Part Of The Series "Breaking Through Career Inertia"
Of the thousands of professionals I’ve worked with and heard from in
the past 11 years, a good percentage want help to ascend the corporate
ladder – to be promoted, recognized and rewarded for the good work
they’ve done and the contributions they’ve made. Many also want
significantly more compensation, responsibility and leadership authority
as well.
As they share about their career trajectory and the steps they’re
taking to get noticed and promoted, I’ve seen four key blunders and
blind spots that are in the way of their advancement.
The Four Top Blunders:
They ask for a promotion without having done anything significant to warrant moving up.
So many professionals believe they're ready for more, but haven't
demonstrated it. They haven’t done the specific work required to grow
their potential, to become more of a leader, or apply their unique
skills, vision, and talents in new ways that move the needle for their
organization. Yes, they’ve done their job well, but they haven’t
actually risen above it. Performing our current role beautifully doesn’t necessarily mean we’re ready for more. So, their request and desire to be promoted is, in fact, premature.
They haven’t built a sufficient support network of mentors, sponsors, and ambassadors around them.
Critical to our success is the help of others. We can’t achieve our
big dreams without support. It’s not a solo endeavor to be recognized as
a stand-out performer, and to be supported to move to the next level.
We need the help of our colleagues, peers, managers and senior
leadership to make this promotion happen. And we won’t ascend if we’re
alone and in a vacuum, or if we’ve made bitter enemies and burned
bridges throughout the organization.
They don’t understand the ecosystem in which they’re operating.
People who are thwarted in their attempts to climb the ladder often
make the mistake of evaluating their work independently, without
understanding how the organization truly works, and the system around
them assesses and evaluates value, importance, and contribution.
Ask yourself these questions:
1. Do you know what your organization deems as superior contribution –
exactly what attributes and behaviors are required to move ahead from
your level to the next?
2. Are you supporting your employer’s highest visions, mission and goals? Do you even know what those are, specifically?
3. Have you achieved more than the goals of your role, and made a real difference in a bigger way? If so, how?
4. Have you demonstrated that you can lead and effectively manage areas beyond what you’re handling now?
5. Do you understand what your boss and senior leadership view as
critical to the success and growth of the organization, and are you
supporting those mandates in important ways?
6. Finally, have you done a 360 assessment to understand exactly what
others around the company think of your performance and contribution,
and how they feel about working and collaborating with you?
(I once made the big mistake of not understanding just how I'd burned
some key bridges, and that blind spot contributed to my being laid off
after 9/11, even after some stellar contributions.)
They haven’t been interviewing and networking outside the company.
The worst mistake you can make is to stay at a job for 5-10 years,
without ever having interviewed, networked or connected meaningfully
with people outside of your organization. I see this error every week
with folks I work with, and their career is hurt by staying so insulated
and disconnected from their field, industry and other colleagues
outside their employer. What often happens is when a layoff or firing
comes, these folks feel completely isolated and alone, and don’t know
where to begin to reach out, build a LinkedIn profile, network, interview, or achieve a new role that they’ll find satisfying.
Nothing makes you more powerful and confident than interviewing
outside your employer and understanding where you stand in the
marketplace. Every single professional should be interviewing regularly
(every 4 to 6 months) outside of their organization, no matter how happy
or unhappy they are in their jobs. But don’t just “kick the tires” –
do the internal and external work required to find interesting leads
that you’ll enjoy pursuing and benefit from learning about.
Regular interviewing outside your company also helps you understand
the changes in your industry, identify potential new opportunities that
would be thrilling for you, meet new people who can later support you in
a transition, and gain a clearer sense of your essential value in your
marketplace. We need to be connecting, networking, socializing and bringing ourselves to market in very proactive ways , all throughout the long arch of our careers.
Recently I was asked by a top media channel to share my top three tips for women aged 30-40 who are seeking to get promoted.
These are my top suggestions for both women and men:
Don’t wait for more leadership to come to you.
Go out and grab it. Identify three core areas that
you’re deeply passionate about in terms of outcomes that your
organization is working toward (or that outside organizations are
involved in), and volunteer to offer your support – lead a project,
chair a committee, oversee a new direction or cause. Go out and claim
what you want. You will then gain more exposure, and become more
visible, capable, confident and more ready to take your career to the
next level because you achieved a higher level of contribution.
Make your case, with the 20 “facts” of you.
If you want to be promoted, it won’t just fall in your lap. You have
to make a solid, well-validated and well-formulated, irrefutable case
for why you should be promoted to the next level. This weekend, sit quietly with yourself (distraction-free – turn off all devices) and write down the 20 powerful “facts” of you
- what you’ve achieved, accomplished, made possible, and cleared the
way for, that has made a big difference in your work and your company.
Make sure you punctuate the information with as many metrics as you
can – the number of new clients you’ve brought in and the dollar value
of those clients, the percent of revenue you helped generate, the fading
businesses you’ve revitalized, the impact you've made on your industry
as a whole, the streamlining of processes you made happen that saved
money, the new protocol that you established that changed how your
department operates, etc. Understand very clearly what you’ve accomplished and the skills and talents you leveraged, and make your powerful case, with facts, data and metrics.
Find influential sponsors who'll help you when you're not in the room.
Research shows that men are more naturally inclined to find
“sponsors” (high-level, influential supporters) to catalyze their
advancement. While women understand more than ever that mentorship is critical, what’s still missing is sponsorship – high-level, powerful leaders who will champion you when you’re not in the room.
Focus now on building relationships with a few powerful sponsors to
whom you’ve already demonstrated your potential, and who will be
thrilled to speak for you, open doors and make the introductions you
need to ascend to the next level.
Another question I’ve been asked regularly is this:
“If I get passed over for a promotion once, how long
should I wait until I try again? And when should I give up and start
looking for work elsewhere?”
The answer to that completely depends on how well you are poised for
advancement. If you’ve done the work recommended above, you should be
ready for advancement by:
• Demonstrating your potential to lead, to more than just your boss or peers
• Developing powerful sponsors who will vouch for your leadership capability and strength
• Building support throughout the organization for your growth
• Achieving important milestones and advancements and moved critical
“needles” in the company or your division that prove to the organization
that it will benefit from your advancement
If you’ve done that, and made a case for your promotion in strong,
confident and clear ways, and you don’t get it, you should ask for clear
reasons why. If there aren’t any, or they don’t make sense to you, or
your manager isn’t willing to create a development plan with you that
you support, then it’s time to actively seek new employment. If your
boss can’t give you a clear pathway for understanding how you can
advance to the next level, it’s a sign that you’re ready to pursue
growth and opportunity elsewhere.
To build more reward and impact in your work, take my Amazing Career Project video training, and watch my TEDx Talk “Time to Brave Up.”
Forbes
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