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The Requirements for Career Success

AS INDIVIDUALS CONTEMPLATE their potential for success, they often wonder what's required. Individuals understandably want to know which skills will best advance their careers and earn just rewards for the effort. Women and others who are underrepresented in their organizations' leadership sometimes have additional concerns: Do I have to work twice as hard because of my race, gender, or background in order to be recognized and rewarded? Do some folks get better opportunities because of who they know rather than the skills they've developed?

At Korn Ferry, we've researched different kinds of organizations and the nuances of their cultures, and we've found there is a consistent pattern to the career trajectory of professionals whose skills are most developed and who are most respected. Regardless of their background or experience, and whether they've worked in large or small organizations, in for-profits or nonprofits, or in traditional or cutting-edge industries, successful professionals have all built their credibility and value by developing in three areas:

• Technical Skills. Technical proficiency is having the operational and analytical skills required to do a job. It refers to a person's capability to do a job accurately, reliably, and efficiently, whether it's a highly process-driven set of responsibilities, such as issuing invoices, or a highly creative one, such as designing a new ad campaign. Individuals who are technically proficient are knowledgeable about their field of endeavor and are able to do their jobs with a high degree of excellence in order to succeed. If these professionals hadn't made the effort and commitment that enabled them to be very good at their jobs, there's little likelihood they would have been offered the opportunity to do more.

  However, the mistake many professionals make, especially women and traditionally underrepresented groups, is to believe that technical skill alone guarantees they'll be recognized and rewarded. After developing a foundation of expertise in a field, professionals have to learn how to use that expertise in a manner that mobilizes others to act on their ideas. This is why the next two areas of competency are as important as technical competence.

• Relational Skills. Relational skills are the capability to relate to others and have others relate to you, whether or not you like one another. Organizations are made up of individuals who are expected to work together effectively. Because most people prefer to work with others they know and feel comfortable with, professionals who have developed relational skills, who can navigate across a wide variety of people and circumstances, tend to be the most sought after.
• Influential Skills. Influential proficiency is the capability to engineer mutually satisfactory solutions to problems. It requires the skills to sell ideas and to navigate an organization effectively in order to get things done. Individuals who can shape outcomes and engineer the engagement of others add more value to the organization than those who bring technical skills alone.

Organizations' expectations of individuals' contributions change over time. After professionals master the technical requirements of their role, the organization looks to them to influence the work of others and do more to advance the business's objectives. While professionals must be technically competent in order to be credible, relational and influence skills tend to differentiate individuals who experience the greatest growth and satisfaction in their careers from those who are perceived as good, but not stellar, performers. (See Figure 1.1.)

Figure 1.1

These three fundamental competencies are the secret sauce of success and should be the focus of your development as a professional. Let's look a little more closely at each of these requirements.

Technical Skills

Mastery of the requirements of your job is critical. Your career will come to a standstill if you do not consistently and predictably deliver what is expected of you. Then you need to go one step further. You need to be known for being excellent at something important to the business. You want your name to come up when people are looking to solve a problem or take on new initiatives. Few opportunities and little support from others will come your way unless you show that you are someone worth investing in.

I learned this lesson about the importance of doing a good job early in my career, although I admit that at the time it was more about keeping my sanity than making a strategic move. One of my first tasks as a newly hired human resources employee was to prepare data from manual personnel records for transfer to a new computer system. I was shown to a closet-sized room with no windows and one glaring overhead light. The room was piled high with dusty manila folders. My job was to go through the information in each folder and fill out a template for the computer technicians to use in data entry. Accuracy was of the utmost importance.

It was pure misery for me to sit for long hours and focus on these painstaking details. Furthermore, I was insulted by the assignment. This was boring clerical work, not an assignment fit for an aspiring executive.

As a survival tactic, I devised challenges to get through the day. How many records could I complete in an hour? Could I finish more today than I did yesterday? How could I reduce my error rate?

Later I discovered the value of my strategy to make the work interesting. I completed the task in about half the time the company expected, so it was able to move up the timeline for computerization of the personnel records. That got me recognized by the HR leaders as someone who worked hard and delivered excellent results. The job also helped me learn the names and expertise of people across the organization-knowledge that helped me make valuable connections as I moved on to other responsibilities.

What opportunities do you have right now to be first-rate in what you are doing, even if the task seems initially mundane or unimportant? How do your responsibilities contribute to the work of the business? I recently heard a radio interview with a young man who was responsible for loading pallets of roofing tiles into trucks for delivery. He reported that his job was "one of the most important ones in the company." The interviewer quizzically asked why; many of us wouldn't characterize truck loading as a critical job. The young man confidently replied that he was the last person who touched the roofing tiles before they went to the customer, so he was the one who ensured that customers got only quality tiles, not ones that were cracked or damaged. This was a man who clearly understood the value he brought to the business.

The more you understand how your work is connected to the organization's purpose, the easier it will be to figure out what you need to do well and how you can do it more effectively. Without such technical proficiency, the options you can command for yourself will be severely limited.

Technical Skills Are Not Enough

Although technical skills are necessary, I am continually struck by how many of us have been socialized by our families, our education systems, and even companies' professional development processes to believe that hard work and credentials are all that matter. Credentials get us in the door, and solid job expertise establishes our credibility. But technical proficiency isn't enough to earn us appreciation or get us promoted.

I recently counseled a young Asian American woman I'll call Joy. Joy worked for a well-known consulting company as a tax consultant. She had an Ivy League education and worked sixty to seventy hours a week as a matter of course. In her group, she was recognized as the go-to person for questions about tax law. She recognized the need to broaden her expertise if she was going to be considered for leadership positions within her organization, and she was outspoken about her frustration at being assigned to the same client with the same demand for long hours and little development opportunity. Joy was particularly bitter that a white male peer, whom she saw as being much less capable, had just been reassigned to a highly visible client engagement.

It's tempting to look at this situation and cry foul given Joy's depth of expertise and impressive work ethic. However, as we talked more, I learned that Joy seldom delegated work to others on her team. She told me, "My reputation rests on my work, and I can't risk letting someone else mess things up." When I asked if she interacted with anyone other than her client and those on her team, she said, "Given how much work I have, I have to prioritize how I spend my time." As her frustration grew, she was also vocal about her belief that "this company promotes incompetence."

Let's look at this from her leaders' point of view. What incentive is there to promote someone who works tirelessly at her current level and who has demonstrated limited capacity to support and develop others? Furthermore, she comes across as cynical and bitter about the organization in general.

Joy was correct that others with less impressive credentials and time on the job were getting promoted. She made the mistake of believing that her expertise should automatically lead to expanding...