Keeping Your Career on Track

Book excerpt: Managers who achieve significant professional goals don’t often worry about career derailment. But complacency isn’t the same as continued success. Many high-performing executives have one or more blind spots that they ignore as long as they meet their business goals. The traps that lead to derailment can usually be found among five leadership competencies: interpersonal relationships, building and leading a team, getting results, adapting to change, and having a broad functional orientation. Managers who rely on any of these skills at the expense of the others or who neglect these skills when promoted from a technical to a managerial role can sidetrack their career. Leadership success—achieving it and continuing it—depends heavily on a manager’s developing and using each of these skills.