AN IDEAS INTO ACTION GUIDEBOOK
Keeping Your Career On Track
Twenty Success Strategies
IDEAS INTO ACTION GUIDEBOOKS
Aimed at managers and executives who are concerned with their own and others’ development, each guidebook in this series gives specific advice on how to complete a developmental task or solve a leadership problem.
| LEAD CONTRIBUTORS | Craig Chappelow |
| Jean Brittain Leslie | |
| CONTRIBUTORS | Michael M. Lombardo |
| Morgan W. McCall, Jr. | |
| Cynthia D. McCauley | |
| Ann M. Morrison | |
| Ellen Van Velsor | |
| Randall P. White | |
| GUIDEBOOK ADVISORY GROUP | Victoria A. Guthrie |
| Cynthia D. McCauley | |
| Russ S. Moxley | |
| DIRECTOR OF PUBLICATIONS | Martin Wilcox |
| EDITOR | Peter Scisco |
| DESIGN AND LAYOUT | Joanne Ferguson |
| CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS | Laura J. Gibson |
| Chris Wilson, 29 & Company |
Copyright ©2001 Center for Creative Leadership.
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America.
CCL No. 408
ISBN-13: 978-1-882197-61-3
ISBN-10: 1-882197-61-5
CENTER FOR CREATIVE LEADERSHIP
AN IDEAS INTO ACTION GUIDEBOOK
Keeping Your Career On Track
Twenty Success Strategies
Craig Chappelow and Jean Brittain Leslie
THE IDEAS INTO ACTION GUIDEBOOK SERIES
This series of guidebooks draws on the practical knowledge that the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL®) has generated in the course of more than thirty years of research and educational activity conducted in partnership with hundreds of thousands of managers and executives. Much of this knowledge is shared—in a way that is distinct from the typical university department, professional association, or consultancy. CCL is not simply a collection of individual experts, although the individual credentials of its staff are impressive; rather it is a community, with its members holding certain principles in common and working together to understand and generate practical responses to today’s leadership and organizational challenges.
The purpose of the series is to provide managers with specific advice on how to complete a developmental task or solve a leadership challenge. In doing that, the series carries out CCL’s mission to advance the understanding, practice, and development of leadership for the benefit of society worldwide. We think you will find the Ideas Into Action Guidebooks an important addition to your leadership toolkit.
Table of Contents
The Bad News: Derailment Happens
The Good News: Success Happens Too
EXECUTIVE BRIEF
Managers who achieve significant professional goals don’t often worry about career derailment. But complacency isn’t the same as continued success. Many high-performing executives have one or more blind spots that they ignore as long as they meet their business goals. The traps that lead to derailment can usually be found among five leadership competencies: interpersonal relationships, building and leading a team, getting results, adapting to change, and having a broad functional orientation. Managers who rely on any of these skills at the expense of the others or who neglect these skills when promoted from a technical to a managerial role can sidetrack their career. Leadership success—achieving it and continuing it—depends heavily on a manager’s developing and using each of these skills.
The Bad News: Derailment Happens
Since 1983 the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) has studied executive derailment across North America and Europe. By comparing successful managers to those who derail, CCL has identified specific factors that lead to success and other factors that force once-successful careers off the track. Managers who are aware of those factors and conduct an honest self-assessment of their leadership skills can go a long way toward keeping a career headed in the right direction.
What does CCL mean by “success” and “derailment”? Its research defines a successful manager as one who has reached at least the general management level and who, in the eyes of senior executives, remains a likely candidate for promotion. A derailed manager is one who, having reached the general manager level, is fired, demoted, or reaches a career plateau. It’s important to note that organizations saw the derailed managers as having high potential for advancement, as having impressive track records, and holding a solidly established leadership position—until they derailed. Derailment doesn’t refer to individuals who have topped out in their company’s hierarchy or to managers who elect to stay at a particular level.
Five key characteristics have been observed in derailed executives. Leaders who derail:
1. have problems with interpersonal relationships
2. fail to hire, build, and lead a team
3. fail to meet business objectives
4. are unable or unwilling to change or adapt
5. lack a broad functional orientation.
The Good News: Success Happens Too
Just as there are clear indicators of derailment, there are also key characteristics associated with successful executives. Leaders who succeed:
1. establish strong relationships