Stealing the Corner Office: The Winning Career Strategies They’ll Never Teach You in Business School PDF
Preview Stealing the Corner Office: The Winning Career Strategies They’ll Never Teach You in Business School
STEALING THE CORNER OFFICE STEALING THE CORNER OFFICE THE WINNING CAREER STRATEGIES THEY’LL NEVER TEACH YOU IN BUSINESS SCHOOL By BRENDAN REID Copyright © 2014 by Brendan Reid All rights reserved under the Pan-American and International Copyright Conventions. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or hereafter invented, without written permission from the publisher, The Career Press. STEALING THE CORNER OFFICE EDITED BY JODI BRANDON TYPESET BY EILEEN MUNSON Cover design by Howard Grossman Printed in the U.S.A. To order this title, please call toll-free 1-800-CAREER-1 (NJ and Canada: 201- 848-0310) to order using VISA or MasterCard, or for further information on books from Career Press. The Career Press, Inc. 220 West Parkway, Unit 12 Pompton Plains, NJ 07444 www.careerpress.com Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Reid, Brendan. Stealing the corner office : the winning career strategies they’ll never teach you in business school / by Brendan Reid. pages cm Includes index. Summary: “Stealing the Corner Office is mandatory reading for smart, hardworking managers who always wonder why their seemingly incompetent superiors are so successful. It is a unique collection of controversial but highly effective tactics for middle managers and aspiring executives who want learn the real secrets for moving up the corporate ladder. Unlike virtually all other business books--which are based on the assumption that corporations are logical and fair--Stealing the Corner Office explores the unconventional tactics logical and fair--Stealing the Corner Office explores the unconventional tactics people less competent than you use to get ahead and stay ahead. It is your proven playbook to thrive and win in an imperfect corporate world”-- Provided by publisher. ISBN 978-1-60163320-0 (paperback) -- ISBN 978-1-60163-441-2 (ebook) 1. Executives--Promotions. 2. Career development. 3. Success in business. I. Title. HD38.2.R446 2014 658.4’09--dc23 2014003194 Author’s Note All company names referenced in this book are fictitious. They are used to make the stories more enjoyable. Any likeness to a real company is accidental. For my parents, who gave me the gift of self-belief. And for Aya, who taught me the power of dedicating yourself to something you love. Acknowledgments First, thanks to Aya for her unwavering love and support, and to my parents for giving me the personal strength to take on my goals without fear or reservation. Thanks also to my close friends who were with me before my professional journey even started. I hope you know how much your loyalty means to me. A special thanks to the managers and executives I’ve worked with who taught me that there is no single blueprint to success in the human corporation. Finally, thank you to Arnold who saw potential in my work when many others did not. Contents Introduction Chapter 1: Your Playing Field: Dispelling the Myth of Meritocracy Chapter 2: Your Mindset: Why You Have All the Wrong Priorities Chapter 3: Your Competition: Who’s Really Getting Ahead in Your Company? Chapter 4: Your Playbook: 7 Lessons to Steal the Corner Office Chapter 5: Checkpoint: Your New Career Perspective Chapter 6: Action: What You Can Do Tomorrow to Get Ahead Conclusion: Your Wakeup Call: Now, Make It Happen Appendix: Your New Career Playbook Notes Index About the Author Introduction I’m afraid to say I spent the first half of my career doing exactly all the wrong things to get ahead. Somewhere in my formative years, like many young managers, I got it into my head that the secret to success came from being smarter, working harder, and executing reliably. I’ve since learned that these pearls of conventional wisdom are not, in fact, the beacons to success in the corporate world I’ve come to know. But who could really blame me? The rhetoric is everywhere. “Be results oriented”—never. “Hold people accountable”—nope. “Be passionate about your ideas”—definitely not. We treat these mantras as gospel and to argue against them is business sacrilege. I dare you to go into your next management meeting and tell the CEO that it’s really not all about results—see what happens. Walk down the hall and tell your staff that whatever they do, do not, under any circumstance present or pursue ideas with too much passion—watch the looks you get. This mindset has been drilled into us decade after decade, school after school, meeting after meeting. It’s simply not up for debate—until now, I hope. It seems every great success story begins with hard work and passion, and ends with fame and fortune. Margaret Thatcher told us, “I do not know anyone who has gotten to the top without hard work. That is the recipe.” The Iron Lady can’t be wrong, can she? But then, how does she account for my former boss who thought CAGR1 was his favorite local radio station? Utterly inept at business analysis, but he had a summer house on Cape Cod. That recipe doesn’t sound right, does it? Colin Powell said, “A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination, and hard work.” Okay, but what about the operations VP I worked with who thought a scattergraph2 was some hot new Instagram feature? Zero business acumen, but he made a fortune on the acquisition. Sounds like magic to me. What took me 15 years to learn is that much of what we hold to be true about success in business is not really true at all. All this rhetoric we honor as fact is mostly just what successful people preach to justify the validity of their own
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