The EPIC Formula – An Easy-To-Follow Method To Progress In Your Career
What do you think helps you to progress in your career?
Elevate Talent carried out research that clearly shows what you need to do in order to climb the career “wall” – but why “wall” and not “ladder”? The career wall includes sideways moves into roles that help you build experience and increase your chances of being considered for promotion; the typical career ladder sees you only moving upwards (into roles that may have previously been blocked due to a lack of experience).
In our quest to support everybody to thrive in the workplace and encourage female talent to be recognised, our research uncovered four main areas that help you to progress:
- Exposure
- Performance
- Impact
- Conscious (being self-aware)
I have worked in all-male environments for a good percentage of my investment banking career. We’re all human; I have seen the same career discomfort and concerns from men arise in relation to these four areas. Exposure, impact, performance and being conscious of our own strengths and weaknesses affect both men and women.
Exposure
It’s easy to think that the work that you do speaks for itself. It doesn’t. When we buy toothpaste, for example, we might think that the choices are obvious, but there are dozens of brands of toothpaste. You buy specific brands because of their marketing.
None of us makes a decision based on the best product. There are lots of great products out there and a lot of great companies that do not do well because of a lack of exposure. Likewise, we need to make sure that our work has exposure. As individuals, it’s our exposure to the right people that counts: who know us, and who knows how we can help them or others.
Performance
When you go to the theatre and an actor comes on stage, they don’t just deliver their line. They “perform” it by encapsulating the character. They deliver it in such a way that you buy into it, and them. When we apply this to your career, performance is about helping your audience to believe and buy into your ability to deliver the right outcome.
Performance is not about hard work; it’s about people trusting you and seeing you work well with other team members and delivering the right result.
Impact
This ties in nicely with the six human needs popularised by author and thought leader Tony Robbins (as explored in the earlier blog “How To Project Confidence Your Own Way”). Impact is another word for significance. We all want to create a positive impact, but the fact is you can also negatively impact some people.
Big TV personalities have a following who love them, and there are people who also hate them. If nobody is talking about you, you’re having no impact. Creating a positive influence or impact means that when you lead or make suggestions, people will follow and be quick to come on board.
Consciousness
The fourth and final element of the EPIC formula is about self-awareness. We need to be able to recognise and celebrate what we do well and use these skills to the advantage of our team, our company and ourselves. We also need to be aware of what we are not so good at: the areas we are neglecting, and where we need to develop appropriate skills. Developing this awareness is essential if you are to be considered for more plum projects, key opportunities and more senior roles.
We are all human beings – we all have our faults, our concerns, our worries and our weaknesses. Anyone who doesn’t is incredibly rare or an exceptionally good liar!
The vast majority of us are out of our comfort zone with the EPIC formula. Without knowing why it’s important, it’s unlikely any of us will take action. We explain why it’s important and what you can do to maximise your chances of career progression.
Worldwide there are some nuances in behaviour, but in the main you’ll find a similar set of rules in a thriving, vibrant city as you will in the middle of nowhere. There are codes of human behaviour and decision-making processes that we all follow.
It’s important to understand this because often we make decisions about someone else’s behaviour without recognising that other people make the same decision based on how we behave.
In addition to knowing what the formula is and why it matters, Elevate Talent leads people through the “how” by sharing strategies and tactics.
Overall, the EPIC formula (exposure, performance, impact, consciousness) is a really simple, effective and powerful method with a nice twist; after all, who doesn’t want to be epic? Who doesn’t want to have an epic career? Who doesn’t want people to think they’re doing their job in an epic way?
Can you think of examples where you’ve stopped short of being epic in the past? Would you like the rest of your career to be epic? If so, we’d love to hear from you. Email us at Elevate Talent to see how we can support you to take your career to the next level.
And, for the latest updates on Elevate Talent and the work we are doing, please follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.
