Why do some executives ascend to the top and prosper, having extraordinary careers, while others of equal talent never reach their potential or aspirations?
James M. Citrin and Richard A. Smith of Spencer Stuart, one of the world's most influential retained executive search firms, set out to explore this question. Based on in-depth original research, Citrin and Smith identified straightforward patterns evident in extraordinary careers Patterns of Extraordinary Careers: The Guide for Achieving Success and Satisfaction by Citrin and Smith provides strategic career advice based on these patterns that can be used by everyone who wants to build a rewarding and personally-satisfying career turns out that extraordinary careers follow a strikingly consistent trajectory, marked by five distinct patterns that distinguish the very top from the rest of the pack what are the five patterns of extraordinary careers? They are as follows:
Understand the Value of You: People with extraordinary careers understand how value is created in the workplace, and translate that knowledge into action, building their personal value over each phase of their careers.
Practice Benevolent Leadership: People with extraordinary careers do not claw their way to the top, they are carried there.
Overcome the Permission Paradox: People with extraordinary careers overcome one of the great Catch-22s of business: you can't get the job without experience and you can't get the experience without the job.
Differentiate using the 20/80 Principle of Performance: People with extraordinary careers do their defined jobs exceptionally well but don't stop there. They storm past predetermined objectives to create breakthrough ideas and deliver unexpected impact.
Find the Right Fit (Strengths, Passions and People): People with extraordinary careers make decisions with the long-term in mind. They willfully migrate toward positions that fit their natural strengths and passions and where they can work with people they like and respect.
Brian Anderson is the principal founder of BA Search Group an Executive search, coaching and consulting practice in the Naperville, Aurora, IL market.
http://www.basearchgroup.com/
Monday, July 18, 2005
Friday, July 01, 2005
The Group Mind or The Team Advantage
Brian Anderson BA Search Group
In today’s business it’s obvious…or it should be, that each of us has only a part of the expertise or information we need to get our jobs done. As a result, we are more dependent on each other than our "American" independent spirit may want to acknowledge. We were raised on the myth of the "individual" who can rise to the top and do anything if he or she only tries hard enough. That only gets us so far anymore. Robert Kelly of Carnegie-Mellon University has been asking people for over 20 years "what percentage of the knowledge you need to do your job is stored in your own mind?"
In 1986 the answer was about 75 percent but by 1997 the percentage had slid to between 15 – 20 percent.
(1) According to Howard Gardner of Harvard in "Frames of Mind," "intelligence does not stop at my skin." "My network of associates -- office mates, professional colleagues, others whom I can dispatch electronic messages and my computer and other databases (web)" are important. We need each other. And… believe it…the group mind is frequently smarter and can generally make better choices. For example, in one experiment, students studied and worked in groups while taking a college course. For their final exam, they first took a portion of the exam individually. Then, after they turned in their answers, they were given an additional set of questions to answer as a group (they hashed the questions out together). Results from hundreds of these groups showed that 97 percent of the time the group scores were higher than those of the very best individuals.
(2, 3). Have you ever noticed that in the television show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" that when the contestant asks the audience to pick an answer, the audience choice is right more often than the so-called expert that the contestant queried over the telephone.
For the executive and leader, not surprisingly, an even more important point is that we’ve discovered that some groups/team out-perform others because of some very important reasons. Superior intellect and technical talents alone do not make people great team members. All things being equal the team that works better as a team will out score and out perform teams where the members do not function well together. In a study of group IQ by Wendy Williams and Robert Sternberg at Yale, the interpersonal skills and compatibility of the group members emerged as key to their performance.
(4) They found that those team members who were socially inept, out of tune with others’ feelings, were a drag on the whole effort – especially if they lacked the ability to resolve difference or communicate effectively. "Social effectiveness of the group predicted how well it would do, more than did the individual IQs of its members!" There conclusion: "Groups perform better when they foster a state of internal harmony. Such groups leverage the full talent of their members." Now, internal harmony does not equate to complacency.
I’ve helped some highly motivated, assertive teams improve how they work together and they didn’t miss a beat. In fact, they got more done because less time was spent on dealing with interpersonal B.S. that undermined how they functioned. According to Daniel Goleman of Harvard, "lubricating the mechanism of the group mind so that it can think and act brilliantly demands emotional intelligence." So, how do you build internal harmony? The primary task is to engender trust. Once you develop trust, you can work toward collaboration. Then the fun begins. Because team members who trust one another can collaborate to help each other develop. Your fellow team members are in the best position to provide developmental insight, encouragement and reinforcement to you and each other. And, through mutual accountability, you can keep each other on task. The team that holds each other to your developmental commitments grows together. Books and articles cited in this briefing: 1. "Working with Emotional Intelligence" by Daniel Goleman 2. "Group Versus Individual Performance" by G. W. Hill 3. "Interactive Minds" by Roger Dixon 4. "Group Intelligence: Why Some Groups are Better Than Others" by Wendy Williams and Robert Sternberg
Brian Anderson is the principal founder of BA Search Group an Executive search, coaching and consulting practice in the Naperville, Aurora, IL market.
http://www.basearchgroup.com/
In today’s business it’s obvious…or it should be, that each of us has only a part of the expertise or information we need to get our jobs done. As a result, we are more dependent on each other than our "American" independent spirit may want to acknowledge. We were raised on the myth of the "individual" who can rise to the top and do anything if he or she only tries hard enough. That only gets us so far anymore. Robert Kelly of Carnegie-Mellon University has been asking people for over 20 years "what percentage of the knowledge you need to do your job is stored in your own mind?"
In 1986 the answer was about 75 percent but by 1997 the percentage had slid to between 15 – 20 percent.
(1) According to Howard Gardner of Harvard in "Frames of Mind," "intelligence does not stop at my skin." "My network of associates -- office mates, professional colleagues, others whom I can dispatch electronic messages and my computer and other databases (web)" are important. We need each other. And… believe it…the group mind is frequently smarter and can generally make better choices. For example, in one experiment, students studied and worked in groups while taking a college course. For their final exam, they first took a portion of the exam individually. Then, after they turned in their answers, they were given an additional set of questions to answer as a group (they hashed the questions out together). Results from hundreds of these groups showed that 97 percent of the time the group scores were higher than those of the very best individuals.
(2, 3). Have you ever noticed that in the television show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" that when the contestant asks the audience to pick an answer, the audience choice is right more often than the so-called expert that the contestant queried over the telephone.
For the executive and leader, not surprisingly, an even more important point is that we’ve discovered that some groups/team out-perform others because of some very important reasons. Superior intellect and technical talents alone do not make people great team members. All things being equal the team that works better as a team will out score and out perform teams where the members do not function well together. In a study of group IQ by Wendy Williams and Robert Sternberg at Yale, the interpersonal skills and compatibility of the group members emerged as key to their performance.
(4) They found that those team members who were socially inept, out of tune with others’ feelings, were a drag on the whole effort – especially if they lacked the ability to resolve difference or communicate effectively. "Social effectiveness of the group predicted how well it would do, more than did the individual IQs of its members!" There conclusion: "Groups perform better when they foster a state of internal harmony. Such groups leverage the full talent of their members." Now, internal harmony does not equate to complacency.
I’ve helped some highly motivated, assertive teams improve how they work together and they didn’t miss a beat. In fact, they got more done because less time was spent on dealing with interpersonal B.S. that undermined how they functioned. According to Daniel Goleman of Harvard, "lubricating the mechanism of the group mind so that it can think and act brilliantly demands emotional intelligence." So, how do you build internal harmony? The primary task is to engender trust. Once you develop trust, you can work toward collaboration. Then the fun begins. Because team members who trust one another can collaborate to help each other develop. Your fellow team members are in the best position to provide developmental insight, encouragement and reinforcement to you and each other. And, through mutual accountability, you can keep each other on task. The team that holds each other to your developmental commitments grows together. Books and articles cited in this briefing: 1. "Working with Emotional Intelligence" by Daniel Goleman 2. "Group Versus Individual Performance" by G. W. Hill 3. "Interactive Minds" by Roger Dixon 4. "Group Intelligence: Why Some Groups are Better Than Others" by Wendy Williams and Robert Sternberg
Brian Anderson is the principal founder of BA Search Group an Executive search, coaching and consulting practice in the Naperville, Aurora, IL market.
http://www.basearchgroup.com/
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