06:25
Faizan
In business, one skill rises above all others in determining how much success will occur: choosing the right task to work on next.
Let me explain why I came to that conclusion.
While working as director of strategic planning for a Fortune 200 company, I recall a time when my list of "official" assignments had 112 items on it. As you can imagine, I wasn't going to get around to doing most of those tasks, even if I just delegated them.
On the one hand, I felt a lot of pressure to do some of the tasks because of what others had said to me. Some people felt their careers were at stake. Others thought that disasters were pending that could be avoided. On the other hand, I realized that even some of these tasks weren't worth doing.
If I had a third hand, I would have noticed that some of the most important tasks for the company weren't on my list... or anyone else's. Oops!
If I had been a person concerned about making maximum career progress, the task list would have been short and clear. I would have just done tasks for those who could promote me. Since I was a pretty senior person in the company, there weren't many of those people... just two. I could have just focused on what they most wanted done each day. They gave me few assignments, and they were usually easy ones.
In assessing my judgment, realize that I was quite a young man at the time -- in my twenties -- with limited experience. Chances are good that some of what I thought I knew was wrong, and much of what I didn't know was invisible to me. If some of those things were important, they weren't going to receive the right attention from me.
If I were totally determined to work on the right tasks, how could I possibly fill in all the gaps concerning my incorrect views and my ignorance? Clearly, I needed to get help from those who were more knowledgeable. Who were those people? In the pre-Internet days, it was hard to find out. Even today, it's still pretty difficult.
In most cases, people remain focused on just what they know... or think they know. That's a big mistake. Such an approach may mean painting yourself into a corner and building in high walls around it so that you cannot easily look or go elsewhere.
Inside of an organization, there's not much room to roam. However, as long as you don't misrepresent yourself in terms of what your authority is, there's very little to constrain you from wandering around quite a bit outside your organization. And much of what's most valuable to learn will develop from such wanderings.
Let me explain why I came to that conclusion.
While working as director of strategic planning for a Fortune 200 company, I recall a time when my list of "official" assignments had 112 items on it. As you can imagine, I wasn't going to get around to doing most of those tasks, even if I just delegated them.
On the one hand, I felt a lot of pressure to do some of the tasks because of what others had said to me. Some people felt their careers were at stake. Others thought that disasters were pending that could be avoided. On the other hand, I realized that even some of these tasks weren't worth doing.
If I had a third hand, I would have noticed that some of the most important tasks for the company weren't on my list... or anyone else's. Oops!
If I had been a person concerned about making maximum career progress, the task list would have been short and clear. I would have just done tasks for those who could promote me. Since I was a pretty senior person in the company, there weren't many of those people... just two. I could have just focused on what they most wanted done each day. They gave me few assignments, and they were usually easy ones.
In assessing my judgment, realize that I was quite a young man at the time -- in my twenties -- with limited experience. Chances are good that some of what I thought I knew was wrong, and much of what I didn't know was invisible to me. If some of those things were important, they weren't going to receive the right attention from me.
If I were totally determined to work on the right tasks, how could I possibly fill in all the gaps concerning my incorrect views and my ignorance? Clearly, I needed to get help from those who were more knowledgeable. Who were those people? In the pre-Internet days, it was hard to find out. Even today, it's still pretty difficult.
In most cases, people remain focused on just what they know... or think they know. That's a big mistake. Such an approach may mean painting yourself into a corner and building in high walls around it so that you cannot easily look or go elsewhere.
Inside of an organization, there's not much room to roam. However, as long as you don't misrepresent yourself in terms of what your authority is, there's very little to constrain you from wandering around quite a bit outside your organization. And much of what's most valuable to learn will develop from such wanderings.
Posted in: business
