PART FIVE: THE CRITICAL PATH MINDSET
We’ve spent the first four sections of the book examining the critical path and what it means for companies, managers, teams, and you.
Part Five of the book takes a different focus: just you, the employee. By now, you know what the critical path is and why it is important. You understand your customers and how to focus on them. Now, we turn to what the critical path means for you as an individual, and how can you use and build on the lessons we’ve already learned to pursue meaningful work, earn what you desire, and advance in your career?Consider Zyla. She is the COO of a global company. Her house just outside of Pittsburgh sits on 10 acres with fountains, gardens, a greenhouse, and verdant woods surrounding the property. When not flying in the corporate jet, she can afford to travel first class. Her net worth, excluding her house, is over $20 million. She could retire any day and have no financial worries for the rest of her life.
Ross is an engineer at a Fortune 500 manufacturing company. With his annual salary of $90,000, his family can afford to live in Pittsburgh’s suburbs comfortably. Ross has been lucky to survive seven rounds of layoffs over the years, though each one has led to weeks of disrupted sleep for him and his spouse. With only 10 years left before retirement, he’s hoping to hang on till the very end.
By examining the career paths of Zyla and Ross, you wouldn’t believe they were classmates 35 years ago. When they graduated together from engineering school, they had similar grades, similar first jobs, and similar career dreams. They both wanted to rise to the top, initially in engineering and then hopefully in management. Over the years, Zyla’s dream came true; Ross is still in the engineering ranks and, if his prayers are answered, he’ll survive there till retirement.
Part Five is about two workers and two work forces. Zyla understood the critical path and got on it; Ross didn’t. Zyla knows how to leverage herself; Ross let others leverage him. Zyla benefited from these two important insights; Ross didn’t.
Of course, success is not solely defined by getting to the C-Suite or having a net worth of $20 million. Success can be thought of in many different ways. However, Ross wanted that kind of success, and he did not reap the personal and economic rewards that he could have.
In essence, what distinguishes their career achievements is that Zyla has a critical path mindset; Ross does not. Consider some examples:
Zyla views herself as a bundle of unique assets; Ross acts like he is just a commodity in the workplace.
Zyla leverages her assets so that they benefit her and the company proportionately; Ross allows others to leverage them disproportionately for someone else’s benefit.
Zyla continually invests in herself to increase the worth of her assets; Ross thinks in terms of training, not re-investment.
Zyla considers dis-continuities in her planning; Ross over-relies on a steady state view of the world.
Zyla reaps greater personal and economic rewards; Ross does not.
Part Five tells you more about the critical path mindset that distinguishes Zyla and Ross—and, more importantly, what it is and how it can benefit you and your organization.
Let’s get started.
Critical Path Action Items
Are you more like Zyla or Ross?
Which would you rather be?
Lesson 51: You are a Unique Bundle of Assets
You are a unique human being. No one else is even close. No one thinks or sings or laughs or even gets mad like you. Your many talents, the variety of your life experiences, and your range of emotions make you one-of-a-kind.
You probably want to factor in your uniqueness when you think about planning your career, finding a job, or going about making money. You might see possibilities of combining your love of animals with your interest in bookkeeping to work as an accountant for a zoo or a veterinarian. Or, maybe you are thinking of giving up your computer programming job to pursue the thrill of theater by becoming an actor.
You want to follow your passion. And that’s great. But I want to shift your perspective and invite you to see your uniqueness in a different light, to see yourself as a bundle of assets that can appreciate and depreciate. Not all skills or talents are equivalent money-making assets. Just as some houses are worth more than other houses, so it is with talents. Likewise, you can have the exact same house in two different neighborhoods or two different cities, and they will fetch very different prices.
As with houses, so it is with your skills and talents. Their economic value will vary depending upon on which organization’s critical path you use them. Is your organization growing and prospering—the economic equivalent of an up-and-coming affluent neighborhood? Or, is it on a downhill slide, similar to a decaying neighborhood? Once you make that determination, then your personal economic return will depend on how much value you add to that critical path.
How you select, combine, and utilize your personal assets will determine what life possibilities are open to you, as well as what kind of personal and economic return you get on them. It will also shape whether your assets gain more value or lose value. Your assets can help you create opportunities or bar opportunities. They either help or hinder your dreams from becoming a reality.
In the next chapters, let’s look more closely at the decisions you can make to stay on the critical path, following in the footsteps of Zyla rather than Ross.
Critical Path Action Items
What are your assets related to employment?
Are your assets appreciating or depreciating?
Are you utilizing them in growing economic sectors or declining ones?