Career Coach Says Your Answer To One Question Determines Just How Much Success You’ll Achieve In Your Career
Grace McCarrick shares the trait that CEOs and managers look for.
Daria Voronchuk | Shutterstock Grace McCarrick, a career coach who offers up “hacks for corporate success,” shared a question that she says can determine how much success someone will achieve in their career based on their answer.
McCarrick was quick to clarify that she couldn’t make any promises, but she felt confident about this.“This isn’t a guarantee, but if you can answer this question in this specific way, then you are way more likely to have really outsized career success in the next couple of years,” she explained.
The question assesses what you think about people with opinions that differ from yours.
According to the career coach, the question is: “Can you hear someone have an opinion that is different than yours on something you really, really care about, and can you not let it influence how you think about that person?”
According to McCarrick, if your opinion of someone doesn't change based on opposing beliefs, you're likely destined for success.
“If you can genuinely do that, then you are set up to have outsized, astronomical career success in the next couple of years because there are so many people in this workforce right now who cannot do that, and it is going to hold them back,” she explained.
“This is based on my experience in businesses talking to executives, CEOs, [and] leaders about what is most important to them in their teams,” McCarrick explained. “What they will pay more for. What they will give more flexibility, more leverage for. What they value most.”
Differing opinions can be a strength, not a weakness.
Staffing agency Robert Half said, “When we think of the ideal team, many of us might imagine a group of people with a shared vision, all agreeing with one another, and all on the exact same page. However, this may not be as advantageous as it sounds.”
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Although everyone agreeing seems like it would be preferable and make work easier, this is not necessarily the case. Workers who disagree can lead to wonderful discussions and ideas no one would have thought of otherwise.
Furthermore, the Johns Hopkins News-Letter addressed our reactions upon learning that someone has views different from ours. “We are mostly interested in our opponent’s conclusion or beliefs, without trying to understand where these beliefs come from,” Phillip Yoon wrote for the student paper. “The reasons for opposing beliefs are not even considered." Yoon continued, “This is problematic because we stop listening to each other as soon as we realize that we don’t have the same beliefs.”
Critics seemed to think accepting people for differing views was a tall order.
In the world we live in, it has become incredibly difficult to accept opinions from those who disagree with you. The comments section of McCarrick’s video proved this.
“That is an extremely hard question,” one person said. “I am toast,” added another.
A third person asked McCarrick to further clarify exactly what differences of opinion she was referring to. “Are you talking about someone [who] has a different opinion than me on a work-related issue/project, or someone who has a different opinion on, say, equal rights?” they asked.
“Everything,” McCarrick responded.
That does seem like a tall order. What if those differing views are offensive to your sensibilities? What if a co-worker is your polar opposite politically? It certainly feels like a difficult task to stay open-minded when core values are at stake, but according to Zoe Weil, M.A., M.T.S., the co-founder and president of the Institute for Humane Education, to truly rise above judgment is the only way we can engage in the conversations that ultimately evoke change.
She pointed out, "We all have our histories and our baggage. We all live with various levels of reactivity, apathy, hurt, denial, anger, and hypocrisy. We’re all imperfect." She went on to say, "You can consciously choose to cut the person you’re judging some slack, even as you may strive to influence them to change the behaviors you believe are worthy of judgment."
While it is certainly not easy to hear others’ opinions and not be affected by them in such a divisive and polarizing world, the ability to do so shows that you also have the capability to work well with others, something that is vital for career success. And who knows, avoiding judgment just might be the thing that inspires others to change their views.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.
