I climbed the ladder mostly through trial and error. Until I discovered a few clear pathways that really successful people used to get to the top of the corporate hierarchy.
As an ex-strategy consultant, I worked quite closely with CEOs, CTOs, SVPs, and the Board of directors and have found some commonalities in people who managed to get up there at a relatively young age.
I discovered that the secret lies in a combination of Skills, Traits, and Mindset.
I strongly believe that these can be developed by anyone and applied to be successful. I used these skills, traits and the mindset to go from senior consultant to VP in under 5 years.
Had I known these earlier, I could’ve saved several years and all the trial and error.
Here are my observations on what separates people who manage to reach the career summit and make it look easy:
🎯 Knowledge & Skills: Successful people in corporations possess these 5 key skills.
- Communicate effectively: Not only do they communicate clearly, but they also practice effective communication. To learn more read about The Pyramid Principle.
- Deep domain expertise: Successful people possess deep domain knowledge. This comes not just from learning but deeply thinking about the market they operate in and its dynamics. I call this the superpower.
- Broad functional knowledge: They also possess a broad understanding across functions. I call it the power booster. Having exposure to various functions of the business from marketing and sales, to finance and technology enables them to have a broad perspective on decision-making.
- Ability to influence: Armed with deep domain knowledge, broad functional exposure, and effective communication, they become a person of influence. This is a key skill set that results in their ability to convince others.
- Lead teams: The final skill that I see in these successful people is that they are great team leaders. It comes from a place of sincere care for people around them. Leaders are excellent coaches who help bring people together towards a common goal.
🚀 Traits: These successful people also possess certain traits that enable them to stand out and distinguish themselves from the rest. These are:
- Visionary: They are great at solving the ‘here and now’ but also can envision a future state and work towards that vision. They possess a strong ability to establish a future vision and sell that vision to people and peers.
- Outcomes driven: Successful people always focus on outcomes and not just on the process. You will hear them say “Our work helped the customer reduce their costs by 20%” as opposed to “We spent 400 hours developing a cutting-edge software application for the customers”. Both statements might be true and talk about the same thing. The outlook is completely different.
- Growth enabler for people: Their leadership skill is rooted in a genuine care towards helping people grow. People are attracted to be part of their team as these people help everyone around them grow.
- Always learning: Successful people realize that learning is not a project with a start and end date. The more they learn, they realize the more there is to learn.
- Seeking challenges: Successful people run towards the fire and not away from it. They love challenges and if they are not challenged then they are not motivated.
- Going beyond your job description: The job description is not what determines the scope of work. They always go beyond their call of duty to contribute and seek opportunities to add value.
🧠 Mindset: Lastly successful ladder climbers have a mindset that drives them towards success. Here are 2 of the common mindsets that I observed:
- Top-down and bottom-up thinkers: They care about the details and understand that “the only way to consume an elephant is piece-by-piece”. However, they also can take a 30000 ft. view of the problem to think about the broader consequences of actions and decisions. This mindset is key to interacting both with the junior-most employee and the senior management team.
- “What would I do if it was my company” mindset: This is a mindset that I was introduced to by my ex-boss. I then started noticing this in many of the people who later became really successful in their careers. They did not treat their job as the sum of all the tasks that they did. They cared and had a mindset of “what would I do if this way my company”. They constantly check their decisions, or actions asking “Would I do this if it were my company”. This mindset is not just loyalty. It is understanding the consequences of actions!
Which of these skills, traits or mindsets would be excited to start or double-down on? Let me know in the comments.
If you like this article and have started your journey through the ladder, check out an article that I wrote to avoid the 7 critical pitfalls as a Manager.
Originally published on Medium