The four career concepts: managers can learn how to better develop their people by learning how they're motivated - Management Tools: Supervisor Resources

HR Magazine, Sept, 2002 by Robert N. Llewellyn

Becoming an effective "people developer" is a way of differentiating yourself as a leader among managers and can revive your professional sense of purpose. Research on effective leadership and being a good developer of your staff consistently shows that managers must understand each employee's motivations and manage him accordingly. One size does not fit all. What works for one person does not work for the next. This is common wisdom. But how effective managers do this is harder to pin down.

The "career concept" is one way to help you better understand your employees and, therefore, get more out of them. This approach is based on the work of Michael Driver, Ph.D., professor of organizational behavior and director of the management assessment program at the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California at Los Angeles. The premise is that everyone has a concept of career success that was programmed into his psyche from as early as childhood or at the beginning of his professional life. Each person's career concept is derived from such things as parents and family, national culture, company culture, a mentor or even birth order.

Four Concepts

The framework posits that there are four distinct career concepts. Each is unique, and no single career concept is right for everyone. Of the four, the first two have been intuitively known for some time; the final two more recently have been recognized and apply to many people in the workplace.

* Linear. To the person motivated by the linear concept, success only comes from moving up the corporate ladder. While prevalent in the United States, this proves to be a difficult concept to yield continuing success. Movement up the organizational pyramid provides fewer positions into which to advance. Many who carry the linear concept are frustrated. Many leave positions of influence when they become "topped out." The "de-layering" of organizational levels of the 1990s left many linears disillusioned. For many, it is an emotionally brutal concept.

* Expert. Success for the person motivated by the expert concept is being known as the best among his or her peers. This includes the craft worker who yearns to be the best welder at Amalgamated Inc. It is also the trial lawyer garnering community recognition for a high-profile case, the surgeon with national recognition for an innovative procedure or the accountant with the most knowledge in the department of accounting rules. Those who carry the expert concept may have been told in their youth to "grow up to be good at something." Their parents or grandparents may have been influenced by the Great Depression, during which the employees who kept their jobs were often the ones with the best skills.

* Spiral. Success is being able to move from one position to a related but often broader position, usually every five to 10 years. Broadening is the key. A spiral's parents may have taught him to be "well rounded." New positions are a natural extension of the prior work. This is the engineer who migrates into project management and then to capital budgeting and eventually to corporate budgeting functions. Spirals amass a vast amount of knowledge and experience.

Many spirals in mid-career feel a strong desire to share the massive knowledge with others. This leads some spirals to leave large companies to become consultants or teachers.

* Roamer. Success to the roamer is being able to change jobs often. Movement is more frequent than spirals, perhaps every two to three years, and the succeeding jobs are often unrelated to past professional experiences. A roamer may move from funeral director to draftsman. These are often people from the extremes of economic backgrounds who don't value security. They either were raised in an upper-economic stratum and presume money will always be there or were in a poorer economic environment and know they can survive on very little.

Roamers can play key roles in companies that are expanding, both geographically and into new markets. They make good startup people. Roamers tend to value work with high people involvement.

Each career concept has a set of underlying motives. These are the things that make people happy at work and energize them. Linears are motivated by power and achievement. Experts seek expertise and security. Spirals value growth and creativity. Roamers are passionate about variety and independence.

Unfortunately, many people have a particular concept of career success wired into their belief system, but they have strong underlying motives that tie to another concept. Such a misalignment between concept and motives could lead to chronic dysfunctions, such as discord, despair, lack of motivation, cynicism and frustration.

As one common example, consider the well-rounded son of a high-profile executive who is truly energized by growth and creativity. He may believe he needs to be "successful" like dad and focuses on climbing the ladder, but he does not have achievement and power as his primary career drivers. This perceived need to climb ever higher and the resultant constant gamesmanship of company politics impede his stronger desire of continued growth and the opportunity to apply his experiences creatively. He is setting himself up for failure.