Once in a while we come across pearls in the form of valuable articles that we share with pleasure. This one was written by AltoPartners and is called “The Pathway to Executive Leadership”.
Although it refers to examples from Australia and the mining industry it is relevant for all managers who consciously (want to) manage their careers and are ready to honestly look at themselves.
It talks about 3 types of candidates and their inherent risks – from an Executive Search Consultant’s perspective:
- those who have a proven leadership track record in a specific domain
- those who have a proven leadership track record in a transferable domain
- those who have proven themselves in a functional management role, and are ready for the next step.
Being an Executive Search Consultant might seem easy and their decision to put a competing candidate forward frustrating or incomprehensible, however, to quote:
“In our role as recruiters, we go to great lengths to identify and mitigate these risks for our clients, by considering the context of the appointment and the candidate’s suitability across four dimensions:
- career: aspirations, intrinsic motivations and current trajectory
- competence: skills, learning agility, experience and knowledge
- character: personality, mindset and behaviour
- connection: strength of relationship or potential rapport with key stakeholders”.
The article also discusses “The Career Stages from Graduate to Board level” and the struggles for functional managers to advance – and what to do about it.
And last, but not least, here our most favourite fragment:
“[…] Never fall into the trap of thinking ‘I’ve made it’; rather, maintain a learning mindset to acquire new skills, experiences, perspectives and approaches as you move up through the levels of leadership. Fight the desire to fall back into the comfort of old successful habits. […]”
We highly recommend everyone to read the full post slowly over a cup of tea or coffee and reflect upon it.
Are you a manager who consciously manages their career? Would you like to talk about your plans confidentially? Send an email to Bichl.Sandra (at) CareerAngels.eu or click here. Please note: the call of approx. 45 min is confidential, non-obligatory and free of charge.
