CAB 3. How big is your career PIE?

Hello everyone. You are here because you want to accelerate your career on the career autobahn.

In the last edition, you have already talked to your boss about your 5-year career plan. You have already discussed your action points and now is the time to work on that.

Career progression is not determined by your work performance alone. It also depends on your image and exposure. Take a guess how much of your career progression is dependent on your performance, image and exposure.

One study done in the US has shown that only 10% of your career progression is due to your performance, the other 30% is due to your image and another 60% is due to your exposure.

Are you surprised by that? I am not surprised by that. I have always known this and when you look around you I’m sure you would also agree that there are times when you are not sure why someone is promoted over another person. It is not just dependent on work performance alone.

Therefore it is very important from early on in your career to understand this concept of PIE - Performance, Image and Exposure.

You can read more about PIE here https://arrowheadconsulting.com/2021/02/24/the-p-i-e-theory-of-success-performance-image-exposure/

Because performance contributes only about 10% to your career success, does it mean that we don't have to pay that much attention to it? No, that is not what it means. Performance is still the key to unlocking the career promotion door. Without satisfactory performance, there is no chance for a promotion, the door will forever be locked.

So make sure you understand what is the KPI for your work and which one is more important and make damn sure that you hit those KPI or exceed them.

Sometimes we might not agree with the KPI that has been set. Is it good to push back to change the KPI? To a certain extent, you can negotiate. But even more better is to figure out how to achieve the KPI without working too hard. Work smarter to achieve the KPI!

The next part of PIE is the Image. Image refers to how you are perceived by others. Meaning what do people say about you when you are not around! When I do this exercise with my team, I ask them how do you want to be seen by others. Think of some adjectives. It could be that they want to be seen as helpful, or creative, or energetic, or professional etc. It is up to them.

What I want them to understand and for you to understand, is that you are the one in control of how you are perceived by others. You are in control of the narratives. If you want to be seen as professional, generous and creative then make sure that how you present yourselves matches this description of yours!

Dressed smartly all the time to look professional. Be generous at work with your time by helping people at work or be generous with your money by bringing cakes and kuih-muih from time to time at work. Be creative with your powerpoint presentation to be seen as creative! You are totally in control of how you want people to describe you.

Be aware that this refers to both online and offline image. It has to be consistent, There is no point that you are smartly dressed at work but then on your Instagram or Tiktok you are quite shabby, wearing some old clothes that have seen better days.

So for this week, we have discussed Performance and Image. If you want to watch a webinar on this topic, here is a link to a webinar I did on this topic previously.

In the next edition of this newsletter, I will discuss about Exposure.

To progress in your career, you must pay attention to your Performance, Image and Exposure

Focus on your Image. What 3 words do you want people to use to describe you?