One minute a business executive has money, power and respect... and the next no one returns his or her calls. When this happens, the executive can be dumbfounded and perplexed. The "sudden" shift seems inexplicable. But to many others, what happened is obvious and perhaps even welcomed.
Thanks to the consistency of human nature, there are classic career traps that cause smart people to self-destruct. If you avoid these traps, you can protect your career and preserve your ability to be effective.
These principles don't just apply to CEOs. Many people have power, and these traps surround positions of power. If you are hiring others, you have some degree of power over them. If you purchase goods from other businesses, you have a degree of influence over those vendors. The more responsibilities you take on, the more these traps need to concern you.
1.The "ego-driven blind spot" trap
Like the rest of us, you are not perfect. One of the biggest challenges to acquiring power is that fewer and fewer people are willing to give you objective feedback.
If you suddenly are praised as a genius, your internal alarms should sound. You're not smarter than ever, you're just surrounded by people who dare not point out weak points in your reasoning. Everyone has flaws, and it is crucial that you both understand and monitor your own weaknesses.
Set up systems that enable you to detect potential dangers along the paths you are pursuing:
- Encourage employees to submit anonymous feedback.
- From time to time, hold meetings at which the sole purpose of all gathered is to play devil's advocate with regards to your existing strategies.
- Foster a culture in which it is a badge of pride to "beat the control," which means putting forth a strategy that can be proven better than the existing one.
- Engage objective and independent observers whose role is to second guess you. Even if 90% of the time they can't convince you to change course, those occasions on which they prevent you from veering off the road will be invaluable.
2. The "repeat past successes" trap
Successful people tend to repeat the strategies that made them successful. While this often makes sense for a time, the only constant in our world is change. It is difficult to name a company that has had the same level of success for ten years' running. Likewise, over a five to ten year period, your access to information and the sophistication of your technology changes radically; you have to adapt as these fundamentals shift.
I'm not suggesting you follow every fad. Hype and overblown promises abound. But never stop testing your own skills and strategies, even in ways that may seem silly to you. For example, I'd encourage even top executives to invest a little time in learning to code. You are not going to become a programmer, but you won't be able to understand the detail that underlies most businesses unless you understand the details involved in programming.
3. The "use power too personally" trap
It would be futile to count the number of leaders who fell from grace because they crossed a line and used power to have an affair or otherwise feed their own desire for pleasure. This may be the biggest trap of all.
If you want to not only maintain a successful career, but also help lead your company in the right direction, then use power for the benefit of others:
- Empower your employees, so that they can delight your customers.
- Enrich your investors, by viewing their faith in you as a solemn responsibility.
- Enhance the communities in which your organization operates, by understanding that your success is only sustainable if theirs is, too.
Putting things in perspective
The harsh reality is that career traps are just as common as career opportunities. Remain confident but humble, and don't step into an obvious trap. The smartest people I know get up every day aware that their toughest challenge is doing what they know to be right, instead of what is immediately gratifying.
An earlier version of this article appeared last year on LinkedIn, and one reader commented, "My brother and I could have used this a few years ago when we, separately, lost fantastic jobs because of these faults."
Take these words to heart, and you'll never have to write a similar comment.
