think a lot about pathways and the unexpected. Most notably, I
received an invitation to speak at a young women's leadership
conference and while this may sound flattering, in reality I found it
unsettling. I asked myself what I would say to these young,
impressionable, soon-tobe corporate high-flyers about my career path
and the decisions I have made along the way. Unfortunately for my
future audience, I felt rather non-prescriptive on the topic. Do I, or
did I, have a clear pathway for my career?
Given that I spend the majority of my time with senior executives
cementing their own paths to achieving corporate goals, this was an
outrageous thought, especially when one considers that I am the first
to advocate creating a vivid vision and building a solid plan or
pathway to achieving this. Pathways are critical to ensuring that
everyone is heading in the right direction. They bring meaning to
everyday activities. "Why are you doing X?", "Well, because it helps
me to get to Y", 'Y' being a clear milestone on the path.
In preparation for my upcoming speech, I looked up the definition of
pathway in an online dictionary and found the following sentence: "So
many are isolated, dropped out along the pathway, and left to their
own devices". I felt it emphasised the importance of staying on the
pathway. We certainly do not want to be left to our own devices – that
would be bad, apparently. We need to be on a corporation's pathway –
after all, there are certain things that help secure the future of a
company, including having a clear vision and goal; a clear product
and/or service; a large enough customer base; and happy customers
receiving a product or service that they either want or need. Also
important is the actual path that a company creates for its employees
– one that includes clear milestones indicating progress made in
achieving the ultimate vision. Mastering all of this will ensure the
corporation's continued success.
Nonetheless, plans do change, and it is important that everyone
understands the new direction or pathway and is able to follow it.
This does not mean that the end goal or destination necessarily
changes, it just means perhaps a different path to the same
destination. If the destination changes at several points along the
pathway, chaos quite often ensues and no one knows where to go.
I once did some work for a company that made the mistake of changing
its vision without realising it, to disastrous effect. Let us call
this company "Company O". Company O was a leading global service
provider for the automobile industry and had a good handle on its
processes and systems. From what its customers saw, Company O operated
like clockwork. At one point, a partner company that admired company
O's systems asked how they ran such a smooth set of systems. In an
industry with no off-the-shelf software packages available, said
partner company repeatedly posed this question to Company O, a line of
questioning that continued up to the point where company O finally
agreed to build a new system much like their own for this partner
company.
It was never part of Company O's vision to be a software development
company. Their vision lay solely in being a service provider to the
automobile industry. It is one thing to have an IT department that
delivers systems and tools on which the company conducts its business
for its customers but it is an entirely different thing for that IT
department to become a revenue centre and deliver software for
external companies. Not many internal IT departments are equipped to
operate as software service providers to external companies. If,
perhaps, they are equipped as such, it is not by happenstance. This
opportunistic move, clearly a deviation from Company O's original
pathway and vision, cost them millions.
Company O's actions precipitated the need for a restructuring
programme to restore the company to its former health, as well as
defining a new vision for the organisation. The restoration programme
was a painful one, involving initial surgery on the failing IT
implementation programme that included resetting goals, clarifying
requirement objectives, identifying required skills and processes,
training the teams and re-negotiating contracts.
In a personal sense, the treatment of an individual's visions and
pathways can be likened to that of a corporation. When we go off track
in our personal lives, getting back onto the pathway to our vision is
a process equally as painful as what it is for a large corporation.
Does this mean one cannot proactively change the end vision along the
way? Of course we can change the vision but doing so should not be
taken lightly and should not happen by chance. It entails major
surgery, gutting out, re-skilling, and careful consideration of the
new route. It is not for the faint hearted and should certainly not
become a regular occurrence as it wears down the soul of the
individual or company.
Let us look at the actions of another company with which I consulted,
"Company P", which stumbled upon a potentially lucrative by-product
while developing their main product line for a very different and
large target market. Options available to company P were as follows:
• Option 1: Ignore this potentially lucrative by-product as a
distraction and continue on down the development path of what was
likely to be a very successful primary product, thus sticking to their
vision.
• Option 2: Incorporate the byproduct into plans and launch both new
products to different audiences, albeit slightly later than planned,
but at the risk of creating confusion among customers.
• Option 3: Spin-off a new company to focus on the by-product while
leaving the original plan in place focussing on the main product,
thereby maintaining the vision while still being open to new
opportunities. Option 3 prevailed, the spin-off company later sold for
a healthy profit.
What can we learn from all of this? It is simple: that we need to
maintain the overall vision but still be open to opportunities that
may present themselves along the way. Also, we should not be alarmed
if the pathway changes over time because plans are made to be changed.
However, should your company's vision change completely, you must
always start down the new path with caution.
After much consideration I had a clearer idea about what I wished to
share with my audience of young women:
1. Have an overall vision for your career
2. Understand your value and how it applies to your career
3. Create a clear pathway to achieving your career vision
4. Continue to improve and maximise your value throughout your journey.
Maybe I followed the above steps unconsciously. I am not certain. What
I know for sure is that as long as your vision does not change
regularly, fear not, feel free to change the pathway and hold
steadfast onto that vision as your steps will eventually lead to
success.
