Globalization Conference: Leading or Lagging?
We always have two great fears. The first one is the Fear of worrying about being imperfect. And the second one is the fear of missing out the opportunities. These will affect what you think and what you do in your career.
You probably have known the Hedgehog Strategy, which is a combination of 3 factors: Passion (what do you want to do?), Skills (what are you great at?) and Economic Viability (what can you build your organization’s funding around?). Theoretically, you can understand your inner-self more through the analysis of those three factors. But in the reality, they require you to be more mindful.
During the conference, Leading or Lagging, Professor Alok shared 5 stages on your career path
The first stage is the Discovery stage. No one understands you better than yourself. Only by understanding what you want, how you are doing, you can determine the direction of your work as well as understand how to change your weaknesses and promote your strengths. Professor Alok shared how you find your inner-self with the “Mi – VIPD”, which is understood as Mindset, Values, Interests, Personality, and Drivers).
The third stage is the Competence stage: The most valuable treasure of a person’s life is not the luxurious assets that you own such as lands, houses, cars..etc. But it is achieved by gaining yourself experiences, knowledge, and skills throughout your life. Getting those things require you to make a big investment and constantly improve yourself.
The fourth stage necessitates you to be calm and reliable since this is the Trust stage. By the time you enter this stage, you have gained yourself trust and confidence of leaders and colleagues. Now is the time when you not only focus on the results and efficiencies of your work, but also become the leader, the guider, and the right-hand man to help your CEO develop the business.
The final stage is extremely arduous and difficult, the Influence stage: Imagine climbing a mountain, when you reach the peak of the mountain it feels great. You will absolutely proud of yourself, will you not? Now presuming someone asks you about your climbing journey, are you going to you tell them about your experiences, the difficulties you went through, and the lessons you have learned along the way? Everyone will totally listen to you with trust and admiration…That is when you know you have reached the Influence stage.
Going through 5 stages in the process of building your career, you will realize that the speed and the level of promotions are very different. You can pick up the pace to reach your destination, but you can also be as slow as a snail to step by step getting through each stage, it is a slow progression but a steady efficient strategy. Remember that you are running for a long distance, not a short relay race.