Career “planning” In “VUCA world,” occurs in rapidly-shifting conditions, defined by the U.S. Army War College as volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous environments,
As a result, it is difficult to meaningfully respond to the interview question: “What are your career plans for the next five years?”, and one can question the value of this inquiry in any assessment situation.
Kathleen Eisenhardt
Planning is most suited to relatively certain circumstances when processes and decisions are linear, argued Stanford’s Kathleen Eisenhardt and Behnam Tabrizi.
In contrast, frequently-changing or uncertain conditions like VUCA world, require improvisation, frequent testing, and revision. These approaches are applicable to rapid changes in economic, political, and technology changes that affect career paths.
Applicable skills used in Agile software development include iterative exploration, rapid prototyping, and experimentation, and can be applied to navigating emerging career paths.
Simple behaviour routines, such as following a structured checklist, can prevent crucial workplace errors and increase quality in medical settings, found Harvard’s Atul Gawande.
He found that people effectively improved their performance when they recognizedweaknesses in organizational processes, and took proactive steps to remedy these shortcomings.
He found a correlation between IRR and leadership effectiveness in new investment ventures. Selecting capable leaders is critical to business outcomes, so Smart also evaluated VC firms’ typical approach to assessing potential leaders:
The Art Critic is the most frequent approach in which the VC assesses leadership talent at a glance, intuitively, based on experience,
The Sponge conducts extensive due diligence, then decides based on intuition,
The Prosecutorinterrogates the candidate, tests with challenging questions and hypothetical situations,
The Suitorwoos the candidate instead of analysing capabilities and fit,
The Terminatoreliminates the evaluation because the venture firm replaces the company’s originators,
The Infiltrator becomes a “participant-observer” in an immersive, time-consuming experientially-based assessment,
The Airline Captain uses a formal checklistto prevent past mistakes.
This last approach was linked to the highest average Internal Rate of Return (IRR) for the new ventures.
In addition, this strategy was significantly less likely to result in later terminating senior leaders.
Venture Capitalists in these studies reported that two of their most significant mistakes were:
Investing insufficient time in talent analysis,
Being influenced by “halo effect” in evaluating candidates.
Systematic reminders to execute all elements required for expert performance can prevent failure and signal potential failure points.
Successful careers can follow forms other than “up or out,” according to Decision Dynamics’ Kenneth Brousseau, Michael Driver of USC, with Lund University’s Kristina Eneroth, and Rikard Larsson.
Their “pluralistic career concept framework” classified careers as:
Four Career Concepts
–Linear – Traditional upward movement, with variable job role tenure, and motivated by power and achievement.
Behavioral competencies include leadership, competitiveness, cost-efficiency, logistics management, profit orientation.
This career concept is most seen in tall hierarchies with a narrow span of control.
Michael Driver
–Expert – Little movement and long role tenure due to deepening expertise in a narrow discipline.
Motives include mastery, expertise, and security. Meaningful rewards are continued training, benefits, recognition.
Competencies are quality, commitment, reliability, technical competence, stability orientation. This career concept is well-matched to flat functional organizations.
Career Motives, Competencies
–Spiral – Lateral movement to broaden functional exposure, with seven to ten year tenure in roles.
Motivated by personal growth, creativity, and suited to matrix organizations with cross-functional teams, this pattern is seen in loose, temporary team structures.
Rewards include cross-functional lateral assignments and training. Key competencies include creativity, teamwork, skill diversity, lateral coordination, people development.
–Transitory – Lateral moves with three to five year tenures are motivated by desire for variety, independence. Most often found in temporary team structures, where behavioural skills include speed, networking, adaptability, fast learning, project focus. Meaningful rewards are job rotation, temporary assignments, immediate cash bonuses.
This team’s research was distilled into assessment tools focused on career “fit” with an organization’s structure and objectives.
Timothy Butler
A similar emphasis on cultural fit is found in CareerLeader Inventory, based on Timothy Butler and James Waldroop’s research at Harvard Business School.
James Waldroop
-*Which of the four career trajectories seems most like yours?
-*Which career assessment tools have you found most useful to determine your skills, interests, and best-fit organizational context?
Confidence is correlated with career effectiveness and advancement. However, people who exhibit too much of a good thing may be seen as “narcissistic.”
-Inflated views of the self, -Grandiosity, -Self-focus, -Vanity, -Self-importance,
according to San Diego State University’s Jean M. Twenge, with Sara Konrath and Brad J. Bushman of University of Michigan, collaborating with University of South Alabama’s Joshua D. Foster, and Keith Campbell of University of Georgia,
Calvin S Hall
One well-validated assessment instrument to identify narcissism is the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, developed by University of California Berkeley’s Robert Raskin and Calvin S. Hall.
Sara Konrath
Raskin and UC Berkeley colleague, Howard Terry examined responses from more than 1000 volunteers and found seven constructs related to narcissism:
Authority,
Exhibitionism,
Superiority,
Vanity,
Exploitativeness,
Entitlement,
Self-Sufficiency.
Timothy Leary
They related ratings of “self” and “ideal self” to participants’ responses on the Leary Interpersonal Check List, developed by Harvard’s Timothy Leary before he investigated psychedelic drugs.
Brian P Meier
An alternative to Leary’s lengthy NPI was developed by University of Michigan’s Sara Konrath, Brian P. Meier of Gettysburg College, and Ohio State’s Brad J. Bushman of Indiana University. The Single Item Narcissism Scale (SINS) measures grandiosity, entitlement, and low empathy characteristic of “narcissistic” behaviour.
The team asked more than 2,200 participants to rate their answer to a single question on a scale of one to seven: To what extent do you agree with this statement? “I am a narcissist.”
Brad J Bushman
Konrath’s team demonstrated that the Single Item Narcissism Scale is a valid, reliable alternative to longer narcissism scales because it is significantly correlated with scores on the NPI and is uncorrelated with social desirability.
A negotiator’s assertiveness style and understanding of how others perceive assertive behaviours can determine success in bargaining, according to Columbia University’s Daniel Ames and Abbie Wazlawek.
Individuals who apply more assertiveness than required to achieve their goals have less-accurate self-perception than less assertive people, and both groups experience “self-awareness blindness.”
Abbie Wazlawek
A mismatch between negotiation partners’ ratings of appropriate assertiveness was linked to poorer negotiation outcomes for both parties.
Nearly 60% of negotiators who were rated as appropriately assertive but felt over-assertive (“line-crossing illusion”) negotiated the inferior deals for themselves and their counterparts.
This finding suggests that disingenuous emotional displays (such as “strategic umbrage” or feigned anger) were associated with a negotiation partner seeking the first acceptable deal. This reduces the opportunity to achieve an optimal outcome for both participants.
Jeffrey Kern
Negotiators can increase their accuracy in judging their negotiation partner’s impression of their degree of assertiveness in the negotiation, (“meta-perception“) by:
-Participating in 360 degree feedback,
-Increasing skill in listening for content and meaning,
–Considering whether negotiation proposals are “reasonable” in light of alternatives,
-Requesting feedback on reactions to “strategic umbrage” displays to better understand perceptions of “offer reasonableness,”
-Evaluating costs and benefits of specific assertiveness styles.
Gary Yukl
Over-assertiveness may provide the benefit of “claiming value” in a negotiation but may lead to ruptured interpersonal relationships, according to Jeffrey M. Kern of Texas A&M, SUNY’s Cecilia Falbe and Gary Yukl.
Cultural norms for assertiveness vary across countries. In “low context” cultures like Israel, dramatic displays of emotion and assertion are expected in negotiations. In contrast, “high context” cultures like Japan, require more nuanced assertiveness, with fewer direct disagreements and fewer “strategic umbrage” displays, according to Edward T. Hall, then of the U.S. Department of State.
People who change gender continue to use their education and experience at work. However, many of these people report that their compensation, degree of respect, and recognition at work changed following gender change. This suggests that gender can directly affect compensation and workplace interactions.
Two Stanford professors’ personal experiences in gender transition were highlighted by University of Chicago’s Kristen Schilt.
Joan Roughgarden – Jonathan Roughgarden
Stanford’s Joan Roughgarden, was an evolutionary biologist for more than 25 years as Jonathan Roughgarden before she made her male-to-female (MTF) transition.
Her experience contrasts with Stanford colleague, neurobiologist Ben Barres, who made scientific contributions as Barbara Barres until after he was 40.
Schilt surveyed FTM and MTF to compare earnings and employment experiences before and after gender transitions with questions similar to 2002 Current Population Survey (CPS) survey items:
Last job before gender transition,
First job after gender transition,
Most recent job.
Kristen Schilt
Female-to-male transsexuals (FTMs) reported that as men, they had more authority, reward, and respect in the workplace than they received as women, even when they remained in the same jobs.
Height and skin color affected potential advantages enjoyed by FTM.
Tall, white FTMs experienced greater benefits than short FTMs and FTMs of color. In contrast, MTF reported reduced authority and pay, and often harassment and termination.
However, salary reduction was no joke for MTFs in Schilt’s survey sample. Participants reported significant losses of 12% in hourly earnings after becoming female.
FTMs, however, experienced no change in earnings or small positive increases up to 7.5% in earnings after transitioning to becoming men.
Any gender transition was associated with risks of harassment and discrimination, reported more frequently in “blue-collar” jobs, particularly for those with “non-normative” appearance and not consistently “passing” as the other gender.
These “naturalistic experiments” confirm continuing gender-based pay discrepancies.
-*To what extent have you observed these gender-linked differences in compensation and workplace credibility?
Situations outside the workplace can affect employees’ productivity, commitment, mindset, attitudes, and health.
Similarly, experiences at work can affect employees’ quality of life at work and outside of work. Workplace Employee Assistance Programs, on-site medical centres, concierges, meals, and fitness centres are intended to address this bi-directional influence to improve employee retention and productivity.
Christopher Barnes
When employees suppress their true feelings about work experiences, they engage in “surface acting” as they display appropriate, but unfelt facial expressions, verbal interactions, and body language.
Brent Scott
Surface acting at work was associated with emotional exhaustion, work-to-family conflict, and insomnia outside of work for more than 70 volunteers in a high stress public service occupation, found Singapore Management University’s David T. Wagner, Christopher M. Barnes of University of Washington, and Brent A. Scott of Michigan State University.
Arlie Hochschild
“Emotional labor” was Arlie Hochshild’s earlier term for “surface acting” in customer service interactions when employees present prescribed verbalisations and emotions.
She contrasted “surface acting” with “deep acting” in which the person:
Exhibits the emotion actually felt,
Uses past emotional experiences to elicit real emotion and empathic connection with others, in a form of “organizational method acting.”
Christina Maslach
“Surface acting” at work can lead to occupational “burnout,” characterized by emotional exhaustion, detachment from others, and reduced workplace performance, noted University of California Berkeley’s Christina Maslach and Susan Jackson.
Céleste Brotheridge
In contrast, high emotional labor with deep acting was associated with a greater sense of personal accomplishment in research by University of Regina’s Celeste Brotheridge and Alicia Grandey of Penn State.
These behaviours usually are associated with non-participative work environments, minority status, and high self-monitoring.
Terence Mitchell
. Impression management, characterised by ingratiating behaviours in two-person relationships which can favourably influence career outcomes, according to Georgia Tech’s Robert C. Liden and Terence R. Mitchell of University of Washington.
Compliance, or publicly stating changed beliefsin response to external pressures, without truly modifying personal convictions, according to Leon Festinger.
Leon Festinger
Most people at work encounter situations in which they choose to behave in “appropriate” ways that are inconsistent with their true feelings, and may experience similar stress spillover from “surface acting” at work.
-*How do you prevent “burnout” when workplace settings seem to require “surface acting”?
“Viral emotions” can be transmitted through social media platforms with no need to observe nonverbal cues, according to Facebook’s Adam D. I. Kramer, Jamie E. Guillory of University of California, San Francisco and Cornell University’s Jeffrey T. Hancock. This suggests that social media can significantly affect the emotional tone in workplaces and the interpersonal relations that take place there. In addition, the emotional tone evoked by social media posts can affect workplace productivity.
Jeffrey Hancock
When positive emotional expressions were reduced in Facebook News Feeds, people produced fewer positive posts and more negative posts. In contrast, when negative emotional expressions were reduced, people reduced negative posts, indicating that others’ emotional expressionsinfluence bystanders’ emotions and behaviors.
Individuals who were more influenced by others’ emotions on R. William Doherty’s Emotional Contagion Scale also reported greater:
Reactivity,
Emotionality,
Sensitivity to others,
Social functioning,
Self-esteem,
Emotional empathy.
They also reported lower:
Alienation,
Self-assertiveness,
Emotional stability.
Stanley Schachter
People are more likely to be influenced by others’ emotions when they feel threatened, because this elicits increased affiliation with others, according to Stanley Schachter‘s emotional similarity hypothesis.
Brooks B Gump
Likewise, when people believe that others are threatened, they are more likely to mimic others’ emotions, found Syracuse University’s Brooks B. Gump and James A. Kulik of University of California, San Diego.
People who are more likely to “catch” emotions from others are also more likely to actually feel emotions associated with facial expressions they display, reported Clark University’s James D. Laird, Tammy Alibozak, Dava Davainis, Katherine Deignan, Katherine Fontanella, Jennifer Hong, Brett Levy, and Christine Pacheco. This suggests that those with greater susceptibility to emotional contagion are convincing to themselves and others.
Participants assumed the role of “teacher” or “learner” to simulate role-based power differentials, then viewed a videotape of a fictitious participant discussing an emotional experience. Volunteers then described their emotions as they watched the confederate describe a “happiest” and “saddest” life event. People in higher power roles were more attuned to followers’ emotions than expected.
However, customer satisfaction measures were more influenced by service quality than employees’ positive emotional displays, according to Bowling Green State’s Patricia B. Barger and Alicia A. Grandey of Pennsylvania State University.
Emotions can positively or negatively resonate through work organisations with measurable impact on employee attitude, morale, engagement, customer service, safety, and innovation.
-*How do you intentionally convey emotions to individuals and group members? -*What strategies do you use to manage susceptibility to “emotional contagion”?
Two types of empirical studies provide evidence about coaching’s efficacy:
Randomized Controlled Trials (RCT), in which participants receive one of several interventions or no intervention.
This is considered the more credible research approach.
Peter Langford
.Quasi-Experimental Field Studies (QEFS), which use “time series analysis” but not random participants to measure outcomes.
Linley Curtayne
Randomized Controlled Trials (RCT) found several effects among executives who received 360-degree feedback and four coaching sessions over ten weeks:
. Lower stress, according to Grant and University of Sydney colleagues Linley Curtayne and Geraldine Burton,
Geraldine Burton
Greater goal attainmentcompared with an eight week educational mindfulness-based health coaching program, reported by University of Sydney’s Gordon B. Spence, Michael J. Cavanagh and Grant,
Gordon Spence
Increased goal commitment, and environmental mastery, compared with peer coaching among adults in a Solution Focused/Cognitive Behavioral (SF/CB) life coaching program, according to research by Spence and Grant,
Michael Cavanagh
. Increased cognitive hardiness, mental health, and hopeamong female high school students in a 10 session solution-focused cognitive-behavioral (SF-CB) life coaching program, found University of Wollongong’s L.S.Green, Grant, and Josephine Rynsaardt,
Lindsay Oades
Increased goal striving, well-being, hope, with gains maintained up to 30 weeks, reported by Grant and Green with University of Wollongong colleague Lindsay G. Oades.
C. RIck Snyder
Increased hope is crucial to pursue any goal, according to University of Kansas’s C.R. Snyder, Scott T. Michael of University of Washington, and Ohio State’s Jennifer Cheavens.
Individuals seeking change are more effective when they:
Develop one or more ways to achieve a goals (“pathways”),
Use these routes to reach the goal (“agency”).
Edward Deci – Richard Ryan
Three additional elements contribute to goal achievement, suggested University of Rochester’s Edward L. Deci and Richard M. Ryan:
Decreased anxiety and stressamong UK finance organization participants, in findings by Kristina Gyllensten and Stephen Palmer of City University London.
These empirical studies validate coaching’s contribution to participants’ increased goal attainment and increased satisfaction, well-being, and hope.
-*How do you “coach yourself” and others toward increased goal attainment and performance?
-*What are the “active ingredients” of effective coaching practices?
Shift attention away from past and future actions,
Increase positive emotions.
Kirk Brown
The team asked volunteers to complete Mindful Attention Awareness Scale, developed by Virginia Commonwealth University’s Kirk Brown and Richard Ryan of University of Rochester.
Richard Ryan
They also measured participants’ ability to resist “sunk cost” bias using Adult Decision-Making Competence Inventory, developed by Leeds University’s Wändi Bruine de Bruin with Baruch Fischhoff of Carnegie Mellon and RAND Corporation’s Andrew M. Parker.
Wändi Bruine de Bruin
In a decision task, participants could take an action or to do nothing, as a measure of sunk-cost bias. Taking action indicated resistance to the sunk-cost bias, whereas those who took no action were influenced by the sunk-cost bias.
Baruch Fischhoff
Volunteers who listened to a 15-minute focused-breathingguided meditation were more likely to choose action, resisting sunk-cost bias, than those who had not heard the meditation instruction.
Andrew M Parker
Barsade’s team noted that, “People who meditated focused less on the past and future, which led to them experiencing less negative emotion. That helped them reduce the sunk-cost bias.”
Jochen Reb
Mindful attention enabled negotiators to craft better deals by “claiming a larger share of the bargaining zone” in “fixed pie” negotiations, found Singapore Management University’s Jochen Reb, Jayanth Narayanan of National University of Singapore, and University of California, Hastings College of the Law’s Darshan Brach. Effective negotiators also expressed greater satisfaction with the bargaining process and outcome.
Jayanth Narayanan
Mindful attention also leads to a lower negativity bias, the tendency to weigh pessimistic information more heavily than positive, reported Virginia Commonwealth University’s Laura G. Kiken and Natalie J. Shook of West Virginia University.
The team assessed negativity bias with BeanFest, a computer game developed by Shook, with Ohio State’s Russell Fazio and J. Richard Eiser of University of Sheffield.
Natalie Shook
Participants associated novel stimuli with positive or negative outcomes during attitude formation exercises.
Russell Fazio
Volunteers who listened to a mindfulness induction correctly classified positive and negative stimuli more equally, expressed greater optimism, and demonstrated less negativity bias than those in the control condition.
J Richard Eiser
Mindful attention improves decision-making and enhances negotiation outcomes by reducing biases linked to negative emotions.
As a result, taking a brief mental break (“time-out”) during decision-making can improve choices and can reduce the possibility that “the wrong emotions cloud the decision-making process.”
-*How do you reduce bias in making decisions and crafting negotiation proposals?
Kathryn Welds, PhD | Curated Research + Commentary 