Actively managing your career
Actively managing your career
Actively managing your career
Actively managing your career
What often comes as a surprise to many people is that in many situations you have great
scope to manage your career. Waiting year after year for your boss to give you that
promotion (that never comes) with the saving grace being your freedom to curse them in
private and (in some cases, and unadvisedly) in public, is not a great place to be. So if you
feel that your career is not being managed well by others (or even if it is) there is a lot that
you can do to better your cause. These are:
• Take credit for the things you have done. Don’t show off. Simply be clear and
transparent about your accomplishments and communicate them.
• Have a clear plan of where you want to be career-wise in (say) 5 years.
Note down the steps, perhaps in 6 month tranches, that you must take to get there
and monitor that your career is tracking as required.
• Do your core job well. Remember that if you do your core job well it is a great
launch-pad for career advancement. However, if the basics are not done well you
will be continually pegged back and at some point the phrase ‘don’t run before you
can walk’ will be uttered and you will feel demoralized.
• Challenging your pay or status. This is a really tough one and hence I’m
reluctant to provide advice as each situation is different as is every boss. However, I
believe that a good rule is not to challenge your pay or status multiple times. I think
that it is appropriate to question your level of compensation and/or your status if it is
clear to you that you are punching well above your weight and that compared to
your peers you are not being treated fairly. A good manager will try to pre-empt
such conversations to ensure that you are fairly rewarded throughout your career
but that is not always possible as the purse strings are often outside their control. If
you make a play for (say) an increased base salary make sure that you are confident
in the value you bring the business. If your boss says “no” you are left in an
awkward situation. Your boss knows that you may now be upset (and may rightly or
wrongly perceive that you are now less motivated than before the request was
made) which could affect your position going forward. However, if it is clear that you
add value and that you are not being properly compensated for what you do a
conversation may be worthwhile. Make the conversation friendly, be tactful and
make sure you don’t lose the respect of your manager. If you are fortunate enough
to receive a pay rise or promotion remember that your boss may have gone out on a
limb to get this for you so thank them as appropriate. The thing to remember is
that you can’t and shouldn’t play this game too often. Your boss may not thank you
for repeating this exercise each year. However, my advice is to tread carefully,
show respect and assess the situation carefully. Perhaps lobby some trustworthy
confidants. Always remember that if your boss doesn’t think you merit a pay
increase or change in status or already believes that you are paid more than market
rates, this could be the beginning of the end for you in that business.
• Don’t over expose yourself. One piece of advice I received many moons ago,
which has proven to be of such value, is the notion that you shouldn’t take too many
things on at one time. In other words it is far better to be remembered for doing
one thing really well than to be remembered for doing five things really badly. The
tip here is not to become overly ambitious and take too many projects or tasks on if there is a reasonable chance that you will sink under all the workload. This doesn’t
of course mean that you shouldn’t put yourself forward for juicy project work or
tasks of specific interest to you, but rather to make wise choices and go for those
that you either enjoy (if that is more important to you) and/or those that help
demonstrate the value you add to the business. Take on too many and you could fail
at all of them, including the ones that you would otherwise succeed at hands down.
• Delegation. I was debating whether to place this topic under ‘Managing Staff’ or
‘Actively managing your career’ as it fits equally well under both categories. To be
clear:
o By delegating work to your team they will learn new tasks and procedures
and grow faster as individuals from a career development point of view. I
have witnessed time and again managers trying to take on the full work-load
of their teams (often individuals who have been appointed as managers for
the first time in their career). After all, they may have done the work
themselves beforehand and can certainly perform it faster and more
efficiently than their staff. Of course the issue here is that by not delegating
you are limiting the chances of your team reaching their full potential.
Perhaps you are worried about losing your job, which leads me on to the next
point.
o By delegating to your team, training them up on the necessary tasks and
ensuring that they develop the required skills, you are not only doing what’s
right for them (so you have a clear conscience) but you are also investing for
the future. It shouldn’t be that long, if they are right for the role and you are
training them effectively, for them to be as good as you were, or at least on a
clear trajectory to get to that state. As their level of competence and speed,
increases you acquire more time to dedicate your efforts to higher level tasks.
As a result you can go to your boss and ask for more interesting work to
perform. Not only should your boss recognize that you have done a good job
with staff development, they should also be able to pass on to you some of
their work, which should free up their time. Everyone’s a winner! Going back
a few years from now, a senior colleague of mine summarized this approach
with the phrase “You should always try to delegate yourself out of a job”.
That is, once you land a new role, train up your team to take on your
workload so that you can move onto the next level, to some extent
underwriting your chances of promotion.
• Consider the Politics game (see later).
• Relative performance considerations. Have you ever wondered why a glittering
career within an organization suddenly falters without your effort, output or
achievements going off track? Well, this can sometimes happen when you least
expect it and it often appears to fall outside your control. Like with a 100 meter
sprint or some exams, how good you are may not be as important as how good the
competition is. In the workplace you may have been destined for a particular role,
but then someone arrives who has more experience, more gravitas and better
political skills ‘forcing’ themselves into prime candidate position. To counter this,
work hard at all the elements in this book. By coming stronger at all these ‘rough
guide’ skills I am confident that the person who gains the competitive advantage will
be you.• Managing egos. There is a fine balance between speaking your mind and
damaging your career by upsetting one of the power bases within the company.
Being open, honest and frank may be your natural approach and arguably lends itself
far better to certain functions (Finance, Facilities Management, Operations and IT).
However, whether you are within these departments or not it is very important to
understand how to approach someone in a position of power and bring up what could
be a sensitive or controversial issue. It’s not hard to raise an issue with someone
senior, expecting them to see your frankness as a positive skill, but if they don’t take
kindly to your ‘interference’ they may react in an adverse manner, either straight
away or over the fullness of time. One example I know about, is of a peer (in a
senior position) whose ideas were effectively railroaded in a meeting by their boss.
Perhaps they hadn’t briefed their boss appropriately beforehand or truly had ideas
that didn’t merit further discussion. Whatever the realities, the individual in question
went to see their boss later and stated that they didn’t appreciate being ‘bullied’ and
that their confidence had been knocked as a result. Their boss duly apologized but
then went on to add that the individual lacked gravitas for bringing the matter up
and that they should try to find some course to go on that would improve both their
maturity and credibility. That individual didn’t last much longer at the company.
They had effectively been told that they didn’t have what it took to rise through the
ranks of the organization. So tread carefully, think through any sensitive or
contentious issues before raising them. Make sure that your actions don’t backfire
on you. Like yourself you boss has an ego and won’t want to be reprimanded.
• Build a strong brand for yourself (see later)
• Be treated as you want to be treated. There is a phrase that ‘behavior breeds
behavior’. If you are petulant, moody, immature and unsupportive of your boss
don’t expect them to treat you with a high level or respect and treat you as someone
with credibility and gravitas. You should act in the manner that you wish to be
treated. If you exude confidence (not arrogance of course), maturity and fair
judgment, your boss is likely to view you as a person that possesses such qualities.
So, before you complain about the way your boss treats you, have an honest and
diligent review of self and establish whether there is anything you can do to rectify
the situation on a stand-alone basis. You may be surprised about how much you can
sway their opinion by changing your persona.
0 التعليقات:
Post a Comment