The Permission Paradox
The permission paradox is one of the great Catch-22s in business. "You
can't get the job without the experience and you can't get the experience
without the job." Many people are confident in their abilities
to if given the chance to perform. But the hard part is getting permission
to demonstrate these skills and to gain new experiences. This is the
Permission Paradox.
You may want to become a CEO, move into general management or make
a bigger impact in your company but unless you have permission to take
on a broader role, you won't reach your goals. How do you go about getting
permission to make a big impact?
"Big jobs usually go to the men who prove their ability to outgrow
smaller ones."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
The permission paradox can be a paralyzing obstacle to overcome and
is often a self-fulfilling prophecy. Successful executives, unlike a
large number of their peers, rarely have trouble gaining access to the
most critical opportunities in their careers. They know that the secret
is finding some way to get the experiences they need to get ahead.
Forms of permission
Before formulating your strategy to get the permission you need to advance
your career, you first need to understand the two primary forms of permission:
Direct Permission: You can do it because somebody says you can
Implied Permission: You can do it because no one says you can't
One way to identify successful professionals is to look at their job
descriptions when they arrived and compare those to the jobs they were
actually doing when they left. Among extraordinary executives, you will
find a consistent occurrence that the scope of their responsibilities,
including the things they have direct permission to do, increases over
the tenure of their jobs. These professionals view their job description
merely as a starting point - a platform on which to build.
This expansion of permission is often accomplished through implied
permission, performing well and then ultimately being granted direct
permission.
Permission Strategies
Successful executives gain permission and take charge of their experiences
in several ways. There are eight strategies for gaining permission.
- The direct approach: if you want something, you can always ask
- Demonstrate Competence in areas that form the building blocks for
new roles
- Clean Slate: when you join a new division or company you have a
relatively clean slate from which people will grant you permission
- Get Credentials: one of the most logical ways to gain associative
or expert permission is to get relevant credentials
- Barter: you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours
- Masquerade as the leader: a risky but sometimes effective strategy
also referred to as the 'stealth land grab'.
- Two-way mentoring: the key is for both parties to get something
from the relationship
- Paying politics: not a success pattern followed by extraordinary
executives
Each strategy has unique characteristics and outcomes, and situations
where they are most appropriate. Some permission strategies are more
effective for gaining direct permission and others are better for gaining
indirect permission. Some can be used for both.
By understanding and implementing the strategies for resolving the
permission paradox, you should be able to get the permissions that are
critical, putting you in the best position to perform.
This extract is taken from The 5 Patterns of Extraordinary Careers
by James M. Citrin and Richard A. Smith, published by Random House.
Staff Review by: Joseph (Joe) Kran, Lawrence (Larry) Maglin, Walter
Sonyi, Jr. and Rick Spann
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