"Know Your Book" - Ellen Kullman on Self-Awareness

Source: pixy.org

Former DuPont CEO Ellen Kullman offered some terrific career advice in a recent interview with Kellogg Insight.   She explained that people build a "book" on you from day one in a company.  Good or bad, accurate or not, you need to know your book.  Understand the impression you have made, the track record you are establishing.  That type of self-awareness is crucial, she argues, as you advance in your career.  Here's an excerpt: 

Have a high “say-do ratio.” So if you say you’re going to do something, do it. And if you do it, do it well. I had a reputation for saying what I was going to do and getting it done. The other thing is, can people trust you? And it’s not, are you trustworthy or not? It’s, do they believe you are? Every company that you work for writes a book on you. And that book starts the day you walk through the door, and it doesn’t end when you leave. Know your book, right? Know what people say about you in the company.

And you’ll find there’ll be mentors, or sponsors, or people who will give you that kind of feedback. And you need to seek that out. Because the people that struggle the most are the ones that either didn’t know their book, or didn’t believe their book. And I think that comes down to self-awareness. Self-awareness is one of the traits that has helped me the most through my career: understanding the impact I have on people—good, bad, or indifferent.