Mastering the Game

Strategies for Career Success

Sharon E. Jones, Sudheer R. Poluru

• Publisher: Drum Major Press
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9780999879221
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Personal Success

There’s nothing more frustrating than playing a game without knowing all the rules. Lawyer and diversity consultant, Sharon E. Jones, can attest to this in her professional life. In her decades of professional experience, Jones has learned how to navigate the complexities of corporate culture and excel in organizations and industries still dominated by White male leadership. Jones acknowledges that it wasn’t easy, but she hopes that her new guide to career advancement as a diverse professional will help you avoid some of these same challenges.

As a woman of color, she has spent her entire career navigating the conscious and unconscious biases of her supervisors and peers. Jones demystifies ten unwritten “rules of the game” and provides over 100 strategies to help women and other diverse professionals succeed.

Jones discusses:

• the current trends in diversity in the workplace,
• the importance of visualizing your goals before you even begin,
• the value emotional tenacity will have as you encounter challenging situations,
• the need to identify the metrics for success,
• the difference good sponsorship can make for your career,
• the ways your professional appearance alters others’ opinions of you,
• the importance of self-promoting and advertising your strengths, and
• more rules and techniques to help you build your vision of personal and professional success.

Jones has discovered that these lessons can apply to every type of organization and industry. She understands that women and people of color need to work twice as hard just to get rewarded, and she wants to help you overcome the challenges you may face in your workplace. With both research and her own personal anecdotes, Jones explains the best ways to achieve your own definition of career success.

Rule 1

SUCCESS IS INTENTIONAL

Create your own definition of success and intentionally work to achieve it.

Effort and courage are not enough without purpose and direction.

—JOHN F. KENNEDY

It’s not uncommon to hear a successful person say, “I don’t know how I achieved this level of success. I was just lucky, I guess.” I never believe that. There are many decisions you make in your life, both large and small, that affect your career success. It is by approaching your career very intentionally that you achieve the level of success you desire.

Many people don’t realize how important or taxing the mental part of the game can be. The mental game (also called the psychological game) is all about having the right mindset when you show up to work. I will talk about the psychological game more in the next chapter. For now, the mindset I want you to develop is that success is intentional. This mindset sets the stage for all the other rules. First and foremost, recognize and acknowledge the role you play in your life. If you want to play the game, then you need to become an active participant in your life. To do so, you will need to make a marked shift away from the go-with-the-flow mindset. Begin to develop an internal attitude of control and realize just how much autonomy you have in many areas of your life. Instead of just letting life happen to you and playing the role of a victim who is at the mercy of everyone and everything around you, begin to make the types of decisions that increase the quality of your life and get you closer to achieving your vision of success. Of course, there are some things outside your control. Life is indeed unpredictable. Instead of worrying about everything that could go wrong, just focus on what you can control. The only thing you can control in your life is yourself. Coupled with this simple truth is the notion that your actions make a difference in the world. No matter how big or small, your actions have a real impact on the outcomes in your life.

You can achieve your heart’s desires by focusing on what’s important to you and being strategic in your decision-making. Just as in a game of chess or baseball, every choice you make matters. It is important to develop a good strategy for weighing your options and making the best decision quickly and efficiently.

TWO-STEP PROCESS

To break down the success-is-intentional mindset and how to implement it in your life, we will go through two steps. First, you must define what success means for you. Second, you have to set and meet goals that serve as stepping-stones to your definition of success. The idea is to move from abstract goals to concrete actions. Through this process, you can turn your vision into reality.

STEP 1: DEFINING SUCCESS

What does success mean to you? We often label people successful if they have wealth, fame, or power. It is very easy to take on other people’s definitions of success. It is much harder to create our own vision of success independently. As human beings, we seek external validation. The concern over what people think about us can drive us to pursue superficial praise instead of deep fulfillment or worse—to pursue other people’s goals for us as opposed to our own. Early in my legal career, I decided I wanted to be a General Counsel. Why? Because it was prestigious, it paid well, and it was a reasonable next step since I was already a senior in-house corporate lawyer. After two General Counsel interviews, I asked myself, “Do you really want to be a General Counsel?” The answer was no. It did pay well, but it was too much stressful, 24/7 work, and I wouldn’t have had enough time to do the kind of work that made me happy. The fact that I thought I would be good at being a General Counsel made it a harder decision. Plus, other people thought I should go after that position, which added another layer to the difficulty of the decision. However, I realized that I needed to do work that made me happy and not to follow other people’s definitions of success.

Similarly, a friend of mine graduated from law school and went to work in a firm. After realizing she wasn’t enjoying herself, she decided to pursue a position in politics—something she loved. Eventually, she thought it was time to “get serious” and returned to a law firm. That was a very bad idea for her. She never liked the legal practice. She had no legal skill set since she hadn’t practiced long enough to develop one, and she had no passion for it. Was she successful in law? No. Why did she pursue it? Because she thought it was prestigious and other people would be impressed. That should never be the reason you choose a career path. Choose one that feeds your soul!

Don’t worry; we won’t get overly philosophical and ponder the meaning of life in this book. I’ll leave it up to you to decide what kind of life you want to lead. With every path, there are pros and cons. Following your passions to serve a not-for-profit organization may mean taking a pay cut. Accepting a demanding promotion may mean less time with family and friends. In your life, don’t just react to the circumstances or limited options presented to you. Be intentional about what your idea of success looks like, and then you can take steps to figure out how to get there.

The definition of success doesn’t only vary greatly from person to person. Each of our definitions is subject to change based on our circumstances in life. Your childhood goal of becoming a superhero might have changed to fitting in at your high school then later morphed into juggling the demands of personal and professional life. According to a 2013 Accenture study on job satisfaction, 70 percent of both male and female professionals around the world say they can “have it all,” meaning a successful career and a full life outside work. However, 50 percent also said that they cannot “have it all at the same time.”⁴⁰ Professionals continually reformulate their definitions of success over the course of their careers.

The definition of success is not constant because for many, career goals and personal priorities will take precedence at different times. Fresh out of college, a young professional without a family may have the time and energy to put in long hours. The arrival of a child or caring for a loved one in poor health may require a shift to part-time status or an unpaid leave. Sending the last child off to college may free up time to take on more responsibility at work.

PRIORITIES CHANGE OVER TIME

A study analyzed the responses of a group of sixty-six college students in the Northeast to determine how the students defined success each year in college. The sample included 73 percent women and 65 percent students of color or international students. To the question “What would make this year of college successful?” the responses illustrated that the definition of success changes depending on our circumstances and position in life. In their first year, 77 percent of students reported that grades were important in determining their success, while only 61 percent of students in their final year agreed. The students who reported that career-oriented activities mattered to them jumped dramatically from 9 percent freshmen year to 65 percent senior year. Many of us probably experienced the same shift during our time in college. As we got closer to graduation, we started thinking less about grades and much more about the next step, getting internships and job experience to be prepared to enter the workforce.

Accompanying this change in priorities was a change in the personal definitions of success. Outside the realm of academics, students had shifting priorities when it came to their social lives, too. For 56 percent of freshmen, making new friends was an important aspect of social and residential life success. That number dropped to just 3 percent senior year, while maintaining friendships grew in importance from 6 percent in year one to 42 percent in year four.⁴¹ As we settle into our careers, we, too, may find that maintaining relationships with friends and family takes precedence over forming new bonds.

Once you are in the working world, you need to identify the various aspects of your life (e.g., friends, family, work, exercise, personal time) and the appropriate balance among them. During the course of your reflection, you may want to read How Will You Measure Your Life? by Clayton M. Christensen. This book made me think deeply about how to have a successful professional life, sustain a fulfilling personal life, and live a life of integrity. You may also find it helpful to engage those around you in conversation. Hearing a variety of responses, you may find that some resonate with you more than others. These conversations can serve as a good foundation for honing in on your personal concept of success.

Remember to dream big dreams as you set your goals. If you are willing to put in the time and energy, anything is possible, especially in the brainstorming phase. Don’t be afraid to shoot for the moon—you might just reach it! A good example of this is President Barack Obama. Who imagined that a Black person with the name Barack Obama would become President of the United States in our lifetime? I never expected to see a Black president in my lifetime. I thought there were too many obstacles and too much racism to allow that to happen. But clearly, Barack Obama believed it was possible and intentionally made decisions consistent with that dream. So be willing to dream a big dream—regardless of the odds.

We don’t all have to aspire to the top job just because we think we ought to; but equally we shouldn’t set our sights too low, just because it’s what other people expect.

—MARGARET ROBINSON⁴²

THE SUCCESS-HAPPINESS CONNECTION

Of the more than two thousand Americans adults surveyed as part of the Success Project, 90 percent believed that success is defined by happiness.⁴³ This connection between success and happiness may exist globally. In his TED Talk, Shawn Achor, an American happiness researcher, outlined a widely accepted formula for success, which states, “If I work harder, I’ll be more successful. And if I’m more successful, then I’ll be happier.”⁴⁴ This formula sets up an assumption about the order of events. Success comes first. Happiness comes second. This leads to the idea that our happiness is ultimately dependent on how successful we are in life.

The problem with this approach, as we identified earlier, is that we are constantly changing our definition of success. As the circumstances in our lives change and as we reach our goals, we redefine our goals and visions of success. If happiness comes after success, our happiness is an ever-moving target that we may never reach. Achor presents an alternative theory in which he argues that the true formula for success could be happiness first, then success. Studies in the field of positive psychology⁴⁵ show that your brain at positive is 31 percent more productive than your brain at negative, neutral, or stressed. This productivity boost is now known as the happiness advantage.⁴⁶ Therefore, by prioritizing happiness in the present, we allow our brains to work more efficiently, which can lead to greater success.

STEP 2: TURNING IDEAS INTO PLANS

One way to create your vision of success is to ask yourself where you want to be 5 years, 10 years, or even 20 years from now—if you know that far out. Identifying where you want to end up may be a difficult task that requires time and soul searching. Or it may be an easy task because you already think about it every single day. After identifying the end goal, think backward about steps that will get you to your destination within the allotted tim...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• The Playing Field
• Rule 1: Success Is Intentional
• Rule 2: Master the Psychological Game
• Rule 3: The Numbers Matter
• Rule 4: Actively Network
• Rule 5: Recruit Mentors and Sponsors
• Rule 6: Invest in Your Professional Appearance
• Rule 7: Strategically Self-Promote
• Rule 8: Be Mindful of Work-Life Integration
• Rule 9: Become a Power Player and Pay It Forward
• Rule 10: Maintain Career Flexibility
• Conclusion
• Full List of Operational Strategies
• Acknowledgement
• Notes