The Only 3 Career Steps that Matter | Rosabeth Moss Kanter | TEDxBeaconStreet

and I'm going to start with a personal confession that I've never said anywhere in public any time in my life when I was eight years old I was a real flop as an entrepreneur I tried to start a little business based on what I knew I had business cards printed I think I'd probably hand printed them that said child psychologist the only child psychologist who is also a child you know I thought that was a winning proposition but actually it was a big flop and so from that moment on I have dedicated my life to the meaning of success to having people succeed at realizing their potential I would include children in that too but certainly people who are often excluded from the dominant culture but even those in the dominant culture I want no one left behind and so regardless of the kind of careers people have they are no longer linear they are no longer up a ladder although there are some people who are in line for the next promotion waiting 20 or 25 years to reach the pinnacle that isn't how it is for many people now people are entrepreneurs people have portfolios they dabble here they dabble there they move on it's a very different kind of career so how do we talk about that in a way that's going to be meaningful to people and that they will know what it takes to succeed and I've concluded from all my years of advising on success whether it's sports teams some on winning streaks how to continue that streak versus losing streaks how to make the change whether it's corporate executives whether it's politicians people in public office whether it's community leaders I concluded there are only three career steps that matter and the first is in fact inclusion inclusion getting in the door the second is influence getting at the table and the third is impact getting outside the building to change the world and so I'm going to talk about those a little what goes into them why it's sometimes harder for women or less represented minorities or people who are different in any way to do it but also what the keys are at each stage so for inclusion in the first place my just getting in the door getting in the door is a matter heavily of technical skills things that are easily demonstrated you either have the skills or you don't credentials and in fact recent research has shown that when credentials can be clearly demonstrated there are fewer selection biases even if there are still some preferences for cronies of her people that look like me the question is cut and dried can you or can't you perform this means that at early stages of careers any job any position any endeavor that's highly routinized that's clearly measurable where we can see is it done or not done is open sometimes disproportionately open to women and underrepresented minority so it's interesting that when coding was considered really routine clerical work we had black women coding now that it's a really hot topic for techies we have only young men seemed to be getting into the coding circles except for all the schools and the informal groups that are now helping people learn how to code if you can show it you can do it so inclusion is heavily a matter of the credentials the technical skills and in fact a black entrepreneur that I know very well be for he went to venture capitalists for money to start his own facial recognition technology company he worked at Apple and Apple was his credential entry into the door because that was clearly something he had done so inclusion in the door credentials but you can get stuck at that stage because it's routinized and because it's easier to put people who are different in jobs where it's easily measurable where it's not a measure manner of judgment because of that it's easy to get stuck in those technical jobs and routinized jobs and so for example a woman lawyer wanted a promotion and she was in a very technical aspect of the law in a corporation she wanted a promotion and she was lucky to have a mentor that said to her no you don't want that job because if you take that job you're going to be stuck in this sidetrack where all you'll do is continue to do the same thing over and over again although you might do it at a higher level and that was smart and that was right and she ultimately became the general counsel of the whole company because she did another path but inclusion is something that can also get kind of boring entrepreneurs sometimes start something and then when it becomes routinized they get bored with it and want to move on and do something else because the next stage is influenced being at the table being able to influence the direction of an industry or a community or the company and getting into that next stage of influence is where one begins to have some power to shape events shape other people's lives and I think women and underrepresented minorities can do that as well as anybody else except that they come with a few handicaps one is the ability to get at the table doesn't have a lot to do with how well you do your job that keeps you included but to really belong and be a member of the decision-making circles is more than the technical parts of the jobs it's the extras and the extras come in two forms one form of extras are the network's people bring to work the network's they have and you know it's interesting because at work we're all alike at work people are more alike than different even if though we see lots of differences it's at home back in the community that people are often very different at work people often dress in similar ways use similar language if the food is if they're lucky that the food is supplied at the workplace they eat they eat similar food it's at home in fact in the community that we express ourselves in terms of our difference that we're connected to other people that we grew up with like us and one of the issues for underrepresented minorities often or for people from lower income populations is that the people back home don't necessarily support them in this new life they have trying to get a seat at the table they don't often understand that life they sometimes try to pull people back to the neighborhood and so they are not supporting the kinds of extras that people could bring to the workplace like Network contacts like being able to make great introductions like being able to get people special tickets to the theater or a sports event and so the nature of networks because the influence stage is all about relationships if inclusion is about the technical skills influences about relationships and for women the extras are something that takes time sitting on an outside board getting to know people and there are two things I will say about that one is that research shows that women's networks a little bit more than men's the differences are disappearing but women's networks to be more social and a matter of support and while I think it's incredibly important that people have a support system out of work absolutely important that doesn't necessarily build the tools for influencer better to have networks and include support but also include the kinds of issues that we're talking about here the one the astronauts Network for a woman astronaut and not just the women's support network and so that's one additional handicap the other is time in order to do the extras you need time and one thing that has not budged for women in our economy is the household division of labor the household division of labor still means that women do a disproportionate share of what's been called the second shift and are therefore not available to cultivate the networks to be on the boards to have the favors to come in and trade with their colleagues at work so that they're seen as important and influential and get a seat at the table I spoke at a conference a few years ago that was titled what men can do to advance women's careers and I got up and I said the laundry until we make changes in the household division of labor it's going to be harder for people who take care who left caretaking duties and that could be men as well as women that could be people with aging parents that could be childcare whatever it is it's harder to get a seat at the table if you have to spend your time outside of work so getting at the table is very important for this second career stage where you have influence and you can control events rather than being controlled by them and that's incredibly important because there's less stress in work when you feel a sense of control but influence by itself I don't know we could be content with that for a long time I think but I really want to move us all to the third career step which is impact outside the building doing something in the wider world for the organization the community or the world very important for the people who rise to the top the people who get at to the top of hierarchies are often people with the big view they're not people just with a functional skill and they're not just people who sit in the decision making meetings they have the big view of that world out there and what we do to move it it's called vision vision is the asset for this career step I know that's kind of interesting because who has vision while I'm standing up here before you I keep saying I without notes talking to you that's courageous we all have to learn how to just convey our vision of what the world could and should be to other people and count on ourselves but research also tells us that when we look at appraisals of performance of people in the workplace women tend to outperform men in some of the 21st century skills such as collaboration and teamwork fantastic I don't want anybody to be outperforming anybody I just want them to get a chance but the one thing where women don't get judged in the same way with high marks is the vision thing that women are not necessarily the ones that are going to be trusted to set forth the grand plan for the organization for the world for what we might do and that is what we all need to cultivate now in turbulent troubled times is the vision thing is the ability to step outside of the building and by that I mean more than outside the box I mean literally outside the building get to the street get to the community around you get to the context the industry what's changing out there that we need to master and bring back to our organizations to do it better impact how many lives are we going to touch how many people are we going to affect and not just do our jobs and not even sit in the decision-making circles alone but how are we going to change the world and make the world a better place I lead a program at Harvard called advanced leadership where we actually work with top professionals in every field at the very top who are now going to transition from their income earning years to their next years of service and we have them step outside the building outside their profession professions careers often narrow people people often learn the technical side and know more and more about less and less but to step outside and think about the impact one's having on the world outside is the powerful third career step that really matters so those are the three steps we should be thinking about not runs on a ladder we're no longer climbing or waiting in line we can put together a portfolio of activities but think of those three steps first is inclusion getting in the door a matter of mastery mastering technical skills the second is influence getting a seat at the table relationships belonging I'm here I will deserve to be here but the third to me is the most important and that's impact that's a vision of how we make the world a better place and as far as I'm concerned that's what our career journey should be all about ensuring that we have more and more impact outside the current structures to make the world a better place thank you [Applause]

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 30,388

Rating: 4.7097793 out of 5

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Business, Career, Impact

Id: ekX3CIz-Yec

Length: 15min 49sec (949 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 10 2018