’s Lens The key step is to conduct your self-assessment from the perspective of each stakeholder. It is important not to fall into the trap of being too

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positive. You don’t need to convince yourself of the fact that you can do it. You need to convince the others. It is important to identify any area where they might have doubt or questions. Be self-critical to ensure you don’t miss any such points. • Given what you know about each stakeholder and their specific needs/ expectations, how do you expect them to rate your technical expertise, especially in view of the job requirements? • How have you dealt with certain situations in the past that were similar to what is expected in that job? Is that known? • How can you leverage on the experience you have gained in the past to respond to business requirements in that new role? Make sure that stakeholders are aware of the fact that you have such deeper understanding of these business requirements and that you know how to manage them. • What do you expect to be perceived as your main strengths? Reinforce that perception with examples. • What is the leadership and people management experience that you bring? Does that match the expected level? Offer examples of situations you had in the past where these leadership skills were required. • How do they see you as a leader and what could be perceived as possible weaknesses/derailers? • How would the stakeholders describe your personality, and would that match with their own ways of working? Example of Hanna Hanna knows that she can come across as reserved and introverted in the eyes of people who meet her for the first time. This often leads to an initial perception that she may lack leadership. She therefore pays particular attention in her interactions with key stakeholders to always mention concrete examples that illustrate her leadership experience. As a matter of fact, Hanna is a very determined and results-focused person, who is a strong and engaging people leader. She can therefore outline several specific situations where she was able to overcome significant challenges thanks to this strength she has. This helps her a lot to quickly counterbalance what could be otherwise a wrong assessment of her leadership profile.

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The Example of Lulua I recently conducted a job interview for a senior position. Lulua was one of our top candidates. I knew that this career move was a big deal for her. It was interesting to hear her talk about her profile with a high level of self-­ awareness. She did that in a very open way, self-confident about her strengths and very open about her areas for development—much more than most candidates would be. She did not hesitate to illustrate her comments with concrete examples, including some that could have been perceived as awkward. I observed myself as interviewer during that conversation to understand the effect it had on me. Interestingly, it was all positive. The dominant impression was that Lulua was a highly self-aware and self-confident person. It takes courage to be open like that. And it reflects a high degree of learning ability to talk openly about your weaknesses.

I am not suggesting doing the same in any interaction with key stakeholders. But the message is that even when you talk about your weaknesses, you may come across as strong. Maybe stronger than someone who would not have the courage to be that open.

4.6.3 Personal Aspects Finally, check the different personal aspects related to the job and to your personal needs. This includes life–work balance, commuting time, relocation requirements, etc. Put yourself once again into the shoes of each stakeholder and try to understand how they would look at these personal aspects. As an example, you may require flexible working time due to family constraints. For most stakeholder you may expect that this should not be an issue. But there could be one more conservative person, who is not in favor of that type of flexibility. If this is the case, you would need to be particularly vigilant and careful in the way you address this topic with that individual. Making your personal needs clear but emphasizing your strong work commitment might be an advisable stakeholder action in that specific case.

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4.6.4 How to Define Your Stakeholder Engagement Plan? Reviewing all these aspects from the perspective of the stakeholders will allow you to do two things: Firstly, to identify those areas where there is a match. And that is very important because these are the messages that you want to reinforce in your interactions. But secondly (and maybe even more importantly), it will allow you to identify possible question marks the stakeholders may have concerning your profile. Being aware of these points may allow you to respond to these questions in the most efficient way as we saw in Yoshiko’s example. Finally, you may have yourself certain questions, which are important to clarify with the different stakeholders. Being clear and specific on these questions for clarification is important because you may require that clarification to make the right decisions but also because the nature of your questions will send itself a signal to the recruiting team. Mapping all these aspects in a clear stakeholder engagement plan is an excellent preparation for the interviews. In addition, it may be a very useful help in the final decision making in case you have to choose between several options. We are indeed sometimes confronted to such tough decision as the example of Maya will show.

4.7 A Simple Tool to Make Better Career Decisions In Sect. 4.5 on prioritization, I have outlined a structured approach to help focus on the most relevant job opportunities, when several options are existing. We used likelihood and attractiveness to help manage complex arbitration between very different job opportunities. Here the situation is different. We talk about specific options that are available, but where it is challenging to make the final call. This could very well happen between the two options that were both in the upper right-hand quadrant of our prioritization matrix in the above example of Alice. How to make that last decision between two great options?

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This could be a choice between two internal career options or because we have been contacted by a headhunter who offers an external opportunity. In some cases, the decision is very clear and easy, because we have been looking for exactly that job. In other cases, we might end up distressed because we are not sure what option to choose. In this section I will outline a simple and practical tool that should help you in this decision process. It is very important to have a robust decision process to avoid regrets and second thoughts. Let’s first take a closer look at these difficult career decisions. There can be quite different reasons why they are difficult to make. The Example of Maya Maya had worked for an American consumer goods company for 12 years. She was global brand manager for their main product. The company had invested a lot into her development. She knew that she was considered a high potential and that she could continue to progress rapidly into broader responsibilities. The team had become a second family for her. She loved the company and its products. Maya had never thought of leaving until a headhunter called and spoke to her about a General Manager role for a European company that she knew and respected. She had always considered that company as a possible employer. The interview process did confirm this. Maya was selected. At this stage of her career, she felt that taking a GM role would be a decisive career step for her and she was not sure if anything comparable would be offered to her in her current company. This was a real career breakthrough opportunity for her. A unique career chance. But Maya was also aware that taking this GM role would mean significant disruption and uncertainty. The GM job was in an emerging country and did require an expatriation. The conditions were financially attractive and did cover the needs of her family. Maya was living in a same-sex relationship with Brigitte and they had two children aged 7 and 11. Maya had of course discussed this career option with her family. In principle all were OK. Brigitte was a freelancer and could easily work abroad. Maya was torn between staying in her current company or going for that exciting new challenge with highly disruptive changes also for her family. She was bouncing both options back and forth in her mind for days and days but struggled to conclude. Finally, a decision had to be made because the European company was expecting an answer latest in a week’s time. Maya asked me for advice and I recommended the approach outlined below. Maya confirmed that it did help her to come to a clear decision. She took the GM challenge.

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The Small but Important Differences The challenge of deciding between two options might come from the fact that both options are very close and that we have trouble figuring out which one is the better one. The pros and cons of both options may have similar weight. Maybe there are just certain smaller aspects that make the difference. The Choice Between Very Different Options On the exact opposite side, we may have to choose between two very different options. This is, for example, the case if we have the possibility to give a completely new orientation to our career. As an example, we might have responsibility for a certain function in a large organization and we are being offered a prestigious role in a consulting firm that operates in this field. This implies moving from an operational responsibility to an expert role. Or we might be operating in the public sector and a private company offers a senior role in their management team. These choices can give a very different orientation to our professional activity. They might represent fantastic development opportunities, but the simple fact to make more fundamental changes makes such a decision potentially very difficult. We may ask ourselves questions: Am I going to be able to adapt to the new environment? Is this type of role what I really like, or will it maybe become less interesting after a while? Am I going to be able to live up to that new challenge? The Status Quo Option One of the options is the status quo, which is often considered as the safer bet because this is what is known. The uncertainty of the new is usually perceived as a risk. The human nature being in general rather risk averse, people can be inclined to favor the “stay where you are” option and might miss out on opportunities because of that desire for security. Be mindful of that as you could miss a chance to accelerate your career, foster your personal development, and discover new environments.

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The List of Pros and Cons It is advisable to ensure that our decision process is as robust as possible. The classic and efficient approach is to establish a list of pros and cons for each option. You should also ensure that you can collect advice from competent individuals. This is even more helpful if they know you and factor in the way they believe the job options would correspond (or not) to your profile, needs, and expectations. Once that is done, you might still be confronted precisely to the dilemma mentioned above in Mayas’ case and struggle to come to a clear decision. This is where the tool I would like to outline here can be helpful. I have been able to test it with several individuals who found it useful. The approach is very simple. All you need is 3 days, ideally in a time where you are not totally absorbed by other important matters. Day 1 On day one, you set yourself a time where you will make a final decision between both options. Let’s say at 6 pm. You use the day to reflect thoroughly. You may review the list of pros and cons again and again, make some last calls to colleagues and friends. Latest at the set time (e.g., 6 PM in this example), you write your decision on a piece of paper and you consider it as your final choice. You will then observe an interesting phenomenon: once you have chosen one option, your perception will change on the options. You might feel relief. You might have confidence in the fact that this was the right decision. Maybe this will trigger in the contrary even greater doubt. Most likely the fact of having decided will allow you to step back a bit. Like a painter who has accomplished an important step in his/her work and who steps back to observe the accomplishment. This is very helpful in such a decision process. The leisure time in the evening, or sportive activities and hobbies will help detach yourself even more and observe the decision from some distance. The night may be beneficial as well. Sleeping on a decision is very often helpful as we know. Day 2 The principle of this decision support approach is that you will start the exact same process two more times. On day 2, you should again set a time

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when a “final” decision will be made. As you understand now, these final decisions are milestones which can be revised on the following day. But they are still firm decision on that specific day. It is important to come to a clear decision between the options and to consider it final on that day. It is advisable to write the decision down. On the second day, you have the possibility to make a new temporarily “final” decision. This might confirm the decision from the previous day, or it might go in the opposite direction. Both cases offer you interesting insight. If the decision is the same, that indicates that the reflection time has rather confirmed the rational decision you made of the first day. If the choice on the next day is in favor of the other option, you can start to reflect about the reasons that have made you change your mind. At the given time you write that decision down. You try to step back in the evening and overnight to let the more intuitive processes operate, which may throw different light on your decision or in the contrary, give you that feeling of having made the right choice. You have still one more run and the option to change your mind. Day 3 On the third day, the decision will be the definitive one. You will have the opportunity to recap all the thoughts you had over these past 3 days and get back into some of the due diligence you have done. At the set time, you come for the third time to a decision, but this time it should be the final-final one. You will see that you will apprehend that third decision milestone with greater serenity, because you have experienced that exact same decision process two times already. Serenity helps because it eliminates the noise that distracts our thinking. You will probably feel able to make a more robust choice thanks to that. In addition, you will be able to consider the two previous decisions. • The easiest is of course if you confirm the first choice a third time. That would mean that you are quite clear. • If you have chosen option A two times and then you finally move to option B, that usually means that certain regrets or second thoughts have emerged that you had not given the same importance before the

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decision was made, but that suddenly turns the situation around. It is good to make that experience before the final decision is due, because sometimes these turning points occur when it is too late. • The third possibility is that you had made an initial choice (for example for option A), you have then had doubt which led on the second day to a different decision, but then finally you confirm your first choice, which usually allows you to feel quite reassured that the initial decision was the right one. I believe that this process can help you to make the best possible decision. The advantage of this tool is that you put yourself into a real decision situation but with the possibility to revise the choice. You can place yourself into both perspectives: the perspective before and after the decision, while keeping the freedom to revise the choice. Does this mean that it will always be the right one and that it excludes any wrong decisions? Of course not. But I believe that it will make your decisions more robust. You may also ask if the third decision can’t be changed again and if this process could not be extended to 4 or 5 days, or even more. You have of course the freedom to adjust this decision tool to your specific needs and requirements. But my recommendation would be to keep it to a well-defined duration (3 days are the optimal time frame in my eyes) so that you keep the “tension” that is required to make it “real.” If the process goes on for too long, the “final” decision on each day becomes less committing. That would reduce the efficiency of the decision tool.

5 Drive Your Career Development

An introduction video to this chapter is available in the Springer Nature “More Media” app. Please open the app and scan the icon or use the link (Fig. 5.1). Each one of us has a responsibility vis-à-vis ourselves to manage our career. It is amazing how many people seem to expect that HR or their managers should do that on their behalf. People sometimes tell me that they are surprised that no one has reached out to them. We are fully responsible for our own career management! That is the main message from this chapter. I will outline a couple of tips how to ensure that you can fulfill that duty diligently. You owe it to yourself. This should not be done alone. Implementing your career advisory board is a great way to draw on the experience and on the support of people who you trust. You will find out here how to set that up. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-­3-­662-­66791-­0_5. The videos can be accessed individually by clicking the DOI link in the accompanying figure caption or by scanning this link with the SN More Media App.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer-Verlag GmbH, DE, part of Springer Nature 2023 S. Sommerlatte, Successful Career Strategy, Business Guides on the Go, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-66791-0_5

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Fig. 5.1  Introduction video for this chapter (▶ https://doi.org/10.1007/000-­97t)

I have formed the concept of reverse succession planning which I will outline here. The key idea is that you should position yourself as successor to those roles that you aspire to. One of the reasons to do that is to be more specific about your development needs. One section is dedicated to that topic of your development. On-the-job learning is by far the most powerful development mode. You will find a range of on-the-job development opportunities that are easy to activate. Timing plays an important role in the different stages of our career. The diamond principle outlines what the two main phases of your career are and how to manage those successfully. A particularly important moment are the first 100 days in a new job. There are two schools of thought. The one is saying that any action that has not been taken in those first 100 days is likely not to happen. That is an action-oriented school. The listening-oriented school is claiming in the contrary that you should do nothing in those 100 days except listening. As soon as you have positioned yourself with an action plan people will no longer be completely objective in their way of interacting with you and their messages will automatically be biased. Which school to follow? You will read more about it in this chapter as well. Finally, I want to help you think out of the box. Writing your life CV can help do that. You will learn more about this approach here. At the end of that chapter, I will tell you a story. It is the story of baby elephant. This will open your eyes to certain mental barriers you may have and that might limit your career development. Break free from these barriers!

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5.1 You Are the CEO of Your Career I believe that we are all the CEO of this one-man or one-woman company that we are heading: Our career! As CEO of your own “enterprise” you are in charge to set the strategic direction, to ensure that your market value is increasing, to monitor trends and opportunities and to make bold decisions when needed. You see, it’s a tough job to be a CEO! This section outlines how to best manage that.

5.1.1 Components of Career Management As CEOs you are fully in charge of defining the strategic orientations for your career enterprise. You must decide in which markets you want to operate, what competitive advantages you need to develop, and how to ensure that you maintain your competitive edge. Finally, making the right investment decisions into your development and strengthening your personal brand are critical. These are the key components of career management. Making the right choices at the right time requires being in constant observation based on market data and benchmark information. You should monitor the trends and look out for opportunities, especially where disruptive changes may reshuffle the landscape and allow you to reposition yourself. In some cases that will require bold decisions and risk taking. You have a lot on your plate! To cope with that, the right career management governance should be put in place. I would recommend a monthly strategic review meeting with yourself. Given the limited number of people attending these meetings (you), an hour is usually enough. Don’t forget the meeting minutes and the follow-up on action plans! It’s a tough job to be a CEO, don’t you think so? In order to be reminded of this responsibility, you may print your CEO business cards. I wish you every success as CEO!

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5.2 Set Up Your Personal Career Advisory Board In this section, I would like to describe the benefits of setting up a personal career advisory board, outline how it works, what topics it should cover, and how to select the board members. It is important to actively drive your career development. But that should not be done alone. You should get the support from people who know you, who know your function, and who know your industry. Your personal board will help you review your career strategy, and it will be there to answer questions on how to best steer your professional development. The board will provide advice on important career decisions, and you will be able to draw on the board members’ experience and expertise. Such a career advisory board can become a major success factor for your professional development. Don’t wait to set it up!

5.2.1 Why to Set Up Your Personal Career Advisory Board? CEOs of large corporations have advisory boards to help them steer the development of their organization. Everyone would agree that this support is needed, because different perspectives are required to make the right strategic decisions for a company. The same is true concerning our career development. Having the possibility to draw on the advice of a career advisory board is important for us when we are confronted to certain critical career decisions. In these situations, it is very helpful to be able to have sparring partners whom we can really trust. The possibility to get support from people who know us and who know what we want to achieve can be a real success factor in our professional journey.

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5.2.2 How to Select the Board Members? Selecting the right board members is crucially important to make this personal career advisory board useful for you. You should have one person who really knows you very well. This could be a person who has been able to observe you over the past couple of years, who knows your personality and your profile, who knows your strengths and your areas for development. In other words, someone who has a deep understanding of who you are. Furthermore, you should select one or two board members who have relevant industry experience. Either from the sector that you are currently working in or a sector that you are interested in and where opportunities may exist for you in the future. Finally, you should have people who understand your specific role or your function. This could be a person who had a similar responsibility in the past. It can also be someone who currently holds a role similar to yours, but in a different company. In that case you have a peer relationship, which can also be very useful for your career management.

5.2.3 What Is a Personal Career Advisory Board? You will agree with the board members when you meet. Usually that should be one or two times per year. You can also agree on more frequent meetings, especially if you are in a situation where you must make important decisions. You should agree with your board members what schedule works best for them. You could, for example, agree to meet in the evenings, because that is when they are available. In other cases, it might be more suitable to meet over the weekend, etc. These aspects need to be clarified upfront. It is also your responsibility to prepare those board meetings to ensure that they are fruitful for you.

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5.2.4 What Topics Should Be Covered in the Board Meetings? When the board meets for the first time, you should share your career strategy. I would recommend starting each subsequent board meeting with a review of that career strategy. You should update the board members on where you stand in the implementation of your strategy and if there are any changes to that plan. Secondly, I would recommend reviewing the past couple of months since you have last met with your board. • What have been your achievements? • What difficulties or challenges did you encounter and what were the learnings you could draw from those? • How have you been able to further expand your experience base? You should of course update the board on thoughts or perspectives you may have about your next career step, especially if certain concrete opportunities have come up inside or outside of your company. You may, for example, have had discussions with headhunters who have contacted you in view of job opportunities. These are topics that the board should be aware of. Finally, you should also make sure that there is time for questions and discussion. In particular, you should leave time for the board members to challenge you on certain aspects or ask the right coaching questions in order to stimulate your thinking. That agenda should allow the board to help you best steer your career development in view of your ultimate career aspiration. I hope you are ready to set up your personal career advisory board NOW.

5.3 Drive Your Development: On the Job! There are many on-the-job learning opportunities. Many don’t require any specific development budget nor enrollment into large programs.

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On-the-job learning is a very powerful learning mode. You may have heard about the famous 70–20–10 rule according to which 70% of the learning should be on-the-job, 20% through coaching, and only 10% as formal learning in the classroom. On paper that rule looks good, but most companies struggle to activate the 70% of on-the-job learning. Take the lead on that for your own development. You will find below a list of great on-the-job learning activities. Please check if some of those could be relevant for you and if they can be implemented in your current role. Make that professional development an important part of your career strategy. Think about the skills and experience that you will need for your next career steps and ensure that you can collect those capabilities as soon as possible.

5.3.1 External Consulting Your company may decide to draw on external consulting if a large reorganization or a complex project must be undertaken. This can be a strong learning opportunity for you because the external consultants bring knowledge into the organization. That includes certain technical skills which may not exist inside your company, and it may include project management skills. Very often the external consultants need internal staff to work with them. Either because additional project resources are needed to complete certain tasks or to get access to the knowledge base of the organization. This can be a great opportunity for you to learn from these external consultants on-the-job.

5.3.2 Internal Consulting Advice Certain larger organizations have internal consulting groups (see also Sect. 9.3). Working with these internal consultants can be equally beneficial as it is to work in a project with external consultants as outlined above. In addition, internal consultants can be a great source of advice for you if you have a specific task to complete where you need their expertise. It

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could be that they don’t need to get involved directly, but that they can provide you with the tools and methodology you need to complete these tasks yourself. That knowledge transfer is again a highly beneficial on-­ the-­job learning opportunity.

5.3.3 International Experience International experience is an important part of your experience base (see Sect. 3.2). But you might not be able to move abroad for personal reasons. Expatriation assignments are usually quite limited because of their high cost for the company. But I have seen many circumstances where people have been able to gain such international exposure without relocating as the examples of Sara and of Patrick show.

The Example of Sarah Sara was working on the implementation of a new sales force management system in Hungary. She learned that the Brazilian team had just successfully completed a similar project. She agreed with her manager that she would spend three times 2 weeks in Sao Paulo to be close to that Brazilian project team and transfer their knowledge and experience to Hungary. As a side effect, she got great inter-cultural exposure.

The Example of Patrick Patrick was a controller in Singapore. Ludovic was his counterpart in Belgium. They got to know each other in a finance training program. Both did a similar job, and both wanted to gain international experience. They managed to convince their bosses to do a job rotation. This was not disruptive for the business, because they had a very similar skill set and experience level. In addition, the other person was always easily available if a specific question came up. They also shared their flats which helped to save cost. The rotation was planned for 5  months, which helped limit immigration constraints.

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5.3.4 Job swap The Example of Jean Jean was head of sales of a gardening equipment manufacturer in the UK. Eliana was head of Marketing of that organization. Both were at the same hierarchical level and members of the management committee. Brian, the HR leader was worried that there could be a retention risk, because Jean and Eliana wanted to expand their experience base but the company was not able to offer them a suitable next move to respond to that. Brian was worried, because losing either of them would have been a great loss for the company. He discussed it with the CEO, and they came to the conclusion that it would make a lot of sense to allow Jean and Eliana to swap jobs for 12  months. Brian was confident that Jean and Eliana’s learning agility would allow them to step up quickly into these new responsibilities. Both were delighted. They agreed to spend one day per week close to each other in the office so that they could always ask the other person for advice. The questions they asked to their teams were bringing in new wind and the move was perceived by everyone as a great success.

There are many other ways to set up a job swap taking the specific need and circumstances into account.

5.3.5 Shadowing The Example of Sylvia Sylvia was marketing manager in Italy, a large country organization. Her next move was to become regional marketing head, most likely for Asia. This was a big step-up for her and it was agreed that this next career step would be planned for in 3  years. But it was also clear that Sylvia should prepare for this move. She needed to reinforce her leadership skills and to understand how to manage in a multi-country setup. It was agreed that she would shadow the Regional President for Europe for 1 day every month. This was easy to organize because both were geographically close by. Sylvia found it highly beneficial to take that helicopter perspective and to be in an observation role, where she could be fully concentrated on listening and understanding. The European President found it a great experience as well because they could exchange informally, and Sylvia’s feedback was very insightful for him.

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5.3.6 360° Feedback Your team members, peers, and managers should be used as a permanent source for learning and development. They observe you and can share highly insightful feedback. Standard 360° tools are available at low cost. These tools allow tapping into that source of insight at your convenience. Don’t miss that opportunity! It can be very rich in learnings about your leadership and ways of working. This is the basis to reinforce your self-­ awareness, which is so important to grow as a leader (Chap. 7 is fully dedicated to that topic of self-awareness).

5.3.7 Peer Coaching In addition to the 360° feedback, you may ask one of your peers to be available for mutual coaching. This can be done over lunch every now and then very informally. Tell your peer coach what you see as your development needs and ask her/him to observe you more specifically in view of these aspects.

5.3.8 Online Learning There are hardly any limits to the content that is available online. Tap into that amazing source of knowledge whenever you encounter an issue in your work. You will be surprised about the quality of the on-the-job advice you get for free at a fingertip. In addition to that, your company may have contracted with a provider of online learning courses. You avoid spending long days in classrooms. You draw on the learning at your convenience with no travel and at hardly any cost.

5.3.9 External Best Practice Sharing and Expert Groups Make sure you connect to your peers externally. It is very useful to step out of your professional setup and to experience what other companies

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do. This is also the opportunity to ask questions without the risk of being judged. This can be a very powerful way of building up your external network, which is a great side effect that can be highly beneficial for your career strategy in the future. As you see, the list of on-the-job learning opportunities is long and rich. Check where you have the most important learning gaps in view of your career development and assess which of these tools could be most beneficial for you. Discuss this with HR and with your manager. If you know that they might be reluctant (for example, concerning the benefits of a job swap), try to find examples inside your company where this has worked. That will help you to convince them. It is advisable to plan for these development actions ahead of time so that the company can get ready for it. If you have an annual individual development planning process, you should use it to discuss and agree on these actions, especially if they require budget (e.g., travel budget).

5.4 Reverse Succession Planning The Example of Tony Tony started his career in sales. He moved up the ranks of his company, a medium size global player in the construction equipment industry. He finally became regional sales manager for the entire Asian market, which was an important role in this organization. After a couple of successful years in that position, where he had interactions with different corporate functions, he raised the question of his next step. But he could not get any clear answer and concluded that he was not in any succession plan. A direct step-up in the sales function was not possible, because this company had no global head of sales. Tony started to become more active on Linked-In and was in contact with headhunters. Interestingly, the external world seemed to be open to consider his profile also for non-sales positions. His engaging personality, his deep knowledge of the industry, and his negotiation skills were clearly valued, and his profile was considered for a broader range of roles. He felt that the outside environment could offer him more perspectives and he was about to go for an external role when he learned that the global head of procurement position in his company became vacant. This was an executive committee position reporting directly to the CEO. In the

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past he would most likely not even have thought of that as a possible career step. He was fully focused on sales and related operational P&L responsivities. Encouraged by the external discussions he raised his hand and asked for an exploratory conversation with the CEO. Tony could outline the skills and the experience he could use for that role, which all were highly relevant (negotiation skills, industry experience, knowledge of the organization, its people and its culture, learning agility, etc.).

He was selected and became a successful procurement leader. The lesson that can be learned from this example is that it is worthwhile to think out of the box and to check all career pathways inside the company that could be of interest, instead of waiting for others to consider you as successor for certain roles. This can open great opportunities. We talk sometimes of reverse-mentoring. We could talk here about reverse succession planning.

5.4.1 Limitations of Traditional Succession Planning The example of Tony is reflective of the way many large companies still operate. Succession planning is like a black box. It is done by HR and managers in a confidential way. People who are considered as successors for certain roles are rarely openly informed about this. Companies feel that this could lead to wrong expectations on employees’ side, or even to the feeling of entitlement in view of succession options. Companies are worried that it could then become challenging to keep the employees concerned motivated in their current roles. In addition, where several candidates are considered as successors for a role, this could lead to rivalry between these employees. These concerns are quite justified. On the other hand, we need to consider the fact that the lack of transparency which is resulting from an absence of information to employees about those roles they are considered for leads to retention risk and possible disengagement. Employees can indeed have the impression that it is easier to get visibility about job opportunities outside the organization through interactions with headhunters than it is to

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obtain information internally about their possible next steps. In addition, employees can feel that they are stuck in their functional silos and that it is hard to engage conversations about opportunities to make cross functional moves. I am therefore in favor of an open succession planning approach. I would encourage you to undertake that reverse succession planning and to apply it for yourself.

How to Establish Your Reverse Succession Plans? The starting point is to gain a robust understanding of the organization of your company. You may find a way to access the detailed company organization charts. That would be a great starting point. In certain organizations, the online HR system such as Workday or Success Factors offers the possibility to navigate the organization. That is particularly powerful. It gives you not only a detailed understanding of the organization structure, but you can even check the job profiles. This is precious information. The second step consists of an assessment of the strengths and the experience that you bring. We have outlined the concept of the experience space above. That should certainly help to get a structured perspective on your own profile. I would also recommend that you collect the input you may have received through various assessment tools and feedback surveys in order to gain clarity on where your strengths are. As a third step, you should review the organization department by department. Take time to project yourself into these different roles. Put yourself into the shoes of a recruiting manager and check what your profile could bring to these positions. Ask yourself with an open mind if these roles could be of interest for you, even if you may never have considered them. Would you see yourself in one of these positions? How would these positions allow expanding your experience base? Could that be a beneficial addition in view of your career aspiration? Would that specific function potentially offer career development opportunities that other departments in the company may not provide? As a fourth step, you should write your own name in all those boxes where you would like potentially to be considered for. Again, don’t do it

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lightheartedly. Challenge each one of those decisions both from your own and from the company perspective. It doesn’t help to aspire for positions where it is obvious that your profile would not match. Finally, you should reach out to people who know more about these functions. Engage informally with them if you can. Try to learn more about these functions. If possible, you could ask if your profile could be considered for any of these roles in their eyes. It would also be worthwhile engaging with the HR business partner of those different functions. Find a way to get the HR perspective on your profile in view of these positions. It is important to be in a listening and not in a selling mode. You may gain precious information from these conversations. Now come back to the drawing board. Review your own succession plans. Limit them to a maximum of 5. That number may be a bit higher if you’re still at the beginning of your career and it becomes naturally narrower the more senior you are in the organization. Once this is established you should move to an active stakeholder engagement plan. How to do that is outlined below. I want to emphasize here one stakeholder more specifically who could be of great support. It is the current incumbent of the position. First, he or she might be involved in the succession planning for their own role. Having you on the radar could be beneficial. But more importantly, the current incumbent can provide you very valuable insight into the position and can potentially even get involved in supporting your own development. An open conversation about your current profile and the gap in view of becoming a credible successor would be highly beneficial. If you’re lucky, you may gain a mentor who would be willing to get actively involved in your own career progression. Who would have thought that you can go that far by yourself in establishing reverse succession plan?

5.4.2 Discussion with Rolf Peiffer During a conversation between Rolf Pfeiffer, Managing Partner at SP Executive Advisory Partners, and myself we explored the benefits of making succession planning more transparent. The idea is to establish an

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open exchange between the current incumbent of a role and his/her identified successors. This might make your succession planning process more robust and more meaningful. SVEN: Traditionally, succession planning is seen as a tool to ensure business continuity. This is the company perspective. ROLF: That is right. But there are also other ways to look at the value of succession planning. We can take the perspective of the current incumbent of a role, or the perspective of the identified succession candidate. And finally, we can look at it from the perspective of HR as the orchestrator of this process. SVEN: Let’s take the perspective of the current incumbent. The availability of a successor is obviously important because having a back-up is usually a condition for being allowed to move on to another role. ROLF: That is right. No manager wants to hear “we can’t move you to your next role, because there is no successor available to step in.” SVEN: Now the question is what role the current incumbent can play to secure his or her succession. Can that manager play an active role in this process? In the past, succession planning was often a black-box discussion between manager and HR. ROLF: My sense is that this should be an open process. Managers should engage with the identified successor instead of letting this be a pure paper exercise. SVEN: I believe that anyone who had the privilege in their career to be actively involved in the development of a successor and in the decision to give this responsibility to the person after having driven her/his development will know how gratifying this is. Maybe it is the most gratifying thing in our professional lives to have that opportunity of passing on and actively sharing our experience to the next generation of leaders. ROLF: I agree, that would open several possibilities. It would help managers and their team members have more mature conversations about career and personal development. Mentoring relationships could be established between the manager and

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the identified successors. Succession management could thereby become a real source of engagement. When you talk about engagement that leads to the employee perspective. For the succession candidate it could certainly be very beneficial to be able to exchange with the current incumbent to understand the role better, to understand what skills and experience are required, and what development actions might be recommended to get ready for that role. That exchange would certainly be very engaging and would provide the employee greater visibility about the career development opportunities that the company can offer. Yes, employees will see that “there is a person who looks after me and who is willing to help me shape my future in this organization.” That would be a very positive employee experience. The downside is that this may create certain expectations on the employee side. But if you think about it, there are ways to counterbalance this risk. The employee may have different succession options. Some options might be short term and others might be mid- or long-term career development opportunities. This allows to put things into perspective instead of having a narrow focus only on one next step. You are right; the open approach might raise expectations that are finally not met, and this can lead to disappointment. But my sense is that the benefits are greater than the downsides and that the risk can be mitigated as you said. The benefits from the HR perspective are that this (1) would help making the succession plans more robust and that (2) the development discussion between the manager and their team members would become more meaningful. As a facilitator of that process, the HR function would certainly benefit from that exchange a lot. Facilitating more mature conversations about future roles is indeed a great opportunity for the HR function to create value for the organization. Most of the time, development planning and succession planning are conducted separately. That is a missed opportunity. We should instead use succession planning as a basis for people development. There is no better way

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to clarify the skills and experience gap of a person than looking concretely at the development needs that are required for someone to step into a bigger job. Where is the person we have identified as our successor standing today and what development will be needed to allow her/him to be ready for my role? This should obviously not be limited to an annual development meeting but should be an ongoing exchange. This sounds like a win-win situation. Yes, indeed it is. To summarize, we talked about the involvement of managers and their active participation in the development of their successors, we talked about the engagement that this would mean for the employees and we saw that this would make the succession planning process much more meaningful and richer from the HR perspective. So, we could indeed conclude that a transparent and more open succession approach would be very beneficial for all parties. Many thanks Rolf for that discussion! Thank you!

5.5 The Diamond Principle of Career Management A career has typically two distinct phases: In the first phase, you broaden your experience base. You will reach a turning point once you have gained the necessary experience to reach your aspired career target. This is when the second phase starts and when you need to take a focused approach in view of your career ambition. Getting this right will help you optimize your career development.

5.5.1 Two Career Phases Broadening of your experience base is what you will do in the first phase of your career. But then there is typically a turning point where you need to consider that you have a robust enough experience base and where you

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move to a focused approach in view of your dream job. This broadening and then focusing has a diamond shape and I would therefore like to call this the “diamond principle” of career management (Fig. 5.2). I would like to outline here two aspects more specifically: Communication and time management, which are both critical.

Communication In the first phase, where you broaden your experience, you need to inform people about the experience components you intend to acquire in view of your career aspiration. During this first career phase, you should emphasize your appetite to broaden your base and not let yourself be directed to a narrow career path. Staying in a functional silo, for example, and following a purely vertical career pathway does not correspond anymore to the requirements in today’s world. But then there is this turning point. And here you need to send a different message. You need to be able to convince you sparing partners— internal career counseling partners or people you meet in view of job opportunities—that you have now the required experience in view of what you aspire to and that you now wish to focus on obtaining your dream job. That is a very different communication. Dream job Phase 2:

Full focus on your career target

Turning point

Time

Phase 1:

Expansion of your experience base

Career strat

Experience base Fig. 5.2  Diamond principle

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I believe it is important not to miss that turning point. This leads us to the second aspect of the diamond principle, the time aspect.

T  ime Management I believe that the turning point where you move from broadening your experience base to a more focused approach happens at approximately two-thirds of your career. You will need to still have the necessary runway to reach your career target which may require another two or three steps. This means that you need to take that more focused approach not too late because otherwise you can’t reach that ultimate target. So, time management is a very important component of your career strategy. This is what I want to emphasize in the diamond principle of career management: brooding the base is essential but then having a more focused approach in view of your career target is just as critical and you need to embed this in the communication with the key stakeholders so that they understand what you want to achieve in the specific phase of your career, and you need to manage time accordingly.

5.6 Your First 100 Days in a New Job As HR leader, I get very often the question how to best manage the first 100 days in a new job. This section outlines what to consider when you will shape YOUR first 100 days in order to make that start in the new role as efficient as possible. If you dive into the literature on this topic of the first 100 days in a new position, you will discover that there are quite different schools of thought on this topic.

5.6.1 The Action-Oriented School One school of thought is saying that any action that has not been taken during this first period will become much more difficult to take at a later

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stage. The idea is that any bold decisions should ideally be announced at the very beginning. This is based on the assumption that during this first phase in the new job, you will be perceived to be more neutral than those who have been in the organization since longer and that this gives you a higher legitimacy to trigger change. In other words, the fact that you are free from influences gives you permission to act and it would therefore be a missed opportunity if you did not use those first 100 days to take quick and bold decisions. Authors, consultants, or coaches who share this perspective would usually recommend starting to collect as much information as possible about the new job and the new organization even before starting, so that you are best prepared to make important decisions during these first 100 days. Does that make sense? Yes, it does, and you would be tempted to follow this approach immediately, if there was not another perspective that you can come across and which is interestingly going exactly in the opposite direction!

5.6.2 The Listening-Oriented School According to this other school of thought, it is advisable not to take any action, but instead, to be in the listening mode. The recommendation is to interact with as many people from the organization as possible, to let people share their perspectives and to hold your judgment back. The advice that those who defend this perspective would give is to stay as open as possible; to avoid rushing into any premature conclusions; to consider as many points of view as possible; to stress test your beliefs and to be in a learning mode. Some would go as far as recommending that—if possible—your predecessor should still keep the operational responsibility for a transition period, so that you can be as free as possible to observe, to understand the culture of your new environment, to make up your mind on the strengths and weaknesses of that new organization, and to assess the teams. The assumption here is that any information that you have not taken in from the people in the organization during these first 100 days will be

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much harder to collect later, because people will find it more difficult to share information with you openly. Staying low key and being in this non-threatening mode creates a privileged space to access that information. This is also based on the experience that once you have taken full responsibility, you are caught up in the fire of day-to-day management and making time available will be difficult.

5.6.3 Who Is Right, the Action or the Listening-Oriented School? Isn’t that amazing, how these two perspectives are directly opposite one to the other, but both make sense? Who is right, the action-oriented or the listening-oriented school? As so often, it depends. I believe it depends on YOU and on the specific situation that you will move into, when you take the new responsibility. Let’s look at these two aspects.

5.6.4 It Depends on You First, it depends on you because the choice of the approach is related to your personality. I believe that it is actually very useful to understand that these two approaches exist, so that you can make a conscious decision of how you want to shape these first 100 days. Make them YOUR first 100 days! As a matter of fact, the very first decision that you will make in the new job is to choose what approach to take and this will send a strong signal to the organization about who you are. As you know, there is never a second chance to make a good first impression. This first signal can be very impactful, especially if you actively communicate about the approach that you have chosen to your new entourage. That will be a first landmark of your leadership style. You may decide to tell everyone what your roadmap for the first 100 days is, or maybe only to those, who will be close to you? Up to you to make that call, based on your personal preference and of your assessment of the situation.

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The experience you may have been able to make in the past of taking a new responsibility (either in your current or in a new company) will certainly play a role in your decision as well. This experience might help you assess the time you will need to familiarize yourself with the new environment, before being fully operational in that new role. Finally, it is important to point out how important it is for any leader to build a strong team or to be accepted by the existing team, if it is already in place. Developing a relationship of trust within the leadership team is certainly a key success factor when moving into a new role and should be one of your first priorities. The speed by which you will be able to leverage on your leadership team to make strategic decisions and have full support of that group will contribute significantly to your successful onboarding.

5.6.5 It also Depends on the Situation The choice about how to approach your first 100 days will also depend on the situation of the organization you join.

A Crisis May Require Shortening the Time for Listening If you are confronted to a crisis, which you have been recruited to fix, it is very likely that you will not have the possibility to listen for 100 days, because it will actually be expected that you move much faster into trouble shooting. The only option that you may have in that case is to still preserve a certain time for the listening mode, which could be, for example, of only 50 days or less. Even just 3 weeks of listening mode can make a big difference and give you deeper insights that you might not be able to gain so easily, once you are fully engaged in the operational management.

The Question of Your Predecessor The other factor is the question if your predecessor is still available for the handover period. It is a very privileged way to move into a new

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organization, if you can have an agreement that your predecessor keeps the operational responsibility for the business during a transition period. This allows you to be more in the observation position outlined above. This is not always possible, because your predecessor might have moved on already. Also, the context of the change of incumbent has to be taken into consideration. But where possible, taking advantage of such a transition can be very advisable.

Time to Prepare Finally, it depends also on the time you had to prepare. The more time you had before the start of the 100 days to collect information about the new position, the more likely it is that you can move efficiently into the action mode quickly.

5.6.6 Conclusion We see that there are many factors to consider. But the point I would like to make is that this decision about the way you want to manage your first 100 days should not be taken lightheartedly. Think about your preference, think about the situation, and make a conscious decision. Make sure that you communicate about that decision to the organization and to your teams, because that will already be a strong first signal that you will give them about yourself.

5.7 Write Your “Life CV” Usually, our CV reflects what we have done in the past. It provides an overview of our main achievements in terms of education and professional development. But I believe that you could also use that format of the CV to project yourself into the future. That can be very helpful to make career development opportunities more tangible. As we know, time matters (see Sect. 5.5). Sometimes that is not sufficiently taken into consideration when we define our career strategy. How many steps can you still undertake before

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the end of your career? Is it a good idea to take that specific job opportunity, if it doesn’t completely match with my career aspiration? Maybe that might make it impossible to complete the necessary other steps to reach the target. Writing your CV ahead of time is a good way to plan your career. There is in my eyes another benefit to it. Be audacious. Give yourself permission to write your ideal CV and include your dream job into it. Maybe you would conclude that it is not so far away from what you can achieve. Maybe having written it on paper will allow you to overcome a mental barrier that gave you the impression that this is something you can’t reach. Maybe you’ll stop thinking that this level of responsibility is simply not for you. Finally, you may write more than just one life CV. Maybe there are different development options that you want to consider. Write them down. Project yourself. Try to imagine your life within those different scenarios. Try to be as clear as possible about how you would feel in those different career trajectories. Is this really what I aspire to? Is that the type of life I want to live? Are these activities in line with my deep desire? Maybe you will discover the CV you really aspire to. Overcoming certain mental barriers might be necessary for that. The baby elephant story may help doing so.

5.8 Think Big! Baby Elephant Story The baby elephant story contains a message for us! Break free from self-­ imposed mental barriers! Read here about the adventure of baby elephant’s capture and how it got back to its mother. You will learn why elephants don’t escape when they have a rope around their necks. This is an invitation for us to think about opportunities that may exist to manage our career differently. To break out of the pre-formatted linear career pathways. Maybe to take a direction that fits better your true career aspiration. Or maybe to be bolder in view of your career progression where you might have the feeling that you are not ready yet.

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This is the story of baby elephant that lives in India with its mother—a big and mature elephant. They both belong to a mahout. A mahout in India is a person who keeps and raises elephants. The mahout goes with our baby elephant and its mother from one village to another, offering their services for heavy lifting duties that can be done only with the strength of an elephant. Our baby elephant lives a very happy life with its mother, drinking the good mother milk, growing up, playing, and enjoying itself. This goes on until the day where everything is changing for our baby elephant. That day, the mahout separates the baby elephant from its mother. He puts a thick rope around the neck of our baby elephant and attaches the rope to a massive stick that is fixed in the ground. Our baby elephant does not understand what is happening and wants to go back to its mother. So, it starts rattling the rope to escape from this prison. But the rope is strong, and the stick holds firm. Baby elephant is starting to feel very lonely and is missing its mother badly. Big elephant tears drop on the floor. And you should know that elephant tears are even bigger than crocodile tears! Baby elephant is not only very sad but starts to be also very hungry. So, it undertakes again and again all efforts to break free. It fights against the rope with all his forces. The rope is starting to hurt its neck, so hard it is trying. But nothing works. Our baby elephant is starving, sad, and completely exhausted. After a few days our baby elephant is desperate and suffers badly from starvation. Its attempts to break free become more and more seldom and less and less vigorous. His neck is wound, his forces are gone, and his sadness not to be with his mother is overwhelming. Slowly but surely baby elephant gives up, resigns, and finally falls into complete depression having lost all hope. This is when the mahout shows up and detaches the rope from the stick. Our baby elephant has hardly the force to get back on its 4 feet and the mahout takes the baby elephant with him. Not far away the baby elephant can suddenly see…its mother!! Baby elephant runs to its mother as fast as it can, and mother elephant is full of joy to have her baby back! Our baby elephant does not waste much time to drink again the good mother milk and enjoys the elephant tenderness of its mother.

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Baby elephant recovers. Life is back to normal, and our baby elephant rapidly grows to become soon itself a big and strong elephant like its mother. Baby elephant starts to contribute to the heavy lifting work. People admire its incredible strength in all of the villages that the mahout visits together with his elephants. When they arrive in a new village the mahout stops in the center and puts a rope around the neck of our elephant and attaches it to a stick. Our by now grown-up elephant could easily escape. It has now 10 or even 100 times the strength to break free from the rope. But never, never ever our baby elephant will challenge the rope and the stick again. Whenever the rope is around his neck and attached to the stick our elephant stays there and does not even try to run away. Isn’t that amazing? This super strong elephant that can carry heavy trees will never make any attempt to free up from the rope and the stick that had imprisoned it as a baby. I have heard this story from a great storyteller, who has probably heard it himself from another storyteller and so on. If this story is told again and again over so many years, it is because it probably has a deeper meaning that is relevant also for us.

5.8.1 Do We Have Virtual Ropes Around Our Necks? What is the deeper meaning of that story? Does it tell us something about ourselves? Are there maybe limitations that we may have experienced and that we accept ever since? Are there career opportunities that we could have applied for, if we had been free from certain mental models that are no longer relevant for us? Do we have such ropes around our necks that we don’t challenge although we might have 10 or 100 times the strength to do so? I guess this is what this story invites us to think about: What are such mental barriers that we may have lost the habit to challenge? • Much more experienced people will be selected for this role. I am not ready yet to even apply.

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• I would love to have such a job, but it is too risky to leave my well-­ established career track. • This entrepreneurial adventure is really something I would love to undertake, but what if I fail? • I must continue to work to secure my old days, even if I might have enough pension security now, but you never know—better to stay in my role, even if I don’t get much satisfaction from it anymore. Why is there a consensus that things must be done in this way? Can’t I look at it in a different way? Has anyone tried? Shall I try to break free? What is the risk of doing so? Do I have the strength to try? The baby elephant story invites us to ask these questions. I think it is worthwhile thinking about it for our own lives.

6 Assess Company Culture

An introduction video to this chapter is available in the Springer Nature “More Media” app. Please open the app and scan the icon or use the link (Fig. 6.1). Those of you who have an aquarium know how sensitive fish are with regard to the water quality. Multiple factors must be considered including purity of the water, temperature, frequency of the renewal, level of oxygen, etc. A fish might not survive very long in an environment where the water does not match its needs, which are different from one species to another. You can change the parameters in a tank, but you must do that very progressively and within a certain range. Only very few fish can adjust to significant change. The salmon is one of the few species that can cope with complete change of water conditions. A salmon lives in the salty sea water but swims up the soft water rivers at breeding time. It is Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-­3-­662-­66791-­0_6. The videos can be accessed individually by clicking the DOI link in the accompanying figure caption or by scanning this link with the SN More Media App.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer-Verlag GmbH, DE, part of Springer Nature 2023 S. Sommerlatte, Successful Career Strategy, Business Guides on the Go, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-66791-0_6

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Fig. 6.1  Introduction video for this chapter (▶ https://doi.org/10.1007/000-­97v)

obviously an over-simplification to compare company culture with the water in a tank. Mainly because it is quite easy to measure the parameters of water quality, whereas it is highly complex to assess the culture of an organization. But what this comparison helps to illustrate is that you need the right environment to survive or to succeed. This is very often underestimated by candidates who change company. People tend to be focused on the job content, on the positioning of the job in the organization, and on compensation. But we know from many examples—you might know some of those from your own observation or experience— that the cultural fit is a major factor of success in a new job, especially when someone has changed company or country. I will focus here on company culture, not on cultural differences between countries. Extensive literature exists on inter-cultural differences and on how to prepare for that when you move to another country. Many companies offer inter-cultural training before sending their employees abroad. I cannot emphasize enough the importance of that preparation, which is often seen as a “nice to have,” although it is a crucial requirement. Even when you move between two countries in Europe which are close to each other, the cultural differences can be significant. Having lived and worked myself in France, Germany, the USA, the UK, and the Czech Republic, I can testify that I have always been astonished about these differences and about the importance of cultural sensitivity to successfully integrate into a new environment.

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In this chapter, I will address the topic of COMPANY culture, which might be even more challenging to decode. You will find plenty of books describing the cultural differences between the USA and China, or between France and the UK, but you will obviously find nothing that tells you more about the cultural differences between Kellogg’s and L’Oréal or between Airbus Industries and General Electrics. But the fact is that there are very significant cultural differences between these organizations. They all have strong company cultures. You can be successful only if you manage to adjust to those. The cultural fit is important, because people can adjust to a new cultural environment to some extent, but only if the new company culture matches in principle with their personal needs. The Example of Iris Iris used to work in a highly successful large European FMCG company as procurement manager and moved to the European headquarters of an American competitor. The European company was quite consensus oriented and quite hierarchical. Decisions were taken rather high up in the organization and usually in a collegial way. People did avoid direct confrontation and conflict. To her great surprise, this was very different in the American organization, which was highly competitive. Iris quickly got the impression that everyone was fighting against the others. The principle was “survival of the fittest” and people were quite aggressive in their interactions. Employees got blamed publicly for low performance or failures, which would never have been done in her previous company. Iris concluded after only a couple of months in that new environment that this was not her cup of tea. She felt increasingly miserable in the morning when leaving to the office. Instead of that collegial environment she was used to where people would chat over a coffee in the morning before moving to their daily work, everyone was quite isolated and fully focused on their own tasks. Something intangible but essential for her was missing in that new environment. She also found it very painful to witness the aggressive communication within the team and was under the fear that this would turn against her at some moment in time. She knew that she would not be at her best in such a situation, whereas others were apparently quite comfortable with this very direct feedback culture. Iris decided to leave the organization.

Could that have been avoided? Was there a way how Iris could have found out before joining about that environment and about her personal preference? The answer is YES! I hope that this chapter will help you in that.

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You should first gain a deeper understanding on what makes a company culture. That is the precondition for being able to observe it. The fact is that it is highly intangible and therefore hard to observe. But once you know that these unwritten rules of the game exist, you can draw your attention to certain of the signals that help you uncover these rules. Certain observable behavior becomes indicative of cultural traits of an organization. Understanding the existence of these unwritten rules will put you in a position where you can use any interaction with members of that organization—specifically during the interview process—to do that decoding. It will also allow you to ask the right questions that might give you hints on how people operate in that organization, or what is expected and what people value. From my experience as HR leader having interacted with candidates from many different companies and having helped onboarding thousands of new employees into different teams, I believe that there is one cultural aspect that is of outstanding importance, but often underestimated: Internal rivalry. Some companies have a high level of internal competition, others are more consensus oriented as we saw in the example of Iris. I believe that this is the single most important reason why employees may find it difficult to integrate a new organization. The challenge may be in both ways. Some may find it hard—as it was the case for Iris—to adapt to a highly competitive or aggressive company culture. Others, whose personal style may be to be competitive and direct, may find it challenging to adjust to a cultural environment that is much more consensus oriented. Because of the importance of that dimension, I have dedicated a full chapter specifically to it. The good news in my eyes is that this cultural dimension is maybe easier to decode than other cultural aspects. I am quite confident that you will be able to “read” the organization you might plan to join after having read that chapter and that this will allow you to make the right choices. Another essential cultural question concerns empowerment: what level of autonomy am I really going to have in my new job? It is sometimes surprising to observe that the level of empowerment is so low in certain organizations that even at top management level leaders have hardly any room to decide. This can be driven by a very dominant CEO who takes

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all the important decisions in an autocratic way. But very often that is also related to what I call the vicious disempowerment spiral (see Sect. 6.3). You will learn more about it and about the importance of trust in that context here. I hope that these insights into company culture will give you the practical guidance you need to factor the cultural dimension in when you will assess new job opportunities. Failure to do so may lead to high opportunity cost. You may get the question why you did not stay longer in that organization and it is not always easy to explain why the cultural dimension was the reason for that. But more importantly, you may have missed to take another job opportunity where time matters. Smart career choices are done based on an informed understanding of the company culture and on a clear understanding of your personal preferences to avoid a misfit. The Example of Hans Hans had a successful career as supply chain leader when he joined this company, a large German supplier to the car industry. Hans had worked most of his life outside of Germany and was happy to come back to his home country and to join this prestigious player. Coming back home, he thought it would be easier for him to adapt culturally to that new environment. He was self-confident because he knew his strength: to be highly solution- and action-oriented, to address issues directly and to move fast. Hans was convinced that this would help him be successful also in his new company, which went through serious business issues. A turnaround was needed to solve the supply chain problems that had emerged and that contributed to the overall under-performance of that organization. In his first management team meeting, Hans introduced himself and outlined his ways of working. He invited his new team members to be open and to put the issues on the table. He was optimistic and invited the team to cooperate. To his surprise, no one followed his invitation. People were embarrassed about certain declarations Hans made publicly concerning issues he had observed in the supply chain function. He noticed that people started to avoid coming into his office. The malaise was tangible even lower down in his organization when he visited certain of the distribution sites. Hans had observed that any decision or issue was systematically escalated up instead of being resolved at the appropriate level in the organization. This was clearly one of the reasons why decision processes were so slow, although the business needed fast supply chain responses to market oppor-

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tunities. He addressed this openly with his team. He explained to his direct reports that he wanted to empower them and that he expected each one of them to address the issues in their respective functions. He encouraged them to drive that mindset change in their own teams. Hans understood too late that he had alienated his teams right from the beginning. His ways of working were not matching with the company culture. Deeply rooted cultural norms were in exact opposition to the change he expected. People had burned their finger many times in the past being open about certain problems. They had been blamed but not rewarded for such initiatives. The respect of hierarchy was used as a pretext to escalate any issues or decisions up, where people wanted to avoid taking any risk to be held accountable. It took Hans several months to understand that cultural gap. He did change his communication style and tried to “pick people up where they stood,” but it was too late. His team had closed like an oyster. Eighteen months later he left that company.

6.1 The Unwritten Rules of the Game The importance of company culture is very often underestimated when career decisions are made. Questions related to title, position in the organization, and remuneration are in the forefront. Furthermore, candidates put all their focus during the interviews in convincing their interview partner that they are the right candidate. But they forget to observe, although the interview process is a unique opportunity to learn more about the company culture. As we know, company culture can be observed through the many weak signals that we get through our interactions with people from an organization. I would therefore recommend that you open your ears and eyes and that you develop that sense during the interviews. You will find below descriptions of the unwritten rules that drive company culture. I have included concrete examples to make this more tangible.

6.1.1 The Visible and the Invisible Part of the Iceberg Many explicit rules govern how people should act in organizations, which includes job descriptions, the organization charts, delegation of

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authority, policies and processes, etc. This visible part of the iceberg includes also the way office space is defined (who has what size of office? Who is sitting where? etc.) as well as the symbols that we use in our organizations (e.g., what charity organization the company supports, what rituals are followed during company events, etc.). All these aspects can be observed directly. They are visible. They are the emerging part of the iceberg (Fig. 6.2). But according to Peter Scott-Morgan, there are also so-called unwritten rules that govern people’s behavior and that are not visible (Peter Scott-Morgan, The Unwritten Rules of the Game, New York: McGraw Hill, Inc., 1994). Everyone in the organization somehow knows them. They are part of the company culture. But they are not specified anywhere. These unwritten rules are also not the result of a conscious decision-­making process (e.g., by management). They emerge in the organization by themselves. These unwritten rules are triggered by certain events (as we will see in the examples below) and they represent the interpretation that employees are making on how to best defend their own interests considering these events. This interpretation becomes part of the habits of the organization of the tacit knowledge that employees have about how to operate efficiently.

Fig. 6.2  Iceberg framework

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It becomes part of the culture. This means also that these unwritten rules are transmitted as part of that company culture to newcomers, who have not witnessed themselves the event(s) that triggered a specific unwritten rule. Over time, people in the organization will follow these unwritten rules, but without being conscious about where they come from.

6.1.2 How to Learn More About These Unwritten Rules? The difficulty to understand the culture of an organization is in large parts related to the fact that companies are not necessarily clear about their own culture. It is certainly worthwhile asking your interview partners about their view on the culture of the organization, but you will most likely find out that the information you receive is not very clear or reliable. That is particularly true if there is a formalized “corporate language” about the culture of the organization, which is documented in brochures or presentations. Many companies have developed that type of standard messages that they use for their internal and external communication. In many cases, these messages reflect the type of culture the company aspires to, but it does not always match the reality. Not rarely, there is even a significant gap between these corporate employer branding messages and the reality. The concept of the unwritten rules of the game helps us look below the surface and identify that type of gaps. I hope that this will allow you to be more vigilant when you hear people comment on their company culture and to ask the kind of questions that may allow you to dig deeper. Let me share here a couple of illustrative examples. Risk Taking A company in the households’ good sector is known for its aggressive competitive strategy. Management promotes a genuine entrepreneurial spirit where risk taking is rewarded. That is what the employer branding brochure says. But if you interact with people from that organization, you will understand that the contrary is true. You need to protect yourself to avoid that any blame can hit you.

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As a result, there is a habit in that company to keep long email trails so that you can show that someone else is to be blamed, if anything goes wrong. Everyone in the company is following that unwritten rule without knowing why. As a matter of fact, it is directly connected to certain situations from the past where business issues had come up. Several individuals had been fired and it was clear to everyone that top management had done that to protect their own job, not necessarily because these individuals were solely responsible for the failures. These events have reinforced that culture of “protecting your back.” Interestingly, people will be quite upfront about that if asked, because of their frustration about the discrepancy between the official language and the reality. Innovation The way innovation is managed is often an interesting cultural indicator. Most companies will talk about the way they support new product development and “thinking out of the box.” The reality often looks quite different, because of the internal conflicts that such innovation triggers. Let me take the example of digitalization, which is currently disrupting many industry sectors. Most companies have a digital strategy and will promote that as part of their company strategy. As a matter of fact, the new digital solutions do frequently cannibalize the traditional service or product offering of the company. • The traditional sales teams perceive the e-commerce department as a threat. • The online team of a newspaper is seen as an internal enemy by the traditional paper journalists. • Digitally enabled e-mobility is a threat for the traditional car manufacturers and that leads to internal battles despite the official communication these companies may have about their commitment to sustainable transportation solutions. These examples reveal the unwritten rules that exist in these organizations, which are to protect the status quo. People fear of the change or don’t want to be disrupted from their comfort zones. That conformism

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and conservatism is deeply rooted in the culture of these organizations which leads to defensive collective behavior to fight against disruption and change. It is important to understand that before joining such organizations. First, because their future might be uncertain due to their inability to adapt to a changing environment. Second, because it is possible that you will be recruited to help make that change happen. You should assess if that is possible in light of that cultural situation, or if you are placed into a “mission impossible.” Maybe even as a pretext. A showcase that might be there to hide the deeper reality of the organization. In that case, it might be better to pursue your career somewhere else. Open Communication Most organizations promote open communication. Managers claim that their door is open and that they are happy to be challenged. They will talk about a “no taboo” environment and about the importance of a feedback culture. The reality looks often quite different. In most organizations, the unwritten rule is that you should not challenge top management, especially not in public. Companies use town hall meetings to establish open dialogue and employees are encouraged to ask difficult questions. Very often the sensitive topics are avoided. The general rule is not to bring up bad news, but to focus on the positive aspects. This can be seen, for example, in large reorganization projects where people often focus on more technical questions, but the “elephant in the room” remains unspoken of. You may be able to find out more about that if you inquire about that internal communication with your interview partners. Ask them a couple of direct questions and you will be surprised about what you can learn if you drill down a bit. Open Door Policy The topic of the open door is a good way to investigate this. Most companies say they have an open door policy. CEOs claim that anyone can talk to them. They have an email that is public, and employees are encouraged to use it. But frequently it is implicitly clear to everyone in the organization that the open door of the CEO should not be used to bring up difficult questions or challenges. People also know that it is better not

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to deliver bad news, but to ensure that your name is rather associated with positive news and achievements. You may find out quite easily about that if you ask for concrete examples about the way business failures are discussed in the organization. Feedback Culture Most companies claim to have a feedback culture, but only very few have. You can find out more about that through a few simple but concrete questions, such as: • How frequently do you review annual objectives in the organization? • Is it common practice to debrief after a project? Can you give me a recent example? • Do you give open feedback to your manager? • Do you observe the way your team operates, and do you use feedback to improve it? If yes, what example of that can you share? • How is low performance managed in your organization? Collaboration You will certainly hear about collaboration. Companies will claim as part of their employer branding that “everyone is following one common objective.” But very often the silo-mentality is a barrier to that. Team members protect their own turf and blame the other teams instead if any issue comes up. It is worth investigating that, especially where it is directly related to the job you are interested in. If, for example, you are applying for a position in R&D of a pharmaceutical company, it is worth checking how this team cooperates with Regulatory, Medical and Marketing. Meritocracy Many companies emphasize their focus on performance and the principle of meritocracy. It is useful to check how career progression is linked to performance. In certain cases, the reality is undermining these principles. In extreme cases people know that job hoppers make a better career, because they can’t really be held accountable for their performance.

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You may ask a couple of simple questions such as: How are internal selection and succession planning decisions made? What kind of performance metrics are used? Is this transparent for the candidates? This might give you valuable insight about the way performance is rewarded in terms of career progression.

6.2 Internal Competition The level of internal competition is a particularly important aspect of company culture. As mentioned above, some companies have an exacerbated level of internal competition. Other organizations are overly consensus oriented. These two extremes are not optimal, because employees cannot cooperate efficiently. You should therefore ensure that you find an organization that matches your personal preferences and where you can expect healthy internal rivalry. This section provides further insights into that dimension of company culture and offers tips for how to assess it as part of your interview process. I guess we would all agree that we want to compete externally. We would certainly also agree that there is a certain “natural” level of internal competition, because people will compete for roles internally. But I am sure that you are also aware of certain companies with a very high level of internal competition. I would call this the exacerbated internal competition. And on the other extreme there are certain organizations that are very consensus oriented where there is a lack of internal competition. There is a middle ground. I would call that space the healthy internal rivalry. I believe that it is in this middle ground that we can have the highest level of cooperation in the organization. Cooperation cannot really exist if everyone is competing against each other. Cooperation can also not exist if problems are dealt with much more in a political way instead of working together efficiently. You will find below five aspects that you can check during the interview process or through desktop research in order to gain insight into the company culture, and more specifically on that aspect of internal competition.

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Recognition and Reward A balance between the individual performance and the active contribution to collective success is the fertile ground for healthy rivalry. How are objectives set? Is the contribution to collective objectives assessed and valued in addition to individual performance? Are team and company level successes celebrated and are people proud of what they have achieved all together? Or are the individual heroes put forward? Leadership Leadership plays a fundamental role in shaping the company culture in general and specifically on this question of internal competition. What can you observe through your interactions? Have leaders moved away from a single-minded leadership mode? Is the recruiting manager displaying visionary leadership as well as willingness to offer coaching and support? Command and control is usually the dominant leadership mode in the two extremes of exacerbated competition and of consensus orientation. Organizational Design Finally, organization design plays a key role. It might at first glance look a bit surprising that the company structure can have a direct impact on certain cultural aspects. I believe that simple and flat organizations where individuals have the space to bring themselves in instead of being under tight managerial control does impact culture. That is true also for the way processes and governance are defined in the organization. Roles and responsibilities should be sufficiently clearly defined so that people know what is expected from them, but should simultaneously offer opportunities for employees to self-organize, engage, and develop their creativity. The right balance must be found. A lack of clarity will lead sooner or later to a level of ambiguity where people will behave increasingly in a political way to survive in the organization. In the case of highly rigid organization, the lack of space and flexibility will ultimately lead to exacerbated power plays where the most conflict-oriented individuals will dominate.

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I recommend that you pay attention also to these aspects. Has the organization designed its structure, processes, and governance in such a way that clarity on objectives and expectations is existing while space for autonomy and for initiative is provided?

6.3 Breaking the Disempowering Spiral Hardly any company does not claim to promote empowerment. But for some reason implementation seems quite difficult to achieve. The degree to which employees are autonomous and take initiatives is another key cultural indicator. Certain forces are blocking them. You will learn more in this section about the vicious spiral that brings people constantly back into old habits of disempowerment and how to break out of that spiral.

6.3.1 What Is Blocking Empowerment? Managers struggle to empower their teams. This is quite surprising if we consider that both sides have a common interest here: leaders wish to delegate more, and teams wish to have more decision autonomy. In addition, roles and responsibilities are usually well defined in job descriptions. Delegations of authority specify what decisions can be taken at what level in the organization. So what is causing this dysfunctional pattern in our organizations that make it so difficult to empower teams?

6.3.2 The Vicious Spiral I believe that there is a vicious spiral in place that is operating against this desire to delegate. The way this vicious spiral operates is not very visible and we therefore let it go on. To achieve change in our organization and allow people to take responsibility at the appropriate level, we need to break this spiral. The vicious spiral has three steps.

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Step 1: Delegation Up Employees are often inclined to delegate responsibility up because that is more comfortable. “If my boss decides, she/he will also be accountable for the outcomes of that decision. If anything goes wrong, I can’t be blamed.” Even those who claim that they would like to have more autonomy and decision rights in their job will be tempted to delegate up, when an important or risky decision needs to be taken. Step 2: Managers Rush into Problem Solving Managers are trained to be excellent problem solvers. They want to be as efficient as possible. Time matters. Instead of questioning, if a decision should really be taken at their level, managers therefore often rush into problem-solving mode. They miss to question if it was appropriate that the topic has been delegated up or if it should have been taken care of by the team. Step 3: Request for Information and Analysis To be able to make the right decisions, managers need to understand the local context and requirements. And so, they will ask their teams for more information and will request more detailed analysis concerning certain aspects. This is often perceived by the teams as an overkill of headquarter requests, which keep the local teams away from their duties. But it is just the logical consequence of the previous two steps of the vicious spiral. The local teams had all the necessary understanding of the situation to take the decision efficiently at their level. The Vicious Spiral Is Self-Reinforcing It is important to understand that this vicious spiral is self-reinforcing, because the more data and analysis management is requesting, the more employees in the organization believe that it was right that they did not decide at their level. People will conclude that “if management is taking the topic so seriously, it would certainly have been wrong to deal with it lower down in the organization.” The more analysis is requested the more disempowered people feel. Therefore, they will continue to delegate up…. and the spiral goes on.

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6.3.3 Breaking the Spiral! Instead of declaring that empowerment is wanted, managers should act. They should be vigilant of any situation where decisions are delegated up and check if that decision could have been taken by their teams. They should push back, if it is the case. And they should make it clear that they expect team members to take their responsibility as defined in their job description and in the delegations.

6.3.4 Change the Perspective That means that we change the perspective on empowerment: Not only the manager but also the team members are responsible to know what they are accountable for and what has to be escalated. Making that clear is the best way to achieve the change in our organizations that we aspire for: that people take more ownership and truly feel empowered.

6.4 Trust Management: How to Enhance Trust in Your Organization Discussion with Dr. Tom Sommerlatte from the Trust Management Institute Trust is a key driver of performance. A robust trust base contributes to efficient interactions within the organization. Trust allows organizations to learn faster, to innovate, and to adapt to changes in the market. Trust is the foundation of employee’s ability to operate efficiently in their work environment and of good leadership. But managers are not sufficiently aware of the components of trust. They may therefore even destroy by inadvertence the trust capital that took years to be developed. This section outlines the trust dimensions and how leaders can build trust in their company.

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Why Is Trust so Relevant? Sven:

Tom:

I am very happy to talk to Tom Sommerlatte (President of the Trust Management Institute) who is an expert of trust and trust management. Tom, you have a career in management consulting, you are a member of the advisory board of large ­organizations, you are a professor in systems design, and you have researched trust. Can you tell us why you have this interest in trust management? This is based on my personal experience in change management. I have been able to observe how important it is to ensure that you have the buy-in of the employees in the organization and I have witnessed how difficult it often is to obtain that support for the change initiative. The research we have conducted has shown that this is usually because of a lack of trust.

Dimensions of Trust Sven: Tom:

Sven:

Tom:

Can you tell us what the dimensions of trust are? Dimensions are essentially threefold: One is the trust profile of the executives. It is their ability to trust other people and to be trustworthy in their eyes. The second dimension is the climate of trust in the organization. And thirdly, trust is based on the so-­called psychological contract between the institution (e.g., the company) and the people in the organization. OK, so you describe three dimensions: the leadership dimension, the trust climate as you say, and you talk about a psychological contract. Can you help us understand better what this contract is all about? In organizations (and in life in general) we use legal contracts that are signed by both parties based on agreed terms and conditions. In organizations you have such agreements that govern the interactions such as organization charts and job description, etc. But over and above these written rules, there is typically a tacit psychological agreement between the leader-

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ship and the people in the company on what is the give and take on both sides. Change Management Sven: Tom:

Sven: Tom:

What happens if there is an organizational change? Do parties then re-negotiate the contract? In legal terms this is what happens when parties change the terms and conditions. They re-negotiate the contract. But because the psychological contract is tacit and therefore not visible, this is usually forgotten. What has to happen in order to maintain the trust culture in the organization is to ensure agreement of both parties on the new terms and conditions of the psychological contract as well. This negotiation doesn’t happen literally of course, but it is part of what we call change management. It is expressed in behavior on both sides which should aim to reach a new agreement. When this is done, this usually improves the results of the change initiative significantly. We understand that the psychological contract covers the unwritten rules in the company. In case of an organizational change, people need to re-agree on those rules, right? Yes, because one side can’t decide to change ways of working and expect the other side to follow, if that other side does not understand why this is done and therefore does not buy into that change.

The Role of Leaders in Trust Management Sven: Tom:

You talk about different sides. So, let’s look at the leadership side. What is the challenge of leadership in building trust? The main basis is self-confidence of the leader, which is based on his or her conviction that trust leads to better business results. The second requirement is related to communication and the ability to be open and frank. That means to be accessible and to welcome suggestions from people in the organiza-

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tion. This allows developing a common understanding and a sense of human community. The Role of Employees Sven: Tom:

What should the employees do to enhance the trust in the organization? The employees need to accept that being trusted also means being given authority and responsibility and that it requires personal initiative. This goes hand in hand with the confidence that initiatives will be rewarded and that mistakes will not be sanctioned. That confidence is a major element of a climate of trust.

Conclusion Sven:

Many thanks, Tom. It is fascinating to see the different facets of trust. It shows that we should lead change carefully to ensure that we preserve (and hopefully further develop) the trust capital in our organizations.

7 Deepen Your Self-Awareness

An introduction video to this chapter is available in the Springer Nature “More Media” app. Please open the app and scan the icon or use the link (Fig. 7.1). Self-awareness is both a key ingredient for your professional development and one of its main benefits. It is a key ingredient in the sense that increasing responsibilities—especially leadership responsibility for large teams—require self-awareness to be able to master challenging situations efficiently. Knowing how you react under high tension for example and being able to stay calm is the result of such self-awareness. As a leader you can’t allow yourself to lose composure. This would sap your credibility. You need to be able to detect the weak signals that will alarm you if you get closer to an inner stage where you know that this could make you derail. Every individual has such derailers. There is the limit up to which Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-­3-­662-­66791-­0_7. The videos can be accessed individually by clicking the DOI link in the accompanying figure caption or by scanning this link with the SN More Media App.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer-Verlag GmbH, DE, part of Springer Nature 2023 S. Sommerlatte, Successful Career Strategy, Business Guides on the Go, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-66791-0_7

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Fig. 7.1  Introduction video for this chapter (▶ https://doi.org/10.1007/000-­97w)

we can resist to stress and keep composure. Leaders have learned to push that frontier and know what to do if they feel that they are at risk of crossing that virtual red line that they have identified for themselves. It takes a long learning process to master this. Usually that learning process includes painful experiences of failure and self-disappointment. You need to get familiar with your weaknesses to be able to overcome them—at least partly. This learning process requires above all a certain indulgence with yourself and a degree of self-acceptance. Fighting who you are will not allow you to take best advantage of your full personality. To achieve this holistic development of our personality, some narcissism is quite useful. I don’t talk here about the over-dimensional ego that can be observed in certain senior leaders, including at CEO level. I talk here about the healthy acceptance of who you are and the positive learning spirit in which you can engage into the learning process that your professional development can offer. The privilege our professional lives offer is that exposure to many different situations. Large organizations, for example, are composed of complex social systems which we learn to navigate. Multifaceted coordination mechanisms, tough decision making, cross-functional cooperation, teamwork with many different profiles, diverging opinions or convictions, change management, and disruptive organizational change… all these situations offer a rich learning playground. It is important to be able to extract the learning essence which these situations contain for ourselves and allow us to grow, as professionals and personally. This is the main benefit I mentioned above. Work offers for sure a remuneration and

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other advantages. But the most valuable might be this accelerated learning that we can take out of it. The possibility to learn more about ourselves in these different and sometimes challenging situations. Your career strategy should include that dimension of self-awareness because it is a key success factor for any ambitious career plan. This chapter outlines the tools you can use for that. Assessment of Potential Companies invest into people development. Several tools and concepts exist for that. I will outline here how you can make best usage of those, while being also clear about their limitations. We need to be careful to understand the limits of what companies and our managers can offer us in terms of development support. Some of the assessment tools can even become counterproductive. You may, for example, find out at some stage that you are no longer considered as a high potential. It is useful to be aware of the limits of this concept of high potential and to understand as well that the potential you have may vary over time. Self-Awareness Self-awareness should indeed be holistic. It includes not only the purely professional capabilities, but it should also include your personal preferences and areas of interest. We will see how art can, for example, enrich who you are as a leader. Wellbeing This holistic perspective should also include the physical dimension. Your wellbeing has a major impact on your performance. Getting to know your personal needs and physical limitations is of essential importance. You might have noticed that senior leaders express these needs quite openly, because they need to factor them in. One individual may need early sleep to be able to be fit the next day, especially when she/he is traveling. Another person has certain dietary requirements. Another person may need time in the agenda to be alone, to have time for him/herself. One person may be able to start work early, someone else may on the contrary need time for him or herself in the morning (e.g., to exercise) and is able to work longer hours in the evening. It is important to understand what your needs are.

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The popular language says that we need to listen to our body. That is true, especially under tension. A particularly important requirement is of course sleep. Times are gone when corporate heroes were credible claiming that they did not need sleep. We know today that human beings do need that phase in their biorhythm, some may need a bit more, others a bit less, but significant sleep deprivation always leads to problematic or erratic behavior (which was still tolerated to some extent until recently and which is no longer today). Leadership requires high physical performance. The ability to be fully concentrated during a full day and to cope with travel requirements is a constant challenge. To be a corporate athlete and reach the highest career targets, you need to develop that holistic self-­ awareness that will allow you to be fit physically and mentally. Make that part of your career strategy.

7.1 How Can You Learn More About Yourself? 7.1.1 “Who Am I” “Who am I?” is a very important question for your career strategy. It is the basis to understand your strengths and to be clear about the type of environment that will allow you to strive. This section will help answer the following questions: • What should you do to learn more about who you are? • What sources of information can you use? Please don’t tell anyone, but I have on Notes in my iPhone a section that is called “Who I am.” I randomly add information to it whenever I learn something new about myself. It is amazing to see that this section constantly grows. I might have learned something new about myself through a dream. Maybe I read a book that helps me to uncover something from my childhood that I had forgotten. My parents or relatives

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may have shared something that I had overlooked but that reveals an important piece of myself. Ongoing introspection is obviously a very important source of information as well. A psychoanalysis or psychotherapy may allow you to dig deeper and understand much more about who you are. A specific situation in which you have reacted in a way that is typical for you can be very insightful. Over time you observe the patterns, and you recognize yourself, for example: • Typical reactions in certain situations: Edgar knows that IT issues drive him mad. It happened several times that he lost temper in presence of colleagues. He bitterly regretted that later on. Over time he learned to use a simple trick to stay calm when such triggering event occurred that could have brought him out of balance: As soon as anger comes up, he closes the laptop and does something else, such as a phone call, to step back. • To know your fears and to learn how to overcome them: For Marion, public speaking was a major source of anxiety, and she was usually unable to sleep the night before. But in her job, being on stage was a frequent requirement. She has therefore established a routine that helped her to cope with this situation: the day before she takes extensive time to rehearse by herself. This is protected time, even if many other tasks are urgent. She knows that she must be particularly well prepared. That allows her to sleep the night before and to be fit for the event. • To know your strengths and to be able to rely on them: Contrary to Marion, José always felt very comfortable on stage, even if he had to speak to a large audience or if he had to improvise. This ability has never let him down. By now he knows with confidence that this is something he does not need to worry about and that he can instead focus his energy and attention on other aspects that are more challenging for him to master. These are just a few of the important pieces of insight that you may collect about yourself. They can be uncovered over time. Make sure you don’t miss them.

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7.1.2 What Sources Can I Use to Learn More About Myself? As outlined above, introspection and self-observation are very important sources of information. Paying attention to these observations that you can make about yourselves is therefore of such importance. People in your environment are another very important source. I mentioned above that stories from parents and relatives about your childhood can be very useful. The professional context is another great source of information. As a matter of fact, companies are social systems that provide a high level of intensity of human relations and interactions. Due to that intensity, working in a company is therefore also a fabulous source of learning about yourself. Feedback from your teams, peers, and managers is of great value. Make sure you take advantage of that. I believe that your manager plays a particular role and has responsibility to help you grow through regular constructive feedback. You are in a way entitled to that. This is in my eyes part of the leadership service that managers ought to offer their team members. Ask for it (see more on this topic in Sect. 8.1 on leadership as a service). Another source are the many development tools that we use in our organizations. I will outline below how you can best leverage those. I will also outline that we need to be a bit careful. Sometimes the outcome of an assessment is considered as absolute truth, which it obviously is not. These tools are based on certain psychological or scientific assumptions. Be careful in the way you read the outcomes and how you make meaning of those results for yourself.

7.1.3 Leadership Is a Lifelong Learning Journey “What are your three strengths and your three development opportunities?”. I am sure you know that basic interview question. It is not a great interview question because you can expect an answer that the candidate has prepared and that will most likely not give you the full truth. But if that is not a clever interview question, it is most certainly a very good

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question to ask to ourselves. We should have that constantly in mind and we should try to be as honest as possible to ourselves. It is amazing how difficult it is to give a precise answer. Including on our strengths! Life will teach you more about yourself. It is a constant process of learning and observation. Isn’t it amazing that this pathway of discovering ourselves is a lifelong journey? It’s not so much a question of number of hours to invest in doing that. It’s probably more about that state of mind. Trying to constantly learn more about who you are. Being vigilant. Asking yourself the question: Why did I respond in this way? Capturing the insight you gain. Reflecting on it. Observing yourself in similar situations and checking if you respond in a similar way. Having protected time for introspection is of great value. In the rush of events and with tight daily agenda constraints that can sometimes get lost. I would recommend making that protected time for introspection part of your personal career strategy. Example of Jennifer Jennifer is Executive Vice President in a global media giant. She oversees a three billion top line and a team of 4000 employees worldwide. Her agenda is packed with internal and external commitments. Her assistant and her chief of staff manage that agenda. Meetings and travel commitments are difficult to align, especially when short-term urgencies come on top, which is permanently the case in this fast-moving sector. It is fair to say that the adrenaline level is usually high, as you would expect in the world of media. Jennifer is very familiar with this environment in which she has developed her career. She likes the thrill and the challenges. She enjoys the fast pace and the need to be “all hands-on deck” most of the time. She does not shy away from being involved and she is known to be close to her people. But Jennifer has learned that she needs breaks to reflect. She can’t operate successfully, if she cannot disconnect from the daily routine and take time out for herself. She needs that time to prepare important meetings ahead of time. She likes to reflect calmly on important decisions that will need to be made before she is “in the thick of it.” She also needs time to read and to keep herself updated about industry trends and important

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events that could have an impact on her business activity. Sometimes she wants to be just by herself to meditate and be self-aware. Jennifer has made the bold decision to cut that time out of her agenda. Sylvie, her assistant, and Matt, her chief of staff, know that this is protected time. Even when there is maximum pressure to fit additional meetings into the agenda, these 2 h slots per week every Thursday afternoon can’t be touched, because they are necessary for Jennifer’s ability to operate at the top of her performance the rest of the time. Jennifer has made this clear to her team. It has taken Jennifer many years to understand that this time was so important for her. And it has taken her another number of years to dare prioritizing that time above any other commitments, even when they are pressing. This is the result of self-awareness that she had been able to gain over time. She knows that this time is a key success factor for her.

7.2 Be Narcissistic and Love Your Weaknesses Constantly deepening our self-awareness is critical to grow as a person and as a leader. But to achieve this there are many barriers we need to overcome. We have been told not to be self-centered and to combat our weaknesses, which leads to a certain denial of who we are. Instead, we need to learn to be vulnerable and to observe ourselves with a lot more clemency and… narcissism! In this section I would like to explore this slightly provocative title: be narcissistic and love your weaknesses, because I believe that these are very important ingredients to grow as a person and to develop the self-­ awareness that is so important, especially in leadership positions. But our education and our environment have very often told us exactly the opposite. We have been told not to be self-centered. We have also been told to overcome our weaknesses in order to become a better person. We have been told to change ourselves where we have these areas for development. I believe that this is creating certain barriers that we should unlearn. We need to spend a lot of time observing ourselves in certain situations

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as well as through introspection. And I also believe that we need to accept our weaknesses. We should accept ourselves the way we are. Very often a weakness is the flip side of a strength. And combatting that “weakness” is a form of denial of who we are—or who others are if we judge them. I believe that we need to have a bit more clemency related to our weaknesses. When we observe ourselves and we notice patterns that might be so typical for some of our weaknesses, then we should observe that with a smile and not with this severe judgment that we have so often about ourselves. Because this is otherwise stopping or inhibiting our ability to learn more about ourselves. All of that is connected to this negative image that Narcissus has in our culture. We consider Narcissus to be selfish, to be ego-centric, to be even arrogant or to lack empathy and the ability to engage with others. There are certain forms of extreme narcissism and related personality disorders that go into that direction. I am of course not talking about that. I am talking about the part of narcissism that we all should cultivate and nurture, because it is how we can learn more about ourselves and grow. This beautiful painting of Caravaggio (below) is very interesting because it throughs a different light on Narcissus. What you see here is that Narcissus forms a circle with his reflection in the water. Caravaggio wants to tell us that self-awareness is an integral part of who we are if we take a more holistic perspective of ourselves (Fig. 7.2). I believe that there is a lot of vulnerability that is expressed in this painting and not at all the arrogance that we sometimes think Narcissus has. Quite the contrary!

7.3 Leverage on Feedback for Your Career Development Feedback is a gift, and it is a very important input for your career strategy. But there are many barriers to overcome to get access to that precious source of information.

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Fig. 7.2  Nazis by Caravaggio (drawing from Eva Sommerlatte)

7.3.1 Barriers to Feedback Giving Feedback Is Not a Natural Behavior Giving and receiving feedback is not in our human DNA. It is not a natural human behavior. Quite the opposite. Many studies related to the neuroscience of feedback have shown that feedback leads to significant defensive reactions (see “How to Get Feedback When No One Is Volunteering It,” Willyerd/Mistick, HBR, 14/07/2015).

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The recipient’s brain is immediately moving to high alert, which drastically reduces his or her cognitive ability to reflect truly about any points being raised. While feedback is intended to improve performance, Kevin Ochsner who is neuroscientist at Columbia University has shown that in 70% of the time feedback is not having its intended impact: performance either remains the same or gets even worse because of the defensive reaction it is causing. The person offering feedback should therefore ensure that this information is immediately perceived as non-threatening by the person who is receiving it. A good way to achieve this is by asking the other person the following question: “Would you be interested in receiving information that could help you be even more successful in your role”? The answer will obviously in most cases be a clear “yes” and will lead to a positive state of mind. We will see below more ways to create fertile ground for feedback. Company Culture Company culture has a direct impact on the willingness to give and on the ability to receive feedback. Here are some examples of company cultures that limit feedback: • In companies with a high level of internal rivalry (where employees are in intense competition against each other), cooperation and mutual support are usually low. As a consequence, the feedback culture is often weak. • In very consensus-driven companies people avoid conflict and do not challenge the status quo. This leads to an absence of open communication, which obviously also limits feedback. If you work in an organization that has these limitations, you will need to be even more skillful and determined to get the feedback you need for your career development. Let’s see now how you can achieve this.

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7.3.2 Recommendations We OWE Each Other Feedback Feedback is useful for the person who receives it because it allows her/ him to be more successful. The person who offers feedback does this as a generous gesture. It is indeed a gift to the other person, allowing that other person to learn and improve. We should therefore consider that a person who has feedback to share OWES it to the other person. Not giving this piece of feedback would somehow be holding it back. In a sense the other person is “entitled” to receive this feedback. This changes a bit the perspective. Instead of looking at feedback as a potentially conflictual situation, the receiving person sees it as a generous gift and the offering person sees it as their duty (we could even say an “obligation”) to offer feedback. Ask feedback from your peers, your team members or your line manager using formulations that break the ice and help overcome the barriers because they emphasize the empathetic dimension and the generosity: • I believe you have feedback that could allow me to be more successful in my professional development. This would be important input for my career strategy. Would you mind sharing it? • I think you owe me some feedback on that specific topic. I would value your perspective a lot. Focusing More on Strength Feedback is often wrongly focused more on the development needs than on the strengths. Becoming better aware of your strengths and finding way to leverage them more is usually providing the highest upsides. I would therefore encourage you to focus your feedback questions on understanding your talents and strengths. You will find out that this makes the conversations also much easier, because people will have less hesitations.

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7.4 Make Good Usage of People Assessment Tools As we have seen above, you should play an active role in your development. Self-observation and feedback are great sources for that. In addition, companies use a range of assessment tools that can provide great additional support—it they are used appropriately. Otherwise, they can be as damaging and demotivating as they can be powerful if used in the right way. You don’t need to become an expert in these tools. But as CEO of your career strategy, you should know how they work and what their limits are. This is what this section is about. I will focus first on the concept of potential. We talk about high potentials as if that was a clearly defined category of people that have been assessed in an objective and reliable way. But it is not. I will also share my perspective on when and how to use leadership assessments.

7.4.1 Am I a High Potential? Am I seen by my company as a high potential? This is certainly a question many of you may have. It is a fair question. Quite naturally we want to know how we are perceived. I want to outline here first how potential can be assessed. Having that understanding is important to be able to draw relevant conclusions from it for your career management. But I also want to emphasize the fact that this is not black and white. You will see that potential is driven by many factors. Some of those change over time. Examples of Stephan and of Miranda Stephan is a highly talented and highly committed individual. He was able to go the extra mile in order to successfully lead an important project and was assessed as a high potential. In the following year he decided to look after his parents who were in need. It was a conscious decision that he would cut back on the time he was able to commit to his work. Consequently,

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his ability to quickly move up to broader responsibilities was momentarily reduced. Miranda has just made a very significant step-up and is now leading a large team. It will take a couple of years before she is potentially ready for another major move. For the time being her potential to expand is therefore reduced.

If we define potential as the ability to make several moves within a given period, we see that both Stephan and of Miranda would not match the definition of a high potential. They were rightly qualified as such before and might very well fall into that category also in the future. In other words, potential is not something that is carved in stone. It depends on where we stand in our personal development. Becoming aware of the multiple factors that define potential and of the fact that it may change over time will hopefully allow you to take a more relaxed perspective on this classification. Let’s investigate the factors that make up for high potential. I believe that potential is related to the past, the present, and the future. So fundamentally potential is dynamic over time and fundamentally potential is related to someone’s ability to learn. There are many different definitions of what can be called a high potential. My definition is that this is a person who can have rapid career progression with two significant moves in 5 years, which are either up (to take larger responsibility) or sideways (to broaden the experience base). Based on that definition, the potential of a person is defined based on her/his possible career progression. This potential is driven according to me by three main criteria: (1) the experience base a person has, (2) her/ his self-awareness, and (3) her/his determination. We will assess these three drivers more in detail, knowing that they are based on the past, the present, and the future as we will see. Experience Base The experience base is what has been achieved in the past. A person with strong learning agility and motivation will have been able to build up a comparably broader experience base compared to someone of the same

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age who has less potential. That broader base will allow the person with high potential to go further, because the broader the base, the higher the career pyramid can be as we saw earlier (see Sect. 3.2). Self-Awareness The second driver, self-awareness, is related to the current state or to the present. It is linked to where a person stands in his/her leadership development, the knowledge a person has been able to gain about her/himself, the ability to connect to the deep desire, the mastery of oneself in challenging/stressful situations as well as the physical fitness and wellbeing. Commitment The third driver of potential is the willingness of a person to go the extra mile for his/her future career progression. A high potential would typically prioritize this and would be willing to put in extra effort, energy, and commitment to ensure future achievements. In other words, it is about the level of motivation someone has compared to others to move ahead, not just vertically (it’s not just about the ability to climb up the career ladder). It includes the ability to explore completely new personal or professional activities. It can be related to your career progression and to personal development.

7.4.2 Should Employees Be Informed About Their Potential? In this section I would like to discuss the controversial question, if employees should be informed about the way their potential has been rated. Assessment of potential is a highly complex topic as we have seen. I will outline here why superficial discussions on potential can be quite damaging. My recommendation is therefore to rather focus on career perspectives, which is what employees really need to know about. Should high potentials be informed about the evaluation of their potential? At first sight, you would say that being open and transparent to employees is a good thing. Especially, if it is being open to high potentials about the fact that the company believes in their ability to grow fast

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and that it will therefore invest into their development. That is of course highly motivating for them. This immediately triggers the question what information to give to those who are not rated as a high potential. Should they also be informed, knowing that this could have, on the contrary, a demotivating effect? An option would be to speak only to the high potentials and not to the others. But, if it is known that those assessed as high potentials are informed, it will be quickly known in the company that the non-high potentials are not informed. So, it will in the end be quite easy for employees to tell how the company is assessing their potential, even if they are not explicitly told. In other words, if you are open to the high potentials, you have automatically to be open to all. Let’s take as an assumption that everyone should be told. The “non-­ high potentials” could still be reassured that the company is also investing into their development and career progression, but that the expectations are maybe not quite as high, which might in the end suit them quite well. Superficial Conversations on Potential Can Damage As we have seen in the previous section, potential is driven by multiple factors (experience base, self-awareness, and motivation/ambition). Most of these criteria are themselves complex. How to assess someone’s self-­ awareness? It takes some deeper understanding of these topics to be able to have a robust evaluation of people’s ability in these areas. That implies having the competence to hold a qualified discussion and not just a quick feedback about the “rating.” Leadership consultants are trained for that. They have tools such as psychometric tests to support their analysis. Managers don’t. Being told if you are a high potential or not can have a significant impact on people. I am not totally sure if it is a great idea to ask managers to inform their team members about the way their potential has been assessed. In many cases, managers would certainly have done their best to come up with a high-quality evaluation, even if they are no experts. But in other cases, managers might not take that quite so seriously and use more their gut feel than a deeper assessment. And in such a case, it could be risky to ask them to have such an interaction with their team members.

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Focus on Career Development I believe that there is another way to manage this discussion which helps to avoid the pitfall of the complexity related to potential. We can use succession planning: Selecting people for certain jobs is clearly a managerial responsibility. This is also not an easy task, but it is an important part of the job of any manager. Managers have to fully own that responsibility. Managers are therefore also fully legitimate to evaluate who could step into future roles and be therefore considered as successors as it is done in succession planning. This is in my eyes a much better place for the conversation between a manager and their team members: to share what next steps the company would see for a person. In case of employees with high potential, these next steps will be quick and the step-up will be bigger. For others it might be a more progressive development. But in all cases the conversation is focused on this topic of career progression and on the development actions that the company can put in place to help a person get ready for these moves. I believe that this offers all the transparency that employees need. What Does This Mean for Your Career Strategy? Three points I would like to emphasize as a conclusion on this topic of high potential. The feedback from your manager is a very important source to reinforce your self-awareness. You should proactively ask for that feedback. But don’t get obsessed with the question of your potential. Your manager might be much more comfortable (and competent) to share highly relevant information about your performance in your current job and her or his assessment of your ability to move into the future roles. I would focus on that in these conversations with your managers. Potential is a multi-factorial concept with many ways to assess it. In addition, it may come and go as we saw earlier. Don’t get hung up about it. Don’t let yourself drown if you understand that you’re no longer classified as such. Focus on your ability to drive your career development in alignment with your aspiration. That is what matters. A structured approach to go about it may bring you further than those who may just rely on their expected high potential.

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If feedback is given to you about your potential, take best advantage of that conversation. I hope that the insights shared above will allow you to ask relevant questions in order to dig deeper and understand better what it means for you. Some companies use leadership assessment tools to get to a more robust understanding of people’s potential. How do these leadership assessments work? What are the pros and cons? That is what I want to outline now.

7.4.3 Leadership Assessments: Pros and Cons After a strong expansion of leadership assessments, some companies are now limiting their usage. We will discuss here the following questions: • What are the advantages and limitations and how to make best use of leadership assessments? • Should leadership assessments be used for candidate selection? • Are they a good development tool? • How can you leverage on the output of such assessments for your career strategy? Leadership assessments can be provided by different players, such as training companies, headhunters and recruitment agencies, or companies specialized in assessment centers. Most of the large executive search firms have developed leadership assessment offers. The assessment tools may include psychometric tests, feedback tools, interviews, and assessment centers. Over the past 10–15 years, companies have significantly increased their usage of leadership assessments. Consequently, this industry sector has expanded a lot. Leadership assessments (which are sometimes also called executive assessments) are no longer the exceptional measure that is used only for very special positions or circumstances but have become a much more broadly used HR tool. These leadership assessments can provide very helpful input for your career strategy. Under the condition of course that you know how they

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were conducted, what their limitations are and how to best exploit their outcomes. What Are Leadership Assessments Used For? There are two main areas: development and selection. • Selection concerns internal promotions or external recruitment. In case of selection (internal or external), employees are assessed versus certain job expectations. • In case of development, the assessment helps identify leadership gaps in view of a certain position or level of responsibility as well as strengths on which to build. This analysis can then be used to define tailor-made individual development plans and for career counseling purposes. In most cases, leadership assessments are done on an individual basis according to specific development requirements or selection purposes. But they can be used also on a broader basis, for example in case of an integration process, where the employees of two companies compete for jobs in a newly integrated organization. Advantages of Leadership Assessments High-quality leadership assessments bring the following advantages: (a) More Robust People Decisions Selection or development decisions are based on the manager evaluation, which can be supported by HR. In case of recruitments, this is usually based on interviews. The main advantage of leadership assessments is that they provide greater insight into the candidate profiles thanks to the involvement of a third party, the usage of psychometric tests or (in certain cases) the use of assessment centers. These tools allow gaining richer and deeper insights about the person and thereby contribute to hopefully more robust development or selection decisions. (b) Objectivity The involvement of a third party and the usage of professional assessment tools help to make development or selection decisions more objective. The diversity discussion has shown how strongly our perceptions of others can be influenced by our cultural and sociological bias. External

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assessments can help limit those. That is obviously particularly relevant in the context of selection decisions. (c) Broader Perspective External assessments provide a broader perspective on individual profiles, because they give the opportunity to include several dimensions through the usage of different tools, which we had outlined earlier. That may give a more comprehensive perspective in addition to being more objective. (d) Benchmarking Leadership assessments can include a benchmarking perspective. Many of the psychometric tests allow comparing a profile against a certain industry norm. If a headhunter conducts the assessment, they can compare the profile of the person who is being assessed to the other talents they know in the industry. (e) Higher Acceptance of the Decisions The involvement of a third-party can help increase the acceptance, especially in the case of selection decisions. The fact that a neutral third-­ party is used and that selection is supported by professional assessment tools may increase the confidence of employees that the process is fair and transparent. (f ) Employee Engagement When leadership assessments are used for career counseling purposes, this is usually highly valued by employees and seen as an investment in their career. Getting detailed and “neutral” feedback and having time to reflect about career opportunities is often perceived very positively by the employees concerned. Limits of Leadership Assessments As we see, there are many advantages of leadership assessments. But interestingly, a number of companies have in the meanwhile gone in the opposite direction. After having made quite extensive usage of such assessments, they have decided to limit them. Let’s see why. (a) Cost The cost of leadership assessments can differ very significantly. If they are mainly based on psychometric tests, with one or two debrief sessions by a consultant the cost is more limited (usually below 1 K Euros). The

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cost can be six to ten times higher for more comprehensive assessments. That is the case, if an interview process with several consultants is used in addition to the tests, if several debrief meetings are planned (e.g., with the manager and HR and with the employee) and if a coaching sequence is linked to the debrief of the assessment outcomes. (b) Dis-empowerment There is a risk that managers or HR take less ownership of people decisions but refer to the outcomes of the assessment. In extreme cases, managers or HR might even be tempted to partly delegate the decision responsibility or the communication of decisions (especially tough ones) to the external assessment provider. In some organizations managers may end up feeling less entitled to rely on their own judgment but feel that important decisions can be taken only on the basis of the facts and figures that the assessment provides. That can over time undermine managerial courage and the feedback culture. (c) Slower Decision Processes Leadership assessments may slow down people decisions, because they take more time than a simple interview process. (d) False Perception of Objectivity Certain experts challenge the scientific or psychological foundation of these assessment tools (e.g., of the psychometric tests). But even outside of the scientific debate it must be recognized that any assessment of a person contains components of subjectivity and bias. Companies that focus on the usage of a specific assessment approach may therefore actually introduce or reinforce certain bias in their people decisions. (e) The Quality of the Providers May Differ Quite Significantly The high market demand has led to a multiplication of the leadership assessment offers. Not all are of the same quality. Several providers are using their own assessment methodology or tools, which makes it more difficult to evaluate their reliability. The selection of the provider must therefore be done very carefully. (f ) Company Context The cultural and business context of an organization might be quite different from one company to another. The specific challenges of a job have also to be considered. It is therefore important to ensure that these

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context components are fully considered. In some cases, the briefing of the consultants is not done sufficiently well, or the consultants may not take the necessary time to get an in-depth understanding of the requirements. That can lead to standardized outcomes and to wrong recommendations. Conclusion: When Should Leadership Assessments Be Used? I see executive assessments as a highly valuable tool for leadership development and career management. Leadership assessments can help stimulate and enrich self-awareness. This increased insight in one’s own preferences as well as strengths and weaknesses are a key driver of leadership maturity. I therefore see assessments as an important component of any leadership learning journey and as highly valuable input for your career strategy. I also believe that assessments can be very helpful when broad selection processes must be conducted, for example in the context of an integration process. Managers and HR may otherwise be quite overwhelmed and the quality of their selection judgment may suffer. The objectivity of a third-party can contribute to the acceptance of a selection process in a merger, especially by the employees of the acquired organization. On the other side, I believe we need to be very careful in using external assessments for selection decisions (internal promotions or external recruitment), where leadership assessments should be the exception. It is advisable to rather invest quality time in the interview process. In all cases it is of great importance to ensure that the assessment is used only as a complement and not as a substitute of the managerial selection decision. The manager must fully own their people decision.

7.5 Art–Work Balance: What Art Can Bring to You Professional Development? Successful career management requires two balancing acts: Life–work balance and art–work balance:

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• Life–work balance is related to the energy management we spoke above. It is about finding ways to recuperate and to keep fit. • Art–work balance is about the ability to bring yourself in as a person. As a business leader you should be efficient at setting strategic direction, defining action plans, motivating teams, and ensuring high quality of execution. But a holistic personality has obviously more to offer. Each one of us has interests and talents that go beyond what is strictly required at work. It would be a shame to leave that in front of the office door. These talents usually enrich our ability to perform at work and to give meaning to it. For us and for the others. I believe that the interview below is a good illustration of that. I would encourage you to keep these personal preferences always in mind when you define your career pathway.

7.5.1 Interview with Dr. Tom Sommerlatte Dr. Tom Sommerlatte used to be the Managing Director of a large international consulting firm. Tom is a painter and member of a group of artists (Group 50). For Tom, being a painter and leading a corporation hang together. That balance between ART and WORK is essential for him as a leader. He has brought artistic freedom and creativity into the workplace. According to Tom, the artistic spirit helps improve problem solving. To take people along Tom had to encourage his teams to break out of their routines. Artists have the courage to start from a white page. They want to accomplish something new. They are fully engaged. Tom believes that this is what Art can bring to Leadership! SVEN: Tom, we are here in your beautiful studio. Can you tell us if your artistic activity had a link with your work as a leader? TOM: Yes, certainly. In my professional work I benefitted from my experience in the cultural and artistic environment. Freedom, creativity, and the interaction with other people are very essential in the artistic world. I wanted to maintain this spirit in my

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professional work. And that in a sense has been one of the reasons of my professional success. You have “imported” the artistic spirit into your work. How have you done that for yourself and how did you inspire others in your company? You do that indeed mainly for yourself. You must fight for time to sit back and reflect. You will find that the more you do this, the more productive you will be in the rest of your work. You say that you are protecting time in your agenda for that reflection time. Yes. This is not always easy. I had to fight for it and I had to train myself to take that time! As a leader you had the opportunity to shape the way people work together. How has your experience as an artist influenced the way you have organized work in your firm? To take people along you must act as a role model. You need courage to behave in a different way. Sometimes this is a bit funny in the world of business.

But most people will understand the advantage of taking the freedom to do things differently. Others may be stuck in a routine and follow a pattern. They may find it harder to come along—or may never make it. But the motivation to do it is really the joint experience of being creative in a new way. It is the experience of coming up with solutions and doing things that is very valuable and different from the routine. SVEN: What you are saying here is that the problem solving that we do at work has a bit of the creativity that artists have when they create their “oeuvre”? TOM: Right, because the artist starts from a white page, he/she wants to achieve something new and is motivated to fully engage. If we transfer this into the business context, the result will be team spirit and a team culture where jointly we can create something which is much more than the sum of the individual contributions.

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SVEN: I would like to ask you a last question: we talk about art–work balance. And that is certainly important for you also at the very personal level. Can you tell us why? TOM: It is essential in the sense that I cannot reduce one side to the advantage of the other. I need both. They are so interrelated that in terms of my professional and artistic life they hang together. One benefits from the other. SVEN: Art–work balance, both parts hang together. I think that is a great conclusion. Thank you very much Tom for this conversation!

7.6 Energy Management We should not underestimate the importance of energy management as part of our self-awareness. To know how you can cope with stress and fatigue will help you make the right career decisions. It will also allow you to improve the way you manage your personal energy and to stretch beyond certain limitations you may experience today. Please don’t get me wrong. I am not advocating to become a business “hero.” We have too many leaders who believe they have no limits and who may end up making wrong decisions or behaving in a suboptimal way because they have become a corporate zombie. Skillful mastery of your energy level will give you more flexibility and agility. It will allow you to invest your energy in the best way. It will allow you to make the right career choices. That’s the purpose of this section.

7.6.1 Take Good Care of Yourself A certain while ago I was on a domestic flight in the USA. I think it was in the South. When I left the plane, the flight attendant said to me: “Take good care of yourself.” For her, that was a very “everyday” remark and probably a greeting she gave to many other passengers.

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But for some reason, this sentence resonated in my mind and I wrote it down. First, I found it very kind. But second, it made me think. She did not say “I wish that others will take good care of you.” She was hoping that I would do so. And I think she was very right. I suddenly realized that I was maybe not taking enough care of myself. And who will, if I don’t? We do indeed have a responsibility to look after our own health and wellbeing.

7.6.2 How to Become a Corporate Athlete Leaders often have a heavy schedule. Travel and jetlag may add fatigue. They must resolve stressful situations and must manage public exposure inside or outside of their organizations. Physical and mental wellbeing are essential conditions to efficiently cope with these challenges. Just like top performers in sports, leaders must look after their fitness to become true corporate athletes, not zombies. To deal efficiently with all these expectations requires physical and mental fitness. Both aspects, the mental and the physical aspect are of course closely connected. This is the case in high performing business environments exactly as it is the case for top performers in sports. That requires making certain trade-offs: leaving the office a bit earlier to go to the gym, investing time to work with a therapist or with a coach, ensuring to get enough sleep, and ensuring a healthy diet are some of the important decisions we need to conscientiously make to really take good care of ourselves.

7.6.3 We Are Responsible for Our “Machine” (Body and Mind) Because this message from the flight attendant has been useful to me, I thought I should share it also here with you. Going more regularly to the gym can have a great effect on how well you sleep and how balance you are the next day. Doing some work with a coach to share stuff that is in

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your mind but that it is not necessarily easy to talk about with colleagues can be highly beneficial. The investment is worth it, and you may experience that people in your environment will start to comment on the positive changes they are observing: “You are calmer and more self-confident. You look fit, etc.”. We are responsible for our “machine” (our body and mind). We need to look after the software and the hardware. Neglecting it does not work well in the long run and nobody else than us can do so. Let me therefore say to you what the US flight attendant said to me: Take good care of yourself! Example of a European Logistics Company A couple of years ago, a large European logistics company interviewed me for the Chief Talent Officer role. I met with many of their senior leaders and was then asked by the corporate head of HR to submit a summary of my observations and of my recommendations. I wrote a 2-page report with a clear proposal. My observation was that most of these senior leaders were living unhealthy lives. I guess that certain company traditions related to business meals and company events came on top of a high level of stress and very demanding time commitments. The leaders who I had met all came across as lacking sleep, in need of a healthier diet and of more exercise. My proposal was to address these topics through a comprehensive energy management program. The organization was most likely not prepared to tackle that topic openly. I was not selected for the role. But I am convinced that the company could have avoided a few problems they moved into later, if they had ensured better life–work quality for their senior leaders.

8 Grow as a Leader

An introduction video to this chapter is available in the Springer Nature “More Media” app. Please open the app and scan the icon or use the link (Fig. 8.1): The art and science of leadership is undergoing a deep transformation. This is driven by different factors:  • Hierarchical layers are taken out of our organizations to make them flat and more agile • New generations come with very different expectations. They look for coaches and partners, not for the traditional boss • Purpose-driven and learning-oriented leadership are required to operate successfully in a fast-moving environment • Remote working is expanding, flexible working is becoming the norm Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-­3-­662-­66791-­0_8. The videos can be accessed individually by clicking the DOI link in the accompanying figure caption or by scanning this link with the SN More Media App.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer-Verlag GmbH, DE, part of Springer Nature 2023 S. Sommerlatte, Successful Career Strategy, Business Guides on the Go, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-66791-0_8

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Fig. 8.1  Introduction video for this chapter (▶ https://doi.org/10.1007/000-­97x)

This has significant implications on your career strategy: • The pure vertical career progression is increasingly perceived as a limitation • Traditional command and control-related leadership skills are seen as a handicap to operate efficiently in an agile organizational setup • Influencing skills and a broad understanding of the organizational context are becoming key success factors • Team facilitation, coaching, and inspirational leadership are becoming key leadership skills The purpose of this chapter is to outline more in depth these changes that are impacting leadership. This will hopefully allow you to draw the necessary conclusions for your career development. It might also stimulate self-observation in view of where you stand in your leadership development and how to ensure that you become the better version of yourself. This awareness could be a useful basis for conversations you might have with recruitment teams when applying for certain roles, especially those where you have the responsibility for larger teams. Big change is going on. Let’s be ready for it and engage actively in the development opportunity it offers.

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8.1 Servant Leadership: Think of Leadership as a Service to Your Team Servant leadership means that leadership is exercised as a SERVICE to the organization, because the leader has a permanent concern for the needs of the teams. He/she feels responsible to create the conditions that will allow employees to be successful in any given situation. That is a big shift from the traditional top-down perspective where leadership is seen as a prerogative to set direction and to hold other accountable for their achievements. Leaders are still expected to make decisive decision and to provide clear direction when this is required. But leaders should also be inspirational, create great working conditions, and be able to coach team members when needed. This is a much broader understanding of leadership and can be seen as the black belt we should strive for during our lifelong leadership learning journey.

8.1.1 Traditional Perspective The traditional perspective on leadership is associated with the notion of power. It is related to the prerogative of setting direction and defining priorities, the authority to allocate tasks and resources and the right to hold others accountable for their achievements. This is a top-down perspective and therefore asymmetric by nature.

8.1.2 Leadership as a Service I would like to outline here a very different way of looking at leadership. Let’s think of leadership as a service. The idea is that servant leadership is exercised for the benefit of the team and the organization. It is not a prerogative, but it is a responsibility for which the leaders can be held accountable by those who receive that service (e.g., the team members).

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Understand the Needs of the Team Just as in the case of any other service, the service provider should understand the needs and specific requirements of those he or she serves in order to best respond to those needs. As you see, this is quite a shift in terms of perspective. Here we look at leadership much more bottom-up instead of top-down. The needs of the organization come first. Create the Conditions for Success Leadership as a service (or servant leadership) means that the leader has the responsibility to create a work environment where all team members can execute their work in the best possible conditions and to their greatest satisfaction. It is also the role of the leader to ensure that the team members are fully equipped to do their job efficiently and to offer development opportunities when needed. The leader should also act as a coach to support her/his team members if they encounter challenging situations. Be Inspirational The servant leader engages in true conversations where he/she listens to understand more deeply in the spirit of caring and with a spirit of empathy. He or she is committed to honest feedback, to build trust within the organization, and to provide inspiration and support that will allow people in the organization to reach their full potential. You will agree that this is a very different perspective from the more traditional one that I outlined earlier. Decisive Decision Making Is Part of Servant Leadership Some might argue that the directive leadership is also sometimes required, and I could not agree more! It is part of the service that the leader should provide to the team to make tough choices when needed and to take decisive decisions if required. Service-oriented leadership does not mean that the manager is pleasing everyone. The business will at times require a captain style leadership.

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Adjust to the Situation But the key point is that whatever the situation requires, the leader adapts her or his style to these needs with a service-oriented mindset: to do what is right for the team and for the business. Servant leadership has two main implications: Firstly, it means that the leader places her/his ego after the needs of the team. The ability to understand what leadership actions are adapted to the specification implies that the own needs come second. That is a true service mindset. The others come first! Secondly, it means that the leader can adjust her/his leadership style. We call this situational leadership. That is the ability to move from a more directive style in a situation where clear decision making is required, to a more collaborative or coaching-oriented style in situations where empowerment and development are the priority.

8.1.3 Leadership Is a Lifelong Learning Journey This can be quite challenging for us. We tend to believe that we have a “natural” way of operating. This approach has made us successful in the past and is therefore also a guarantee of our future success as a leader. But that is quite short sighted. As we saw, different situations require different leadership. More generally, the service-oriented leadership places the team first, not what would work best for the leader herself or himself. This is not making the leadership task easier. Quite in the contrary! It does require a lot of experimentation, hard learning, patience, observation, feedback, self- and situational awareness, and learning to get there. Yes, leadership is like arts, performance, or sports: it requires effort and training. But this is also what makes it such a great experience. Leadership is a lifelong learning journey, and it takes a very long time to reach black belt mastery: servant leadership.

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8.1.4 Ask Your Team About Your Leadership Service Level What are the needs of my team in this situation? How can I best respond to these needs as a leader? These questions will help you on this leadership learning expedition. Your best coaches are your team members. Tell them what your intention is. Let them know that you see the leadership you exercise as a service to them. Ask them to help you understand their needs. People will tell you where they would have expected that you should have been more decisive. Ask them to tell you what your leadership service level is! They will let you know where your feedback to them has allowed them to be more successful or where on the contrary you should have given them more space and autonomy. Hold your team accountable to provide this feedback to you and welcome it as your compass on that journey.

8.2 Why We Need to Reduce the Power of Leaders Companies are changing their organization structures to become more agile and to allow teams to be more self-organized. That requires very different leadership. Most leaders are aware of this but find it difficult to adjust their leadership style. Why? This section shows that we need to reduce the power of leaders to enable them changing their behavior and be fit for the future.

8.2.1 New Leadership Behavior Is Required To stay competitive in today’s fast-moving environment, companies need to be fast learning, agile, and highly innovative. Significant efforts are therefore undertaken to break out of the rigid organization structures of the past. The number of layers is being reduced to have flatter organizations. Employees are encouraged to take more responsibility and we are

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implementing self-managed teams. These structural changes will work only if leaders adjust their behavior accordingly. I believe that a large majority of leaders are embracing that need for change. Leaders today are aware of these requirements and conscious that they need to broaden their leadership behavior: away from a more command and control-oriented style and moving instead toward coaching, facilitation, feedback, and support. Leaders know that they are expected to create thereby a work environment where team members can bring themselves fully in. But many leaders find it quite challenging to implement that change and to truly operate in a different leadership mode. Why?

8.2.2 We Need to Reduce the Power of Leaders I believe that the question of power is a central aspect that we need to consider if we want to understand that difficulty. In our vertical organizations of the past, power was highly centralized in the hands of leaders. We have flattened our organization structures, but we have not yet fully addressed that question of power. It might even be a bit of a taboo to do so. Or have you ever heard someone say, "we need to become more agile and we are therefore reducing the power our leaders have?" But that is precisely in my eyes what needs to be done. To reduce that power leaders still hold, because that aspect has never really been challenged. As a result, we have modern organization structures, but we still operate with the old power distribution. That miss-match obviously can’t work well! As a result, leaders tend to still operate in the old way and have difficulties to break out of their well-established leadership pattern. We therefore need to change the environment that leaders operate in. We need to reduce their power. This has two facets: the formal and the informal aspects. Let me outline those here. The Formal Aspects of Leadership Power The formal aspects are related to the job descriptions and delegation of authority. But these formal aspects are also reflected in the way processes

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are defined (for example, using the RACI approach) and in the company governance (e.g., decision rights in our management bodies). All those formal parts need to be reviewed. We need to systematically check how we can reduce the power that is currently centralized in the hands of a few and bring that power down into the organization. That needs to be done with a systematic approach at company level. I believe that if we revise leadership in that way, leaders will find it much easier to operate in a different mode. The Informal Aspects of Leadership Power Secondly, there is the broad spectrum of informal characteristics of leadership power. That includes, for example, the way leaders communicate, interact in team meetings or the language they use. Recently I heard about a situation where a leader responded for more than an hour to questions from senior management. The team was silent in the back. That example illustrates a leader who had no intention to share any power. This type of behavior is obviously sending a strong signal into the organization. We Need to Break the Taboo Reducing the power leaders have requires alignment between the formal changes and the informal aspects that transpire in the way leaders behave. We will need to break that taboo and openly speak about the fact that leadership power is being reduced. Leaders will need to be part of that change and advocate for it.

8.2.3 Empower the Teams Once that change will be implemented, leaders will eventually have the space they need to be able to operate in a very different way. They will no longer be permanently absorbed by decision making but will be able to spend the necessary time to provide real support to the teams. That quality time will allow for true coaching of self-managed teams. It will provide the room leaders need to efficiently facilitate change instead of commanding it. Leaders will be able to provide the constructive feedback

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to teams and to talents that is required to reinforce organizational learning. This is how we will achieve the empowerment of the teams that leaders today aspire to.

8.3 What Leadership for Self-Organized Teams? With the development toward greater self-organization, hierarchical leadership roles will be reduced. Leadership will not disappear, but it will significantly change: It will become part of the team activities. Defining who takes leadership responsibility within the team and how that leadership is exercised will be part of the team’s self-determination. This section outlines how teams will self-organize leadership. Could this be a next step in YOUR leadership development journey? At first glance, it could look as if leadership and self-organization is a contradiction in terms and that we do not need leadership anymore if teams are self-organized. But as a matter of fact, leadership is part of any human activity, especially when we operate as a group. So that means that leadership will need to be organized in a different way when we talk about self-organized teams. That is what I would like to outline here.

8.3.1 Leadership Transformation Before we go there, we should recognize that we have already transformed leadership a lot. We have moved from the traditional vertical organization into much flatter organization structures with much broader span of control. This means of course that the traditional “command and control” oriented leadership cannot work anymore, and leaders have already moved into a much more coaching-oriented leadership mode. Now we might undergo another significant transformation. Because in the context of more self-organization, those segregated and specialized leadership roles might be eliminated to a large extent. That leadership responsibility could be brought into the team. Consequently, teams will

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need to self-organize that leadership responsibility and the question is: How?

8.3.2 Leadership Profiles Team undergoes a certain life cycle. Just like organizations. There is a phase where the team comes together in the start-up mode. Then the team grows and gets organized. It reaches a stage of maturity and might then go through a transformation to adapt to certain changes in the environment. That might be followed by a need for turn-around and transition. In those different phases, different leadership profiles might be best suited to respond to the needs. So instead of having one person who is expected to be good at exercising leadership through all those different situations, the team might choose a leader where the profile is matching the specific needs. • Some have a more entrepreneurial leadership profile. They are particularly good at ideation, defining a vision and being creative. These profiles are particularly suited for the start-up phase and potentially also for the transformation phase. • Whereas others have a more organization-oriented leadership profile. Those are good at defining structure, holding people to account, defining objectives, etc. That is what the team would likely need in the growth phase and probably also in the turn-around phase. • Yet others have a leadership profile that is more caretaking, where helping others to grow and energizing the team are dominant. Those profiles are certainly well suited in the growth phase and in the maturity phase of the team. We see that the team might decide to allocate leadership responsibility based on these profiles and in view of the specific needs of the team.

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8.3.3 Influencing Skills In that context, influencing skills will become even more important. We can see that already. In my observation of millennial leaders (see next section) I could see that their influencing skills are very strong and integral part of how they exercise leadership to bring others on board. Of course, the usage of social media is part of their way of operating. Influencing skills will become even more important in the context of self-organization. Instead of moving up the traditional career ladder, talents will be much more agile and will position themselves on the roles that they find most attractive. They will leverage on their communities to do so. They will move to different parts of the organization in a much more agile way to gain experience and exposure where that is most relevant for their career development. Make sure that your career strategy takes these changes fully into account.

8.4 Millennial Leaders: How Do They Operate and What We Can Learn from Them? A lot has been written about the challenges millennials face when they integrate into our organizations. But they are now moving themselves into management or project leadership roles. I have therefore observed the behavior of millennial leaders and want to share my findings. We have heard a lot about the millennials, about the difficulties when they must accept hierarchy, how challenging they find it to cope with agenda constraints and more generally speaking, to integrate into our organizations. But we have heard little so far about the way they behave as leaders. It is now time to ask that question because these millennials— who were born in the 80s and 90s—are now reaching management or project leadership positions. I therefore observed their behavior in such roles over the past couple of years. Millennial leaders have grown up with social media, and I believe that this is influencing strongly how they operate in leadership roles. During

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a project for example, I could observe that they tend to reach out frequently to their community and that they have a quite inclusive and participative approach. • At an early stage of a project or decision-making process they connect with their communities to collect relevant experience that others might have made when confronted to similar questions. • As soon as different options or problem solutions have been identified, they connect back to their network to check if that meets expectations. • And once the proposal is ready to be presented to top management or before a final decision will be made, they often check back again with their community to ensure that there is broader support. I believe that this approach is giving a lot of strength to the millennial leaders. Drawing on the collective intelligence of their network at an early stage enables them to have more robust problem solutions. This participative approach helps also in the implementation phase because it helps ensure broad buy-in and support. Finally, I believe that their inclusive way of working impacts also the leadership posture of the millennial leaders. It allows them to speak on behalf of the group. They often position themselves as the representatives of a collective process instead of operating only in their own name. This gives them a lot of credibility and legitimacy. There is a lot we can learn from the millennial leaders!

9 Make a Great Career Start

An introduction video to this chapter is available in the Springer Nature “More Media” app. Please open the app and scan the icon or use the link (Fig. 9.1). As part of my international business trips, I always try to find time to meet with students in their universities or business schools. Our local HR teams know that this is an important part of my trip and do their best to build it in into the agenda. The main reason I do this is to contribute to the employer branding of my company. The presence of an HR leader is highly valued by the students, especially if you come to meet them and to bring the experience you make available for them. I do avoid the standard company presentations, which students get plenty of. They usually sit in these sessions with limited attention except if they know in advance that this is a company they want to apply for. But the best way to generate goodwill and real interest from the students is to truly engage with them.

Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-­3-­662-­66791-­0_9. The videos can be accessed individually by clicking the DOI link in the accompanying figure caption or by scanning this link with the SN More Media App. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer-Verlag GmbH, DE, part of Springer Nature 2023 S. Sommerlatte, Successful Career Strategy, Business Guides on the Go, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-66791-0_9

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Fig. 9.1  Introduction video for this chapter (▶ https://doi.org/10.1007/000-­97y)

That accessibility will tell them more about who you are as a company than colorful PowerPoint slides or company videos can do. In addition to that company branding purpose, I have always found it particularly enriching to have regular contact with students who are about to start their professional life. The type of questions they ask tells me a lot about the needs and expectations of these future generations. Very often that also allows me to question certain ways we operate. Usually there is a request for more flexibility, for more transparency, and for a stronger focus on purpose. Several changes we have undertaken have resulted from such conversations. Finally, I consider that those who are established in their job owe something to the future generations. Companies can be very hard to understand for graduates, especially if they have not the privilege in their direct environment of family and friends of people who can guide them. My passion for the topic of career strategy is to a large extent the result of my desire to help these talents to make the best possible choices for themselves. The decision where to start your career and what job to take is of such great importance for their entire life that helping to make the right decision is highly rewarding from me. This chapter addresses specifically the questions career starters ask. Some of these topics might also be relevant for those who are already settled in a job but still at the beginning of their professional career. Finally, this may be of interest for those of you who know people among their family and friends who may seek advice on how to choose the first employer and how to make a great career start.

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9.1 Career Start: How to Choose Your First Employer? Choosing the right employer for your career start is a key decision. You will find here tips on how to select companies to target and how to be best prepared to apply for your dream job. This will help you putting all the chances on your side for a great career start! How to Connect Already During Your Studies to the Corporate World? I would recommend using every opportunity to connect with organization that could potentially be of interest already during the studies. I know from my discussions with students that the corporate world is sometimes perceived as a bit of a black box. This can be overcome if you use project work, a thesis, or a report that you must do in the context of your studies to connect with companies or organization you are interested in. Choose a topic that is of interest for a potential future employer and seek to exchange with this organization. You will discover that people will be very happy to engage with you and to share information, perspectives, and advice on the topic of your project. This is a great way not only to learn more about this organization, but also to build your network. How to Conduct a “Due Diligence” on Potential Future Employers Once you are ready to apply for a job, it is very important in my eyes to conduct a thorough due diligence about each company/organization you are interested in. I would recommend that you check how successful this organization is. A lot of information is available online, such as financial reports or comments from financial analysts. Focus your search on companies that are successful. It is much more fun to work in an organization that is growing and that has a healthy economic situation compared to an organization that struggles. You can usually find that out quite easily. I would also recommend that you get information about the climate and the culture of the organization through the media or through your

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contacts. This will allow you to focus on the right targets and to gain a lot of relevant information in preparation of your interviews. Finally, I would recommend that you check if the company can offer you an international assignment early on in your career. It is very advisable in my eyes to gain such exposure early on if that is feasible from a personal perspective (more on this below in Sect. 9.2). Some Recommendations for the Application Process I know that the application process can often be quite frustrating because it takes long time before getting feedback and very often there is simply no reply. My advice though is not to give up too quickly if there is a company you feel passionate about. It might be advisable to contact that company several times. Don’t give up just because you have not received a positive response. Try it again and again. I have seen many cases where being persistent finally paid off. Use your network to collect information to reach the right person at the right moment in time. Some Recommendations for Your Interview Preparation It is very important to prepare for the interview. Check in your network if you know a person from HR or a manager who is experienced in recruiting and seek feedback from them. In my eyes, the key success factors are to be very clear about the reasons you are interested in this role and about the strengths you bring to the party. It is also important to show how this first career step fits into your longer-term vision on where you want to go with your career (see Chap. 3). How to Select the Right Offer Once you receive one or several offers you will need to select. Here my recommendation is to check what is the environment that will give you the best opportunities to grow, both personally and professionally. Where are you going to learn most? What company is going to empower you and give you room to bring yourself fully in? Also, I would reflect about the people you have met during the interview process and check who you would really like to work with.

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How to Take Best Advantage of the First Professional Experience Finally, I have noticed that people tend to be sometimes a bit too impatient and don’t stay long enough in their first job to take full advantage of that first experience. Even if it is maybe a bit frustrating at the beginning because the job might not match fully your expectations, you should stick it out long enough to collect all the insight that will allow you to make the right next career move.

9.2 International Experience: How to Gain It Early in Your Career International experience is an important success factor for your career, because our world has become global. It is advisable to gain this international exposure early on in your career. This section outlines how to prepare for this and how to find the right job abroad. Getting exposed to different cultures, countries, markets, and ways of life is of crucial importance for a successful career in today’s world. In our highly globalized economies, the ability to understand customer needs across the globe is indispensable.

9.2.1 International Exposure Is a Competitive Advantage International experience is essential for the interactions within organizations or with business partners which are increasingly globalized and international. It will help you to navigate efficiently between cultures, because you will have experienced how people operate in other environments. This can be a significant competitive advantage for you in the future. Some may argue that anybody has been abroad spending holidays in another country. That is true. Hardly anyone today has not been able to gain such experience. And therefore, it is not a differentiating factor. Having worked in another country and culture is what makes the

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difference. Remember: you want to have an edge when you will compete for jobs all along your career.

9.2.2 Develop Your Inter-cultural Sensitivity Therefore, please consider that the experience you gain from working on a daily basis with teams in another country provides you with a very different understanding of ways of working in other cultures. It is very often the hard way that you have the most intensive learning experience. I have no doubt that you will be successful if you are open to this adventure. That confrontation to challenging situations, where you might feel at times that there is a real communication gap between you and the others is the clear signal that you are experiencing inter-cultural differences. Learning to handle these situations is exactly what will be so beneficial for you.

9.2.3 How to Acquire International Work Experience? I guess you are no longer to be convinced. You probably had no doubt about the utility of such international exposure in the first place. The key question of course is HOW to acquire it? Gain International Exposure Early in Your Career My first recommendation would be to aim at gaining that international exposure as early on in your career as possible. I say this because of my experience from interactions with many career starters who find it more and more challenging to make that step the more they advance in their career. Personal and Family Constraints Private reasons play an important role: It is more challenging to move if you must also align job opportunities for your partner instead of just for yourself. Also, you may have to take care of parents and older family members at a later stage which may limit your mobility.

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Social Security There are also practical reasons related to social security, especially if you are coming from a country where these are state systems. The more seniority you have gained, for example, in the retirement systems, the more challenging it is to resign from these local contracts. Starting abroad first and moving then back into a local contract of your home country is significantly easier. International Graduate Programs Employers will find it easier to offer you jobs abroad if you are still at the beginning of your career. As a matter of fact, many companies have international graduate programs that allow you to make such moves as part of your on-boarding in the organization. Government Programs Finally, some government programs exist as well to support such moves. In Europe, for example, you can get support from the VIE program, which is accessible to any European graduates. These programs are not so well known but can be very attractive.

9.2.4 How to Prepare the International Job Search What is important in my eyes is to have a clear vision of what you are looking for: • Are you prepared to take a local contract? • Are you moving alone or with a partner? • If you are going together, what is your strategy (e.g., if one finds first, we move there and the other will search locally)? • What geographies would you prefer? • Are there countries or parts of the world you exclude? • How long are you planning to stay? • Are you willing to make the effort to learn a new language?

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What are your constraints in your home country (e.g., family members you have to take care of ) and what are the requirements for that on your side in terms of job flexibility and in terms of financial implications? There are of course many more such practical considerations and they depend on each individual situation. Think about it and try to be as specific as you can about your own needs and expectations. This will help you a lot in your communication with potential employers and in targeting the right type of job. Option 1: Search for the Job Before You Move There are many routes to search for such international job opportunities. My recommendation is to target multinational companies that have an international graduate program. Apply online or use job fairs where you can meet recruiters from these organizations. It is also very advisable to use on the alumni network from your school or university. Former students who are abroad or who have been abroad may still be able to leverage on their connections to guide you or even support you in finding job opportunities. Option 2: Looking for a Job Directly Abroad in the Host Country There is also the option of traveling abroad and looking directly for a job once you are in the other country. If you are quite flexible, it can be a great experience to conduct the job search directly in the host country. This option is of course a bit riskier, and you will have to assess if that is feasible for you. If you move with your partner, the option could be to have one in the couple who has already a contract, while the other partner conducts the search locally in the host country. You may discover that the community of expatriates from your home country will be very welcoming and willing to help.

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9.3 Are Internal Consulting Firms a Smart Career Option? Management consulting has always been a talent magnet for graduates. Over the past couple of years, the digital players have started to be even more attractive. Many ambitious talents who are still at the beginning of their career dream about these privileged and highly exposed positions. A lot has been published on these career options. I want to focus here on an alternative option, which are the executive level strategic teams inside larger corporations. I noticed that this is also perceived by students as an interesting perspective. But there is not much information available on this possibility. Students frequently want to understand more about positions such as chief of staff, member of a project management office for a large-scale reorganization or member of an internal corporate consulting team. I am interrogated regularly if these positions would be a good career choice. I am sure you can imagine my answer. It depends! It depends of course in the first place on the contribution these teams can make within the organization. Are they tasked to shape things, or do they have a pure coordination role? Often these teams have real influence and can be a fabulous career accelerator. Let’s look first into the tasks that such entities can oversee. We will then understand what profiles match and under what circumstances that can be a smart career move, or not.

9.3.1 Internal Consulting/Project Management Office In view of the significant budget that many companies dedicate every year to management consulting, several of them have created an internal organization and project management expertise. The purpose of this section is to outline the role these entities can play and how that can be an attractive career step. Internal consulting or project management teams are usually involved in these two types of project assignments:

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• Large-scale reorganization projects where they work together with external consultants. • Smaller projects that these teams can address with internal resources.

9.3.2 Large-Scale Reorganization Projects Such large projects are very resource intensive and an internal team is usually not sizable enough to cover this fully. In such a situation, the internal and the external consultants work together. The internal team can help identify the appropriate people to contact in the organization in view of information needed and can advise who to involve in certain parts of the project. They can also help ensure regular communication to the different parts of the company concerned by that change initiative. The question of knowledge transfer is also of importance. A lot of knowledge is generated during such a project and usually walks out of the door, when the consultants leave the company. The role of the internal consultants as members of the joint project team is therefore to absorb this knowledge to be able to adjust the organizational solution to new requirements after the consultants have left. That includes transferring the knowledge about the methodology that has been used during the project, the knowledge concerning the issue analysis, and the assumptions that have been made during the development of the solution.

9.3.3 Smaller Organization Projects In case of smaller organizational adjustments, the internal team can be expected to conduct them without (or with limited) external support. The role of the internal consulting team is to provide methodological support, to ensure the project management, and to be involved in the project work. In addition to the support of specific projects or change initiatives, the internal organization experts can also help build up the organization design skills within the company. That is particularly important for the leadership population, where a better insight in the different facets of organizational optimization (including structure, processes, skills, and

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company culture) can allow making organization effectiveness a permanent topic instead of undertaking the ad hoc changes only when the issues have become urgent. Finally, senior leaders can take advantage of having the internal organization experts as sparing partners, with whom they can bounce ideas back and forth.

9.3.4 What Are the Key Success Factors of Such a Team? The internal consulting team must be able to operate with a high degree of independence and confidentiality. Leaders in the organization will only be willing to trust the team as sparring partners if they know that the information that they share will remain confidential. Of course, once a project is started, top management will be kept informed about the topic, and the findings will be shared. But it is important that the leaders seeking support are positioned as internal clients who are the first and privileged contact points during the project. They should be allowed to control the way the information about the problem analysis and the proposed recommendations are shared, as they would if they would work with external consultants. The reporting of the organization team should therefore be managed in such a way that this confidentiality is managed and is promoted as a founding principle of the organization team. Leaders will draw on the advice and support of the organization team if they are convinced of their professional expertise and of that level of confidentiality. Finally, ensuring that the positions in the internal organization expertise team remain attractive is of crucial importance. The internal organization team must be perceived by external candidates (e.g., who are currently in a leading consulting firm and who want to join the industry) as a great transition, because it provides exposure to senior leaders and oversight over the different activities of the company. It is equally important to ensure that top talents from within the company are attracted to the internal consulting team. Successful internal and external staffing of the internal consulting team will depend on the company’s ability to show that it serves as career

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accelerator and that team members have made attractive career moves after leaving the internal consulting team.

9.3.5 Could This Be a Good Career Move for You? I hope that this will give you the necessary insight to ask the right questions if you consider making a move to such a strategic team at corporate level. To summarize, I would check the following points: • • • • • •

What projects are given to the internal consulting team? What autonomy does the team have? Is it directly exposed to top management? Who has moved to these entities in the past? Where are these identified top talents in the organization? How have they been able to manage that career after their experience in the internal consulting team? Finally, you should clarify if the expected learnings match your needs:

• Moving to an internal consulting is most likely a good career step if you need to reinforce your strategic understanding, strengthen your network within the organization, gain business acumen related to the different parts and activities of the organization, and reinforce your project management skills. • It is not necessarily the right move if you should rather focus on taking operational responsibility or broaden your people management experience.

9.4 Use Social Media to Ensure Your Profile Is Visible in the Job Market I certainly don’t need to convince you of the importance of social media for your job search. Please ensure that you have a high-quality profile on LinkedIn (or similar platforms) where you describe your achievements in the different roles you held in the past. This is usually the first information recruiters get on your profile and is therefore of particular

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importance. Often that information will be used by recruiters to conduct a pre-selection of candidates. In addition, recruiters will most likely conduct a quick social media check for the pre-selected candidates with a simple Google search. I would therefore recommend checking regularly what results a search with your name generates. Should that not be to your satisfaction, you have several possibilities to influence these search results. That can, for example, be done through new publications or a better referencing of the content of existing publications which you wish to promote, so that they come up first in the search results. You may also need to manage your social media presence, if someone has the same or a similar name. In this case, you need to ensure that your own profile comes out first thanks to a better referencing. Furthermore, you have the possibility to position yourself as thought leader in your area of expertise through regular publications. This will significantly strengthen your social media profile, especially if you apply the social media strategy where you are present on the relevant platforms for your community of practitioners. Such publications may include a blog where you share information on your areas of interest. The content of that blog can then be cross shared on other social media platforms. This would generate visibility within a broader audience while the information of your blog will be recognized by search engines and will generate an ongoing search traffic. Using the right keywords is obviously of great importance for a good referencing. You will be surprised about the effect that such a reinforced social media presence will have. You will most likely gain a broad number of contacts and followers. In addition, you will notice that headhunters and recruiters will contact you more frequently with job offerings, simply because you will be more visible and more differentiated from your competitors in the job market.

9.5 Steps to Shoot Your Video CV Many studies have shown that people today prefer videos to text, especially among the younger generation. This is a clear trend. The incredibly rich video content on YouTube and other social media is a result of this.

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Increasingly, recruiting managers and their talent acquisition partners check online information from the candidates, because it provides a great first insight into the candidates. The type of content is of course an interesting indication of people’s interests. My recommendation is to leverage on this to present yourself in a video. We could call this a video CV. This can be posted on YouTube (or any other online video media). If you prefer, you may decide to publish in “private” so that only those can see it, who you send the link to. That link could be shared with recruiters and could even be placed on your CV. There are many advantages to this: • It makes you stand out, because you offer something new that other candidates will most likely not have done yet. • It shows your ability to use social media, which is increasingly a job prerequisite. • It gives you the unique possibility to present you in the best possible way, because you will be able to master that video the way you want it to be. This might be easier than during a job interview, where you might forget certain important elements and where you might be caught by time. This section will help you prepare, shoot, and publish your video CV. I will outline here the four key steps to shoot your video. You will find practical advice on content creation, shooting, post-production and on the publication of your video. Get started, now! I am frequently asked to talk about my YouTube experience: What equipment is needed? How to prepare a video? How to shoot a video? How to create and promote a channel? What does it take to do the post-­ production? And …. do you get professional support from a specialized agency? The answer to this last question is simple: I do it all by myself— and it is easier than it may look at a first glance. These are the four steps that I would recommend:

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9.5.1 Content Comes First The most important part is the content. You need to be clear on the key messages and on the way you wish to outline them. I would recommend writing it up first. This will help you ensure that the content is clear for yourself and well-structured with an introduction, a central part where you outline your main arguments and with a closing. The optimal length of a video in my experience is 2 to maximum 6 min. There could be several ways to structure your video CV. Let me share some thoughts here, but you will certainly find your own approach. Introduction (Approximately 30 s) Very short introduction of yourself and outline of your passion and personal purpose. Main part (2–4 min) A quick overview on your career where you outline at each step the main learnings or why that experience was relevant for your career progression. You could also share here some of the tougher experiences you had or even certain failures. The point of that video CV is to give a personal impression on who you are and that will be more credible and authentic if you don’t try to cover up certain negative experiences you may have had. Everyone is experiencing failure. Recruiters know this. It is clever to be open about it and to make it clear in what sense that has allowed you to grow, professionally and or as a person and leader. Conclusion (Approximately 30 s) Here I would outline the vision you have for your career development and what next steps you aspire to make. Keep this sufficiently general to avoid excluding opportunities that could be of interest for you even if they don’t match exactly with your career plan. But be sufficiently explicit to eliminate any options that are clearly not of interest for you. I would also recommend that you give indication on certain personal aspects that could be of importance for you, such as geographical location and mobility.

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9.5.2 Technical Equipment for the Shooting What technical equipment is required? The simple answer is: Your smartphone has all the features you need. You may decide to sophisticate and to buy a tripod (but books are good as well to stabilize your camera) and you may invest in a microphone. But your phone is all you need to make a start. Let me tell you a little story. When I decided to start my YouTube channel, I went into a professional camera shop. I thought I needed top equipment to put all chances on my side. Maybe there was also the idea that I would have to go all the way if I had spent a lot of money. I was prepared to invest a couple of thousand Euros to have everything I need. The friendly lady behind the counter asked me if I had an iPhone. I said yes. And to my great surprise she told me that there was nothing else I needed at this stage. She advised me to try things out just with this device. How right she was! I started to gain experience. But then I came back with specific needs: a microphone (and a second one for interview videos), a tripod, a green screen, light, and even more light. I did become a good customer! I don’t use any script or prompter because that takes away most of the spontaneity. In some cases, I use a flip chart with a couple of bullet points to remember the flow of the argumentation. The background matters. It is worthwhile spending a bit of time to find a nice place with an attractive background.

9.5.3 Shooting of the CV Video I usually read the text of my video a couple of times before the shooting to have the key points in mind. It is important to feel passionate about the messages that you wish to deliver. I was once told by a professional YouTuber that you must have two or three times more energy in front of a camera than you would need in a normal conversation. The camera “absorbs” energy. It therefore requires a lot of passion and conviction to be impactful in your videos.

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For the shooting, I would recommend doing this when you can isolate yourself for a couple of hours. It is important not to be disturbed. Any interruption during the shooting destroys the take. And according to Peters law, this happens usually when you are about to make your best take. I would also recommend putting all other devices on flight mode and on silent. I usually do between five and ten takes. The later ones are often the better ones, mainly because they are shorter. After a couple of takes you see where you can be crisper, clearer, and what aspects you may be able to cut out. Short is good! I would recommend watching each take before shooting the next one. That will allow you to check what can be improved from a content perspective, but also technically in terms of light, sound, and framing. Make sure you have a stable and comfortable body position and that you speak with conviction. Be present! Remember, the video is absorbing energy. It takes quite some passion to be impactful. Finally, I think it helps to talk directly to the people who are “behind the camera.” I usually think about someone who I hope will see the video and who might be particularly interested in its content.

9.5.4 Post-production The less post-production is needed, the better it is, because that can otherwise become very time consuming. I use I-Movies for the post-­ production. It is readily available on your I-Phone or I-Pad and quite simple to use. Alternative software is of course available as well. You will find many very helpful tutorial videos on YouTube to get started. The basics are simple. I think it is helpful to watch other videos on YouTube to learn. You will see that jump-cuts and hard-cuts are used a lot. To be honest, this is not so much my cup of tea. I do exactly the contrary: I try to have the fewest cuts possible. Many of my videos are just one take from the beginning to the end. I think that makes them more fluid and easier to listen to. But this is really a question of style. I am sure that you will find out what works best for you.

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9.5.5 Publication In case you wish to publish the video on YouTube, you should create a Thumbnail, which is the icon or cover page that will be visible in the search results. It should contain the title of your video and an attractive photo. You will find great tutorial videos how to set up your YouTube channel. That is required to publish your video CV, even if you decide to publish it as “private.” I guess that this is all you need to know to get started. So have fun!

10 Conclusion

10.1 Career Planning Is an Ongoing Learning Process An introduction video to this chapter is available in the Springer Nature “More Media” app. Please open the app and scan the icon or use the link (Fig. 10.1). As mentioned above, General Dwight D. Eisenhower said that plans are nothing and that planning is everything. This is a bold statement, especially for someone who was commander in chief of the allied forces in the Second World War. You may ask: why establish a career plan in the first place, if it is not worth much? The key point in my eyes is that the value of your career strategy is not what you will have put on paper in terms of analysis, conclusions, and planned actions, but rather the dynamic Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-­3-­662-­66791-­0_10. The videos can be accessed individually by clicking the DOI link in the accompanying figure caption or by scanning this link with the SN More Media App.

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer-Verlag GmbH, DE, part of Springer Nature 2023 S. Sommerlatte, Successful Career Strategy, Business Guides on the Go, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-66791-0_10

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Fig. 10.1  Introduction video for this chapter (▶ https://doi.org/10.1007/000-­97z)

process of reflection and learning. The quality of your career planning process is therefore of the essence. The quality of this process is driven by: • The time you will have spent on introspection to identify your deeper desire and to define your corresponding career aspiration. • The clarity you will have been able to gain concerning the type of work but also the lifestyle you aspire to. • The feedback you can gather to strengthen and deepen your self-awareness. • The depth and quality of exchanges you will have with people who can offer you advice and counseling (that includes of course the members of your career advisory board). • The analysis of successes and of failures that you will encounter and your ability to draw learning from these experiences in view of challenging, adapting, or maybe confirming certain facets of your career plan. • The preparation of any new career step and the quality of the underlying decision process that led you to strategically select a specific option in view of your longer-term career goals. • The development actions that you undertake to be best prepared for your next professional challenge and to grow as a person and as a leader. Please consider career planning as an ongoing learning process that will allow you to continuously gain new insights about yourself and to

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adjust your career strategy. For this, you should keep all senses open and aware: Heart:

Stay connected to your deep desire. Make sure that the career options you take into consideration truly match with your personal purpose and values. This should always be the compass for your development. Your eyes: Keep sight of your long-term career goal and don’t let yourself be misguided by certain short-term opportunities that may be attractive in the moment, but that do not lead you efficiently in the direction you should follow to reach your dream job. Ears: Listen carefully to any kind of advice and feedback that you can obtain. Be obsessed with constantly deepen your understanding of the strengths and talents you have and that you can leverage on even more in the future. Gain an in-depth understanding of your personal preferences and needs as well as your limits and derailers. This self-awareness is the key success factor that distinguishes highly effective leaders. Smell: Be mindful of what is often called “the smell of the place” to designate the culture of an organization. Ensure that you find a cultural environment in which you feel well and in which you can grow to become the best version of yourself. The ability to learn from failures and mistakes is essential throughout your career. Make sure you preserve this even once you have become more senior in your area of responsibility. This willingness to constantly grow is the energy that will drive your personal and professional growth. That learning spirit will allow you to get over smaller setbacks or even possible career accidents with a positive mindset and the ability to bounce back, which is essential. It is also critical to be vigilant to detect the early signals that may indicate that a certain career step you have taken was maybe not right. If you fail, fail fast. Avoid wasting time unnecessarily by holding on to a role that does not match your preferences. Your personal advisors and mentors, especially your personal career council can be of essential support in such critical situations where important decisions need to be taken.

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10.2 Time Matters Time is a critical component of your career management. Don’t waste this precious resource by pushing back the moment where you establish a clear career plan for yourself. I recommend following the step-by-step approach as outlined in this book in a very structured way to establish your career strategy. That should include the following milestones: Reflect on Your Deep Desire Take a full month to reflect about your deep desire, your personal purpose, the values that drive you and to identify on that basis your dream job. Clearly defining that career target is so important because following a deeper aspiration will give meaning to each step of your professional development. Make sure that during that full month you have time for reflection and introspection. Taking longer walks in nature or exercising can be good opportunities to give space for daydreams which can tell you a lot about your deeper aspiration. The observation of your preferences and of what you enjoy most doing are other possibilities to trigger that introspection (see Sect. 3.1). I would also recommend studying a person you admire and who you find inspirational. You may read their biography and use other sources to learn more about their lives and their achievements. This interest for the life and oeuvre of a role model can trigger your reflection about your personal values and goals. Try to be as specific as possible in the description of your aspiration. Think about the lifestyle and the type of professional environment you would ideally like to have in the future. Write that down as a draft first and continue to work on it until you feel that this truly matches the vision you have for yourself. Establish a First Version of Your Career Strategy As a next step you should establish the version 1 of your career strategy by following the steps outlined in Chap. 3. Please ensure once again that you take the necessary time for that. Don’t rush and don’t be superficial. As much as I would urge starting this

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work on your career strategy without much delay, as much I would recommend giving each step all the time you need to ensure that you are very thorough because each step is the basis for the subsequent components of your career strategy. Be as specific and detailed as possible and leverage on all the sources of information that you can draw on. This includes talking to people whose insights you value and who can be of advice. As part of your career strategy, you will define your dream job and how to get there. That includes specifying the experience and skill base that you will need to acquire. The best way to gain clarity about these requirements is to speak to people who currently hold the type of position that you aspire for. Do not hesitate to reach out to them. You will be surprised to see how willing most individuals are to share their knowledge and their professional experience. I would recommend talking first to people from within your personal network who hold positions that are of interest for you because they are part of your career pathway. These individuals will also be able to refer you to other professionals they know and whose experience could be relevant for you. That should already offer you a robust information base. In addition to that, social media makes it quite easy to establish that contact. Don’t hesitate to contact people on LinkedIn for example, making it clear that this is part of the research you do to establish your personal career strategy. Be clear with these contacts that you don’t ask for a job or even for any kind of endorsement, but that you would simply value 30 min of their time to ask a couple of questions about their own professional development and experience. Some might not answer or be reluctant, but many will value the approach and be willing to share. In addition, there are many other sources of information you may use, such as job descriptions that are available online and which specify the kind of experience that is required for these roles. Use all channels available to gain that highly valuable information. Defining your career strategy should obviously not be a one-off exercise, but rather a permanent process. Your career plan should be a “living document” that you permanently adapt, modify, mature, and enrich. It should accompany you during your entire career.

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You will have plenty of opportunities to update that plan. This is of course the case when you undertake a new career step. But that might also be required if your preferences have changed or if there are significant changes in the job market (e.g., if a new player enters that market, if there are major changes due to new technologies or if the competitive landscape changes due to mergers and acquisitions, etc.). You should keep your career planning like a logbook and share it with people who you trust, especially of course with your career council. Establish Your Personal Career Council I would recommend that you gather your personal career council (see Sect. 3.2) as soon as you have come up with a first version of your career strategy. Selecting your career board members will be an important milestone in your career management. Share with that board what you expect from them and how you plan to use their advice in the way you will steer your professional development. Discussing your career plan and collecting feedback from your board members on that plan will be a great starting point with this group. These interactions will certainly allow you to further improve and fine-­ tune your career strategy. Monitor Career Opportunities You are the CEO of your career! Please keep that always in mind. Just as you would expect it from the CEO of a large corporation, you should constantly look out for opportunities. In your case you should monitor what job opportunities may come up in the internal or external job market. I recommend using the stakeholder engagement methodology outlined in Sect. 4.6 and to leverage on your network to ensure you are informed early on if a job opportunity comes up. Please ensure that the main stakeholders (such as the head of a department that you would like to work with or the corresponding HR business partner or an external headhunter who operates in a sector you want to join) know about your interests. Think strategically about attractive project opportunities that may come up inside your organization (e.g., following the decision to expand into a new market or to open up an affiliate in a new country). Monitor

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the external environment to gain insights into disruptive market trends that may open up new opportunities. Be visible and active on social media (especially LinkedIn) and ensure you have turned on the job search options. Be bold and dare to apply to positions that are of interest for you, even if the gap to your current profile might be a real stretch, but if you are convinced that your motivation and determination may allow you to be successful. Use the decision tools outlined in Chap. 4 to select the most attractive career opportunities. Ensure that each career step takes you in the right direction to get closer to your dream job. Be conscious that time matters because the number of career steps you can undertake is limited. Therefore, each step is critical to expand your experience base in the most efficient way to be best prepared for your dream job. Enjoy the Ride and Consider Your Professional Development as a Lifelong Learning Journey A well-managed career should offer you plenty of possibilities to get exposure to new challenges and experiences, to learn more about yourself, to grow as a leader. It will also give you the opportunity to support your team members in their own development. This experience of giving back and providing career counseling to others based on your own experience is particularly rewarding. If you have the opportunity to develop someone from your team to become your successor while you move on in your own career, you will certainly find that particularly satisfying and gratifying. This is really the essence of what I describe as “leadership as a service” where leaders truly play their role as people developers who are fully responsible for the human capital they have in their team. I hope that you will enjoy this lifelong learning journey and use it to grow as a person and as a leader. Being open to that constant learning and being engaged in supporting the development of others determines great leadership. In that sense, I would encourage you to use the method and tools outlined in this book not just for yourself, but also to support people in your personal or professional environment with professional career advice and counseling.