Motivational

Rule 92: Study them closely

December 21, 2016

Late General Sani Abacha’s Propagandist and Publisher, Conscience Magazine, Chief Abiola Ogundokun

If
you are going for a promotion and there is competition, you need to read,
understand and completely grasp what is being asked for. You need to tailor
your CV, application document and interview technique, so that you fully fit
the picture of the ideal candidate. And
you have to study what the competition is doing.

Suppose the job is for a supervisory
departmental head of the computer sales division. You know that you have:

·
Experience
of sales

·
Experience
of computers

·
But
little experience of supervising other staff.

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“If the focus is on
one of the two areas you are strong in, then you have already eliminated one of
the candidates. Now it’s a two horse
race”

Now
check out the opposition. Suppose there
are two other candidates:

·
Tony has a good working knowledge of the
products, good supervisory experience but knows bugger all about sales.

·
Sandra is good on the sales side, has excellent
supervisory experience but doesn’t understand the product at all.

Who
is the ideal candidate? It depends
entirely on what the management is looking for – or what they think they are
looking for. The job obviously needs
three parts – sales, product knowledge and supervisory duties. You have two out of three – as do the other
two candidates. But which one is the most important to the management? You need to check this out carefully.

·
Read
the job description

·
Liaise
with whoever is doing the job now

·
Research
what the management is thinking.

If
the focus is on one of the two areas you are strong in, then you have already
eliminated one of the candidates. Now
it’s a two horse race. If, however, the third option is the focus supervision –
the one area you are weak in, then you will have to swing the focus more
towards your own skills and experience.
At interview you will have to find good reasons why your lack of
experience doesn’t discount you – talk up the product and how essential it is
to have a good knowledge of it and its potential, talk up the importance of
sales and how the department live or
dies by its sales record.

Obviously
this is just an example; the real world is much more complicated.

(Excerpts from THE
RULES OF WORK by Richard Templer Read “How to back-stab in a cooperate environment” from The Rules tomorrow on Asabeafrika)

Rule-to-Work Series