Almost all teachers and mentors tell one to work in the right direction with great intensity till one succeeds in reaching the top. But what is that right direction? Can any type of student follow that path?

This article captures the Top 10 advice that MBAs like me received at IIM Calcutta from alumni, professors, and business leaders, who have already traversed a significant distance on the path to the top positions in their career. Hopefully this article will serve as a guide to MBA aspirants, current students, as well as recent graduates.

1. Ensure a great career start in first six months post MBA: First impressions matters when you join a new job. Seniors/Managers observe you and make quick judgments about your abilities and future growth potential. In this period the company could decide to either invest in growing you or wait till you demonstrate results, so it’s crucial that you perform well on assignments. If your managers judge you to be an average performer during this crucial period, it could take a couple of extra years of hard work to change that impression. So a good strategy is to be more cautious in the first place and give your 120% effort to learn and perform in the first 6 months.

2. Fitment in the firm: You should understand the firm’s culture quickly: what values or behaviors are encouraged within the firm, what is the definition of success, who are the role models and how do they behave? Comprehending the power structure is equally valuable and will give you an idea about who the key decision makers are, what their expectations are, what will impress or disappoint them etc. An early grasp on the firm’s culture and power structure will lead to faster recognition and trust worthiness within the organization.

3. Build a network: A good professional network can’t be overemphasized. Your network may comprise of your college network, previous colleagues, vendors, customers, competitors, industry experts, market analyst, media persons, government officials, etc. A network will be considered healthy and active, if you can approach people in it openly for any help and they respond effectively. A professional network allows quick access to the right people who can help or guide you in the right direction in a crunch situation.

New opportunities or contracts typically start coming more from your own network as you move up in your career. Employees who effectively build and leverage their own network are valued more in organizations and perceived as resourceful.

Now days social networks like linkedin and twitter make networking a cinch. Just remember, the network works both ways – you should also actively help people in your network and invest in social capital that can be leveraged later.

4. Find mentors: Right from an early stage you should identify mentors who can guide you on your professional journey. They can be your past or present boss, alumni, professors, or part of your business network (e.g. client, industry expert, senior leader etc.).

You can have multiple mentors for different areas of expertise e.g. for an industry or functional area, for leadership & team management, for personal development etc. You can change your mentors overtime as needs evolve.

It is important that you respect and trust your mentor; hence choose them wisely, connect with them at-least half yearly, and be open in seeking their advice. Mentors typically can show you direction, act as a sounding board for your ideas, and provide a third person outside-in perspective that can help you make better choices in your career.

Some managers especially at a senior level create a more formal mentor relationships by hiring them. Such formal relationship works well and can be more sustainable because no one is doing anyone a favor and everyone benefits.

5. Build relationships: A relationship of mutual trust with stakeholders like your supervisors, juniors, vendors, customers, media, government agencies, professional network etc allows a highly energetic and healthy working environment which boosts productivity. Without such relationships, it’s much more difficult to seek cooperation from other stakeholders for meeting more stringent quality or meeting deadline requirements.

Relationships could be built by investing time in the relationship, for example by going for lunch together and ensuring that you don’t breach each other’s trust. 

6. Influence others: The ability to influence others a very important trait for effective leaders. To influence others you can understand and build capability in an array of tactics. For example you can use your expertise, position, referent, or reward power to influence others.

In an extreme situation you can also be coercive to influence others. In order to motivate others, as per the McClelland theory, you can first try to understand person’s dominant motivation factors (achievement, affiliation or power oriented) then suitably align your influencing technique based on the person’s need. Such an approach breeds mutual trust and credibility between you and the person you want to influence.

7. Learning & growth: You need to take charge and proactively manage your learning. Curiosity, a habit of asking the right questions, reading, and having the right network are important to ensure constant learning.

Try to pitch for projects that provide more opportunities for learning and exposure at an early stage of your career. Also by maintaining a healthy environment of peer learning, the whole effort of learning could be made quite fun and exciting. If you feel you are not learning or growing in your current role, take a risk and look for change. Your learning is your responsibility.

8. Balance work with time for family and other interest: At an early stage of your career it might be important to sacrifice the balance initially: it will help you earn credibility at your work place. In this phase try to spend more quality time with your family in whatever time you get.

Later you will become more efficient and will find more time for work life balance. Also having an interest outside work and committing to it will give you greater satisfaction and provide you avenues outside of work to develop leadership skills and other skills that will help you lead a richer life.

9. Manage perception: Perception is reality so seek regular feedback from people to know how people perceive you and actively manage it. Demonstrate a strong commitment and show an openness to contributing actively to your organization to set the right perception. Also be known for being ethical in the organization. Only one small unethical incident is sufficient to jeopardize how others perceive you. Being 100% ethical is lot easier than being 99% ethical.

10. Keep looking for what you really want: Think strategically about your goal and direction – where are you right now and where do you really want to go? Satisfaction is derived from the journey towards your goal, hence keep exploring and setting challenging goals. Self reflection and discussion with your trusted or loved ones will help you in making the right choices. (Cover image courtesy endofthegame.com)

Contributing Blogger Abhishek Kumar Gupta (AKG in short ) is an MBA (PGPEX) candidate at IIM Calcutta (Class of 2015). Abhishek graduated from IIT Bombay in 2007 and after working in strategy & operations consulting and with an NGO (TechnoServe) over the last 7 years, he now aspires to lead Indian businesses to global success. He can be reached at abhikgupta@gmail.com

By Abhishek Gupta

Getting into a B-school like the IIMs is really tough and once you are in you hope the MBA degree will change your life. But let me tell you something: the MBA degree could well turn out to be an ’empty degree’. By ’empty degree’ I mean that it may not equip us to tackle tough situations in life. My article is in part inspired by an HBS article by Clayton Christensen, a Harvard veteran professor with over 30 years of teaching experience and over 50 publications.

A few years down the line I am sure that each one of you will be in a good position in life. Imagine that as a Manager you leave for work one morning with a high level of self esteem. Then picture yourself driving home to your family at the end of the day, feeling unappreciated, frustrated, underutilized and demeaned. Just imagine how profoundly your lowered self-esteem would affect your interaction with your spouse and children.

Now fast forward to another day and picture yourself driving back home with high self-esteem – feeling you had learned a lot, been recognized for achieving valuable things, and played a significant role in the success of important initiatives. Then imagine the positivity this would spread in the home.

Isn’t this the career we aspire to? Then should money and titles alone be the guiding light for our futures? Something to keep in mind when contemplating placements.

Consider another aspect. In the chase for a successful career what else are we losing? Time magazine noted in a recent survey that at alumni reunion events of some of the top business schools, more than ten percent of the alumni were going through immense stress in their personal lives. They were either unhappy, divorced or alienated from children. We can safely assume that none of them had a deliberate strategy for getting divorced or raising estranged children when they were young MBAs like us. Yet a shocking number of top managers implemented a flawed strategy in their family life.

The third aspect I want to touch upon is ethics. Professor Clayton Christensen of Harvard played for the Oxford University basketball team during his college years. The team he played for worked hard and reached the college tournament championship finals. It turned out that the championship game was scheduled on a Sunday – the problem was that the professor had made a commitment to god when he was 16 that he will never play ball on Sunday.

His team mates and coach tried to convince the professor to break the rule only once, however the professor refused. Even though it was a small decision, by resisting temptation he made one of the biggest decisions of his life.

It is easier to hold on to your principles 100% of the time than to hold on to them 98% of the time. The small indiscretions we give in to often cost us big and are behind many of the cases that have lead to top managers going to jail.

What is the gist of all of this? For MBA students the next one year is going extremely important. But instead of just focusing on career goals, I would advise everyone to also do some self-reflection. Don’t just focus on short term career choices, but also think about your long term well being. Don’t just focus on professional growth but also learn to build a fine balance at home. Don’t just have principles but also commit to live by them 100% of the time.

An MBA is going to give us technical knowledge, but it’s self-reflection that will ensure that we live successful lives.

Contributing Blogger Abhishek Kumar Gupta (AKG in short ) is an MBA (PGPEX) candidate at IIM Calcutta (Class of 2015). Abhishek graduated from IIT Bombay in 2007 and after working in strategy & operations consulting and with an NGO (TechnoServe) over the last 7 years, he now aspires to lead Indian businesses to global success. He has traveled extensively to the Middle East on work. He is an avid reader, sports enthusiast, flutist and guitarist, educational blogger and an entrepreneurship fan. He can be reached at abhikgupta@gmail.com

Cover image courtesy – http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/