Cynthia Groves - Mastering the Corporate Chess Game
Mastering the Corporate Chess Game, edited by leadership and career coach Cynthia Groves, is an essential playbook for accelerating up the corporate ladder. Read on for a Q&A with the volume editor to learn more.
What do you hope readers glean from this book, and how do you hope readers can apply these skills in their own lives?
The objective of the book is to ensure that readers learn that the corporate chess game is always in play, whether it is an internship or a first job at a corporate firm. It does not matter which industry, whether it is finance, wealth management, PR and communications, consumer and retail, corporate marketing, law, medicine, or real estate. It also does not matter whether you perceive the chess game or not. It’s in play either way, so you may as well learn how it is affecting your progress.
What do you think of when you hear the term Corporate Chess Game? Or what is the definition of the Corporate Chess Game?
The corporate “chess game” is what we call the strategies that successful players use to their advantage when confronted with business scenarios that may derail their success. To be used effectively, the strategies need to be appropriate to the circumstance, and therefore the first step before engaging in the “chess game” is to observe and understand the unwritten rules of your organizational culture. Too often the norms of the culture are never explicitly discussed in the firm. How does one learn them? The subtleties of how the norms vary over different situations must be observed actively. Only then can someone plan their own course of how to play the chess game to their own advantage.
In most firms, each situation requires a specified set of moves based on a planned strategy. Just like in chess, rarely does a direct attempt to win the game quickly succeed. The chess player’s goal is to win at the end of the game. Sometimes, this requires some indirection. Sometimes, it requires slowing down, listening, and observing carefully.