You Have to Be a Star
6 Strategies to Twinkle Brightly in the Firmament
Knowledge work, that is the white-collar sector, has bifurcated into being a star or not a star.
STARS
Stars receive not only the lion share of the goodies. Research about the Matthew Effect proved this out: More and more compensation, status, power and influence will continue to come your way, when you’re a star. That’s the way things are.
Meanwhile, professional services - public relations, management consulting, finance and law – has come to operate on the star system. Paul Weiss and Kirkland & Ellis are among the law firms willing to pony up $20 million annually to compensate star equity partners. In contrast, according to the American Bar Association, the average equity partner, that is non-star, compensation is $1.4 million a year.
NON-STARS
If you’re a not a star you’ll be in angst about a premature peaking of your career. The usual ending is about 50 years of age. Before that, demotions, PIPs (Proposals to Improve Performance) and periodic layoffs hover over you. In business, it’s become standard to always be screening for performance that doesn’t measure up to the higher and higher criteria. Leaders are nervous, especially since competition has become fierce.
Non-stars among equity partners in large law firms, for example, are experiencing de-equitization. That ranges from lopping off perks to termination. At one time equity partner positions had total employment security. That was before knowledge work become binary: star, non-star.
SIX STRATEGIES TO BECOME A STAR AT WORK
There’s no ambiguity: If you want your work life to be full of abundance and devoid of torment, you have to be a star.
If there’s a “star gene” I haven’t encountered it as a career coach. More often early in education, where critical choices are made, and in careers there’s the gestalt: It’s better to be a star than not and I can put this together.
The key strategies include:
Know what counts. In your doctoral program at the university, which required teaching undergraduates, you got it that your research and relationships with the power structure should be the priorities. Of course, you gave enough to teaching not to ding your brand.
Then, on the job you recognize that performing that specific role is simply the price of entry. As soon as you understand the culture you become pro-active in doing whatever will help your superiors succeed. Be in their corner when their own star isn’t twinkling brightly. They may appear on their way out. But organizational life is full of surprises. Someone or something can “save” them. And you were there for them, all the time.
Model after those already stars. Select a handful of stars, figure out what they do and don’t do, then graft on what fits. With changing times that will change. For instance, the stylistics for power messaging have shifted from the disembodied corporate voice to conversational connecting. Not keeping up-to-date will dim the twinkle.
Charm? It’s not trusted. When he returned for a second round as CEO to then-turbulent Disney, Bob Iger tried the charm offensive. That fell flat.
Be in the right place, at the right time. Professional anonymous networks Fishbowl, Reddit, Blind and Glassdoor post questions about how to navigate from departments going nowhere to where you can be noticed. There’s urgency to that since timing is almost everything.
Star player in the legal sector chair of Paul Weiss Brad Karp launched the first ESG (Environmental Social Governance) practice. Corporations were just feeling the heat about those kinds of issues and Paul Weiss was just-in-time providing guidance. Usually, those clients for ESG stuck around for other services.
Have them come to you. You aim to position and package yourself so that those who matter are convinced that they have to know you. In itself that enhances your aura. The perception of stardom is stardom.
Among the tactics for creating that mystical pull force are having trusted third party contacts seed the internal and external grapevines about the value you deliver; creating a presence on social networks; appearing to achieve effortlessly; being visible in crisis; showing up when not required; and, of course, putting work ahead of being out there smelling the roses. Regarding the latter, there’s plenty of opportunity for WLB in semiretirement.
Ask for things. That can range from permission to attend a meeting to a promotion. The ask signals self-confidence. Implicit is the message that you have other options if you don’t get what you want. You’ll walk. The press will announce that departure, speculating what negatives could be going down in the business. Yes, you’re standing toe-to-toe with power. A wonderful briefing on that is Hedrick Smith’s “The Power Game.”
Understand your mistakes. The great comebacks in recent history – Jimmy Carter, Lee Iacocca, Michael Milken - had been able to move attention away from their past to their amazing present. That sort of transformation mandates owning your part of the disaster and developing positive action plans, along with self-forgiveness. In a Ted Talk having more than 24 million views “Redemption Stories,” John Tarantino describes that capacity.
REMOVING THE STAR FROM THE FIRMAMENT
You have to keep enhancing your twinkle. There’s no settling in. Becoming comfortable is 20th century. The stock price has to keep going up. Profits Per Equity Partner have to increase annually. More market share has to be acquired.
When you can’t maintain the intensity of star power it’s time to leave at the top of your game. That preserves your legacy.