To reach the dizzy heights of senior management we know that it is important to consistently focus on the job and deliver. It is about deliverables, and the quality and detail of those deliverables. As life becomes more complex many of us are balancing several balls in the air at one time, and therefore being able to focus is critical.
This is more important today than ever before as the structures of family life are changing. It is now common for both parents to be working full time and building individual careers. The structure of work is also changing with managers expected to manage most areas of administration, like booking airfares, as well as their area of responsibility.
Consequently, many people are often rushing, trying to fit a full time work schedule into a full time life with little time to plan. However planning is key. Those people, who want to reach the pinnacles of their career and enjoy the spoils of their labour, need to take some time to plan what structures they need to put in place, to enable them to achieve this.
Career planning is not only about what courses to do, networking opportunities and jobs to apply for; it is about planning the infrastructure around your job to ensure you are able to deliver. In fact, I believe doing this well can give your career a competitive advantage.
To demonstrate the importance of this element of career planning, lets compare a couple of scenarios:
Scenario 1
A senior manager in an organisation has two or three children. Both of the parents work. They organise school pick-ups, lunches, sporting events, organise dinner and the home and social activities. They have someone who does the house cleaning and the grandparents help out with the children when they are available. If the children become sick they may have to pick them up or organise others to do so.
Scenario 2
A senior manager in an organisation has two or three children. Both parents work. They have a live in Nanny or Au Pair. They go to the gym together first thing in the morning on their way to work. They have time with the children each night and dinner is prepared. No significant house chores need to be done on the weekend.
In comparing these scenarios, I am not suggesting that either scenario is better than the other, and of course personal circumstances and values come into to play. What I am demonstrating however is, thinking purely on the individuals ability to focus on work, that scenario 2 is, if all else is equal, are more likely to have a career competitive advantage?
If someone is organised at work, appears in control, arrives at meetings on time, doesn’t appear distracted and is focused, they are more likely to be seen as having career potential compared to someone who isn’t.
This was clearly demonstrated to me a few years ago when I was coaching a client that wanted to progress their career, yet they were clearly being overlooked. The manager was always rushing, texting at 100 miles an hour and was not paying enough attention to the detail. As I began to understand this manager, it became clear that they were trying to fit a full time job into three quarters of the time it took to do the job. They had so much that they had to do in their life, a lot of it had to be fitted in during work time.
It was clear that unless something changed, their career aspirations would never be met. It was not about skill or opportunity it was the ability to organising one’s life to achieve ones aspiration, if that indeed was what they wanted.
Another example was I was having a business lunch with a senior manager in an organisation who recently had become a single parent. They apologised for running late and explained that life was very hectic. As lunch progressed they explained that it was difficult juggling childcare, paying bills, managing the house, preparing meals, and shopping. A social life had become non-existent.
I mentioned that there was a service that I had used called “wife without strings”. Everything you want is organised for them by this service. This includes cleaner, dry cleaning, appliances need fixing, dinner party organised including a nanny service when required. The manager had been so busy surviving they had not taken time to consider what they needed to support them. This may or may not be the most appropriate solution but it highlighted that such services were available and could help them support their career.
There are of course many examples we could all relate to either in our own lives or in what we observe in others. The main message is in order to gain a competitive advantage in your career, planning is critical and as a part of career planning you need to organise your life in a way that will enable you to achieve your career goals. If all else is equal, those people who do this well have a clear competitive career advantage, of those who do not.
