Dan Gallagher, senior vice president, Strategic Growth, Comcast-Spectacor, moderates a session on career management at PACnet ’15 with David Benedict, COO, Auburn University; Chris Plonskly, athletics director, University of Texas; and Solly Fulp, COO, University of California, Berkeley.
REPORTING FROM NEWPORT BEACH, CALIF. – With about 750 registered participants, Paciolan’s PACnet ’15 targeted individuals aiming to further their careers with three sessions led by Dan Gallagher, senior vice president of Strategic Growth at Comcast-Spectacor. These career management talks highlighted industry professionals’ own experiences while offering wisdom to be applied to personal career management.
“Career management is not going to a workshop and getting a prescription, because the world is too ambiguous to have a prescription,” said Gallagher. “Career management is having a plan and then taking the time to explain it to others and get their feedback and then maybe adjusting the plan and prioritizing and thinking about your work load. The people who look forward in that way will have a better, richer story to tell than those of us who just work hard every day.”
Gallagher continually stressed the idea that you own your own career. Your manager has the most influence over your career, but ultimately you’re the one who decides when to push the gas, how hard to apply the brakes and what to steer towards. Because of this, taking the initiative becomes critical to career advancement. Opportunity isn’t going to come and tap you on the shoulder. You have to go out and find opportunity.
“The thing that I try to do and learned early on was don’t surprise your boss,” said David Benedict, COO at Auburn University. “My goal is to make sure that when he or she lays down at night and puts his head on the pillow that he's not worried about the things that I oversee, which means you have to be very proactive and you have to have initiative and not wait until your boss tells you to do something. So when that question comes up you can say, 'I’ve already taken care of it'.”
In basketball, Chris Plonsky, athletics director at the University of Texas, explained, there are movers and blockers, and the same goes for the workplace.
“Am I a mover or am I a blocker at this meeting, on this day, in this moment, at this event?” asked Plonsky. “There are times when a block is really appropriate, but what you really want is for blockers and movers to work in sync so that you get the bucket you want in the time you need it by the shooter who’s supposed to shoot it. Moving and blocking is what people and relationship-building is about.”
Deciding who you are and how you’re going to work with others to achieve your goals is something that should be done early on. There are always distinctions of people in the work force, and you need to make sure you’re part of the right group.
“You guys all know who the talkers are and who the doers are,” said Solly Fulp, COO at University of California, Berkeley. “Don’t be a talker, be the doer. Nothing should be above you and nothing should be below you. You learn from everyone around you, and the best learning moments come when you’re doing it. So prioritize action.”
With taking the initiative comes being open to stretching and working outside of your job description. By communicating sideways, downward and upward, you build a greater network to support you in future projects. When you expand where you work, you expand your network, which expands your opportunities.
“Innovation never happens when you stick to your job description,” said Fulp. “I kind of hate the whole job description thing, because it contains you, and people don’t want to be contained.”
What it comes down to it, said Gallagher, career management is the proper balance of courage and timing, whether that’s in making a career move or proposing a project. He suggests looking at your career path like a stock portfolio. If all your moves are super conservative, how many people are really going to buy that stock during a risky opportunity when they’ve only seen you prove yourself in conservative projects?
“If you have the courage and you don’t have the timing,” said Gallagher, “you’re going to be standing on an island. And if you have the timing, but you don’t have the courage to be bold, your incremental growth will not be substantive enough to get noticed. And you shouldn’t be doing that courage and timing thing by yourself. You should be connected to what everyone in your organization is thinking.”
It all begins with having the courage to say, ‘I want more’ by expanding your horizons and working outside your job description but being prepped and ready to do so.
Contacted for this story: Dan Gallagher, (215) 389-9552; Solly Fulp, (510) 642-0580; Chris Plonsky, (512) 471-4787; David Benedict, (334) 844-1411