Getting Ahead: Three Steps to Take Your Career to the Next Level

In this book, the author focuses on three areas he says are essential for career success. These are perception, visibility and influence – what the author calls the PVI model.

The bottom line is if you're not well perceived, don't showcase your achievements, and do not know how to influence others, your career may never advance.

In "Getting Ahead," the author helps readers assess where they stand vis-à-vis their perception, visibility and influence, and offers a series of steps to help them improve in these areas.

To begin with, you'll discover where you've been going wrong in the past. Then you'll learn how to take control of your future. You'll learn how to change others' perception of you for the better, how to speak up in meetings, get your work recognized, make the right connections, and convince others to advocate on your behalf. You'll also learn how to influence your superiors, employees and peers more effectively.

So who's this book for? Well, if you're part of any organization – large or small – you'll benefit from this book. Organizations are often a maze of relationships and the suggestions in this book will help you navigate this maze. "Getting Ahead" is particularly useful for anyone who feels they're constantly being overlooked on promotions, pay raises or assignments.

Even if you don't work in a corporate environment, this book could help you raise your profile, broaden your client base and bring in more work. And it'll help you manage your online image.

At this point we should note that if you don't like action-oriented books, then "Getting Ahead" probably isn't for you, as every chapter ends with a set of action steps. Also, the author puts many of his thoughts and tips into lists and diagrams. This gives the book a repetitive, even simplistic feel. Plus, some of the author's suggestions crop up in different chapters, albeit in slightly different forms, which increases the sense of déjà vu.

That said, the practical advice the author outlines in this book has been shown to work. Garfinkle is recognized as one of the top 50 coaches in the United States and he's worked with some of the world's leading companies, including Amazon, Starbucks, Ritz-Carlton, Google, and Bank of America.

Before setting up his own executive coaching business, he worked as a consultant for Ernst & Young in Hong Kong and Accenture in San Francisco. He's written seven books, hundreds of articles and is a sought-after public speaker. For this book, he also draws on tips and suggestions from other business, management, and leadership gurus and includes quotes from clients.

So keep listening to hear how to change the way others perceive you in four clear steps, how to overcome your fear of the spotlight, and how to influence those around you, from any level of the hierarchy.

"Getting Ahead" is organized into three parts, with each part focusing on one of the three branches of the PVI model: perception, visibility and influence. This makes it an easy read and also means you can hone in on your own areas of weakness. It's also a really practical book and the more engaged you are with it, the more you'll get out of it.

As you heard, at the end of each chapter, there are written exercises and action steps that'll help you put into practice what you've read straight away. Among these, you're asked to review your personality type and how others perceive you, to commit to speaking up in meetings, and to spend time talking to your boss or promoting others' achievements.

Remember, though, that "Getting Ahead" focuses on perception, visibility, and influence. It doesn't address performance – although the author acknowledges this is an essential part of success. It might be worth thinking about how well you're performing before you try to get noticed!

So let's now take a closer look at the PVI model, beginning with perception.

The way people view us can have a huge impact on our career progression, our salary and the assignments we're given. The problem is, the way we view ourselves and the way others see us can be very different.

The author says perception begins with observation. We observe a person, a situation or an event. Then we make an assessment of it – that is, we review it and try to understand it. We then form an opinion of it, which leads us to make a judgment.

Once a judgment starts to take shape, we've begun the process of perception. This perception then becomes our reality and we develop faith and confidence in it. Finally, we consider this perception to be the truth. At this point, we have such certainty about our belief that it's difficult – but not impossible – to change our minds.

If you understand this process, you'll understand how others come to perceive you. The next stage is to try and manage those perceptions so they accurately reflect who you are.

The author offers a four-step perception management process to help you do this. The first step is to examine how you think you're perceived. The best way to do this is to think about how you form judgments about others – about their appearance or about what they say or do.

Step two is to find out how you're actually perceived. To do this, you'll need to ask for feedback. We think this is a great tip and something people rarely do. The author says some of the most successful business leaders of our time know how to ask for honest feedback and act on it.

The next step is about how you want to be perceived. Having a clear idea of the image you want to project helps you take control of how others see you. Ask yourself what character traits make the right impressions. Try writing down three adjectives that describe how you want your colleagues to see you. Are you speaking or behaving in a way that's aligned with the perception you want to create?

The fourth and final step is to change others' perception of you. This could be as simple as making sure your voice gets heard in meetings, if you're used to staying silent, or taking a step back if you're used to dominating.

The author suggests ten steps to reinforce a positive perception or change a negative one. We haven't time to discuss them all here but they include seeking out advocates to speak up on your behalf, getting assigned to high-visibility projects, and educating management about your role and accomplishments.

It's important to note, at this point, that this book is about self-promotion and some of the author's suggestions on how to get ahead can sound a little pushy if you're not used to shouting about your achievements. Advice such as getting colleagues to highlight your successes to others or surrounding yourself with people whom others respect and who'll enhance your reputation might leave some readers feeling a little uncomfortable.

Fortunately, the author also advises readers to make connections on behalf of colleagues and to advertize the work of others. This helps to balance out the suggestions that focus purely on self-promotion – even if the underlying motive remains to improve one's own perception, visibility and influence. Later on in the book, the author also deals with the difference between self-promotion and bragging, which is a useful section.

Let's now look at visibility. As we become more visible, the author says, our confidence improves, we're more willing to take risks and to be better known, and we're less afraid to fail. The path to greater visibility starts with getting noticed. We then stand out, are recognized, remembered, and valued. Once we're valued, we can make an impact.

But what if you're a shy person who's uncomfortable being noticed? Or what if your culture or family taught you to take a back seat? Well, the author offers some useful suggestions to help readers overcome their fear of the spotlight.

He says you could try sharing your accomplishments through writing. You can use email to share with others how the work you're doing is impacting the company, or to put forward your innovative ideas. You could also write articles for the company newsletter, write blogs or help with marketing and sales materials.

Mastering the art of small talk will also help with your fear. Try writing down a few questions or talking points before you go into an event. And if top executives are going to be there, think of two areas to discuss with them that are directly related to projects they've worked on or a personal topic they might be interested in.

Another way of overcoming your fear of the spotlight is to get involved with committees or groups at your company that aren't directly related to your work. These might be linked to sports or leisure activities or mentoring or volunteering programs. This will give you the chance to mix with colleagues in a more relaxed way.

You could also try leading or co-hosting a major event or conference at your company. This will require a lot of work behind the scenes but, if it goes well, your achievements should be recognized.

Finally, think before you speak. Even if you don't speak up very much, what you say will be well thought-out and may have a greater impact than if you hadn't thought it through first.

You'll also find tips in this section on how to speak up in meetings, how to take the initiative, and how to disagree with others in a positive, productive way.

Perception and visibility lead to influence, so let's now look at how we can have an impact on others.

The author differentiates between influencing just because you hold a grand title or a position of power, and influencing from an authentic and trusted place of authority. We like this distinction. Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela influenced from this authentic place. So did Rosa Parks – the department store seamstress who ignited the American Civil Rights movement by refusing to give up her seat on a bus. Her story shows you don't need to be in a position of power to have extraordinary influence.

Influential people, though, tend to share certain character traits, and the author suggests five areas in which such people often excel. If you want to have influence, it's worth developing some of these characteristics – and it's probably best to start with the areas in which you think you've got a head start.

The author says people of influence generally have a solid reputation, which means they have a good standing, are credible, respected, and trustworthy. Many also have an enhanced skill set – they're competent, can be trusted to do a good job, are authoritative, and accomplished.

Another common characteristic of good influencers is what the author calls "superior likability." This means they're personable, charismatic, optimistic, and a motivator. They also tend to be persuasive, which means they're collaborative, skilled in building a consensus, and good at forming alliances.

The author encourages readers to evaluate where they stand in relation to these characteristics and think of ways they can improve their influence in each category.

He also gives some famous examples of influential people and the different ways they influence. He names author and business strategist Peter Drucker as a person with a solid reputation, along with Jane Addams, the first American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Peace. Oprah Winfrey and Richard Branson, meanwhile, have superior likability.

The author makes some valid points in this section but we found his analysis of influence a little simplistic. He does, however, give some good tips on influencing downward, upward and laterally that are useful for those who work in large organizations.

"Getting Ahead" ends with the story of Ken Kutagari, the Sony engineer who created the PlayStation. This shows the theory of perception, visibility and influence in action. Unfortunately, having just one detailed case study at the end of the book feels somewhat out of place and leaves the reader wanting more.

"Getting Ahead," therefore, isn't without its faults. It's repetitive and simplistic at times and we think it'd benefit from having more narrative, more detailed case studies, and fewer numbered lists. That said, the repetition might help drive the message home. And, if you're willing to engage with the thinking, the writing and particularly the action steps at the end of each chapter, you'll be able to pinpoint where you're going wrong very quickly and take steps to advance your career.

"Getting Ahead" by Joel Garfinkle is published by John Wiley and Sons, Incorporated.

That's the end of this episode of Book Insights. Click here to buy the book from Amazon. Thanks for listening.