Karima-Catherine Goundiam is the founder and chief executive officer of digital strategy firm Red Dot Digital and business matchmaking platform B2BeeMatch.
I’ll say up front that the corporate world isn’t for everyone. If you’re stalling out in your corporate job, don’t damage your soul. You’re allowed to exit if you realize it’s not for you. Before I became an entrepreneur, I spent more than 15 years in the corporate world - I managed digital and social media for Deloitte Canada and directed social media for Ford. I learned a lot in the corporate setting, but there came a point when I realized I would do better as an entrepreneur than as an employee, so I left to come at the business world from a different angle.
But for some people, corporate is a great fit, and you can be successful there. With that in mind, here are my tips for each stage of your career.
Early career: Make a good first impression and keep getting strong reviews
When you’re entering the corporate world, be proactive. Show initiative in your work. The workplace is full of people who are just dialing it in — so a great way to stand out is to step up.
Of course, taking initiative means you’ll probably make mistakes. But mistakes are crucial to your development. Experience comes with failure, with falling, with hardship, with being uncomfortable. You have to accumulate this mileage. It’s not easy, but making mistakes in your early career will fast-track you to the right path, as they’ll help you understand what doesn’t work and fine-tune what does.
Find a mentor as early as you can. The first one might not be right, the second might not be a perfect fit, but keep trying — you’ll find a good one eventually, maybe even someone from outside your industry. Seek feedback from people you trust and ask them to help you navigate these early steps.
Take to heart what your managers and supervisors tell you, but consider the source. Do you respect and admire the person who’s managing you? Do you share a set of values or ethics? Do they support and encourage you? If not, you still need to respect what your superiors say, but a poor fit may lead you to seek new opportunities or at least help you understand what feedback you should take to heart and what you can leave aside.
If you’re coming from a position that’s usually a vulnerable one in society, you have to be especially communicative about what you need. Being a marginalized person in the corporate world — a woman or a BIPOC, disabled or LGBTQ person — is not an easy position to be in. Keeping quiet when a problem arises isn’t going to help you, and the person managing you might not know, or know how to help. So you need to speak up. Every step will help you be more authentic about what you need, what you’re about and what your goals are.
Mid-career: Make decisions about where you want to grow
By this point, you’ve gained some maturity. You should know what your strengths are, what you need to improve and what you never want to do. If your vision is to progress in the corporate world, you need to be good at what you do, have a clear plan, understand the industry you’re working in and figure out where your best potential is.
Mid-career is often a time of change. You may want to shift your direction, go back to school or even drop out of your field entirely. Conversely, you may have reached a point of comfort and satisfaction, where you want to stay put and enjoy the stability. These are all valid paths. Try to figure out which one you’re on — knowing where you want to go will help you channel your efforts, make good decisions and minimize frustration.
If you’re interested in climbing, continue to seek and work with mentors. Choose people who are holding the kinds of positions you want to hold in five or 10 years. Go two or three levels above where you are now. For example, if you’re a manager, find a managing director. Another option is to get into peer mentoring groups if you can — these may be private, word-of-mouth,or even a paid service. I paid for this kind of mentorship myself. A big advantage of this is that it takes you out of the competitive environment of your own organization.
Look into business or career coaching. A good coach will challenge you and help to recalibrate your mindset and your thinking. They can offer independent feedback and help you course-correct things that may be detrimental. Some organizations will pay this expense for you and may be willing to invest in you this way if they see you as part of their succession plan.
Senior career: Lead (and not just manage)
At the senior-career level, it’s more about humanity than skills. Your technical skills got you here, but your humanity is what’s going to set you apart and make an impact for the people you are managing. I’m lucky to have met amazing leaders and what I believe has made them phenomenal is the kind of people that they are.
You have the ability to see qualities in others and the opportunity to help them advance — to promote them, to support their dreams and visions. You have a great deal of power over people and their trajectory. Will you invest in them — for example, by sending them to a conference that might change their life? Approach your day knowing you can have that impact. If that doesn’t appeal, this isn’t the kind of work you should be doing.
You need to deal with company politics, take responsibility for other people’s mistakes and remain a team player. It’s all about the company. You’ll also need to be able to challenge the status quo, if necessary, and be a situational leader. That means adapting to different situations and groups — you’ll be talking to a CEO, then a peer, and two minutes later addressing a technical problem.
At the senior stage of your career, you should have developed enormous confidence in yourself. If you’re not confident as a leader, you’ll do damage to your team. With confidence comes trust, strong values and a clear vision. Use that vision to decide what kind of legacy you want to leave behind and use your power to make it happen.
This column is part of Globe Careers’ Leadership Lab series, where executives and experts share their views and advice about the world of work. Find all Leadership Lab stories at tgam.ca/leadershiplab and guidelines for how to contribute to the column here.