Step 1: Getting Started

Rick Searer, former President of Kraft Foods NA, used to ask, “what is the problem you’re trying to solve?”  Without defining the problem clearly, any solution will do.  Now, if you were asked this question, you knew you just might be in a bit of trouble.  Why?  Because maybe, just maybe, you hadn't thought things through all the way!  

For too long, I couldn't answer this question about my career; I hadn't really thought things through all the way.  I had written business plans, but I certainly hadn't written a career plan.  I had ideas in my head about what I wanted, but I had not taken any concrete steps toward making my dreams reality.  


So, here are my questions to you:  Can you answer it about yours?  What is the problem your're trying to solve?  Where do you want to go in your career?


The good news about career development is that it can be fun if you approach it with an open mind and can be honest with yourself.  Ultimately, everything you want to achieve comes back to your behaviors; your behaviors are the only things that you can control. Your behaviors help you master technical competencies as well as leadership competencies you need to get ahead.   Conversely, think about the last time you tried to change somebody else?  How'd that work out for ya?       


So, the first step in determining what behaviors you need to adopt in the short term depends on where you want to go long term.  The path to Chief Marketing Officer may look a bit different than the one that leads to General Manager of a business unit.

The first tool that I like to use in a development conversation identifies these paths by examining your career through 3 lenses (see Slideshare):

Functional / Technical Skills
Values / Competencies

Business Context

The skills needed for success will vary by occupation type, particularly early in your career.  We in marketing should be knowledgeable about the TV advertising process, but would be less likely to need know how to create a backup server protocol for internal data storage.   As your career progresses, certain skills become more common, e.g. strong knowledge of financial accounting. 

Competencies refer to a more universal set of leadership behaviors, regardless of role.  These tend to be the ideals an organization lays out for all employees.  Strategic Planning, Building Teams and Developing Others are classic examples of competencies or values.  Variation in competencies tends to occur by level in the organization.  The Associate Brand Manager or Financial Analyst must demonstrate Flawless Execution and Drive for Results before they are expected to demonstrate Strategic Planning.   FYI - FOR YOUR IMPROVEMENT - A Guide for Development and Coaching by Lombardo & Eichinger tops the list of my all-time favorite books on competency and values. 

Business context will be universally applicable, but not all organizations have this type of dialogue.  Though many have written about it, I have found my guru in Michael Watkins on this topic.  The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels provides definition of 4 potential situations:  Turn Around, Start Up, Sustaining Success and Realignment.  Both Kraft and SC Johnson evaluate leaders based on the type of context they have experienced.  Relevance here comes from the impact these situations have on learning and growth.  To be a truly well rounded leader, you must experience the digging out of the Turnaround and the sunshine in the Sustain.   

This and all the future tools on this blog strive to facilitate development conversations with your manager or team member.  If your manager hasn’t been the greatest coach in the past, use this as a way to start the conversation.  Same goes for you by the way, have your report fill out the template and bring it to you to start a conversation.  Give it a chance with your boss.  If it doesn’t go anywhere, have the conversation with a peer or mentor.  You can do this alone, but the results will be far better if you do it with a partner.   

A key benefit of this tool arises from its ability to create a broader catalog of your past experience than just results (like a resume).   Based on the past, you can then look to the next 1 to 2 roles to outline immediate learning or experience goals across the 3 lenses.  I like to focus 1 to 2 roles out because I find that predicting the future beyond your next rotation becomes tricky for any number of reasons.  That said the ultimate goal always resides there at the top.

Each box on the tool represents a role, e.g. Associate Brand Manager on Lunchables.  Under each role, space exists to capture the top 2-3 skills learned.  You may have learned more, but these should really list out those you have mastered.  Watkins situations describe the operating context within each role, directly underneath it.  The rows on the left signify management level – Individual Contributor, Manager, Senior Leader and Executive – and the rows on the right provide room for competency detail.

Once you populate with your history, you can then look toward the future.  Starting with skills, you can identify specific functional / technical items you need to learn to get to the next level.  Many organizations will have written criteria for advancement.  If not, have a conversation with your boss and HR to get in writing those skills you need to demonstrate.  Take these and put those you don’t have in the next 1 to 2 roles.  Or, if you will stay within role, change the boxes to projects and scope out those might offer you the chance to obtain them.  Work with your manager and HR to make it official.

With competencies, I prefer to identify 3 within current level and 3 for one level above.  That way you can keep an eye on demonstrating future behaviors while you are mastering those of your current level.  Which competencies you choose should build from your strengths, align with your manager’s thoughts and meet the organization’s definitions by level. 

Once completed, a critical cross check for both skill and competency mapping lies in the broader marketplace.  Understanding the differences between internal prioritization (as defined by your boss and the organization) and external prioritization (as defined by mentors, experts and industry) makes you more knowledgeable and valuable.  Though it has been said ad nauseam, you need to be every bit as marketable to the outside as to the inside.  To that end, my next blog entry will share what I have learned at Kraft and SCJ about which competencies to prioritize.

Finally, this is a living document.  Your needs and goals will change as your career progresses.  Revisit, reevaluate and rewrite once a year.    

Questions you can ask based on the career path document: 

Am I overdeveloped in one skill?

What key skills am I missing as defined by an audience?

Have I truly developed mastery of an important skill, or have I merely been exposed to it?

Are the skills required for a role those I want to develop?

Is there a skill I am particularly passionate about that might evolve my overall career goal and path?

Have I experienced the different business situations?

What business situations do I excel in?  Do I prefer?

Are my roles giving me a chance to develop the competencies I need to lead?

Are the competencies required to lead those I want to develop?

How do my strengths in competencies influence my overall career goal and path?    

What questions will you ask?  Post them or send me an email.