The Permission Paradox

The permission paradox is one of the great Catch-22s in business. "You can't get the job without the experience and you can't get the experience without the job." Many people are confident in their abilities to if given the chance to perform. But the hard part is getting permission to demonstrate these skills and to gain new experiences. This is the Permission Paradox.
You may want to become a CEO, move into general management or make a bigger impact in your company but unless you have permission to take on a broader role, you won't reach your goals. How do you go about getting permission to make a big impact?
"Big jobs usually go to the men who prove their ability to outgrow smaller ones."Ralph Waldo Emerson
The permission paradox can be a paralyzing obstacle to overcome and is often a self-fulfilling prophecy. Successful executives, unlike a large number of their peers, rarely have trouble gaining access to the most critical opportunities in their careers. They know that the secret is finding some way to get the experiences they need to get ahead.
Forms of permissionBefore formulating your strategy to get the permission you need to advance your career, you first need to understand the two primary forms of permission:
Direct Permission: You can do it because somebody says you can
Implied Permission: You can do it because no one says you can't
One way to identify successful professionals is to look at their job descriptions when they arrived and compare those to the jobs they were actually doing when they left. Among extraordinary executives, you will find a consistent occurrence that the scope of their responsibilities, including the things they have direct permission to do, increases over the tenure of their jobs. These professionals view their job description merely as a starting point - a platform on which to build.
This expansion of permission is often accomplished through implied permission, performing well and then ultimately being granted direct permission.
Permission StrategiesSuccessful executives gain permission and take charge of their experiences in several ways. There are eight strategies for gaining permission.
The direct approach: if you want something, you can always ask
Demonstrate Competence in areas that form the building blocks for new roles
Clean Slate: when you join a new division or company you have a relatively clean slate from which people will grant you permission
Get Credentials: one of the most logical ways to gain associative or expert permission is to get relevant credentials
Barter: you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours
Masquerade as the leader: a risky but sometimes effective strategy also referred to as the 'stealth land grab'.
Two-way mentoring: the key is for both parties to get something from the relationship
Paying politics: not a success pattern followed by extraordinary executives
Each strategy has unique characteristics and outcomes, and situations where they are most appropriate. Some permission strategies are more effective for gaining direct permission and others are better for gaining indirect permission. Some can be used for both.
By understanding and implementing the strategies for resolving the permission paradox, you should be able to get the permissions that are critical, putting you in the best position to perform.

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Staff Review by: Joseph (Joe) Kran, Lawrence (Larry) Maglin, Walter Sonyi, Jr. and Rick Spann

This extract is taken from The 5 Patterns of Extraordinary Careers by James M. Citrin and Richard A. Smith, published by Random House.