Since I started a post-graduate study, school assignment or exam become not the only part of my life, I couldn't help but notice I will step into the real world very soon. I have to consider my career choice and wonder what quality and ability I need to possess to have a wonderful career, especially when we want to be executives.
Above all, we should be responsible for ourselves, and realize we are the determinant of our fate. If we want to succeed in the career, we need to know who we are and what we want and have self-discipline.
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Self-awareness is a quality we had better possess. We should know what kind of job we like and fit in our future job. Some people may value technical competence, and some may appreciate security and stability, and others may look for a challenge. If we know about that, we can target that kind of employer company, being fully prepared, instead of being involved in something we are not good at.
We should realize our cognitive thought and our emotion as well. Usually, in this way, we can know ourselves more thoroughly. Knowing who you are isn't as easy as it seems. People tend to distort the memory or thought unconsciously when it comes to self-evaluation. Also, people usually have a preferred image they want to present to others. So, it can be tough to know ourselves.
It's quite important to be the same person to others as you are to yourself. Sometimes, others’ opinion of you may be valuable when you want to know yourselves more. People have few opportunities to know how others see us, especially for someone climbing to a high position. Bill George, a professor from Harvard Business School, has formed True North groups in his course to emphasize self-awareness (Goleman, 2013). In those groups, people are open and close. They think this is a safe place and they can talk about some stories in their personal life which they never mention in other places (Goleman, 2013). They can get views from colleagues, and it's a different perspective which makes speakers know themselves more.
Self-control is the other part emphasize should be put. Human nature would prefer magic and instant phenomenon. However, real progress needs time, patience and persistence. We will find it very difficult in things we assume should be simple. We may overeat when we try to lose some weight. We could play video games or casually surf the Internet when an assignment is due very close. Those lack of self-control seems understandable but that's where the gap develops between ordinary workers and people who are executives.
‘Cognitive control’ is called ‘willpower’ in common daily life. There is a classic experiment called 'marshmallow test'—eating one marshmallow instantly or getting two in 15 minutes. This long tracking survey reveals that those who were able to wait for marshmallow were much richer, healthier, and law-abiding than the ones who just eat the one (Goleman, 2013).
If students want to be excellent in their future career, we also need to collaborate with other people. In a social context, people will always work with others and it is quite vital to understand other people. The cooperative ability could highly influence group performance. Many outstanding employees doesn’t guarantee efficiency and work quality. They may disagree with others with no respect or have less compassion for other's failure or inadequacy. Conflicts can’t be moderated if both parties only try to prove they are right.
When it comes to working with others, empathy is an influential quality we should attach importance to. People can sense what others think, feel, need by understand or intuition. Some people may be better at this than others. Empathy includes cognitive empathy, emotional empathy, and empathy concern (Goleman, 2013).
Cognitive empathy is the ability to understand another person's perspective. Those executives who usually understand themselves better can apply the same reasoning when they interact with others, so they can comprehend why they did what they did and how they thought (Goleman, 2013). Those people who do well in cognitive empathy would instinctively behave with manners according to the specific environment.
Emotional empathy is the ability to feel what others feel. Sometimes people can naturally feel what others feel without profound understanding. They can recall their own experience and feeling back then to reach what others’ emotion.
Empathic concern is capacity to realize what people need from you. It’s more complicated, more like a combination of sense and sensibility. People go through the anxiety of another but didn't mean they have to meet that person’s need (Goleman, 2013). They could determine whether to fulfil a need by the relationship, degree of difficulty or ability. Empathic concern is crucial because you have your hardship of life, but you can still manage to help others.
Even though we want to be executives, we must realize that the company is working as an entirety. Every position has its function and contribution. However, when I did an internship, I could easily see some executive yell at lower-ranking people for some trivia or disapprove someone lower-ranking without objective consideration. Such situations may be inevitable, but it will hurt the relationship within the organization, reduce the corporate cohesion, and executives may miss good ideas because of arrogance.
Being successful in a career requires many qualities and skills beyond technical skills. We could start to cultivate the level of self-awareness and to discipline ourselves more. As well, we need to coordinate with others with empathy and respect.
Reference
- Goleman D, 2013. The Focused Leader: How Effective Executives Direct Their Own - and Their Organizations’ Attention, Harvard Business Review, December.
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