Trajectory

David Rooy, Ph.D.

• Publisher: AMACOM
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9780814433911
• Topic: Desarrollo personal
• Subtopic: Éxito personal

Career success has never happened overnight, but you can still be confident in your big-picture path to being successful. Trust the trajectory that has been laid out just for you!

Too often, people focus on the short term–mere survival--because they remain caught between a fear of failure and a desire for instant success, which results in limited risk-taking but also limiting their opportunities. As much as they want to get ahead, they simply can't see how to get there. They don't see how their current position is not merely a dead-end trap but actually a springboard to their next position--or even the one after that.

Business author David Van Rooy wants you to know that the key is to have faith in your trajectory. He says that every person has their own career path--and this timely and refreshingly practical book presents seven strategies designed to help anyone create and manage theirs.

In Trajectory, you will discover how to:

• Make the most of feedback
• Avoid stagnation and break through plateaus
• Achieve growth through failure
• Move to the front of the pack through persistence
• Continuously develop both "soft" and "hard" professional skills

You don't need to start over! Just discover where you currently are on your career trajectory. From building relationships with mentors, to positioning (and repositioning) yourself for promotion, Trajectory provides the tools you need for a lifetime of advancement.

LESSON 1

THE POWER OF FEEDBACK

Feedback is the breakfast of champions.

—KEN BLANCHARD

One of the easiest ways you can help yourself create and maintain a solid trajectory is to proactively seek out feedback. When I am talking about feedback, I mean hard feedback. Real feedback. Not softballs and platitudes to make you feel good about yourself. During the course of your career you should continually seek out those individuals who don't pull punches. It is easy—and common—for people to request feedback when they know it is going to be positive. It is much harder to request feedback when you think it may be critical of you. It is this feedback that is most valuable and that allows you to learn about your weaknesses. This information will enable you to chart a course to improve upon those areas. And you must begin to view feedback as a routine practice. Starting now.

Incidentally, the simple act of asking for feedback can propel you forward, assuming you respond favorably to it. Doing so shows that you are interested in continual learning, bettering yourself, and improving your performance in order to further your success as well as the company's. Leaders like success and success stories. Through receiving feedback and making positive changes you become a success story yourself. I have heard conversations many times about employees who are quite similar, but one is held in higher regard because of that person's tendency to seek out feedback.

In this lesson you will learn about ways to ask for and receive feedback. While on the surface it seems easy to ask for feedback, it can be very daunting and even intimidating. This is particularly true when you are not sure what you are going to hear, or are afraid that asking might be perceived as a sign of weakness or insecurity. Obtaining really useful feedback, called deep feedback, starts by knowing how to properly ask for it. All too often people never receive deep feedback due to missteps out of the gate when requesting it. On the receiving end, you must know how to avoid common mistakes that can easily occur based on your reaction to deep feedback. Deep feedback is about the truth, and without it you will have much more difficulty identifying your weaknesses and improving in those areas. If you realize that this hard feedback gets to the truth you will then be able to work on your weaknesses and even turn those areas into strengths.

NEGLECTING TO ASK

One of the most fateful mistakes people make is to assume they have all the answers. You must realize that the era in which asking for help was considered a sign of weakness is long gone. The best leaders actively seek out help, thereby gaining critical insight to aid in growing their skills and planning their trajectory. People often misconstrue what feedback is really about. It is not about people saying “great job,” and it is not just about seeking out accolades from others. In contrast to deep feedback, this is surface feedback. While surface feedback is important to receive when you do something well, it does little to provide you with constructive guidance for improvement. What we are going to talk about in this lesson includes how to ask the difficult questions to get at the information that may be critical in nature and hardest for you to hear, but most relevant to your success. To be able to seek out valuable feedback you must build the necessary internal fortitude to accept what you might uncover. Most important, you must empower people to feel comfortable providing you with the unvarnished truth.

My friend Doug worked in a Fortune 100 company and had quickly built a reputation as someone who delivered results during his two years with the organization. He also built another reputation, a reputation unknown to him: arrogance. Unfortunately, he had received only surface feedback on his results in the past. “Doug, great job on the Mercury Project.” “Doug, I can't believe you pulled off that new launch in six months. Amazing!” Understandably, Doug thought he was doing very well. But trouble was lurking under the surface. The company where he worked had a policy that required each manager to participate in a 360-degree review every few years. With a 360 review, input is gathered from a broad range of people, including peers, supervisors, subordinates, and customers. Doug expected to get very encouraging feedback and was excitedly waiting for the positive comments and the promotion that was sure to follow. Instead he was mortified when he received the results.

Rather than a list of accolades, Doug was staring at multiple low ratings and qualitative feedback that was difficult for him to digest. He could not believe that the results were actually his. He began to think back over the past two years and could not pinpoint specific incidents that would have led to this feedback. He was debriefed on the results by a professional coach, who recommended that he meet individually with each person who had provided input into the 360 review. Furthermore, he instructed Doug to give colleagues and coworkers permission to give him honest feedback during their face-to-face meetings. Giving people permission to be transparent is incredibly important. Other than your direct boss, few people have a vested interest in being candid with you. In fact, many people are reluctant to give feedback outside of their area, as there is often not much upside to doing so. Doug followed his coach's advice, and what he encountered would change him for the rest of his career.

It all started with his first meeting with Antonio, who was a director in another department. Antonio had interacted with Doug numerous times on cross-functional projects, and they had a good working relationship. During the meeting Antonio provided input that really opened Doug's eyes. The conversation went as follows:

DOUG: Antonio, thank you for taking the time to meet, and for participating in my 360 review. I received positive feedback in a number of areas, including executing projects on schedule. However, there was also consistent feedback from the 360 that my style was perceived as condescending and even arrogant by some people. I would like to ask for your unvarnished feedback directly. Your opinion means a great deal to me, and I know I can improve based upon it.

ANTONIO: Well, Doug, that's a tough question. You have done a pretty good job completing the projects that you have been assigned. But I've also been troubled by the way you came across to my team. Instead of seeking out their opinions, you always would directly jump to providing yours. You might have been right, but my team thought that you ignored them and were more interested in showing off how much you know. They really felt that you did not care to take the time to listen to their ideas.

DOUG: Wow, I never realized they felt that way. Why haven't you told me this before?

ANTONIO: Because you never asked. My biggest concern was the success of the projects, and I did not want to interfere with the feedback that I am sure your boss was already giving you on this.

DOUG: But I never heard this from my boss…

Doug had made a cardinal mistake. He believed he was doing well across the board, and assumed that he would be given feedback even if he didn't ask for it. In this case, however, his boss did not witness what others on the project teams were experiencing. Had Doug asked for feedback earlier he could have self-corrected before the negative reputation spread. To Doug's immense credit, he took it a step beyond what his coach recommended. He began to understand how his behavior could have been interpreted that way, and vowed to change it. He met with the people he had impacted and had open conversations about what it would be like to work with him moving forward. The people he spoke with appreciated his candor, and luckily Doug was able to regain his footing. Several years later Doug remarked that the 360 felt like a punch to the stomach, but it was an awakening moment. Since then as a matter of practice he routinely asks for feedback at various points in all projects. His receptiveness to feedback and change has even been held up as an example in various meetings. He laughs now and says, “The good thing is that I am now used as an example. The bad thing is that I let myself get to that point.”

OVERCOMING YOUR OWN RESISTANCE

Many people are adamant that they already know what they do well and what they don't do well. Nothing could be further from the truth. We can certainly make these judgments in broad and sometimes irrelevant areas, but we do not do so well when evaluating specific skills and competencies. For instance, a manager may know that he is not a good guitar player. However, in considering his career, he may erroneously believe that people think he is pleasurable to work for. Quite simply, people are not good judges of their own skills, particularly ones in which they are not strong. Ask ten people if they think they are above-average drivers. Seven or more people are likely to say yes. Ask ten other people if they are above-average parents. Eight or more will likely say yes. Yet it is obviously not possible for everyone to be above average. Incidentally, people with higher intelligence have been found to have even less awareness of their weaknesses than do others. Remember this the next time you think you are attuned to your strengths and weaknesses and therefore do not feel a need to seek feedback.

To further illustrate how wide the gap is between our own and others’ perceptions, consider performance evaluations. Research has consistently revealed that people are notoriously bad at rating their own performance; the correlation between self-ratings and manager ratings across many studies has been shown to be moderate at best. Still, organizations continue this practice, largely because it makes people feel good. What really happens is that self-ratings distract from receiving the important feedback that is so essential for your development and growth. In your conversations with your boss, focus less on the ratings you receive, and push to get to the deep feedback that you need. When you let go of numbers and ratings you open yourself up to receiving substantive feedback that you can actually use.

Other times something seems so basic that you may not even consider the need for feedback. This can lead to negative consequences. The Coors Brewing Company had a now infamous example of this. Desiring to extend the ad campaign for its “Turn it loose” slogan, Coors had the phrase translated for the market in Spain. Unfortunately, the subsequent translation was interpreted as “Drink Coors, suffer from diarrhea.” Coors obviously knew that the campaign was important, as evidenced by the budget to produce and deliver it. Yet feedback was not requested from those who knew this area the best: bilingual speakers who were native to the target country. An embarrassment could have been avoided in a matter of minutes if this type of feedback had been sought. This example is a bit humorous, but the principle applies everywhere. Be careful when you are so close to something that you cannot see the forest for the trees. Do not assume you know.

It is also easy to dismiss feedback, not just because you disagree with it, but because other things seem more important at the time. When this happens, the area of concern will usually resurface later, when it will be even more of a problem. Howard Schultz, the chairman and CEO of Starbucks, describes such a situation. For years the emphasis at Starbucks had been on the growth of the chain. Starbucks had been growing so quickly that feedback that could impede expansion was brushed under the rug. Schultz relates the story of problems that reemerged in the Starbucks distribution network when he returned as CEO after resigning eight years earlier. He had heard the feedback and complaints about the company's supply chain organization (SCO) before, but he simply instructed people to get products to the stores; he did not mandate the necessary investment to address the underlying issue. He now uses this oversight as an example of ignoring something that should have been an obvious need requiring action. SCO was not an area in which he had a deep interest, and therefore he did not devote the necessary attention to building it out properly. As a result, he came back to find the supply chain organization in even greater disarray. It was now impacting the ability to get products to the Starbucks locations. Ultimately he was able to resolve the problem, but the level of effort to do so was way beyond what it would have been had he acted earlier. Lesson: It is easier to step out of a pothole than a pit.

This same tendency to dismiss feedback can further manifest itself during times of success. Do not let success preclude you from seeking feedback. If you are not careful, success itself can become the biggest barrier to recognizing and dealing with what is in front of you. Remember to focus on not just the previously unknown feedback you uncover from others, but also on what you already know and have avoided or ignored. In particular, pay attention to feedback relating to those shortcomings that you have been able to mask because of success in other areas.

If you do not actively seek and consider feedback you will succumb to what is known as bounded awareness. As described in their Harvard Business Review article, Max Bazerman and Dolly Chugh illustrate how people fail in their awareness to see what is right in front of them. People often focus only on obvious areas, and therefore their ability to improve suffers because they are not using all of the information available to them. We are inclined to focus on very specific and salient information, while missing other information that is readily available. To illustrate the point, Bazerman and Chugh relate this failing to a famous experiment in which people watched a video and were asked to count how many times a basketball was passed. Almost everyone was so focused on watching and counting the basketball passes that they failed to notice that a person in a gorilla costume walked right through the middle of the court! The participants were successful in counting the number of basketball passes but had missed so much else. At work and in life you must not focus so closely on one thing that you don't even notice the gorilla in the middle.

DEPERSONALIZATION

Seeking feedback sounds quite easy. It is just a matter of asking someone for it, right? Wrong. It is relatively easy to ask for, but then the moment arrives when you receive the unvarnished truth. It is at this moment that you will test yourself. Your reaction is critical. Do not rationalize the feedback or explain it away. Do not blame others. Do not get angry. If you react in any of those ways, you are less apt to receive accurate feedback from that person again. No, you need to take in the feedback. Process it. Remember, this person's opinion does matter or you would not have asked for it in the first place. If you are not sure about what you have heard, ask clarifying questions. Request a specific example. If the feedback is hard to hear, thank the person and then go digest it. Do not react defensively. Taking this approach will allow you to introspectively process the feedback and then come back another day to continue the discussion.

The way that you choose to accept feedback can be broken down into constructive reactions and destructive reactions. People often talk about receiving constructive feedback, but it can only be effective if you also react constructively to it. All too often people do the opposite and let feedback that is given with positive intentions spiral into a negative situation. There is nothing worse that can happen with feedback than allowing a constructive moment to turn into a destructive event. If you make that mistake, what was intended to be a helpful encounter can quickly turn into a situation that leads to resentment.

A prior employee of mine, Jeff, who was an outstanding performer, found a way to avoid reacting destructively to feedback. When presented with difficult feedback he would listen very attentively, perhaps ask a few clarifying questions, and then simply say, “Thank you for the feedback.” Like clockwork, he would return a few days later and ask if we could talk about it some more. Jeff just wanted time to process before reacting. This was important to him because he did not want to risk coming across as defensive or resistant to the feedback. Jeff would take the time to think about what he'd heard and then come back with additional questions and a plan that he had started to create to address the opportunity. In doing so Jeff was able to react to feedback in a constructive manner.

What Jeff was doing was utilizing an approach to depersonalize the feedback. When you get feedback you must not personalize the conversation. Remember, the purpose of feedback is not for you to win a popularity contest; it is for you to improve your performance. To enable this you must not take the feedback personally. You can be transparent when seeking clarity, but you should avoid adopting a “you-versus-them” mentality.

Consider Jeremy, who took a different approach that turned into destructive feedback. His intent was to improve on some specific developmental opportunities that his supervisor reviewed with him during his performance evaluation. During the evaluation his supervisor suggested that he speak with his peer Alana, with whom he had worked on many projects. As Alana began to provide him with suggestions and specific examples, Jeremy interrupted and said, “I don't know why you have to always bring that up. When are you going to let go of the fact that we missed the deadline on the Atlas Initiative?” The conversation quickly went downhill from there. Instead of objectively working through how the same mistakes could be avoided in the future, Jeremy had personalized his reaction and put Alana in a difficult position. When Alana relayed this story to me, I was not surprised to hear that she did not want to go out of her way to provide Jeremy with feedback in the future. Not only did Jeremy miss an important opportunity to improve, but he also cut off an avenue of future feedback and potentially harmed a working relationship.

An example that hit even closer to home occurred when I provided a colleague with feedback to help her improve the way in which she communicated messages to executives. What was Sheila's response? “I have never heard that from anyone else, so I don't see any need for me to change my style.” Her reaction certainly left me not wanting to go out of my way to help her in the future. This situation did at least end well. Upon giving it some thought, she asked a few others about the feedback and learned that the perspective was actually pervasive. However, the bad taste I had from the experience could have been avoided entirely had Sheila not personalized the feedback and acted defensively. In addition, like Doug, Sheila had erred in thinking that just because she had not heard the feedback before that everything must be going well. It should be clear by now that you must be careful no...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• Getting Started: The Concept of Trajectory
• Lesson 1: The Power of Feedback
• Lesson 2: Persistence as a Differentiator
• Lesson 3: Think Big, Act Small, Move Quick
• Lesson 4: Breaking through Plateaus
• Lesson 5: Avoiding the Stagnation Trap
• Lesson 6: Achieving Growth from Failure
• Lesson 7: Sustaining Outlier Performance
• Conclusion
• References
• Index
• About the Author
• Free Sample Chapter from the Secret to Peak Productivity by Tamara Myles