Bill Barnett

The Strategic Career

Let Business Principles Guide You

• Gebundenes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

Bill Barnett teaches career strategy at Rice University's Jones Graduate School of Business. He was formerly Director of McKinsey & Company, Inc., where he led the firm's Strategy Practice.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Stanford University Press
• Seitenzahl: 304
• Erscheinungstermin: 27. Mai 2015
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 236mm x 154mm x 27mm
• Gewicht: 540g
• ISBN-13: 9780804793582
• ISBN-10: 0804793581
• Artikelnr.: 41753589

Autorenporträt

Bill Barnett teaches career strategy at Rice University's Jones Graduate School of Business. He was formerly Director of McKinsey & Company, Inc., where he led the firm's Strategy Practice.

Inhaltsangabe

Contents and Abstracts
Introduction
chapter abstract
The introduction first tells the story of the research that showed how to
make better career decisions by applying business strategy concepts to
careers. It uses two examples to illustrate the way the book's stories will
show the career strategy principles in action. It describes the book's
step-by-step methodology to help readers get to fresh insights and positive
impact. It sets in-going expectations about the potential for positive
personal impact from reading the book and completing the book's exercises.
And it presents the book's overall outline.
1Fundamental Values Leading to a Calling
chapter abstract
Career strategy begins when people recognize their personal values related
to work. This chapter presents the jobs/careers/callings model and explains
how people with callings enjoy greater happiness and personal satisfaction.
It describes what distinguishes people in each category. Calling people are
ambitious and emphasize the work as a positive end in itself - service,
craftsmanship, and/or institution. Career people also are ambitious, but
they emphasize what they take out of work - money, power, and prestige.
Work isn't as important to jobs people who hope to contain sacrifice and
earn acceptable pay. Ironically, calling people who don't emphasize pay and
prestige often accomplish a lot, advance, and earn near the top of their
professions. Understanding personal values at work is essential to finding
a calling. This chapter then shows how to explore those values. The result
of Chapter 1 is a prioritized list of values related to work.
2Strengths
chapter abstract
In the short term, strengths are why an employer will hire someone. In the
long term, strengths are the platform on which people can set career
aspirations. People who emphasize their signature strengths will accomplish
more, be happier, and have a good shot at finding their calling.
Understanding strengths, therefore, is critical to career strategy. The
strengths that are most important to career strategy are those that are
distinctive and that closely relate to what's required for success at
particular kinds of work; that often means the most important strengths
will be narrow and very specific. It can be hard to understand oneself in
that way. This chapter presents strength assessment exercises and shows how
to use them. The result of Chapter 2 is a ranked list of strengths.
3From Values and Strengths to Fields and Roles
chapter abstract
Callings emerge when people find fields and roles that reflect their values
and use their strengths, but it's often hard to imagine what those fields
and roles might be. Most people need techniques to stimulate creative
thinking about appealing future fields and roles, and this chapter shows
how to brainstorm future possibilities. For example: building off current
strengths, building off extreme versions of strengths and values, imagining
dream jobs and nightmares, recalling past interests, and writing an article
about one's career for publication in ten years. It also identifies the
most stimulating situations. The result of Chapter 3 is a list of potential
fields or roles for people to explore and research in depth.
4Investigation
chapter abstract
Rigor matters greatly in career decisions, and yet people often fail to get
the information they need to support rigorous thinking. Once people imagine
appealing fields and roles, for example, it's time to investigate them in
depth. This chapter shows how to research fields and roles by taking full
advantage of public sources of information and by talking with people who
can provide the inside picture. This chapter also shows how to experiment
with possible fields and roles; experiments are especially important when
people are considering radical career moves. This chapter spotlights four
big topic areas that are part of most career strategizing - organization
culture, role, sacrifice, and industry and business outlook and shows how
to investigate each of them.
5Personal Value Proposition
chapter abstract
The personal value proposition (PVP) is the heart of career strategy. Just
like the value proposition in business, PVP is a person's target field or
role, what's required to succeed there, how the person's strengths match
those requirements, and what the person expects in return. This chapter
shows how to determine a person's aspirational PVP - the positions they
hope to reach over the long term, together with the capabilities they need
to develop and the record of accomplishment they'll need to have in order
to get there. That aspirational PVP is the result of this chapter. Setting
direction, it is the foundation for developing long term career strategy.
6Long-Term Strategy Initiatives
chapter abstract
A long term career strategy is not only the aspirations expressed in the
personal value proposition, but also the steps required to reach those
aspirations. This chapter describes the four categories of initiatives
people can take. Two are career path planning and education; they both
build personal capability and thereby develop the "product" people hope to
become. The other two are a winning reputation and a powerful professional
network (including executive search firms); both are essential assets to
"market" that "product". This chapter shows how to build the product and
the associated marketing muscle - the steps people can take to bring each
of these initiative areas to life. The result of Chapter 6 is a list of
possible initiatives to pursue across all four of these categories.
7Integrated Long-Term Strategy
chapter abstract
This chapter discusses three remaining steps. First, determine which of the
potential initiatives to pursue, with what level of effort, and their
timing and sequence. It sometimes requires a fundamental decision about how
serious someone is about a new career direction. The goal is to create a
productive portfolio of mutually reinforcing actions. The second step is to
turn that portfolio into an implementation plan in the form of a strategic
roadmap. The roadmap not only makes effective implementation likely. It
also illuminates the main contingencies, provides a final check on the
strategy, and stimulates strategic thinking. The third step is to prepare
for on-the-go learning once the initiatives are underway. The results of
Chapter 7 are the portfolio of initiatives and the plan to achieve good
implementation of that portfolio.
8Current Personal Value Proposition
chapter abstract
The current personal value proposition (PVP) is conceptually similar to the
long term aspirational PVP from Chapter 5, but the current PVP is for the
near term, often to set up a productive job search. It targets plausible
near term opportunities that are consistent with long term aspirations
where current strengths are a good match to the requirements of those
positions. If people set the right current PVP, then their "marketing and
sales" activities to identify opportunities and secure offers will come
naturally. This chapter shows how to develop that current PVP. It also
shows the benefits of targeting a single field or role and therefore having
a single PVP, together with the conditions that may lead people to pursue
two targets at the same time. The result of this chapter is the current
PVP.
9Opportunity Identification
chapter abstract
Even with a strong personal value proposition, attractive opportunities
won't land on the doorstep. People must find them. There are three sources
of opportunity - public sources that anyone can see like job postings,
affiliations (such as industry associations, alumni groups and university
career centers), and professional networks. Networks are by far the most
important of these - people who are close acquaintances and (often more
important) the much larger number of looser connections. People with strong
job search strategies commit the great majority of their time to
networking. This chapter shows how to make the most out of a professional
network. The result of Chapter 9 is the plan for massive, structured
outreach - who to contact, when, how to conduct the discussions, and what
to do after meetings.
10The Best Case
chapter abstract
Once opportunities are identified, people meet employers to secure the
offer. Serious job candidates come to interviews fully prepared. They'll
have the best chance to turn interviews into offers if they can take the
employer's perspective, understand what's needed, and show they're the
right fit. They're deploying game theory in an informal way. This chapter
shows the two ways to prepare. First, people must prepare to explain how
they match the employer's needs, drawing on the personal value proposition
and what that suggests for the elevator speech and several other
activities. Second, people must prepare for the interviewer's questions.
While they can't be sure what questions will be asked, they can draw on the
experience of interviewers and other interviewees to get ready. The result
of Chapter 10 is a proactive plan to communicate the personal value
proposition and to respond to potential interviewer questions.
11Opportunity Search Plan
chapter abstract
The opportunity search plan pulls all this preparation together. It's a
plan to communicate the personal value proposition to target audiences
through networking and then in interviews to get the offer. It's similar to
the strategic roadmap from Chapter 7, but in a job search there'll be many
more small steps and follow ups as appropriate. What will happen after any
particular activity is highly uncertain, so this plan is more of a
sequenced "to do list" than the contingency planning in the strategic
roadmap. This chapter shows how to craft a productive opportunity search
strategy. The result of this chapter is that written search plan.
12Alternatives and Objectives
chapter abstract
Tough career decisions can happen when different objectives suggest
different answers. The conflict among objectives can paralyze people or
lead to emotional decisions that don't reflect a true understanding of the
situation. People need a rigorous way to evaluate alternatives in light of
how well they meet objectives. This chapter shows how to structure that
thinking with a simple evaluation matrix that focuses investigation on the
topics that matters most, leads to judgments about how each alternative
delivers on each objective, and pulls all that together into an insightful
synthesis. The result of Chapter 12 is a structured analysis of how well
alternatives meet objectives.
13Alternatives and Uncertainty
chapter abstract
Tough career decisions also occur if there's important uncertainty about
what will happen if one alternative is selected or another. People need a
rigorous way to compare alternatives in light of how well they manage
uncertainty. While no one can know the future, good forecasting can reduce
uncertainty. And then the right intellectual structure can build on those
forecasts and help understand the risks and opportunities. This chapter
shows how to forecast the result of career decisions, how to prepare an
integrated evaluation model to understand how scenarios affect
alternatives, and how to think through alternatives' strategic intent (big
bet, adapt to the future, no regrets move, hedge, option). The result of
Chapter 13 is a structured analysis of uncertainty. Chapters 12 and 13
together produce the integrated case for each alternative which should lead
to the decision.
14Personal Annual Report
chapter abstract
Staying on track is hard. People must be on top of events - for example,
the prospects for their employer, the prospects for people in their field,
how well they're doing, whether they're still enjoying the work, and
whether their aspirational long term plan still makes sense. They'll
benefit greatly from a periodic review of all that - a personal annual
report. It's a structured way to evaluate one's progress and anticipate
future developments. Chapter 14 shows how to prepare that personal annual
report.
15Personal Resilience
chapter abstract
While sound career strategies create the best prospects for success, they
can't guarantee everything will go as hoped. Everyone needs personal
resilience and the ability to maintain perspective in the face of surprises
and disappointments. This topic raises broad philosophical or religious
issues that are beyond the scope of this book. But in the context of career
strategy, actions like preparing and following a first class plan,
detachment from the results over which one has little control and noticing
small victories along the way can build confidence and staying power.
Chapter 15 shows productive ways to seek this kind of resilience.
Conclusions
chapter abstract
The book's conclusion addresses three topics. First, it summarizes the
book's main takeaways. Second, it explains how the people who will benefit
most from the book's concepts will be those who consciously cultivate
career strategy skills. Those skills will enable them to shift strategies
as institutions, external situations, and their own interests and goals
change over time. Finally, winning career strategies will not only be good
for the people who have them. They also will be good for employers, or at
least for those enlightened employers who attract and retain people who're
following winning personal strategies. Making that happen is the aspiration
for the book.