Irrespective of your career length, it is likely you have encountered some individuals who achieved great feats in their fields. Having the privilege to work with various clients in my role as consultant, I started paying attention to some common features among these individuals. While this is not a new topic, I will draw a parallel of how many of our successful colleagues and industry leaders approach their (corporate) career like successful companies do.
In this post, I am highlighting some domains that in large organizations are managed by a large number of people, and how successful employees approach these topics for their own careers.
What do successful companies and careers have in common:
A. Branding: successful professionals are recognized for their specific expertise, just like Apple is recognized for the design of their products. The name of these employees becomes synonim at times with their craft or skills. An example from the world of cybersecurity is Christopher J. Hadnagy. Hadnagy is the “social engineer” , his expertise allowing him to create his own company, release a number of books and teach the subject of social engineering in American universities such as Carnegie Mellon and University of Arizona.
B. Partnerships and ecosystem: in an interconnected world, “I made it all alone” does not really apply. Leaders and companies always seek to connect with others and join forces for common goals. Microsoft, recently evaluated as the world’s most valuable company , has a very large number of partners across the world, who interact with the Microsoft offering in many ways, such as re-selling and implementing solutions. Partnering up is tightly connected to the previous point: not being afraid to state their expertise and that they do not “know it all”, industry leaders connect to others in key areas, starting with networking, and eventually working together in concrete deals or projects.
C. Client-centricity: offering professional services, products to customers, or just in a support function, successful employees ensure the stakeholders, potentially including shareholders, are listened to and kept “happy” (or content). Usually, this translates into an offering that solves a need. Daniel Miessler, information security veteran, illustrates this by offering its followers a course on AI and how to boost productivity. The mega-hype of last couple of years, AI, left many people wondering how to use it in their daily lives, and Miesller presented a way to “build and wield your own personal AI ecosystem” to meet their need for knowledge.
D. Community outreach: industry leaders tend to give back to their communities, either internally in the organization (usually in a form of Corporate Social Responsibility) or individually through NGOs or not-for-profits. The world always needs helping hands, with actions such as donations, mentoring or using their networks going a long way. In information security, OWASP Local Chapters are run by various passionate individuals that create events for their communities to “improve the security of software”.
Increasing your success
The common theme among the four points is connection with others: branding requires being recognized for your expertise and skills by other professionals; ecosystems are built around people and organizations with similar goals and values; focusing on your stakeholders puts one in the listening seat. Finally, helping others and giving back ensures your community grows.
If you feel that you want to have more impact in your work, potentially climbing the ladder in your field, improving any of the previously-mentioned points can bring new opportunities to make your mark.
