Career Advice From a Successful CEO

I have a pretty cool job. I get to interview people with amazing careers, including CEOs and other top leaders from great companies. I’m pretty picky who I interview, so all of the experiences are amazing. The most recent interview I did was with the CEO (Alex Shootman) of a fast moving Utah company – Workfront. I asked Alex if he ever envisioned himself as a CEO. He gave me more of an answer than I could have hoped for.

Listen and Learn

Listen to this 1 1/2 minute segment of the interview and you’ll receive important insight into how to plan your career, and then actively manage to achieve the goals you set.

 

A Simple Career Planning Tool

I love the approach Alex took to actively managing his career. His simple tool kept him laser-focused on the roles that he needed in order to reach his goal. He asked 3 basic questions:

1. Do I understand the skills I need to do _______________ job?
2. Have I done it – demonstrated those skills?
3. Can I teach it – show others how to do those skills.

Then, Alex started looking through the lens of that grid whenever he considered the next opportunity in order to evaluate the question: “Does this get me to the next level?”

The Lesson

This simple process can be replicated by anyone. Set your goal. Understand the skills. Do the skills. Teach the skills. Examine opportunities with that framework in mind, and take charge of your career destiny.