Daniel Gulati: Be Proud of Your Accomplishments, Not Your Affiliations

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Stuart stood up confidently and addressed the group: "I studied Art History at Yale, worked at Bain for two years, then Morgan Stanley. After finishing my Stanford MBA, I took a banking job at Goldman Sachs."

I'd asked him and a small group of smart individuals to describe their professional achievements. When Stuart sat down, the others followed in much the same pattern, proudly rattling off their personal laundry lists of the prestigious companies they'd worked for and the top-tier universities they'd attended.

Had I left it there, this would have seemed like a collection of well-oiled, talented superstars living comfortably at the top of their professions. But as I delved deeper, I found out that they weren't comfortable at all, and their flashy affiliations were no guarantee that they'd actually accomplish more than anyone else. One said, "I promised myself I'd move overseas, but the Blackstone brand in New York is just so strong. I had to sign." Said another, "The work is meaningless compared to the policy think tank I wanted to join. But everyone knows Morgan Stanley, and it'll open up so many doors later on in life." The same patterns surfaced: exciting visions sabotaged by the desire to be associated with well-known institutions.

If their goal was to stand out by joining these organizations, they'd pursued entirely the wrong strategy. Traditionally, associating yourself with a prestigious brand did wonders for your career because of the signalling effect. Employees could credibly convey information about themselves by gaining experience at certain companies and acquiring academic credentials. If you got into Unilever, you must be a good marketer. If MIT admitted you, you're a high-potential scientist. But a core assumption of job-market signalling theory is asymmetric information between employers and prospective employees. In other words, employers have to rely on imperfect signals as ways to glean information about potential hires. In today's world, this assumption no longer holds.

Ironically, proudly flaunting your affiliations — company, university, or club — will only make you more of a commodity: another banker, another Ivy League graduate, another know-it-all scientist. Instead of just resume-gardening, distinguishing yourself through real, tangible accomplishments shows the world what you've actually done while de-emphasizing who accepted you into their organization. The latter is a superficial vanity device designed to boost confidence; the former is a validated, objective measure of your skills and experience. The relentless focus on "what" is how people without bulge-bracket work experience or Ivy League degrees are beating out those obsessed with the glitz, glamour, and false safety of their memberships, associations, connections, and relationships.

Here's why prestige matters less than ever:

1. Prestigious companies have suffered. The Financial Crisis tainted the reputations of some of the world's largest corporations — from big banks to blue chips like General Motors. Newscorp and other recent corporate scandals have only fueled existing doubts. Signalling loses relevance to the extent that these organizations no longer confer credibility onto the individuals that join them.

2. Social media pierces the corporate veil. As the adoption of Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook continues to grow, we're able to effectively separate the individual from the organization. Consumer internet platforms like these allow people to publish their output independent of their organizations, giving everyone a direct lens into an individual's abilities and passions. This improves the underlying quality of information available, further reducing the need to signal the "old" way.

3. New tools exist to accurately assess skills. If you're a data scientist, you can compete on Kaggle against a global cadre of experts in your field. Rather than relying on your college diploma, we have a better way to test your programing skills: Codecadamy. And if you're coveting a social media role, a high Klout score might seal the deal. These new tools are able to measure people's skills with precision, making college degrees and brand-name companies look like blunt approximations in comparison.

America's largest companies and most prestigious universities deserve much respect. But being hired or admitted to these institutions is an opportunity to accomplish things, not the accomplishment itself. Therefore, a prudent strategy favors accumulating real accomplishments — revenues earned, clients transformed, or lives changed — in spite of any affiliations you may have.

As traditional notions of prestige are fast losing relevancy, we should all focus more on creating real value. If you're lucky enough to have attended a great college or worked for a top company, you have an obligation to turn these affiliations into accomplishments. If you're not one of the privileged few, you're no longer at a disadvantage. Stand tall, because it's mastering the process of consistently delivering results that will truly distinguish you in the end. via blogs.hbr.org

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Career Advice: Learning to Think Like an Optimist

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No doubt, we are living through some very challenging times. Never before has our world faced the global economic, social, and psychological crises it faces today, and it's having a significant impact on many through added stress and strain on our minds and our bodies. In fact, the impact on women may be worse than men. According to a survey conducted by the American Psychological Association, women are not only reporting more stress than men over money and the economy, they're also experiencing more stress-related symptoms, such as headaches, fatigue, irritability, and depression. In addition, unchecked stress increases the risk for serious illnesses, including heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes. It also can lead to other problems, such as infertility, ulcers, sleep disturbance, chronic fatigue, severe depression, overeating, memory loss, substance abuse, and lowered productivity. However, looking on the bright side (which is what this article is really about), there may be some merit to the saying, "That which does not kill us makes us stronger." 

Although worries about job retention and growth opportunities represent the greatest fears I see in the career women I coach and mentor, recent research suggests that workers who are resilient--those who possess the ability to overcome challenges and turn them into opportunities--are more likely to be retained than those who are not. In a recent survey of over 500 senior executives representing 20 countries,¹ results revealed that more than two-thirds (71%) of corporate leaders reported that resilience was "very" to "extremely important" in determining whom to retain. Another interesting finding was that respondents viewed women workers to be as resilient as men workers, and most importantly for women, these executives reported an investment in providing their female professionals with programs to further develop resilience.

From these results, the researchers concluded, "Resilience may be the new criterion for professional advancement. In the current world of economic uncertainty and intense competitiveness, organizations that instill resilience in their up-and-coming leaders will have a clear advantage. Like other skills, resilience can be learned. Leading organizations will provide high-performing women with a variety of experiences including training, mentoring and 'stretch' roles to increase their resilience and confidence, thereby preparing them to succeed in senior leadership positions."²

So what makes a person resilient? And how can someone build resilience?

 

According to Martin E. P. Seligman , commonly known as the father of positive psychology, the key is optimism. Through the development of questionnaires and an analysis of the content of verbatim speech and writing to assess subjects' "explanatory style" (optimistic or pessimistic), Seligman discovered that people who don't give up tend to interpret setbacks as temporary, local, and changeable. This led him to theorize that the best way to immunize people against depression, anxiety, and giving up after failure was to teach them to think like optimists. 

This can be accomplished in several ways, beginning with how you interpret and explain events that happen in your life. In other words, it's what you believe about what happens in your life that determines how you react to it rather than the event itself. So when you encounter a negative belief (i.e., I never get what I want), force yourself to do a reality check. Have you never gotten what you wanted? Ever? By looking at the factual basis for your beliefs, you can train yourself to turn that negative belief into a more realistic, positive one.

Another way to improve your outlook is to consider alternative causes for negative experiences. It's often the case that a bad experience is brought on not by one cause, but by many. In addition, it helps to keep things in perspective. For example, even if you are the sole cause of bad experience, is it a world-shattering catastrophe, or is it simply a bad thing that happened in your life?

Finally, resist the "all or none" mentality. If you convince yourself that because you failed once, you will always fail, you're likely to not try more than once. On the other hand, if you see it as an isolated failure (or even two or three) and believe that with perseverance you'll have a chance to succeed, then your behavior is likely to correspond to your new belief.

The truth is that disappointments and challenges are an inevitable part of life. So why not view them as opportunities to learn, grow, and improve? If you do, you're on the road to resilience and that's exactly where you want to be during tough times.

^{1 Research reported by Accenture , a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company.}

^{2 Ibid.}

© 2011 Sherrie Bourg Carter , All Rights Reserved

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Sherrie Bourg Carter is the author of High Octane Women: How Superachievers Can Avoid Burnout (Prometheus Books, 2011). via psychologytoday.com

 

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Jim Woods is president and founder of InnoThink Group. A leading consulting firm specialized solely in enabling organizations of all sizes in all industries develop top line growth through strategic innovation and hypercompetition. Jim has over 25 years consulting experience in working with small, mid size and Fortune 1000 companies. He is a former U.S. Navy Seabee and grandfather of five. 

Jim is also a business and personal coach. Providing confidential advice on empowerment and making the right career choices in an age of accelerated competition. He can help you achieve your goals. Contact him. 719-649-4118.