Get on the YOUR Path to Success… “Who Am I?” Professional Edition, Part 1
A few weeks back I conducted a leadership workshop for about 200 leaders of at a large University medical center. At just about every break the most popular question to me was, “how do you lead talent who don’t really want to be led?”
I’m sure the question was “code” for leaders struggling to unlock the “what’s in it for me” key that will engage their followers. Unfortunately for leaders and followers alike, we are all pre-wired with a set of interests, values and motives. ”Wishing” to simply wake up and start loving what you do will NOT translate into a spontaneous feeling of career satisfaction and overall happiness.
If only we all truly understood how our personal interests, values and motives were wired – and could put it into a simple language that would allow our bosses to understand how to engage us – we could unlock some of the mystery surrounding effective leadership (and followership).
Based on our research, we’ve discovered four major “Career Paths” that we all can fall into at any given time. They are:
- Managerial
- Specialist/Independent Contributor
- Entrpreneurial
- Generalist.
People who are happy within each career path will be motivated by very different jobs, responsibilities and activities.
We will visit each one of these career paths further in future articles, but it’s important to recognize that understanding where you stand within these groups will help you to determine what kinds of jobs will keep you energized month after month… Or even why you’re unhappy with what you’re currently doing! Couple this with knowing how to identify where others stand will help you find mentors to get you where you want to be.
For example, if I knew I wanted to be a manager in a Fortune 500 company one day then seeking a mentor that is anchored in the values of an entrepreneur will probably be a lose-lose proposition. The concept may seem simple, not it’s not much different than the highly successful sales person (a tried and true specialist) who gets promoted to Sales Manager (a managerial position) and fails miserably. It’s a very similar situation that happens all the time!
To Be Continued…
Technorati Tags: momentor, career path, careers, career, career development, professional development
August 28th, 2007 at 4:48 pm
[...] ← Get on the YOUR Path to Success… “Who Am I?” Professional Edition, Part 1 [...]
September 14th, 2007 at 3:03 pm
[...] Part 1: Get on YOUR Path to Success explored the importance of understanding who you are can contribute to a feeling of personal success. [...]
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[...] if you’re on a different Career Path than the one we call “managerial?” Then you have to develop your own [...]
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[...] being a boss is not the right career choice for you, don’t despair. There are other career paths that you can take. But it’s way easier to seek them out before you’re offered a [...]
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[...] being a boss is not the right career choice for you, don’t despair. There are other career paths that you can take. But it’s way easier to seek them out before you’re offered a [...]