The 5 Patterns of Extraordinary Careers: The Guide for Achieving Success and Satisfaction (Crown Business Briefings) [Kindle Edition]

The Five Patterns of Extraordinary Careers held no breakthrough insights for me, but it did serve to hone my focus on a few key elements of my career management, and shed some light on how I'm currently doing things that I wasn't aware of.

There were five basic 'patterns' that the book detaiuled are as follows:

1. Understand the Value of You. People with extrordinary careers understand how value is created in the organization and manage their careers according to the value chain. There are three phases of your value, the Potential phase, where employers hire your what you will be able to do, the Experiential phase, where employers hire you to put your previous successes to the test, and Harvest phase, where you are reaping the seads of knowledge sewn in the years of past experience.

2. Practice Benevolent Leadership. Behind every great managers are great employees and great mentors. Use your friends wisely!

3. Overcome the Permission Paradox. Bottom line - successful careers are built on those things that were weren't told you couldn't do, not those things you were givent perimission to do. Understand explicit permission versus implicit permission, and use that to your advantage!

4. Use the 20/80 Principle of Performance. Get out of your defined job and create some real value against the 20% that really matters!

5. Find the Right Fit. No passion, move on to the next gig. This is a major part of the battle. Don't be too successful at something you don't like!

So, what am I doing differently now? Not much really. I've always been an 'implicit permission' kind of guy, I'm quite aware of my current value and am always testing it, and I'm very passionate about what I do. Are you?

Don't forget to check out the book's official website http://www.5patterns.com/

The core of the book is chapters 2 - 6, one for each of the patterns: Understanding the Value of You, Practice Benevolent Leadership, Overcome the Permission Paradox, Differentiate Using the 20/80 Principle, and Find the Right Fit. Citrin and Smith go on to extend the patterns to extraordinary organizations in chapter 7. They use specific examples gleaned from their interviews to illustrate each of the patterns. And while these examples are certainly condensed, in order to fit within the scope of a single volume, they generally, if not specifically and in detail, prove the point. What is less clear though, are how technical careers fall into these patterns. All of the chosen examples are CEOs, COOs, CFOs, CTOs, CIOs, presidents, vice-presidents, and perhaps a Director or two. Though they try to generalize these success patterns you are still left with the impression that extraordinary careers are, at least in part, defined by having entered the executive ranks. I am sure that Citrin and Smith would disagree, but I am still struggling with how to apply these patterns to my rather technical career of Software Engineering without becoming a manager.

Overall this has been a valuable book - if for no other reason than that it has caused me to think about my career in concrete terms and how I can actively manage it rather than waiting for it to happen. The book isn't overly long and can be read in a week during your lunch breaks. Thinking about your career and how to apply the patterns is where the hard work begins.

THE FIVE PATTERNS OF EXTRAORDINARY CAREERS

1. Understand the Value of You. People with extraordinary careers understand how value is created in the workplace, and translate that knowledge into action, building their personal value over each phase of their careers.

2. Practice Benevolent Leadership. People with extraordinary careers do not claw their way to the top, they are carried there.

3. Overcome the Permission Paradox. People with extraordinary careers overcome one of the great Catch-22s of business: You can't get the job without experience and you can't get the experience without the job.

4. Differentiate Using the 20/80 Principle of Performance. People with extraordinary careers do their defined jobs exceptionally well but don't stop there. They storm past pre-determined objectives to create breakthrough ideas and deliver unexpected impact.

5. Find the Right Fit (Strengths, Passions & People). People with extraordinary careers make decisions with the long-term in mind. They willfully migrate toward positions that fit their natural strengths and passions and where they can work with people they like and respect.

The authors have developed a razor-sharp vocabulary that brings welcome dialogue about careers into the new age of business. The executives in this book are all focused on their career, this is one aspect of those with successful careers. The authors have proven that ignoring one's career can greatly supress chances at success.

Is it the best book I ever read? No, but it did help me to focus my attention on skills I was utilizing, just not to my best advantage.