Track record matters

Track records matter.

The more wins under your belt, the more you will be trusted with completely unknown challenges, because you can look back and show a trail of “you threw me into x and I came out with the w.”

I remember asking a mentor with a successful management consulting job while having a beer what he would recommend for me if I wanted to go into a similar kind of management consulting situation as him. This person had an impressive background and track record which was on full display any time we interacted.

He said look Kev, I have a military background, I have a PhD in Leadership, and I have clients who refer me to others. You have been working inside of your company exclusively, no one knows you or what you did. You need to have that track record if you want to do this outside of the company.

I like to tell myself that I’ve built this kind of track record inside of my company, but he isn’t wrong. Time-on-topic is good, but the strength of your ability to expand beyond your current scope will be reliant on your champions, and if they only exist within a closed ecosystem, there is no way for others to know what you’re capable of.

Self-marketing is important, because until we hit a certain threshold of it being self-generating by word of mouth, it has to come from you or your champions.