The Power of Marking Time

What I learned speaking at an MBA class for eight years

Photo by Sol y Luz

When Katia Verresen, my career coach, asked me if I wanted to join a panel for the Paths to Power class at the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 2014, I hesitated. What did I have to say that a class of MBA students would possibly find useful? I was a Director at Facebook. I’d had a solid career, but I was not a particularly distinguished alum. 

Katia, who has been one of the resident coaches for the class, urged me to accept despite my reluctance. I had very little to lose, and the biggest risk was embarrassing myself in front of a group of grad students. I lived (and still live) near Stanford, so I decided I would give it a shot. 

What I didn’t realize was that this act of saying “yes” would change my life. I have spoken on the panel for the past eight years. Each year, I learn something new from my fellow speakers, gain perspective on my life and choices, and mark time in my own career journey.  

Marking Time 

Time flies by so quickly that it's often hard to know if you're making progress. We tend to think mostly in terms of the present moment: our present job, our present location, our present challenges, and victories. But what’s far more difficult is to see our journey as a whole, to get perspective on where we came from and where we’re going. 

This is why marking time is so valuable. Each year, as I prepared for the Paths to Power panel, I knew I was going to see Professor Pfeffer and his class again. And I was going to have to answer for what I had done during the year before.

It's incredible how much this annual milestone forced me to think holistically about my career. It's easy to allow things to get away from you, or to put your objectives on hold, but when you know that every February, you're going to sit in front of a hundred students and tell them about your career progression, it really focuses your mind. 

This experience has taught me two things: the importance of clear, actionable goals and the importance of holding yourself accountable. Speaking with Professor Pfeffer and my fellow panelists every year has been a reminder to keep looking for new ways to evolve and grow, and then to make it happen, rather than resting on my laurels. Thanks in part to this yearly milestone, I have made more progress in my work than I ever thought was possible—and so can you. 

You don’t need to be on a panel like this to mark time. You can leverage New Year’s, performance reviews, and work anniversaries in a similar way. The key is to have a forcing function—something to remind you that a career is a marathon, not a sprint—and clear goals to pursue. With some careful reflection, you will be able to propel yourself forward. 

Creating Accountability 

Knowing that I would be speaking to Professor Pfeffer’s students each year was a useful motivator because it came with the implicit expectation that I would have something valuable to add to the conversation. As the class approached each year, I was forced to take stock. Had I done anything over the past twelve months that was worth talking about? The answer was always yes—in part because there was always another panel on the horizon, and in part because of Professor Pfeffer himself. 

After the event, Professor Pfeffer often took the panelists out to lunch so we could connect and talk about different things. For four years, he asked me the same question during those discussions: "When are you going to leave Facebook to become a CEO?"