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Want to Get Ahead in Your Career? Catalyze Someone Else’s Success

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You might think that to get ahead in your career, you must focus your energy on personal skill development, but according to a recent Catalyst study, your best bet is actually to help someone else succeed. “High potentials who were developing a protege had $25,075 greater compensation growth from 2008 to 2010,” read the study. What drives this connection between selflessness and salary?

The Catalyst researchers have an idea: “It may be that developing other talent creates more visibility and a following within the organization for the high-potentials who are doing the developing, which leads to greater reward and recognition for the extra effort.” In short, act like a leader, and you’ll be treated — and compensated — like one.

The study also revealed that 59 percent of employees who were mentored went on to develop others, indicating that the “pay it forward” mentality is still alive and well. This trend continues, even as professionals ascend in the corporate ranks: 64 percent of high potentials at the CEO or senior executive level reported that they mentor others. Just 30 percent of high-potential individual contributors said that they were developing others.

Read more revelations from the study at Forbes. Are you surprised that top performers are so selfless?

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(Photo credit: U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service – Northeast Region/Flickr)

Marissa Brassfield
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