Management Rules: 50 New Rules for Managers

MANAGE YOUR CAREER

CHAPTER 39

MANAGE YOUR CAREER

A good manager will learn to manage people, budgets, tasks, customers, technology, change, finance and much else besides. But the most important thing any manager has to manage is his or her own career. Unlike all the other skills of management, there are no second chances in career mana­gement. If you mess up a project, you can always apply your learning to the next one. If you mess up your career, you have messed up your career. You always have the option of rediscovering that long-lost dream of working on a vegan commune, but that is probably not the ambition that you have today.

In theory, your boss and your firm should take an active interest in your career and do the right thing for you. In ...