Prognosticators of career success in today’s milieu

What is it that defines and regulates the career success of people? Is it simple brainpower or technical expertise? Do community and monetary factors related to upbringing have a bearing on it? Is academic attainment an influencing factor in career success? And lastly, are the contributory factors same as what they were twenty or thirty years ago?

All the above issues have been delved into comprehensively by behavioural scientists. What have been their findings?

First and foremost, it is essential to understand that there are several falsehoods and figments floating around that tint and affect our outlook on career success; the most important one being that any individual can reach the zenith of his career ladder. This could have been possible around two or three decades ago, however, the situation today stands altered.

Acumen, aptitude and astuteness are still the most crucial contributing factors of career success. But their undertones and connotations have changed drastically. Today it is not just intelligence in the classical sense that gives your carer a boost. The capacity of individuals to be aware of, control and express one's emotions; and to handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically have come to be regarded as vital for career success.

Your intelligence will always matter. But you have to be sharp and perceptive. Your people skills, self-knowledge and public appreciation – all these constitute what is known as emotional intelligence – are better forecasters of career success as also career failure. Emotional intelligence deficiencies have been concluded to be the main cause of career muddle and shapelessness. With statistics indicating that emotional intelligence capabilities solely distinguish star performers from average employees, it is no wonder that while hiring people, organisations tend to lay great stress on such capabilities, particularly compassion and self- understanding.

Today, careers have become more or less sans confines and frontiers. If that be so, what are the prognosticators of career success? It has been proven that the hitherto fore rectilinear and lifetime careers that had traditional barometers to gauge success are no more there. With careers that have practically no stipulated precincts, inner and mental triumph has become a crucial determinant for career success vis-à-vis earlier tangible ones like earnings. But gratification and achievement are what are viewed as more significant today. Aspects connected with inspiration, individual import and self-awareness have assumed greater importance than ever before. Another prognosticator of career success is your networking capability, which translated to practical sense, means your capacity to develop and sustain relationships. Courage means to keep working a relationship, to continue seeking solutions to difficult problems, and to stay focused during stressful periods. And this type of courage is inescapable at workplaces today. Your survival as also business survival today is contingent on networking. Your own education, training and efforts to improve your skill sets are the other predictors of career success.

Amongst various predictors of career success, your motivation, identification and self-cognizance are the most essential ones. But the key question is, “Can you increase your emotional intelligence?” Scientific studies conducted on emotional intelligence infer that though it is largely influenced by early childhood happenings, an improvement can be brought about through personal effort and counselling.    

It has been contended that career success in old-style establishments tends to be in support of people who are relatively less resourcefully endowed; this is largely on account of dependence on hierarchal superintendence frameworks.  However, in altered settings today, the workplace success is all about being foreseeable, reducing boss’ burden and taking on extra workload. To be precise, managers at all levels expect their subordinates to be well-organised, display competence, expedite assignments and conform to the guidelines issued. These imperatives are evidently not dictated by perceptive or emotional assessments; and hence impede the progress of individuals who howsoever luminous, gifted or inventive that they may be, are not at ease working under close and authoritative superintendence.

The change that has come to stay is this. The conventional typecast of an organisational leader as self-assured and to some extent even unapproachable but overenthusiastic but with a good sense of strategic perception has been rendered obsolete. It is essential that business leaders of today possess high degree of emotional competencies; in fact, such qualities have to be uppermost.

Considering all the above, traditional skill-based or cognitive assessment as a tool to predict career success is fast losing its relevance. The prognosticators of career success in the altered work milieu today are plain and simple emotional proficiencies.