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Building Capabilities That You'll Need Later On

When interviewing candidates for a management role they may never have held, many will tell us of their certainty in their ability to learn quickly and perform in the role. They say things such as: “I know I haven’t done it before, but if given the opportunity, I’m confident that I can do the job.”

Whether what they say is true, it’s the kind of pitch that just doesn’t sell well with multinational employers these days.

Victor Koo, former president and COO of Sohu.com, said, “When looking to promote someone into a management role, I need to see if a person has demonstrated in some way the skills that he or she will need at that next level. In other words, they should have shown to a reasonable extent that they have already done what they will be doing in their next job.”

Actually, a few years ago, companies were much more willing to give employees a chance to prove themselves in new roles. This was when business operations were less mature and very aggressive in their approach to making hiring and staffing decisions. There was also a greater shortage of talent in the market for many job functions and industry backgrounds. 

Today, companies think it a tremendous risk to hand over a key position of responsibility to someone who does not already possess the capabilities and qualities needed to handle a given role. In China’s increasingly competitive business environment, this is a risk that companies are less and less willing to accept. Management roles in multinational companies today are not a place for on-the-job training. 

Companies do give chances, but they go 70 percent–80 percent of the time to people who have demonstrated their capabilities and qualities a new position requires. By recognizing the key skill sets needed, you can more effectively direct your efforts and use your time to work on key areas that are important for you to improve in.

Why many don’t attain the roles that they seek

Actually, it is surprising how many mainland professionals do not apply even the most basic career planning principles to their professional development situation. The result is reflected in the difficulties that they have in attaining the level of career success that they feel they are qualified for. These are smart, hardworking mainland professionals with strong educational and reputable company backgrounds. Although they are ambitious and have seemingly done the right things for their career, they have not managed to distinguish themselves through their professional achievements. In addition, they are unable to make a strong enough impression with a company’s top management; so they get passed over in hiring and promotions. Mainly, they fail to demonstrate enough of the capabilities and qualities that are critical for performing successfully in the higher-level positions that they seek. Why does this happen?

First generation of corporate professionals in China

To put it plainly, many mainland professionals just don’t have very good career sense. They do not take the time to identify those things that they should be doing right now that will help prepare them for the future roles that they are aiming for. Their failure to accurately assess both their current and future situation results in time wasted and opportunities missed to develop themselves in those most relevant areas needed for handling higher-level responsibilities. 

Mainland professionals are not entirely at fault for these career planning and development shortcomings. Although mainlanders have been working in multinational companies for over 25 years, China operations of the 1980s to mid-1990s were either of representative office size or on a much smaller scale than today. Most consisted of a few dozen staff or less, with a company of a few hundred people considered to be very large. In addition, these mainland operations were not nearly as connected to other international operations as they are today (does anyone recall the pre-Internet days), which meant that their corporate environments were much less internationalized and mature than how they are now.

Today, there are many multinationals in China that have several thousand employees located across the country. Their degree of interaction with other worldwide operations is also much greater. This is making those in their 20s and 30s today the first true generation of mainland professionals to work in a mature, global-calibre, corporate environment.

Shortage of career advisory resources

In addition, although the quality of functional, industry, and general management training has gotten considerably better in China with substantially more MBA programmes, internationally certified courses, and training resources, in the area of career guidance, the resources to capably address the development needs of mainland professionals are still severely lacking.  There are still too few in this market with the experience and expertise to advise mainland professionals on how to deal with the career challenges that many face here. 

For instance, although the good intentions are there, sound career advice is not likely to come from your parents or others of their generation who have never worked in a multinational company before. In addition, human resources departments reveal to us how little career guidance most of their employees receive from their direct supervisors. Demanding schedules are a big reason for that, but many managers simply aren’t that knowledgeable and experienced in providing good career planning and development advice to subordinates.  Career coaching is also a fairly new area for human resources professionals themselves whose expertise to date has revolved primarily around compensation, benefits, and HR administration issues for employees. The result of this shortage of quality career guidance resources is that many mainland professionals do not even have a complete picture of what a successful career looks like, let alone a good idea of what it takes to build one.

Increasingly, companies in China are recognizing the importance of instilling within their staff a sound career planning and development approach. They are also working at improving the capabilities of their managers and the organization to advise staff on career issues. For the time being, however, it is really a coin toss as to the extent and quality of career guidance and advice that you might receive from your company, even if your top management is committed to providing that. This is why it is necessary to have your own sense and practical approach for your career planning and development.