We tend to think that we have to rise quickly up the ranks to succeed in our career. But often, the people who have the most fulfilling careers and the most opportunities available to them are not the ones climbing the corporate ladder.
Psychologist and sociologist, Adam Kleinbaum, conducted research studies of a large 30,000-person organization by studying email chains and the career paths via HR data.
The aim of his research was to determine which people advanced furthest in their careers, had the highest salaries, got promotions most frequently, got highest performance ratings, etc.
What he expected to find was that the people who climbed the corporate ladder fastest were the ones who would have been the most successful.
Instead, he found that the people who bounced around inside of different divisions, who he called Organizational Misfits, were the ones that ended up with the most successful careers, the highest performance evaluations, etc.
The reason for this comes from how networks form. Every network is a group of clusters (or silos) and the people who bridge them. These people fill structural holes between silos and are the ones who can unlock the most value inside the organization by connecting departments, sharing information, and connecting the organization to things outside of it.
Organizational misfits, who bounce around, are the ones who retain relationships within the network and are best able to provide this value to their network and organization.
There’s value to being a bridge through a structural hole, being a broker, and making connections between departments.
Look at your contacts and your calendar. Are you only meeting with people in your silo, or are you taking the time to meet people in different departments throughout the organization and outside of it?
Schedule a meeting (it could be a coffee, a lunch, etc.) with someone who’s in a different department so that you can begin to learn how to be that broker, to bridge that gap, connect silos and unlock value.
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One of the world’s leading business thinkers, Dr. David Burkus’ forward-thinking ideas and bestselling books are helping leaders build their best team ever.
He is the bestselling author of five books about business and leadership. His books have won multiple awards and have been translated into dozens of languages.
Since 2017, Burkus has been ranked multiple times as one of the world’s top business thought leaders. His insights on leadership and teamwork have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, USAToday, Fast Company, the Financial Times, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, CNN, the BBC, NPR, and CBS This Morning.
A former business school professor, Burkus now works with leaders from organizations across all industries, including PepsiCo, Fidelity, Adobe, and NASA.
