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Career Development

Not Everybody Wishes to Climb the Corporate Ladder

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You have probably met corporate people who are five to ten years from retirement and have remained in their bottom-of-the-ladder “contributor” roles (as engineers, programmers, accountants, salespersons, etc.) for decades. Don’t they typically report to managers 10 to 15 years their juniors? Ever wonder why they never assumed managerial or leadership roles? Are they simply incompetent or unenthusiastic? Enquire around and you may be surprised to learn that they may have perhaps never desired to climb the corporate ladder. You will possibly learn that,

  • They are not aimless. In reality, at some point in their careers, they made a conscious choice to not pursue the traditional career advancement paths and stay in their roles as “senior contributors.” Their dominant priorities lie elsewhere: usually with family, community, faith, and creative interests. They view their careers as means to other ends. They set goals for what they seek to achieve, create a plan, and relate to their values in the right way, everyday.
  • They are quite influential in their organizations. They gain credibility not by virtue of positions or titles, but from years of experience, awareness of processes and historical perspectives. They seek to mentor young engineers and offer their opinions and judgments when consulted by management. They gain an immense sense of satisfaction by helping their organizations grow. They are widely respected.
  • Their salaries are quite comparable to people who have identical spans of service in their organizations and have assumed leadership roles. They are highly valuable contributors.

The “senior contributors” are not the only ones who have shunned the corporate ladder. Many women choose to work three days a week once they have kids. Husbands of career-minded moms have relinquished their rewarding careers to become stay-at-home dads and support their wives’ careers. Frequently, executives decline international assignments that could keep them away from family. All these people tend to feel in command of their life and career—they are more contented in their careers and have a stronger sense of work-life balance. For sure, they can teach the rest of us a thing or two about setting the course of our lives.

The long-hours culture is not for everybody

You probably recollect the days when corporate people had reasonably secure jobs, showed up at work every workday, clocked in, worked eight hours, clocked out, stopped thinking about work until the next workday, and enjoyed four weeks of vacation a year. They could maintain a healthy separation between work and personal time. Alas, those days are long over.

In today’s workplace, the demands on our energy, time, and creativity constantly overwhelm us, despite access to technology, computers, and other productivity tools. We have so much on our plates that we only rarely complete things WHEN and AS we would wish to. The workday is longer, the pace of work is faster, and most projects tend to be open-ended. The pressure to learn new skills is prominent. A successful corporate career demands a high-level of performance for sustained periods. At what cost, though? Unsurprisingly, the pressure to work harder and longer results in poor physical health, stress, anxiety, lesser time with family and friends, fewer opportunities to pursue hobbies and creative interests, and insufficient rest and relaxation.

Work or life or both—its your choice

“The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.”
* Henry David Thoreau

There is no magic potion or canned method for balancing your work and life. Finding balance is rather an exercise in finding a healthy perspective that works for you. Nobody but you can make the right choices and work out what is best for you to bring about a sense of satisfaction of physical, mental, financial, intellectual, professional, and social well-being.

Everyone has to find his or her own individual balance

The quest for work-life balance begins with defining what balance means to you. Reflect on what you value most in life and prioritize them. Include your family in your contemplations of choices and consequences. Establish a set of boundaries between an adequate amount of effort and return. Consider your personal and professional aspirations, the family and social life you desire, your hobbies and interests and your goals and dreams.

Ask yourself, “How much is adequate?” and, “How much success and money is good enough?” Set boundaries and limits between what you must do and what you want to achieve in the short term and in the long term. The choices you make and your ability to respect the limits your set for yourself should shape your work and career, not the other way around.

Explore alternate arrangements at work

After you reflect on what could constitute a sense of individual balance for you, examine your career objectives. Once you are clear about what you want, consider the potential consequences to your employer. Discuss your options and proposals with a trusted advisor, the human resources / personnel department, and your boss. Most companies care for their employees enough to offer options for part-time or flexible schedules, working from home or sabbaticals.

Lead a life to your own script, not to others’

The world will shape your life, if you let it. Establish what you want to achieve in your life; do not let others impose their proposals for you. Make the right choices and live true to your values. This is, in essence, the key to finding the illusive work-life balance.

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  5. The Truth About Work-Life Balance

Sucking up Isn’t a Requirement for Success

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Consider the all-too-familiar boss’s pet employee at an office. He uses flattery, goes out of his way to help the boss, curries personal favors, and constantly tows the boss’s line no matter how unreasonable it is. He never corrects the boss when necessary. He either sugarcoats or withholds information that the boss would rather not hear. Over time, he has perfected the art of stroking his boss’s exaggerated sense of self-worth.

How about leaders who go overboard on their intention to exceed customer expectations and turn out to be “customer compelled?” They bend over backward to fulfill every whim and fancy of their customers to the likely peril of their own organization’s values and priorities.

Sucking up or brown-nosing is widespread approach to win a boss’s approval solely with one’s own self-interest in mind. Consider the consequences of sucking up:

  • An employee that sucks up to his boss loses the respect of his peers and employees. They assume positive discrimination and favoritism because of his ingratiatory behavior. The suck-up recursively promotes sucking up in his organization—he encourages others to establish themselves in his good graces.
  • Suck-ups quickly get into a pattern of slavishly reacting to every impulse of the boss. Without realizing, they become vulnerable to obligations to support their boss. Neither can they set limits on favors, nor do they stand up for themselves or their employees.

Be Resourceful, Don’t Suck Up

“One does not make the strengths of the boss productive by toadying to him. One does it by starting out with what is right and presenting it in a form which is accessible to the superior.”
* Peter Drucker, in The Effective Executive

Contrary to popular opinion, a vast majority of promotions are not handed out to employees who are most willing to suck up. Research and empirical evidence proves that employees who are honest, sincere, open, straightforward, and helpful earn management’s respect and attention over time. They move up fast because of their demonstrated ability to make the right choices. In addition, most people can innately distinguish the brown-nosers and differentiate genuine compliments from insincere flattery.

Do not get me wrong. There is enormous value in being helpful to the boss. After all, making yourself resourceful can go a long way in staying in the boss’s good graces. It can open professional opportunities and increase your access to new ideas, initiatives, and restricted information. However, there is an obvious boundary between doing favors and sucking up. Running an urgent errand when the boss is busy preparing for an important meeting or watching over his pet when he is travelling are well within reason. Compromising your values and priorities just to get on the boss’s side will not get you anywhere in the long term. Try these suggestions:

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  4. The Good of Working for a Micromanager
  5. Five Questions to Spark Your Career Move

Want to boost your self-confidence? Dress sharply and look neat.

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The ‘Axe Effect’

Consider the following ‘news’ story (possibly a spoof) from a few weeks ago.

How the Axe Effect works Vaibhav Bedi of India sued Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch consumer goods conglomerate, for “depression and psychological damage” caused by letdown from the ‘Axe Effect.’ Vaibhav believed in ads that showed attractive women throwing themselves at men who use the Axe brand of deodorants. “I used it for seven years but no girl came to me,” he said in his complaint accusing the manufacturer of false advertising.

False advertising? Hardly. The ‘Axe Effect’ often works. Clothing, cosmetics and lifestyle companies sell more than merchandise—they sell means of boosting a consumer’s self-confidence. Studies have shown that when men and women improve their appearances, they feel more self-assured. Naturally, charm and self-assurance are very appealing characteristics. As a result, others pay confident people more attention, seek their company and value their opinions. Individuals who are perceived as attractive stand a better chance at winning others over, securing jobs and promotions, and benefit from better career prospects.

Clothes Talk, People Listen

It is possible through the skilful manipulation of dress in any particular situation to evoke a favourable response to your positioning and your needs.
* John T Molloy, Source: ‘New Dress for Success’

Attractiveness is not the only thing others judge you on, but it is generally an important subliminal consideration. Attractiveness encompasses clothing and accessories, tidiness and grooming, physical appearance and posture, flair, mannerisms, personality and other traits. Of these attributes, your clothing style is the easiest to improve.

Look, the clothes you put on effect how you feel throughout the day. Your awareness of yourself has a considerable impact on how others perceive you. By dressing sharply and looking neat, you can become more self-assured and attractive. Follow the following four simple guidelines. Seek suggestions from a tailor at a clothing store in your neighbourhood or a mall.

  • Research and adopt a dress style that is appropriate to your industry, place of work and social circle. Observe the dress styles of successful professionals and executives in your company/industry.
  • Conform but choose a distinctive wardrobe that projects the impression you desire. Dress for the position to which you aspire.
  • Choose clothes that are comfortable and make you feel good about yourself.
  • Err on the side of conservative styles and darker shades. Simple and classic is often reasonably priced and sophisticated enough.

Are You Ready for a Promotion?

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Promotions Can be Stressful

Last year, researchers at the University of Warwick found that the mental health of managers typically deteriorates after a job promotion.  Part of this anxiety is attributable to,

  1. the loss of the security of a familiar role and the established relationships around the role,
  2. perceived cognitive inadequacies concerning demands of the new position, and,
  3. the uncertainty of transition and the innate human resistance to change.

The greater part of this anxiety is a common career mistake. Often, professionals take up new responsibilities for which they are not entirely prepared. Even when management judged them as qualified for the new role, without thinking through a new role before accepting the promotion, these professionals unintentionally position themselves for stressful transitions, bitterness, or eventual failure.

When Is It Time to Move On?

Do not assume that you are ready for a promotion just because you possess the right academic background, you look the part, you have the right contacts within the company, or, you have impressed your management with your capability to develop a few good ideas and articulate them well.

Here are a few questions to reflect on and assess your chance of a successful promotion or a horizontal transition.

  • Are you enthusiastic about taking on a new role? Does the new role fit into your medium- and long-term career plans?
  • Have you been performing your present duties well enough to justify a promotion?
  • Do you have a successor in mind for your current role? Have you made yourself replaceable? Are you willing to entrust your current responsibilities to a successor without a significant interruption in pace of work?
  • Are you qualified or experienced enough to do no less than, say, 40% of the new role reasonably well?
  • Have you demonstrated eagerness to gain knowledge of the new responsibilities?
  • Are you familiar with the responsibilities, autonomy, challenges, opportunities, and deliverables of the new role? Do you know how to get things done in the new role? Do you know where to get help?
  • Are you proficient with the communication, networking and interpersonal skills needed to make it in the new role? Will you get along with your peers, subordinates, and management at the new role?
  • Are you at ease with the demands on the new role: time, travel, pressures, and challenges? Can your family (or other aspects of your personal life) support this transition?
  • Can you swallow your pride if you are rejected for the new role? Are you ready to seek honest feedback about how management values you, listen, and make yourself more promotable in the future?

The more questions you answer with a “Yes” to, the better your chances for a successful promotion. Reflect on the questions you answer with a “No” to. Create a growth plan, improve your professional profile, and, ask for feedback from management on what you can do deserve a promotion.

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  5. Before Jumping Ship, Consider This

No Need to List References Before an Interview

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In response to my previous article on why résumés should not list references, blog reader Ana Maria inquired, “I’ve been asked to provide references before an interview. What should I do?”

Short answer: decline politely. Say, “I prefer to give you a list of references after my interview.” Here is why.

References are relevant only during the later part of the recruiting process, i.e. after a prospective employer has interviewed you and desires to check others’ impressions of you prior to extending you an offer.

As a candidate, you should choose to describe yourself first to the prospective employer in an interview. Your references should represent your credentials only after you and the employer have established a mutual interest. This is the established protocol.

Besides, providing references after an interview is respectful of your references. You would not want to bother your references too often or make public their contact information.

The above guideline holds even if you are interviewing through a contracting firm or recruitment agency. Such intermediaries routinely complete reference checks before they present worthy candidates to their clients/recruiters. For that reason, the recruiting agency may contact your references after an initial interview with a representative of the agency. Subsequently, the agency may forward your references’ opinions to a prospective employer, but should not pass your references’ contact information.

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Warren Buffett’s Rule of Thumb on Personal Integrity

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On occasion, personal integrity and ethical conduct can be challenging. Greed, selfishness, distrust and other inclinations can result in misrepresentations, deliberate omission of facts to throw a positive spin on things, purposeful oversight, misuse of information and self-interested behavior.

Warren Buffett, one of the world’s most successful investors and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, directs that all his employees follow this rule of ethics in every undertaking.

“… I want employees to ask themselves whether they are willing to have any contemplated act appear the next day on the front page of their local paper—to be read by their spouses, children and friends—with the reporting done by an informed and critical reporter.”

The key to personal integrity is to gather all the relevant data, define the “right thing,” exercise prudence and standup for what is right. Good intentions do not necessarily translate to action. Your thoughts and actions define your credibility at work and in the society.

Credit: Warren Buffett’s picture courtesy of user ‘trackrecord’ on flickr.com

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Compilation of Job Interview Questions

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A couple of years ago, I compiled a list of job interview questions and loosely categorized this list by personal attributes, career performance, communication skills, team skills, managerial skills, and leadership skills.

I have since shared this list with recruiting managers (interviewers) and job candidates (interviewees) who I have coached. I suggest that recruiting managers choose eight questions on varied topics for a thirty-minute interview. Job candidates can select twenty-five questions and practice answering these questions by recording and reviewing their answers.

Job Interview Questions on Personal Attributes

  • Why do you think you are successful at what you do?
  • What you consider your biggest fault at work? Why do you think you have it and what are you doing about it?
  • What defines a challenge to you?
  • Describe the situation when your expectations were not met.
  • What is a misconception people have about you when they first meet you?
  • How do you maintain your passion in a place that lacks accountability?
  • Tell me about a time when you felt culturally ill-at-ease and how do you cope with it?
  • What is the single best quality that you have seen in people—a quality that you do not possess?
  • Tell me about yourself.
  • What are your strengths and weaknesses?
  • What was a constructive criticism you received and how did you respond to it?
  • Tell me about a failure. How would you know you failed in something?
  • Tell me about a time when your belief was challenged.
  • Give me an instance when your ethics have been challenged.
  • Give me an example when you were criticised for your personality.
  • If you had a month without any commitments, what would you do?
  • What are people most surprised to learn about you?
  • What do you consider to be your key values? Name a time when these values were challenged.
  • What is something from your past that you wish you would have done differently and why?
  • List three things that motivate you at work.
  • What is your one personal trait you most admire and why?
  • What motivates you to succeed?
  • How do you measure success?
  • What are you passionate about?
  • Which business leader do you admire? Why?
  • Describe a typical day at work.
  • Tell me about the current (non-professional) book you are reading? What did you learn from it?
  • Who is a prominent figure that you admire? Why?
  • What is your biggest regret and thus far?
  • What do you enjoy most about your job?
  • What is the one impression you want me to leave this interview with?
  • What do you look for in a job?
  • What were the high and low points in your life over the past few years?
  • What was the toughest integrity violation you have ever encountered, and how did you handle it?
  • Have you ever had to define yourself in the midst of criticism, and did you succeed?
  • When have you been blindsided in life, and why did it happen?

Job Interview Questions on Career Performance

  • What class did you like the most while you were at school? Why? How have you pursued that topic since you graduated?
  • When was the last time you were forced to step out of your comfort zone? What is the situation and how did you deal with it?
  • Suppose you discover that you missed a significant detail six hours before a project deadline. What would you do?
  • What you think about your current or former boss?
  • Was there a time where you had to choose between good opportunities? Which one did you choose?
  • Career-wise, was there anything in the last five years that you would have done differently?
  • How does your current or last job relate to the overall goals of your department or organisation?
  • What are you most proud of?
  • Tell me about a time when you personally failed. How did you handle it?
  • How do you feel about your career progress to date?
  • What would your peers at this organisation say on your second year anniversary?
  • When did you realise you needed a change in your career path?
  • What was your best mistake?
  • What about our position do you find most attractive? Least attractive?
  • Tell me about time when you overcame a problem and took initiative.
  • What was your most challenging work situation?
  • What has been your most creative solution to a problem?
  • What has been the highlight of your career?
  • What is the best idea you have ever had and why?
  • What is the one thing you would change about how you performed in your job in the last few years?
  • How have you changed the nature of your job?
  • Tell me about a time at work when things did not go well.
  • Describe the key characteristics of the business you are in.
  • Describe your organisation.
  • Describe your job. Being effective in this job means?
  • What are the key things that have happened since you took this job? What did you do? Why? What effect did you have? What problems developed? How did you handle these problems?
  • How effective do you think you have been in this job? Specifically, why do you say this? What are the performance measures? What is it about you, the job, or its context that has contributed to this level of effectiveness? What could you have done better?
  • What are you trying to achieve in your career? In your life?

Job Interview Questions on Communication, Conflicts

  • Tell me about a time when you worked with someone and had a difficult interaction or disagreement. How did you resolve it?
  • Describe a time when you had a conflict with a co-worker. How did you resolve it?
  • Tell me about a time when your powers of persuasion failed.
  • Give me an example of a time when you made a mistake because you did not listen well to what someone had to say.
  • Describe the most challenging negotiation in which you were involved. What did you do? What were the results for you? What were the results for the other party?
  • When a number of different people come to you with ideas about solving a problem, how do you go about using their information? Please give an example.
  • Tell me about a time when you have had to stand or defend a position that was not popular or easily accepted?
  • What was the hardest thing you had to say no to in the last two years?
  • Have you ever disagreed with your manager?
  • How do you approach resolving a conflict within a group?

Job Interview Questions on Team Skills

  • How would you pick a team?
  • What is your role on a team?
  • Tell me about a time when you had to deliver bad news to your team.
  • Tell me about a time when you let your team down.
  • How do you create accountability and create a strong team?
  • Describe a time when you were working in a team and you failed. How did you resolve the situation?
  • What characteristics do you look for in your team members?
  • Describe a situation when your team fell apart.
  • How would you describe your best friend?
  • What weaknesses do you have or experience when you are working in a team environment?
  • In the teams that you work with, how do you deal with disagreements between the team members?
  • Who was the toughest person you have worked with?
  • Discuss your worst team work experience.
  • Describe five qualities that you would want your team members to have for you to work effectively with them.
  • Tell me about a time when you lead a team and failed.

Job Interview Questions on Managerial Skills

  • What was the biggest mistake you have had when delegating work?
  • What is your biggest weakness as a manager?
  • How do you know when the project is working well? If it is not, how do you address the problem?
  • Describe a time when you had to be assertive in giving directions to others.
  • Tell me how you go about delegating work? How did you keep track of delegated assignments?
  • Describe characteristics of a bad team member or supervisor you have worked with.
  • What would you do if your boss in the job came to you requesting you to do something that you know is definitely dead wrong?
  • What is your management style?
  • Tell me about a time when your relationship with a colleague broke down. What did you learn from that?
  • Tell me about a time when you helped someone else succeed without doing the job for them.
  • Describe the situation when you had to micromanage. How did you go about it? What were the results?
  • What is the most difficult aspect of being a manager?
  • Tell me about an instance when you had to work with a difficult person? What did you learn?
  • Give me an instance where you handled a difficult subordinate at work.
  • Consider me to be your employee. I am not performing well. How would you fire me? Please play it out.
  • Describe an experience where you motivated your followers. Why you think you were able to do it?
  • Tell me about when you had to work with someone you did not get along with, or someone whose personality was different from yours.
  • What would your subordinates say about you and your leadership style?
  • How do you deal with difficult personalities?
  • If you were the CEO of a company and had to do downsizing, what people would you layoff, and, how would you implement this?
  • How do you handle working with people who are not good at their jobs?
  • How do you evaluate the productivity / effectiveness of your subordinates? How do you get data for performance reviews?
  • How would you describe your managerial style? How has changed over the past five or ten years?
  • Give me examples of your hiring successes and disasters? Explain what you got right—and what you missed.
  • Can you point to any of your people who grew up with your guidance and have gone on to succeed in your own company or beyond?

Job Interview Questions on Leadership Skills

  • Describe the qualities of a good manager or a leader you have worked with. Why are these important?
  • How has your leadership style evolved from ten years ago?
  • Define leadership. How does a good manager differ from a good leader?
  • Tell me about a time when you challenged somebody else’s idea and generated a new business initiative or project.
  • What kinds of decisions are most difficult for you? Describe an example.
  • Tell me about a time when you influenced others who were not your subordinates.
  • Tell me about a time when you saw poor leadership at work.
  • When you start your own company, what qualities will you look for in people you choose to partner with?
  • What is the most competitive situation you have experienced? How did you handle it? What was the result?
  • Tell me about a time when you developed a new business opportunity. What was the impact?
  • Describe a failure at work, how did you deal with it, and what did you learn from it?
  • What will be happening in our industry five years from now?
  • Have you ever been caught unaware by a problem or obstacle that you had not foreseen? What happened?
  • Tell me about a time when you overcame a problem or took initiative to solve something.
  • Describe a project where you preferred a common sense approach to an analytical approach to solve a problem.
  • What is your leadership style? How do you build consensus without using authority?
  • Some people consider themselves to be ‘big picture people’ and others are ‘detail oriented.’ Which are you? Give an example of a time when you displayed this.
  • What do you think is the most important thing a business needs to develop?
  • What is the riskiest decision you have made? What was the situation? What happened?
  • What you think are the three qualities of a leader? Give me an example of a situation in which you exhibited each of these.
  • If you had to assemble a team to work on a project, which three celebrities would you choose and why?
  • Describe a situation when something went totally awry.
  • In your present position, what problems did you identify that had previously been overlooked?
  • How do you get new ideas?
  • Tell me about a time when you saw a solution before everybody else.
  • Tell me about the most impactful failure in your life? What did you learn from it?
  • Tell me a situation where you took risks.
  • What innovative procedures have you developed? How did you develop them? Who was involved? Where did the ideas come from?
  • What is the role of management in today’s global economy?
  • What are the toughest decisions you have had to make in the last few years?
  • What was your biggest management challenge, and how did you handle it?
  • In your career, what is the best example of you anticipating market changes that your competitors did not?
  • When did your curiosity lead you to probe deeply and uncover a competitive trend or marketplace dynamic that others did not see, or, did not want to see?
  • People frequently borrow ideas they have seen elsewhere and then apply them in a new setting. How have you done this?

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  2. Competency Modeling: How to Hire and Promote the Best
  3. Interviewing Candidates: Stale Questions Get Stale Answers
  4. Interviewing Skills #4: Avoid too many ‘I-I-I’ or ‘We-We-We’ answers
  5. No Need to List References Before an Interview

Four Telltale Signs of an Unhappy Employee

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A skilled manager understands how to get work done through her staff under all circumstances. She makes herself available, delegates effectively and provides appropriate feedback. She works hard to sustain an effective work environment in which her staff feels motivated and takes pride in their achievements.

The skilled manager accurately discerns what her employees think and how feel about their work; she also assesses their happiness on the job. She recognizes unhappy employees through these four noticeable behavioral changes over time:

  • Tardiness: The unhappy employee tends to arrive late, leave early and takes longer breaks. He is often elusive and hard to pin down.
  • Disdain: The unhappy employee can be grouchy, whining, or may complain excessively. He tends to be oversensitive: he sulks at even the slightest criticism, gets defensive, or accuses supervisors of picking on him.
  • Indifference: The unhappy employee cannot focus on his responsibilities. Consequently, his work tends to be disorganized and incomprehensible. His workload is a struggle. He fails to update management on a regular basis, rarely has a say in important matters, and resists new assignments.
  • Aloofness: The unhappy employee is inclined to distance himself physically, socially and emotionally from his coworkers. He is likely to be uncooperative and refuses to accommodate others’ requests.

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  3. Seven Real Reasons Employees Disengage and Leave
  4. Seven Easy Ways to Motivate Employees and Increase Productivity
  5. Fire Fast—It’s Heartless to Hang on to Bad Employees

Systems-Thinking as a Trait for Career Success

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In this Fast Company article, Gary Flake, Director of Live Labs at Microsoft identifies Systems Thinking as an important trait for career success.

There are three traits that will serve anyone wanting any role at any company, not just ours: systems thinking, passion, and clear communication. Systems thinking is a way of looking at the world that allows you to see how many small pieces come together to make a more complex whole. System thinkers see the hidden interconnections that bind together the parts and know how to make the best use of ambiguity and uncertainty as a result.

Gary’s reflection reiterates the importance of understanding context and perspective in our jobs. A previous blog article and a podcast discussed this indispensable trait for success.

Systems Thinking for a Big Picture Approach

From an early age, we’re taught to break apart problems in order to make complex tasks and subjects easier to deal with. But this creates a bigger problem . . . we lose the ability to see the consequences of our actions, and we lose a sense of connection to a larger whole.
* Peter Senge

Traditional methods of problem analysis concentrate on dividing problems into smaller, more comprehensible components. The drawback of understanding isolated or unrelated elements, functions, and events is that the effects of changes to one element on other elements of the whole are rarely considered.

In contrast, the discipline of Systems Thinking emphasizes analyzing the whole in terms of interrelationships of its elements. Examining structures, relationships, and outcomes facilitates taking into account any secondary consequences of decisions and actions pertaining individual elements.

We work in increasingly connected organizations where an event that affects one part of an organization is likely to have a meaningful effect–in the short-term or the long-term–on another part of the organization. The discipline of Systems Thinking enables us to develop a broader, holistic perspective of problems and opportunities in businesses and make effective decisions.

Resources, References

Over the last couple of decades, System Thinking has evolved into a formal discipline and has incorporated several rigorous analysis techniques. Here are two excellent resources to help you gain more knowledge of these methods.

Wondering what to read next?

  1. Howard Gardner’s Five Minds for the Future // Books in Brief
  2. This is Yoga for the Brain: Multidisciplinary Learning
  3. You Can’t Develop Solutions Unless You Realize You Got Problems: Problem Finding is an Undervalued Skill
  4. Finding Potential Problems & Risk Analysis: A Case Study on ‘The Three Faces of Eve’
  5. Four Ideas for Business Improvement Ideas

How to Write a Job Description for Your Present Position: Part 3

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Preamble

This article concludes a series of three articles that describes how to get clarity about your present role in your organization and write an effective job description.

Write Your Job Description

After completing a thorough job analysis, you should have a list of responsibilities and goals for your position. Here is how to organize this list and write a formal job description:

  • A job description should be a high-level synopsis of the expectations of your role. It need not be all-encompassing or list specific tasks you required of you (that is the function of a ‘work-plan,’ where you translate your job description into a more-detailed list of tasks, projects and measures.)
  • Prioritize your ideas and responsibilities. Group ideas by functional theme if possible. Each theme can then be written as a paragraph (or bullet point) in your job description.
  • List no more than four or five paragraphs of responsibilities. Depending on your position, you may not need a very detailed list of responsibilities. For example, a worker on an assembly line may have just a single paragraph in his job description while an administrative assistant may have a more complex description of duties organized into three or four paragraphs of responsibilities.
  • Each paragraph can consist of as many sentences as necessary to describe a responsibility precisely. Begin each sentence with a verb in present tense. See examples below.
  • If your job involves supervising other employees, include the scope of responsibilities—coaching, training, conducting performance reviews, etc.

Get Concurrence from Your Supervisor

In your next one-on-one meeting with your supervisor, set aside some time to discuss your job description. Ask, “Is this what you expect of me? Is this in line with how you and our management see my role? Am I missing any responsibility or initiative? Do you see anything differently?”

Consider translating this job description into a more detailed work-plan that expands your responsibilities into a more thorough list of projects, initiatives and goals, and the corresponding metrics and targets. This work-plan along with your job description can establish a basis for measurement and job appraisal.

Revise Often and Maintain

Organizations, their objectives, routines and expectations constantly change. Keep your job descriptions current and accurate. Share your job description with your supervisor as part of the performance review process and continually seek agreement on how he sees your job.

Job Description Example 1: Software Architect

  • Research and develop algorithms for automatic parameter-based design of passenger car engines and their machining process illustrations. Implement process-planning software in C++ and integrate an interface with a CAD software.
  • Develop and implement algorithms to translate triangulated computer models into boundary representation data structures and recognize geometric features for design and machining.
  • Research and develop algorithms for automatic conversion of two dimensional orthographic projections of mechanical engineering designs into three-dimensional solid models.

Job Description Example 2: Project Manager

  • Coordinate new projects with Marketing. Write software technical profile from customer requirements. Develop and execute actionable plans for development and implementation of new software. Manage relationships and facilitate cross-functional issue resolution between marketing, customer support and customers.
  • Recruit and supervise five software engineers. Manage engineers’ work loads and ensure contribution. Track, prioritize, report and coordinate the needs and progress of their projects.
  • Coordinate software programming between offices in cities A and B and track measures for on-time performance of projects.

Concluding Thoughts

One of the leading causes of frustration and discontent for employees is the lack of clarity on what is expected on their roles. From an organization’s perspective, employees who do not understand their roles will fail to deliver.

By writing an effective job description for your present position, you can bridge the gap between the expectations of your role and your performance on your job. This generates better results for you, your management and the organization as a whole.

Wondering what to read next?

  1. How to Write a Job Description for Your Present Position — Part 1: Why
  2. How to Write a Job Description for Your Present Position: Part 2: Job Analysis
  3. Eight Ways to Keep Your Star Employees Around
  4. Likeability Is What’ll Get You Ahead
  5. Hitch Your Wagon to a Rising Star