Moving Forward
You should now have a good understanding of the drivers of ambition and their components. The next step is for you to identify which of these could be a problem for you and to address them. Use Exercise 5 to prioritize your efforts.
Exercise 5: Assessing and Addressing Your Ambition
1. For each component, circle E or M in the You column to indicate whether you consider your behavior extreme or moderate.
2. For each component, circle E or M in the Others column to indicate what you estimate to be the consensus of people who have given you feedback about your behavior.
3. For each component, assign a priority. If you have circled E in both columns, circle 1 in the Priority column. If you have circled M in the You column and E in the Others column, circle 2. If you have circled E in the You column and M in the Others column, circle 3. If you have circled M in both columns, circle 4.
The more components you have with 1 or 2, the more your career and ability to promote organizational success may be in jeopardy. You should seek feedback on any component with a 1, 2, or 3, beginning with the highest-priority components.
You can immediately begin to manage your ambition by addressing the high-priority components indicated by Exercise 5 and using the suggestions for moderation given in this guidebook. But you should also take additional action by seeking ongoing feedback on how well you are managing your ambition. To gain feedback that can benefit you the most, consider whom to ask, when to ask, and what kind of feedback you want.
When you think about whom to ask for feedback, think of a person whose opinion you respect and who will encourage you to improve your effectiveness. It’s also helpful to ask someone whose work style is different from your own so that you gain access to a new point of view. The person you seek feedback from should be someone you must interact with in order for you both to get results—this gives both of you a vested interest in the feedback process.
In choosing when to ask for feedback, keep in mind that you should have already identified which drivers and components of ambition are your priority. Another consideration is frequency. The more often you receive feedback, the more often you can take positive action to manage your ambition.
Once you decide whom to ask and when, you need to know the form the feedback should take. CCL recommends the Situation-Behavior-Impact model, or SBI. This means of sharing feedback is very effective and simple. The person giving you feedback should describe the situation in which he or she observed you, describe your behavior in that situation, and then tell you what kind of impact your behavior had on him or her.
When you have received the feedback, it will then be your job to evaluate its content: Is it accurate? Will it help you manage your ambition? In addition to seeking ongoing feedback, continue to observe and learn from how other managers deal with their ambition.