A young student of mine asked me the other day, "given your long years of working and your field of specialization can you expound on the work principles that have worked for you and those that have hindered your career".
This is a great question. First of all new career aspirants who carefully study the answer to this question and develop for themselves an understanding of the "practical intelligence" principles that go into career success will have great advantage. But one has to deeply ponder these issues and develop for one's own self a modus operandi when faced with these issues and concepts.
So here are those principles that I have found works universally. But note that, I have not necessarily applied them to my own career, for known and unknown reasons.
The art of listening: This absolutely works. Those of us who can creatively listen and dissect what the other person is saying will clearly have an advantage. I always say, "lend your ears to everybody, your tongue to nobody".
The art of creative association: You really will be successful when you can associate with the right types of people for yourself. This does not mean only rich, successful and powerful people, but it means people who are genuinely willing to care for you, be a true friend or mentor, who really wants to associate with you because of what you are and not because of who you are or from any ulterior motive. Do not associate just because it makes you feel good for the moment. Try and develop life long associations. Please remember finding such people in your professional life is a continuous challenge and having the ability to judge somebody's intention as it relates to you is a true art.
Understanding organizational politics and positively working with it: One should not ignore the politics or be naive around it, but having the ability to understand what is going on around you and then working within it to your advantage, is a clear personal competitive advantage.
Being able to capture the opportunities positively that come before us all the time, can be of great help in career success. Being creative about seizing these opportunities is a real positive ability.
Being credible: Keeping one's word, executing as per plan, all are positive principles that work.
And now here are some principles that I do not think work:
Genuine straightforward openness does not work: No matter what one says people do not like people who are direct and confront people with situations directly. Everybody has hidden agendas, therefore when one confronts, one usually ignores the other person's hidden agendas. So one has to learn the continuous art of soft-pedaling, saying things without confrontation, saying things carefully and indirectly. This is a real art and often quite stressful and demanding. But it has to be done in a corporate setting.
Being trusting without questioning does not work: Here you have to always cross all the "Ts" and dot all the "Is". Often times when one thinks it is safe to assume, this that or the other, and that is when one gets hurt. So the continuous principle of buyer beware is a good principle to follow.
Over analysis of situations does not work: You have to go often with your instinct. If it feels good deep within, then one should go for it!
Speaking, revealing ones thought and plans, bragging or overemphasizing ones achievements all of these behaviors can hurt rather than help: If you can get others to speak highly about you instead of you having to do it, then you have got it made in a shade. Not speaking openly but being able to find those chances when speaking openly really matters is an important skill one has to learn early in one's career.
To conclude, I highly recommend to everyone seeking career and life success, should read Malcolm Gladwell's new book "Outliers". In this book among many brilliant insights Malcolm talks about the concept of "practical intelligence". Having read it and understanding Malcolm's unique explanation of this phenomena, I have to say, I totally agree with him. Throughout my corporate life I have observed that people who are successful are not those with "cognitive intelligence" but those who possess this unique "practical intelligence". Malcolm defines "practical Intelligence" as "knowing what to say, to whom, knowing when to say it, and knowing how to say it for maximum effect".
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