Just how companies that have been leading their industries for years can be blindsided by a startup with a new approach, your career can get derailed by the very thing you do best.
You can fall into the competency trap.
“We do the things we are good at, and we enjoy them, so we do more of them. And we keep getting better at them, and if we move on to another job, we approach it in the same way. It’s a loop,” says Herminia Ibarra, who teaches leadership and organizational behavior at INSEAD business school in Paris and is the author of the new book, “Act Like a Leader, Think Like a Leader.”
Working from your strengths may make sense early in your career, “but it is easy to overplay your strengths,” she says.
You may get promoted based on your success but find you lack the broader skills you need to be an effective leader. Sometimes you become so associated with a particular task or ability — you’re the go-to person for deciphering analytics or writing killer marketing emails — that your company will avoid promoting you. The company may do that so your role continues to be filled well, or because they don’t see you as a leader.
Because you achieve a level of mastery in an area — and probably get a lot of praise for your ability — you may be surprised when your career stalls. And when you do step out and try new things, the uncertainty you feel can zap your ego.
A better bet for a long and resilient career is to avoid the competency trap. Here’s how:
Open up your schedule. If your days are jampacked, and everything needs to be done today, you won’t be prepared for tomorrow. Don’t let the daily tasks of your current job keep you from getting involved in “more strategic, higher value-added activities,” Ibarra says.
Always be learning. “The problem isn’t just what you are doing but what you are neglecting to do,” Ibarra says. Continue to develop skills at every stage of your career. It’s easy to tell yourself that you will have more time next week, next month or next year, but don’t wait. The future can sneak up on you — and fast. “Things take time, so people should always be developing in parallel,” she says. “You have to start developing these other things before you are forced to.”
Get involved in bigger projects. Think of your job as a platform from which you can launch experiments. Create projects that expand your skill set, and join company-wide projects. Don’t neglect extracurricular activities either, as they often allow you to flex other muscles and bring more people and perspectives into your network.
Tell a new story — lots of them. You are more than your best skills or your previous work experience and accomplishments. “We define ourselves by our competencies, with what we are good at or not good at becoming our stories,” Ibarra says. But those stories can confine our thinking and allow our other talents and ambitions to wither. Be willing to create new stories that reflect more aspects of yourself.
Don’t overthink authenticity. Being true to yourself is important, but don’t confuse being out of your comfort zone with being inauthentic. When you are learning new skills and growing, it is natural to feel a bit off-balance, and that’s fine. “People get stuck in doing things one way and believing it authentic, and therefore true, and not expanding because it can feel inauthentic,” Ibarra says.
Being true to yourself means acknowledging that you, and your career, are always evolving.
Susan Price writes about work, money and entrepreneurs. She covers careers for Ivy Exec.
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