I recently gave a presentation on career development to close out a major company’s summer internship program. These were sharp people, these interns, and I really enjoyed my interaction with them before and after the formal session. Below are a handful of questions that were posed to me, and my responses.
I am posting them here, with the company’s permission, in case other people early in their careers have the same questions and are looking for guidance.
Is a management degree mandatory to become an executive?
No. An MBA is good for two things: (1) learning general management skills, and (2) networking with fellow students and alumni. Neither of these things are mandatory. Can they be helpful? Absolutely. Will you need to be demonstrably excellent in another area to “compensate” for a lack of MBA when a recruiter is judging you by the strength of your resume as opposed to the real you? Probably. Will any of this be relevant in your career? Who knows. Get the MBA when you need it, not before.
One of the biggest setbacks I have noticed in my career is that I look “too young.” What are some things that I can do to overcome the perception of being “too young”?
Never try to “overcome” anything—that only sets you up to struggle. Instead, make your youthfulness work for you. Use mildly self-deprecating humor to make it work for you.
You saw me do this during my presentation when I talked about looking like a string bean. I have come across situations where people didn’t trust me because of my looks: 6′2″, white male, lean, with an intense gaze. I look hungry, and on some primal level, that puts some peoples’ guards up. One client flat out told me that it was hard to work with me because I look like the very people in his office who were after his job. Why fight that? Instead, I make it work for me: I joke about my looks. I developed a style that combines elements of the hunger people expect with a lightness they don’t. And I make sure that my information is right. They net effect is, my appearance works for me now. (More or less.)
You need to do the same thing: if you look young, people will expect you to be hard working and naive. Prove ‘em right and wrong at the same time: let yourself be known as the “Boy/Girl Wonder,” and then surprise ‘em with how much you know about how to get stuff done. They’ll love you and the very thing you fight against today will start working for you tomorrow.
How do I get the older generations to take me and my ideas more seriously?
You don’t, because you’re ideas aren’t worth a damn. And for the record, neither are mine nor anyone else’s.
Good ideas are a dime a dozen—you really think that the people who came before you didn’t also have great ideas that they struggled to share with others?
If you want someone to take you seriously, show that you understand the value of work. When you bust your butt and get things done, then you earn the right to share your ideas because at that moment when they know you can execute, your ideas are more than academic thoughts: they are strategic visions that they already know you can make come true.
Those they’ll listen to.
How can I set a clear career path that’s well measured and organized?
Why would you want to do that?
If nature abhors a vacuum, then human nature abhors ambiguity. We go to great lengths to create structure for ourselves—even to the point of organizing our lives around inherently chaotic, unpredictable, long-term endeavors like career paths. (Go interview 100 people, and very few, if any, will be able to point to a clear, linear career path in hindsight!) It’s just not realistic.
But there’s good news: human nature loves a story. And the best stories often have twists and turns in them—are are flexible enough to adapt and absorb unexpected changes.
So here’s what you do: you view yourself as having a career story as opposed to a career path. You have an endgame, and a timeframe, and a front row seat for all the twists and turns that you know are coming. That will let you keep a sense of context as your career meanders forward, and as long as you have context, you’ll have the same benefit as a measured and organized path (that is, no ambiguity), without the risk of being thrown off-course by events out of your control (the story can absorb anything—a path cannot), and—bonus!—stories are more fun and enjoyable.
How have you seen the work/life balance of leaders change from past generations to this one and how do you think it will change for generation leaders?
If you want to lead, say good-bye to work/life balance as you know it.
Millennials are known for prioritizing personal needs above work needs. That’s an oversimplification: lots of people from all generations today are opting out of the corporate path in favor of more “balanced” lives. And with that balance comes limits to the level of professional achievement you will attain. That’s not good or bad; it just is.
If you want to reach the top, forget balance. I know what corporate HR says. I know what the gurus say. And I know what the people who lead actually do.
Bottom line: there’s only one of you, and not enough hours in the day to be all the places you want to be. Balance is impossible and if you chase it, you doom yourself to mediocrity.
That’s not entirely true; balance is not exactly impossible. Work/life balance is actually quite possible, if you view it as the outcome of being surrounded by passion on all sides. When you love the people you hang with, love the work you do, love the impact you have, then wherever you are, you’re content. At the end of the week, you feel balanced.
You want balance? Start making choices. Engage. Dive in up to your eyeballs—really put your all into what you do. If it energizes you, keep doing it. If not, tweak it—talk to your boss and fix the situation. If that doesn’t work, keep tweaking until it does. You know what you’ll find? That you’re excited by the challenge of work; that you go to bed tired every day; that you don’t care about what you’re missing because you love where you are; that you’re in balance.
What are the “required” characteristics of a successful leader today compared to those of the past?
Required characteristics: (1) Brains. Research continually shows that leaders are a bit smarter than their followers. (2) Empathy. A leader who can’t look at the world through others’ perspectives can’t figure out how to convince others to follow—and a leader without followers is a hermit. (3) Energy. You want to lead? Prepare to need to charge the batteries of those who follow you. (4) Vision. Give me a reason to follow you. (5) Communication skills. A leader’s job is to communicate in such a way that others are compelled to act.
A note on communication: the skill of a leader can be measured, in a way, through her ability to manage the content, direction, frequency, timing, channel, and tone of her communications.
Should I engage in bi-lateral communications or broadcast my message?
Should I wait for more information or speak now, with limited information?
When/how should I follow up?
How will people interpret this message if they receive it via email/txt/phone/face-to-face/group meeting…?
Today’s world has made these questions infinitely more complex, but at the core, the issues leaders grapple with are still the same.
This list does not change across generations.
Career Q&A with Jason Seiden
Hope this helps—there were many more questions… if you’d like me to post them, or if you have questions of your own, use the comments, and I’ll be sure to get to them!
