Disrupt Yourself by Whitney Johnson

Author:Whitney Johnson [Johnson, Whitney]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bibliomotion, Inc.
Published: 2015-03-03T16:00:00+00:00

Is Stepping Back the Right Move?

Just because there can be benefits to a strategic step back doesn’t mean it is always the right call. If you’re working toward an ambitious and potentially achievable goal, such as managing a division at your company or winning a C-suite job in your industry, there’s no need to. But if as an individual you’ve reached the top rung of the ladder you’re climbing, it’s time to find a new ladder—for the same reasons companies must seek out new markets.

First, you need to head off the competition. As you continue to improve along the dimensions of performance that the employment market has historically valued, you risk overshooting demands. What you do reliably, if not brilliantly well, can be done just as effectively by many peers—and perhaps more swiftly and affordably by up-and-comers.

Second, consider the greater rewards that disruption might bring. It’s true that disruptive innovation in business tends to start out as a low-cost alternative, and of course you don’t want to embrace a career strategy that reduces your own price point. But when you disrupt yourself, you vector to a new set of performance metrics. And with personal disruption, compensation is not just financial—psychological and social factors also matter.

Also consider the phase of your career. Early in your career, you are at the low end of the curve. You can take the jobs that no one else wants. There’s little to lose in taking a step back. Senior employees are at the upper end of the organizational curve. If things get really bad, they likely have a golden parachute, and there’s enough headroom to slingshot forward. The risk/reward math works. It’s much more complicated if you are a middle manager. Trying something new could result in a steep slide back down the curve, with internal fiefdoms giving a none-too-collegial shove.

An HR program manager (we’ll call him Ben) inside a storied Silicon Valley company leveraged his distinctive strength of coding to write a program that remediated a departmental pain point. The last thing anyone expected from his role was a full-application ecosystem and operational dashboard complete and in production in less than a month at zero additional cost to the team. His colleagues in IT now had to decide if they would “bless” his initiative and solution, or reject it because he had inadvertently done their job quickly and affordably. They opted for the latter: instead of cheering, they booed.

If you are a middle manager, you likely have had a similar experience of being stuck in the middle. In innovation circles, it’s been referred to as the “frozen middle,” because this is where good ideas get put on ice. If middle managers could freely skate up and down the curve to where they believe the puck will go, there would no doubt be a thaw. As you consider moves sideways, up, or down, simply be aware of this dilemma—and, importantly, consider it when the people who work for you want to make a move.

Finally, remember to analyze how well your skills map to others’ unmet needs.

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