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When it comes to career advancement, all skills are not created equal. In this week's episode, we look at a framework for evaluating and prioritizing the skills that you should focus on for development.
To begin this assessment, you will need to build two different lists of skills: the skills needed for your current role and the skills needed for your next role. When building each list of skills, evaluate how those skills are actually used; especially for those soft skills such as leadership, storytelling, or executive presence. Use this insight to rank your abilities in those skills as weak, strong, or competent. If a skill appears on both lists, consider how the use of that skill will change as you progress towards your next role.
If you need help identifying the list of skills, review job postings for your role and look at the list of skills that are identified there. You can also use one of the various AI resources such as ChatGPT or Bard to ask what the primary and secondary skills are for each role. If you have a good relationship with your leader, you can ask them, but this might be misconstrued as you not knowing how to perform your duties.
Now that you have a list of skills, you are going to place them on a quadrant map. For the left to right axis, the left represents skills that you need to have and the right represents skills that are nice to have. For the top to bottom axis, the top represents skills that you need now and the bottom represents skills that you need later.
If you are unsure whether a skill is a nice to have or a need to have, consider that earlier description of how the skill is used in the role. Primary skills are usually need to haves and secondary skills are usually nice to haves.
Now that you have classified the different skills from your lists, you can focus on the skills that are weak in the upper left quadrant. These are the ones that will hold you back from success in your current role. Put a plan in place to augment your abilities in these areas as soon as possible through training and direct mentorship. You should dedicate a minimum of an hour each week to work on these skills until you are competent or strong in these skills.
The next tier of skills to address would be those in the lower left quadrant that also appear in the top half of the chart. While the form of the skill may be different between your current role and your future role, the fact that the skill is used in both roles emphasizes the importance of the skill. Even if you are currently strong in the skill, it is important to continue to build this skill in preparation for the next role. Since you are often expected to display the ability to do a job before you are promoted to that job, building these skills will provide you a path to faster advancement.
The third tier of skills would be those that appear in the lower left quadrant and do not appear in the top half of the chart. These should be considered growth skills that you should work on as time allows. These skills will be the ones that set you apart from other peers that are competing for the same promotion.
If you have worked through those three groups of skills and have not identified at least three skills to work on, only then should you extend your view towards the nice to have skills. Be selective from the nice to have list and only picks skills that put you in a position to be assigned to strategic projects that can provide additional visibility that can help put you in a position for a promotion.
Once you have a list of skills to work on, put a learning plan together. Any in tier one should have a plan to address any deficiencies within the next quarter. For skills in tier two or three, take a longer range view towards building them. Use a multi-pronged approach that includes working with your leader on stretch assignments that allow you to use the skill as you grow it. Review your progress with your leader and mentors and update the plan based on their feedback on your progress.
For those of you following this podcast in real time, I will be shifting to a less frequent release schedule for the next few months. Between the holidays and the fact that I am in the process of packing and moving, I will not be able to be as consistent with new episodes. By the end of January next year, I should be back on a regular schedule. Please bear with me during this transition period. If you are looking for any specific career advice, feel free to reach out to me via the contact form at https://ManagingACareer.com/contact and I will answer them directly in the meantime.
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When it comes to career advancement, one of the hardest transitions is from junior level to senior level. This isn't because the change in responsibilities is difficult, but because this is the first significant change in someone's career and they usually don't have a full understanding of what it takes to make the transition.
When talking about junior roles vs senior roles, each company could have different titles and number of positions between those levels. For instance at one company, you might find it easy to progress through titles of Analyst I, Analyst II, and Analyst III, but then feel like your career hits a wall because your current company considers Analyst IV to be a protected senior position. At another company, they may only have positions of Analyst and Senior Analyst. Regardless of how many steps there are between them, this episode is focused on that transition from junior to senior level roles.
Those early promotions are often some of the fastest in your career. Back in Episode 017, I discuss the Corporate Ladder (https://www.managingacareer.com/17) and rough timelines that people are typically at each rung. Promotions within the first few years of your career are often driven by just growth in skill and competence at your role and being capable of taking on more work. When your company has several titles within the junior level, you may even receive promotions every year or two setting unsustainable expectations for the rest of your career.
It's these expectations and the fact that the role is changing that makes this transition exceptionally difficult. Those making the transition often don't have the corporate maturity to understand the fact that what has worked in the past is not what will work now. This leads to a situation where a person attempts to take on more and more tasks and gets frustrated when that doesn't lead to the desired promotion.
Why this approach doesn't work
When you are making the transition from junior level to senior level, it becomes more important to take on the right tasks and not focus on more tasks. If you are just taking on more tasks, you will eventually find yourself spread too thin which means that your ability to deliver will be impacted and your previously strong performance reviews may begin being impacted -- compounding the problem of obtaining a promotion. Alternatively, if you maintain your performance levels, it could come at the expense of your work/life balance or your mental health, all leading to burnout. You might also lead people to have the perception of your lack of strategy or focus if the additional tasks you take on do not represent your core responsibilities and don't align with the goals of the company. So, if taking on more work is not the path to advancement, let's define what it means to take on the right work.
The biggest change from junior to senior is changing your focus from the work at hand to understanding the why of the task and how that work fits within the overall process. It's this shift towards more Strategic Thinking (see Episode 049 for more thoughts - https://www.managingacareer.com/49) that shows that a candidate is acting more senior in their approach. Focus on these higher level tasks that have the most impact on the wider, organizational goals.
As you move up the tiers -- junior to senior to management to executive -- you work shifts from doing to influencing and impacting; you shift towards being a force multiplier. When you are task focused, your efforts produce results in a one-to-one ratio. But, there are some ways that you can become a force multiplier where your efforts have a much larger impact. By mentoring your coworkers who are less knowledgeable or experienced, the effort spent helping your teammates grow is multiplied by their increase efficiency. Another way is to work to remove roadblocks that your teammates face allowing them to complete their tasks sooner.
The final capability you should exhibit in order to be viewed as ready for a senior role is to show leadership skills. Being a leader doesn't mean being a boss. It's about being a thought leader as much as it is about leading people. There may be opportunities to show leadership by delegating some of your tasks. This can be a chance to show how you can grow trust and encourage collaboration within a team. But, more likely than not, leadership when you are junior looking to transition to senior means that you are starting to show thought leadership. This could be through learning about upcoming technologies and how they can be applied in your field. Or, it could possibly be about bringing new ideas on how to optimize the processes you support, bolstered by a larger understanding of how your work impacts the business.
Next steps
So, as you look to transition to more senior level work, evaluate the work you do and where it fit within the bigger picture. Prioritize things that have higher impact and look for opportunities to say "no" to things that do not. Sign up for activities that allow you to show your leadership abilities.
Additionally, review some of the past episodes of this podcast where I talk about additional strategies.
Episode 030 - Getting Ahead By Saying "No" - https://www.managingacareer.com/30 Episode 026 - Should You Be Promoted? - https://www.managingacareer.com/26 Episode 006 - Is Your Work Important? Is it Urgent? - https://www.managingacareer.com/6 Episode 003 - Mentoring - https://www.managingacareer.com/3The promotion to senior level is one of the hardest for someone to achieve, but a career coach can help you work through the transition. If you need a career coach, reach out to me via the Contact Form at ManagingACareer.com (https://www.managingacareer.com/contact/). I'll schedule an introductory session where we can talk about your career goals and determine if we would be a good fit for coaching. If we are, we can arrange regular sessions to help you put your career on the fast track to advancement.
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In Episode 12, I discussed some strategies for soliciting effective feedback (https://www.managingacareer.com/12). However, feedback is only as good as what you do with it. This week, I'm going to take a look at how you can best act on the feedback that you receive.
The first step in acting on feedback is understanding what is driving the comment. In the previous episode, I suggested that when receiving feedback, you should ask clarifying questions along the lines of "Can you explain that in more detail?" or "Tell me more." The goal with this clarification is to turn high-level, generic comments into something more specific.
If you receive feedback that you need to "improve your communication skills", there could be several underlying causes and each one would be addressed differently. If the source of the feedback is because you don't provide regular updates or hold back on negative news, you may need create a weekly report that you send to your superiors; you can hear more by reviewing Episode 44 (https://www.managingacareer.com/44). However, if the source of the feedback is based on recent presentations, you may need to practice presenting more so that you become more comfortable or you might need to work on the content of your presentations (see Episode 56 - Presenting to Leaders https://www.managingacareer.com/56). Without knowing the underlying reasoning for the specific comment, you may not work on correcting the right behaviors.
If you've received feedback, but are unable to coax additional details about what they mean, the next approach you can take is to reach out to other people that can comment on the same topic. Continuing on the example above, if the feedback you received is about your communication skills, reach out to those that you have presented to or that you regularly provide status to. Ask each of them specifically about the area in question. Look for patterns in the feedback they provide and use that insight to target your improvement.
As you consider the different elements of feedback that you have received, how does that feedback align with your career trajectory as well as your personal career goals? Prioritize anything that advances you over things that apply to your current level. If you've created your IDP, these items should be represented on your Assessment and Next Role sections. Review Episodes 36 through 40 for details on your IDP (https://www.managingacareer.com/36) and if you need an IDP template, drop me a note requesting one via the Contact form on the ManagingACareer.com website (https://www.managingacareer.com/contact/).
Now that you have a list of feedback to address, talk with your mentor or coach and develop an action plan. They can help you identify training and activities that will help you develop the skills that you need. Be sure to define goals and deadlines to ensure that you put appropriate focus on addressing the feedback. Episode 47 covered some goal setting frameworks that you may find useful here (https://www.managingacareer.com/47).
As you reach the identified milestones, update your IDP and discuss your progress with your leader and anyone who participated in giving you feedback. Request updated feedback based on your progress.
A career coach can help you identify activities to address feedback. If you need a career coach, reach out to me via the Contact Form at ManagingACareer.com (https://www.managingacareer.com/contact/). I'll schedule an introductory session where we can talk about your career goals and determine if we would be a good fit for coaching. If we are, we can arrange regular sessions to help you put your career on the fast track to advancement.
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When it comes to dealing with people, it can be difficult when they don't share the same opinion you do as to how to handle a specific situation and that can often lead to conflict or complications. The fastest way to move past those differences and get back to moving forward is to put yourself in their shoes.
If you can understand people's thoughts and motivations it goes a long way towards formulating an argument that sways them to your side. How well can you read them? Some people will mask their true thoughts and feelings, especially when it comes to professional relationships. To really understand them you might need to rely on your observational skills and not just listen to the words that they say.
Start with how they are speaking. When someone is excited about something, even if they are trying to suppress it, they will speak slightly faster and with a higher pitch. Conversely, if they are unsure, they will slow down and be more cautious as they speak. Even their word choices can give you a clue as to their mindset. Open language will indicate a higher level of trust. Strong, clear language indicating confidence. If you find that their words are not in alignment with their body language, it becomes even more important to observe them closely.
Visually, watch their body language and look for micro expressions that may clue you in to something that they aren't saying. Whether they are smiling genuinely or politely says a lot. Is their stance closed with their arms crossed or are they open and receptive or possibly even leaning in with excitement? When you say something new, is there a flash of humor or anger in the corners of their eyes? Some of these visual cues will be easier to spot, but the more nuanced actions can be more revealing.
In general, people are not malicious in their actions, but, the actions they take may come across that way. For instance, I have seen multiple times where Person A feels like Person B is purposefully undermining the ability for Person A to perform work. But, in reality, Person B is just focused on taking steps that they think will let them reach their personal goals that they never even considered how that could impact Person A. Once Person A sat down and spoke with Person B and everyone's views were communicated, both people were able to be more productive and reach their goals quickly.
The easiest path to knowing someone's motivations is to come out and ask them. But, sometimes, you don't have that type of relationship with them and it may take a little bit of detective work. For example, how have their current projects been going recently? If positively, their mood probably reflects that. Though if they are experiencing project stress, they may be taking it out on everyone around them. The "no" to your request may be coming from this type of stress more than anything else. Looking for these types of factors can help you find the motivations of someone that you would not ask directly.
No matter how you gain the insight, how can you use this understanding to your advantage?
When you understand someone, you can build a stronger relationship with them. Stronger relationships lead to stronger networks. And I can't stress enough how powerful a strong network can be. (https://www.managingacareer.com/29) If someone's actions are not in alignment with what they say, you can look towards their secret motivations for guidance on how to bring them back to alignment. Someone who accepts tasks but looks for ways to avoid them may be missing key knowledge or resources and does not want to admit that weakness. Understanding this, you can provide the tasks as well as information on how to close the resource gap so that they can be successful without looking weak. If you are making a proposal to someone, you can tailor your pitch accordingly based on how they feel about the idea. If someone is excited about the topic, play up the capabilities and benefits to get them more excited. If someone is unsure, focus on the approach and risk mitigation plan so that they gain some certainty.Building these people reading skills will take practice. With all of your interactions, make notes about your observations and review those notes with your close coworkers and mentors; especially if they are involved in those same conversations. They can help you refine your deductions. Over time, this will come more naturally.
I would love to hear some stories of how this podcast has helped you in your pursuit of career advancement. Go to the ManagingACareer.com website and leave a message via the Contact form (https://www.managingacareer.com/contact/) or click the button to leave a voicemail via your computer. Tell me which episodes have had the biggest impact for you. If I get enough feedback, I'll start including them in upcoming episodes.
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If you want to be successful in your career, you will need to build relationships with the people at work -- peers, superiors, and subordinates. Strong relationships build strong networks. This week, we look at the different types of relationships you'll find in the office and key aspects to building them.
Unless you're the CEO, everyone has a boss, a manager, a leader. When it comes to career growth, this is probably the most important relationship to build and maintain. A good relationship with your boss will ensure that you get the assignments you need to develop.
The first step in building this relationship is to spend time understanding your leader. What is their preferred form of communication? What is their approach to leadership? What are their priorities and how does your work support them? Once you understand these factors, you will need to adjust your communication approach to match theirs. Knowing their priorities allows you to focus that communication on the right messaging. If your leader is customer focused, talk about the impact of your work on customer satisfaction. If your leader if driven by the financials, report your status in terms of dollars saved. Your goal is to have your manager view you as a partner; someone who supports them and their goals. Clear, frequent communication that addresses the things that they care most about will help them view you as someone who "gets it".
If your manager is the most important relationship, the next most important is with your peers. A great relationship with your peers will lead to more productive efforts on your projects.
When it comes to peers, the focus is on collaboration and cooperation. People respond favorably towards people that help them. If you focus on the competition side and take steps to undermine your peers, they will react in kind and make it more difficult for you to complete your projects.
In the event of a conflict between you and your peers, it's important to handle them calmly. Don't attack the person, but, instead, address the issue. If you are unable to separate the issue from the person, take a break and document your reasoning so that you can present it later. If you are still unable to come to a resolution, bring in someone else to act as a mediator. Handling conflict professionally will improve the relationship with your peers even when you disagree.
If you are a manager, yourself, a positive relationship with your subordinates builds a team that performs better and directly leads to your personal success.
When it comes to your team, your relationship relies on some key aspects. Be open and honest in your communication, this transparency will help you build the second aspect -- trust. But, trust is a two way street. Showing your team trust by guiding and empowering instead of commanding and micromanaging allows them to trust your leadership in return.
So far, I've focused on professional relationships. But, when we spend as much time at work as we do, you are bound to develop social relationships as well. These friendships can help make your time in the office more enjoyable and can even extend beyond working hours into personal time, too.
But, be careful that these friendships do not lead to cliques that exclude other members of your team. This can erode any positive relationship you've built within your team. Draw a line of professionalism when performing your duties and save the personal interactions for downtime and breaks. By maintaining a boundary between your social relationships and your work, there will be no impediment to continue growing your relationships with the rest of your team.
The final relationship type to address is that of a romantic relationship. Like friendships, keep your relationship professional at work so as to not disrupt the performance of the team.
But a romantic relationship comes with additional concerns. Be sure you stay in compliance of any company policies. There are often restrictions on romantic relationships that involve any sort of reporting structure. There is also the possibility of complications that could arise if the romantic relationship sours. One or both participants in the relationship may need to be prepared to transfer to another area within the company to address any issues related to the relationship.
I would love to hear some stories of how this podcast has helped you in your pursuit of career advancement. Go to the ManagingACareer.com website and leave a message via the Contact form (https://www.managingacareer.com/contact/) or click the button to leave a voicemail via your computer. Tell me which episodes have had the biggest impact for you. If I get enough feedback, I'll start including them in upcoming episodes.
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In the 1960s, Dr. Laurence Peter defined a theory known as the Peter Principle. This theory states that people in an organization are promoted until they reach their level of incompetence. This usually happens when someone is promoted from a position that requires one set of skills to a new position that relies on completely different skills that the person is not equipped with. While they may be quite competent at their previous position, in their new position, they don't have the competency required to be successful and their career stalls.
The story typically goes like this. You start your career and begin learning the skills you need to be successful in your field. As you become more competent, you'll progress from junior roles to more senior roles where you have larger responsibilities but are still leveraging the same skill set. Eventually, the next rung on the ladder will rely on different skills. As you progress through the ranks, the available training diminishes and as an experienced team member, you're expected to just figure it out.
It's at this point in the story where you face two different paths. The first path is to continue to struggle and face the fact that you have reached the Peter Plateau. The other path is find ways to break past the plateau to put your career back on track.
The most common reason for reaching this plateau is when the role transitions from using hard skills -- those more quantifiable in nature -- to soft skills -- which usually involve interactions with other people. Hard skills are easier to teach because they can be shown as right or wrong. When it comes to soft skills, success is a lot more fuzzy and results involve a lot of "it depends". Because soft skills involve people, what works with one person may not be effective with another person. When you reach a position that relies on soft skills, training resources become more difficult to find and you will need to find other methods for building these skills.
If you've been following this podcast for any length of time, you'll know that I'm a big proponent of creating your Individual Development Plan or IDP. If you need a refresher on building your IDP, review Episodes 036 through 040 (https://www.managingacareer.com/36). Those episodes walk you through a description of the sections of the IDP and the process of integrating it into your discussions with your leader. If you need a free copy of my IDP template, reach out via the Contact form on the ManagingACareer.com website (Contact | Managing A Career).
If you have your IDP created, your Assessment section should detail what skills you need to work on in order to reach the next level. If you find that you have reached a career plateau, review the items here to determine which skill or skills are holding you back. This would be an ideal time to speak with your coaches, mentors, and leaders to do an honest assessment of your current progress on building these skills.
Review the items in your Action Plan to make sure that they are addressing the skill gaps that are holding you back. Work with your leader to find assignments that can help you focus on those specific skills. If you can pair up with someone strong in that skill -- especially in the context of what is successful within your organization -- it can help you grow faster.
For example, if you struggle with executive communication, start by pairing up with someone who excels at that skill so that, together, you prepare a presentation. As your skill grows, take more of a lead of creating those presentations, but review it with your co-worker. Eventually, when you have gained skill and confidence, create and deliver the presentation on your own.
This pairing will ensure that you have clear examples of what constitutes "good" within your company and the direct hands-on approach can help identify specifics that you need to work on.
A career coach can help you create strategies to close skill gaps and break through the Peter Plateau. If you need a career coach, reach out to me via the Contact Form at ManagingACareer.com (https://www.managingacareer.com/contact/). I'll schedule an introductory session where we can talk about your career goals and determine if we would be a good fit for coaching. If we are, we can arrange regular sessions to help you put your career on the fast track to advancement.
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When you speak up at work to offer your ideas, have you considered how loud is your voice? I'm not talking about volume, but how many people hear your message? How much weight does your opinion hold? How large is your sphere of influence? A management position comes inherently with influence over the team that you lead based on being in a position of authority. But influence does not necessarily mean power or authority. This week, we look at some strategies for how you can grow your sphere of influence.
As you consider these strategies and the steps that you will be taking, keep in mind where you are in your growth and your career. While the strategies apply no matter what level or position you're at, the targets of those strategies may be closer or further away from you within the organization. The same can also be said based on how much influence you already have. When your sphere is small, start closer to home, but the strategies will apply no matter how large your sphere already is.
When it comes to building influence everything starts with relationships. In Episode 029, I covered Building a Network ( https://www.managingacareer.com/29), but influence is not just about creating connections; it's about building trust and collaboration.
Identify those that you seek to influence and reach out to them regularly. Ask them how you can help them, especially with cross-team initiatives. If you don't have the skills to help directly, learn to be a connector. Helping them resolve their problems -- or connecting them to people who can solve their problem -- will increase their level of trust in you. More trust will lead them to listen when you present your own ideas or suggest solutions to those cross-team projects.
Another way that you can build your influence is to become the resident expert on some process, technology, or resource. The goal isn't to be a gatekeeper, though, that is a form of influence. Limiting access to a resource will lead to resentment and a possible loss of the trust that you are working to build. Instead, by being the expert on a piece of technology and being collaborative, people will seek out your opinions and solutions when that technology is involved.
The third strategy for growing your sphere of influence is to become involved in critical problems. If the problem has already been identified, this could mean volunteering to work on the project to address it. However, you may need to apply some Strategic Thinking as covered in Episode 049 (https://www.managingacareer.com/49) to find a critical problem where you can contribute. By solving a high-impact problem, you will build your reputation and have people reaching out to you in order to grow THEIR network.
The final strategy for increasing your sphere of influence is communication. Whether communicating up the management chain or across departments, information is a valuable resource. Being seen as someone who both has and shares information will help keep you in the loop on what is going on within the organization as well as give you early notice of areas where you can apply the other strategies. There have been several episodes covering different communication top
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Advancing your position or getting promoted at work can sometimes feel like a struggle. If you are feeling stuck and wondering why you aren't advancing, this week's episode will help you understand the key misconception that most people face and learn some strategies you can put in place to get past it.
As we go through childhood, we are often told that through hard work, we can be successful. While this is true in large part, just by working hard and being good at your job is not always enough to get promoted. Early in your career, when advancement is focused on learning and growing, competence can lead to a promotion. But, once you advance beyond the junior phase, you may find yourself stalled no matter how much you increase your skills.
The biggest factor that is holding you back could be visibility. When the organization is deciding on who is promoted and who is not, the leaders need to know who you are and what value you have provided to the team.
If you are unsure if you have a visibility problem, consider the following:
Does your boss just know the status of the project, or does your boss also know what you contributed to the project? How often are your projects mentioned in the wider organization? Do you have a relationship with your boss' peers and leaders?If you can't answer yes to each one of those questions, any struggles you experience when it comes to advancement can be traced back to the lack of visibility. When promotion discussions are held, it's a lot easier for your boss to justify the promotion to their peers when you are visible.
When it comes to visibility, everything starts with actually performing your duties. But, after that, you have to sell yourself. Most people are uncomfortable with self-promotion because it can feel awkward or like you are bragging, but if you want to progress, you will need to get past those feelings. It's not about bragging as much as it is about factually stating your accomplishments and the value that they provide. Review Episode 018 - Selling Yourself (https://www.managingacareer.com/18) and Episode 044 - Reporting Status (https://www.managingacareer.com/44) for insights into how best to communicate your value to various management levels.
One way to ensure that your status does not come across as being braggadocious is to communicate it regularly. If you send status focused on larger items either irregularly or only when asking for a promotion, it will appear to be insincere. Instead send a weekly status to your boss and communicate progress on assignments of all sizes. Once per month or once per quarter, include a recap where you highlight the larger items that were reported on previous status reports.
Beyond just reporting status, you need to make yourself known to other teams throughout your organization. Part of being known is creating a Personal Brand as covered in Episode 043 (https://www.managingacareer.com/43). But you must also engage with those other teams. Organize cross-team sessions where you share ideas and techniques. Participate in departmental social events. And, through it all, build your brand.
The last thing you need to do in order to build visibility is to build relationships with your manager's peers such that you find an advocate or sponsor. When you've identified someone that will support you, meet with them regularly and talk about how the work that you are doing aligns with their goals and how you can help them. When your manager elevates your name as a promotion candidate, your sponsor will add their support increasing the chances that your promotion will be approved.
Is visibility something that you struggle with? I'd love to hear about how you've overcome this. And if there is something else that is keeping you from the advancement you seek, let me know and I'll cover that topic on a future episode. You can send your stories on the ManagingACareer.com website via the contact form (https://www.managingacareer.com/contact/) or leave me a voicemail through your computer.
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If you pay attention to what is going on within your company you can often see what direction things are going to go. With this warning, you can PRE-act to upcoming changes instead of RE-acting to them. This proactive stance will put you in the best position to succeed when those changes happen.
Whether the changes are localized within your department or if there are larger changes coming that impact the entire company, everything starts with understanding who are the key players in decisions at each level. You can start with people in positions of power such as the CEO or a department head, but key players could also be individuals with significant influence over those people in key leadership roles. These people may not be within your immediate network, but make every effort to understand what their priorities are.
When you know who the key players are, look at how they make decisions. Are they someone who is driven by emotion or facts? Are they strategic or tactical? Do they look for consensus or do they make the decision on their own? The insight into the decision making process can help you anticipate how and when decisions will be made. For example, If the decision is being made emotionally, when a triggering event happens, you can prepare for an emotional reaction to that event. Whereas if decisions are made based on facts, you can expect that those decisions are made methodically with great care.
Listen to the language that these key players use when they talk about the concerns of the company; especially when their language changes. Most companies are for-profit entities and money is a huge driver of many decisions. As such, focus on revenue, expenses, or margin will lead to different decisions all with the goal of increasing company profits. If the executives focus on revenue in all of their speeches and newsletters, you can expect decisions focused on increasing sales. If they focus on expenses, decisions will usually be focused on reducing overhead and cutting things they consider non-essential. With a focus on margin, look for negotiations around material costs and an investment in technology that offers process improvements.
The last factor to pay attention to in order to predict company change is to be aware of what is happening in your industry overall. If your competitors are having a different level of success, look for your leaders to make decisions to capitalize on those discrepancies. If new regulations are being discussed, what changes will that drive for your company? Are there new ideas or new technologies that you company can benefit from and how will they be adopted by your company?
Once you have some insight into the factors that could lead to change, you can use this knowledge to begin to predict what changes may be coming for you. These predictions can give you an opportunity to get ahead of the change and potentially influence how it impacts you.
If you are already aligned with the key decision makers, use this connection and your influence to turn the decision your direction. Even better if you have predicted the change before they have as it will strengthen the relationship and showcase your ability to think strategically. Look ahead to the potential choices and identify the ones that are most advantageous to you. Put together a justification for these options and present your case to the decision maker. Even if the final decision doesn't go your way, a compelling argument will usually provide some benefit for you.
Whether you have influence over the potential decision or not, understanding what's coming gives you time to react before the actual decision is made. If processes or technologies are changing, learn everything you can about them beforehand; become the resident expert. If your area will see growth, position yourself to take on higher level work potentially even with a transition to a leadership role. If your department will be impacted by budget cuts, spend time communicating the value you provide to set you apart from others and reducing the chance that you will be impacted by any reductions. Episode 44 (https://www.managingacareer.com/44) provides more insight into Reporting Status.
A career coach can help you gain the foresight you need to get ahead. I would love to be that coach for you. Reach out to me via the Contact Form at ManagingACareer.com (https://www.managingacareer.com/contact/). I'll schedule an introductory session where we can talk about your situation. If we are a good fit, we can schedule regular sessions to help you get your career on the right track.
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At some point, you may find yourself in a position where you are able to attend an industry conference. When this happens, with enough planning, you can leverage this conference to help advance your career.
At any conference, there will be panels, talks, and sessions by industry experts. These can help you understand upcoming changes to any regulations that apply to your industry. They can also offer new techniques and solutions to problems that you may have been facing. Often, the speakers also represent the companies that create the software commonly used in the industry and you can learn about new features that are coming to the tools that you use.
Before you travel to the conference, review the schedule of talks and identify the ones most relevant to your projects. Also talk with your leader and teammates to see if any of the presentations will cover topics that will benefit them. There will often be overlapping events, so identifying the most important sessions will let you plan your daily schedule. It will also let you identify alternative sessions so that if your primary session is full or underwhelming, you can attend a different presentation that will still provide some value.
During each presentation, make every effort to remove any distractions. Turn off the alerts from your phone. Position yourself where you can see anything projected on the screens as well as the presenter. Be sure to take notes of the most important points. Over the course of the conference, you will be hearing a lot of new information and it may be difficult to remember it all without good notes.
Beyond the opportunities for education, the other major activity at a conference is to network and socialize. Try to get to the conference city a day early so that you can attend any kick-off social events. Include time during your day to gather in the common areas and talk to attendees. Make a note of the speakers that had the most insightful talks and look for opportunities to connect with them outside of the meeting rooms; unless they are a major keynote speaker, they are usually excited to talk with conference attendees.
If this is not the first time you've attended this industry conference, reach out to everyone that you have met during previous years and arrange to meet with them again this year. This will strengthen these connections and allow you to compare notes on how others are progressing in your industry. Have them introduce you to others attending in order to grow your network faster.
If you are introverted, networking may not come easy to you. Take advantage of the quieter times in the conference when you can mingle in smaller groups. Leverage the fact that those attending the conference work in a similar field as you so there is a common topic for starting conversations. And when in doubt, stand next to someone who is outgoing and wait for them to bring you into their conversation.
Send an email to each person that you meet as soon as you have any sort of break. In that email summarize the conversation and offer to follow up after the conference. This will help you remember not just who you talked to but what you discussed. Fostering these connections will pave the way for future collaborations or even recruiting opportunities.
Be sure to visit the expo floor during the conference, too. Beyond just the conference swag, walking the floor can help you find new tools and technologies that may not be covered in any of the presentations that you attended. You can also meet vendor contacts which can help you bypass any of the red tape in getting support for the tools that you use.
After you return home from the conference, schedule a recap session with your leader and coworkers. Go over the highlights from the important sessions, especially those that discussed upcoming changes to the tools used by your company or any new government regulations that apply to your industry. Send an introductory email between your team and any vendor contacts so that they can extend their network, too.
Lastly, reflect on what you've learned and look for ways that you can inject new ideas into how your company works. In Episode 049, I covered thinking strategically (https://www.managingacareer.com/49). Use the insights you gained at the conference to understand the competitive landscape of your industry and to guide your solutions to these bigger problems.
I would love to hear some stories of how this podcast has helped you in your pursuit of career advancement. Go to the ManagingACareer.com website and leave a message via the Contact form (https://www.managingacareer.com/contact/) or click the button to leave a voicemail via your computer. Tell me which episodes have had the biggest impact for you. If I get enough feedback, I'll start including them in upcoming episodes.
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I've mentioned Jackie Simon in the past. If you aren't following her on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackiesimon1/), you should. She's a leadership coach and regularly posts some insightful content. This week's episode of the ManagingACareer.com podcast is inspired by a post she made this week on Delegation vs Leverage (https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jackiesimon1_delegating-wont-get-you-promoted-activity-7230196646461026304-D_UT). Links to Jackie's profile and the inspiration post will be in the show notes for this episode.
As with anything, we start with definitions to establish a context for further discussion. Delegation is assigning tasks to others. Leverage is using your resources (including people resources) to complete your work more effectively. While they can seem very similar, the differentiator is the goals and outcomes of the action.
Way back in Episode 001 of this podcast (https://www.managingacareer.com/1), I covered Higher Level Tasks. In that episode, I covered that your goal should be transitioning from process driven tasks to tasks that rely more on your personal discretion and judgement. Part of this transition is delegating lower level tasks.
The goal of delegation is to pass activities that distract you from more strategic work to someone else. You do this because the task needs to be done but you are less focused on HOW it's performed. If done well, delegation is an opportunity to build trust with those that you delegate to because it helps them expand their role and provides them a level of autonomy. However, done poorly and they can feel a level of resentment when the delegated tasks are menial or if you continue to inject too much influence into the details of their performance of the task.
When it comes to leverage, however, the goal is to continue to be involved in the task but to bring others into the activity. You may need to augment your skills by bringing in an expert. If the task requires navigating tough political waters, you may look to leverage someone with the right connections. Another reason to use leverage is when you are mentoring someone and you get them involved in order to expose them to new situations. The focus with leverage is to multiply your efforts through the resources available to you.
Delegate small, routine tasks. Delegate to divide and conquer. Delegate to grow your team. Use leverage for those impactful, strategic, higher level tasks. Use leverage to augment your abilities. Use leverage to grow your network.
In Episode 006 (https://www.managingacareer.com/6), I introduced the concept of the Eisenhower Decision Matrix. This matrix divides work based on two scales: Urgency and Importance. This results in four quadrants: Urgent and Important known as the DO NOW quadrant; Important but not Urgent known as the SCHEDULE quadrant; Urgent but not Important known as the DELEGATE quadrant; and neither Important nor Urgent known as the IGNORE quadrant. This can be a useful way to determine which of your tasks would benefit from delegation and which would benefit from leverage.
By definition, work that is urgent but not important falls into the DELEGATE quadrant, but there may also be opportunities to delegate some of the tasks that are in the DO NOW quadrant. If you have trusted members of your team that have shown growth or when specific skills are needed to accomplish them, consider delegating some of these urgent and important tasks within your team.
When it comes to Leverage, the SCHEDULE quadrant is the perfect opportunity to take advantage of Leverage. This work is strategic in nature and being able to leverage your connections to make progress on these tasks while continuing to put focus on the work in the DO NOW quadrant will allow you to showcase your impact to the organization. Speaking of the DO NOW quadrant, this is another opportunity to apply leverage to remove any roadblocks preventing you from doing the things that should receive your primary attention.
I would love to hear some stories of how this podcast has helped you in your pursuit of career advancement. Go to the ManagingACareer.com website and leave a message via the Contact form (https://www.managingacareer.com/contact/) or click the button to leave a voicemail via your computer. Tell me which episodes have had the biggest impact for you. If I get enough feedback, I'll start including them in upcoming episodes.
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In today's episode of the ManagingACareer.com podcast, we take a look at a framework you can use to evaluate whether your current role will have a positive impact on your ability to advance your career. This framework is supported by four E's: Enablement, Empowerment, Engagement, and Enthusiasm.
Enablement: The first E is Enablement. In Episode 51 - Success or Failure (https://www.managingacareer.com/51), I use the quote from Alexander Graham Bell, "the only difference between success and failure is the ability to take action." A big factor in your ability to take action is whether or not you are enabled you to perform your role.
Enablement refers to the support you receive to actually perform the duties of your role. Do you have the tools and access you need to be successful? When you face barriers, do your leaders help you break past them? Do you have a clear understanding of the expectations of the role?
If you are a leader or a senior member of the team, how do you enable the rest of your team to perform their duties? Do you provide the documentation and SOPs that junior members require? Review Episode 5 (https://www.managingacareer.com/5) on how Documenting Your Work can help you get ahead. Do you carve out time from your day to mentor others on your team? Review Episode 3 for more insights about Mentoring (https://www.managingacareer.com/3).
When you are enabled, you will have confidence that you can be successful in your current role. When you are enabled, you have the tools you need to be efficient.
Empowerment: The second E is Empowerment. Where Enablement is about having the tools needed to perform your duties, Empowerment is about having the authority to perform your duties. If you have to check in with someone else for every decision you need to make, it can be demoralizing and discouraging. When you are empowered to make decisions, you will take initiative and drive results proactively.
When you have responsibility of others on the team, do you empower them? Delegating decision making can free you up to do more important tasks. It will also lead to team that is more satisfied and more willing to follow your leadership.
Engagement: The third E is Engagement. Engagement is when you feel connected to your work and have a desire to complete your duties at the highest level of quality. When there is a clear link between your role and your company goals you will have a higher level of satisfaction and be more willing to see things through.
When the work you perform aligns with your goals, successful completion will lead to a positive performance review and the rewards and recognition associated with those reviews and ultimately to the advancement you seek.
Enthusiasm: The final E is Enthusiasm. With Engagement being your connection to your company goals, Enthusiasm is your connection to your personal goals. Alignment with your interests and desires makes work easy. You don't need to be convinced to do the work because ultimately, it's what you want to do.
I speak often about the Individual Development Plan and how it can help you identify the path you want your career to take. When your role aligns with your Career Vision (see Episode 37 - https://www.managingacareer.com/37), this linkage will provide personal motivation because you see how it will lead you to your ultimate goal.
As a leader, watch for members of your team who only half-heartedly complete their work. There may be a mismatch between what you are asking them to do and their interests.
Enablement, Empowerment, Engagement, and Enthusiasm. Resulting in Confidence, Initiative, Satisfaction, and Motivation. When your job provides you with all of these factors, career progression is just a matter of time. When any one of them are missing, reach out to your leaders and have a conversation on how, together, you can resolve that.
I would love to hear some stories of how this podcast has helped you in your pursuit of career advancement. Go to the ManagingACareer.com website and leave a message via the Contact form (https://www.managingacareer.com/contact/) or click the button to leave a voicemail via your computer. Tell me which episodes have had the biggest impact for you. If I get enough feedback, I'll start including them in upcoming episodes.
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Having regular conversations with your manager is important to ensure that you are on track for your desired career growth. But just as important is to occasionally have similar conversations with your skip level leaders.
When it comes to skip level one-on-ones, there are three key outcomes to look for. First, is to build a relationship with your leaders. Second is to have an opportunity to highlight your contributions to the organization. And third is to have more insight into the direction that your leader is driving the team. Even just requesting the one-on-one will help you stand out when it comes time for promotions because most people never request a skip level meeting. This one act shows your leader that you are proactive and interested in advancing your career.
Building a relationship. Unless you work for a very small company, your leaders are responsible for a lot of people; potentially a couple of hundred in larger companies. It is very rare for your skip level manager to know much about you individually. Requesting a one-on-one with them allows you to get to know them on a more personal level and for them to get to know you better. People are more likely to help people they like, so establishing a positive relationship and not just engaging in small talk should improve your chances of better assignments and eventually career advancement.
Showcasing your contributions. When the conversation eventually turns towards your work, this is your chance to practice your presentation skills. Episode 056 covered Presenting to Leaders (https://www.managingacareer.com/56); revisiting that episode should help you here. If you think about the scope and timelines that you are responsible for compared to those of your skip level leaders, their focus is on larger efforts and longer time horizons. So, as you describe your recent accomplishments, make sure you focus on describing them in relationship to the bigger picture. Many of the insights from Episode 44 - Reporting Status (https://www.managingacareer.com/44) apply when communicating verbally, too. Focusing your contributions in terms of value produced will ensure that your skip level leader can relate what you do to the things that they care about.
One of the benefits of presenting your contributions in the context of value to the organization is that it signals to your leader that you are starting to think strategically. Back in Episode 49 (https://www.managingacareer.com/49), I cover several ways that you can transition to more strategic work and having your skip level leader recognize that growth should help.
Gain Insight. The third goal of a skip level one-on-one is to learn about the direction of the organization from your leader. The purpose of this isn't to feed the rumor mill. Use this time to understand the drivers for the decisions that they make and figure out how those drivers can also be applied to your priorities. How can you leverage these insights to devise an idea that involves a bigger scope than your current level of responsibilities? Don't try to formulate the idea and make the pitch during your skip level one-on-one, but by understanding how your leader thinks and knowing what aspects are important to them, you can look for opportunities where you can expand your role.
After your one-on-one is finished, spend the next few weeks refining your pitch. Reach out to trusted peers and mentors to vet the idea. Along the way, socialize the idea with decision makers and direct reports of your skip level leader. By winning over support, when you finally present your idea, it will be much easier to convince your skip level leader to adopt your idea.
I would love to hear some stories of how this podcast has helped you in your pursuit of career advancement. Go to the ManagingACareer.com website and leave a message via the Contact form (https://www.managingacareer.com/contact/) or click the button to leave a voicemail via your computer. Tell me which episodes have had the biggest impact for you. If I get enough feedback, I'll start including them in upcoming episodes.
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I was hosting a coaching call the other day and I wanted to share the problem that we discussed in case you are experiencing a similar situation. The person I was speaking to has an issue where their manager is actively sabotaging their career development. If you want to be successful, you have to take control of your career because no one else will do it for you. And when your leader creates roadblocks that prevent you from growing the way that you wish, it becomes even more important to own your own career.
If you find yourself in a similar situation, the first thing you need to do is to try to identify why your leader might be behaving this way.
Your manager may have some form of bias. This could be a form of prejudice such as racism or sexism that should be addressed with HR or it could just be as simple as playing favorites with others on the team. Your manager might feel threatened by you. There are several reasons why your manager could have these feelings from being a below average performer to being new to the role. Another reason that your manager may not support you is that they may just not be aware of what it actually takes for you to advance. Though, if you have been following this podcast for any length of time, I regularly encourage you to have career conversations with your leader to ensure that they are invested in your development.By understanding the source of the problem, you can adjust your approach towards finding a resolution.
Start by having a conversation with your manager for feedback on your performance. Prior to this conversation, review Episode 012 - Receiving Effective Feedback (https://www.managingacareer.com/12). It may be a difficult conversation given the contentious relationship you may have, but it is important to maintain a level of professionalism and avoid getting defensive about anything your manager says. Ideally, you don't react at all to any faults that your manager indicates -- whether true or not. Even if they are actively preventing your progress, there will still be items that they think you should work on.
Your goal with this feedback is to spend the rest of the year generating evidence to counter each believe. For instance, if there are skills that your leader thinks you are weak in, look for training that can supplement your abilities and try to find opportunities to showcase them to your organization. Use this evidence during your performance review to prove that these are not weaknesses.
If your leader believes that you have issues related to your performance on assignments or projects, create a weekly status report. Review Episode 044 - Reporting Status (https://www.managingacareer.com/44) for some guidelines on what makes a good status report. This status report should be sent to your manager, the project manager, and your manager's leader. It is important that your status report include not just the activities that you have completed or made progress on, but also the value that those activities provide to the company -- in dollar amounts if possible. Additionally, relate the status back to your annual goals and your personal career goals.
By documenting your performance with a full circle view and sending it to a wider audience, you ensure that your manager is not the only person aware of your performance. When it comes time for your annual performance review, you can summarize the details from all of your status reports and provide details of which of your goals you have completed.
Another strategy to help you when your manager is blocking your career progress is to find an advocate. Episode 029 - Building A Network (https://www.managingacareer.com/29) can give you techniques for meeting and identifying potential advocates. Ideally, your advocate would be someone who is in your organization as either a peer or a senior leader of your manager so that their opinion has weight. When your performance is discussed among the leaders, having and advocate can ensure that someone will be speaking positively about you instead of just hearing the biased opinion of your manager.
If none of these strategies improve the situation, the more severe options is to look elsewhere. If you have an advocate, they may be able to help your find an internal position that you can transfer to. Just be sure to do your homework to ensure that the new situation isn't just perpetuating the problem. If your would-be new manager is friends with your current manager, any bias may carry forward. If there are no internal positions -- or at least none that provide the opportunities you want -- the next step would be to look outside of the company.
If you are facing a challenging situation at work and could use a career coach, reach out to me via the Contact Form at ManagingACareer.com (https://www.managingacareer.com/contact/). I'll schedule an introductory session much like the one that inspired this episode and if we are a good fit, we can schedule regular sessions to help you get your career on the right track.
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At the time of this episode, we're a little more than halfway through the current year. Most companies have an annual goal setting process and it's a good time to check in on your progress towards those goals. Waiting until the end of the year to review your progress doesn't give you enough time to react and adjust to ensure success.
In Episode 47 - Annual Goal Setting (https://www.managingacareer.com/47), I go through several frameworks you can use to help define your goals. If you followed the guidelines I provided in that episode, you should have a series of goals that align with the corporate strategies but still provide opportunities for growth and advancement of your career. Each goal should consist of some sort of long-term objective and a list of supporting activities that will help you achieve the objective.
As part of a mid-year evaluation, you should review each of the supporting activities and update the status of them. How many of those activities have you completed? How many have had significant progress? Of the ones that haven't been started, what is preventing your progress?
One aspect of the IDP that I encourage is the section that documents your Successes -- see Episode 39 for more details on this part of the IDP (https://www.managingacareer.com/39). With this review of your progress against your goals, you have an opportunity to boost your motivation by acknowledging the success you have had so far this year and also to spur action knowing that there is still time to achieve everything that you set out to achieve for the year.
Now that you know where you stand with respect to your goals, consider whether they are all still valid. Companies will adjust their goals based on any events going on in the wider market. The priorities of your team may have shifted. Even your personal roadmap may have changed based on things you have learned. If any of these factors apply, use this opportunity to update your goals to align with these new conditions. Even if the overall goal is still valid, it is also an opportunity to redefine the supporting activities to match your current work assignments.
For any goals that you are off track or are blocked by something beyond your control, have a conversation with your leader. How can the two of you work together to get things back on track? Is it a matter of missing resources or aligning your assignments with the activities that support the goal?
Your annual goals should align with both your company and personal objectives, so this midyear review should include progress on your Individual Development Plan (https://www.managingacareer.com/36) as well. Be sure to update your Action Plan (https://www.managingacareer.com/39) but review whether you need to adjust your Roadmap (https://www.managingacareer.com/37) based on how your year has progressed so far.
As I covered in Episode 51 - Success or Failure (https://www.managingacareer.com/51), a large component of success is taking action. There is still plenty of time left in the year to successfully complete your goals, but this review will show you where you need to focus your attention and take action in order to complete your goals.
My goal for this podcast is to continue to grow the audience in order to help as many people as I can advance their careers. To reach this goal, I would appreciate it if you would share this episode with your friends and coworkers. Send them to ManagingACareer.com/follow (https://www.managingacareer.com/follow) which will give them links to everywhere that this podcast can be found.
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Let's talk about credit. I'm not talking about the financial mechanisms by which you borrow money from a bank using plastic card. I'm talking about the type of credit involved when someone receives recognition for work performed.
If we consider our relationship to credit: we can TAKE credit; we can GIVE credit; we can STEAL credit; and we can GIVE AWAY credit. In today's episode, I'm going to talk about each of these different modes and how they can impact your career advancement.
Taking credit. When we perform a task, especially if we do it well, we should be proud and take credit for our work by sharing that information with others; especially with our leaders. Keep a "success diary" of some sort so that you track the things that you do that deserve credit. Whether small or large, track everything. Successes with a more localized impact can still be shared within your project team, but successes with a more wide-spread impact should be shared to higher levels of the organization. Be clear in what was accomplished and your role with bringing it to fruition; just be careful that you don't come across as too braggadocious and share your successes with a level of humility. By making this a regular occurrence, it keeps your leaders aware of the contributions you make which will help them consider you when new opportunities become available.
Giving credit. If others were involved in the success, we move to the next mode, giving credit. If you are keeping a success diary, include documenting the roles other played in making your activities successful. When you share YOUR success whether in meetings or emails, mention the others, too. Most work is done as part of a team and including them in your successes will lead others to reciprocate providing YOU additional recognition with your leaders.
Another aspect of giving credit is when the work of others provides a positive impact to you. Call out the work of others by leveraging any appreciation tools provided by your company. By recognizing the work of others, you'll strengthen your relationships and bring others to WANT to work with you.
If you are a leader of a team, pay special attention to Episode 008 - The Five Recognition Languages. Everyone on your team has a different way that they feel appreciated, so be sure to align giving credit with the form that they prefer. This will ensure that they feel valued and increase the impact of the recognition.
Stealing credit. The opposite of giving credit is stealing credit. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, if you take credit without including others who contributed to the effort, you are stealing credit that they deserve. Another form of stealing credit is if credit is given to the wrong person. Where giving credit can build up a team, no matter how the credit is stolen, it can cause a rift within the team and undermines your credibility.
Giving away credit. The last form of relationship that we have with credit for work performed is when we give away credit. If you allow someone to steal your credit or you don't speak up when credit for your work is stolen or misappropriated, you are giving away credit. If you give away your credit by allowing it to be stolen, you run the risk that person gets opportunities ahead of you.
There may be instances where you might wish to give away credit. An example would be when you have built up significant goodwill but someone else involved in the work has been underappreciated, you may wish to give away your credit to the underappreciated person. In instances like this, you can strengthen your relationship with them. And as I covered in Episode 029 - Building a Network, a strong network is one of the most valuable tools for career advancement.
Earlier in the episode, I mentioned keeping a success diary. If you would like a free template you can use to track YOUR successes, reach out to me via the contact form at the ManagingACareer.com website. I would be happy to send you one.
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I firmly believe that you have to own your career. If you rely on someone else to drive it, it will likely not go in the direction that you want -- if it actually goes anywhere at all. In each episode of this podcast, I cover a topic that makes you think about your career, but taking action is still up to you. Sometimes, we find ourselves procrastinating even when we know we should be acting.
This week, I want to cover several reasons why you may be procrastinating and how to get past them. We know what we SHOULD do, but struggle to find the motivation to do it. So, why do we procrastinate?
The first reason may be the fear of the unknown and the comfort of the known. We know what it's like where we are. It may be "just fine" to continue in our current role. If you've reached a level where you have a fair number of responsibilities and your pay allows you a level of comfort, maintaining the status quo may be more important to you than the risk of what might come next.
The strategy here is to find ways to reduce the risk and get excited about the future. Find someone within the company that has a role similar to your next role that will serve as your mentor. Set up regular time with them to talk about what their day to day activities look like. Ask them what they find fulfilling about the additional responsibilities of that role. Use their insights to identify the areas you are least comfortable with and find opportunities to strengthen them through training or assignments.
The next reason that we procrastinate is not having a clear goal of what actually IS next. I'm a big fan of the Individual Development Plan. The primary reason that I like the IDP is that it provides a systematic approach to help you clarify what your next steps should be. For a refresher on the IDP and how you can use it as a tool for career planning, go back to Episodes 036 through 040 and then reach out via the contact form at ManagingACareer.com to request your free IDP template. Once you have completed your IDP using my template, you will have identified your next role and created an action plan to get you there. This clarity will allow you to break past this source of procrastination.
Another reason that we might procrastinate taking action on our career is being overwhelmed by everything that needs to be done. You may be excited about what is next and have formulated an action plan in your IDP, but if there is too much to do, you may not know how to get started. Pair that with a fear of failure or a desire for perfection and you may feel completely paralyzed when it comes to getting started.
If you find yourself overwhelmed with everything that you need to do, take a step back and find the smallest, easiest task. Success breeds success. A small win provides momentum to the next win. Once you've gained confidence with small, easy steps, you'll be ready to take on the bigger, more important steps. In Episode 051 - Success or Failure, I talk about how taking action can be inspiring and this snowball effect can jump start your career progression.
If you are unable to push past your source of procrastination, it can lead to career stagnation. This can lead to a negative perception about having a lack of ambition. You might also face increased stress as you miss out on promotions and opportunities. You may even lose confidence in yourself and your ability to grow. Just like success breeds success, lack of success can lead to further delays.
One strategy, no matter what is driving your procrastination is to have someone on your side -- your leaders, your mentors, or your coach. Someone that can help you clarify your path forward and provide the motivation you need to take action. If you are interested in career coaching, it is a service I offer. Reach out to me via the contact form on the ManagingACareer.com website and I will set up an introductory session where we can determine if we are a good fit. If we are, we can arrange regular coaching to help you break past your source of procrastination and put your career on the fast track to advancement.
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The other day, I saw a post on LinkedIn by Wes Kao the co-Founder of the Maven learning platform. Her post was a synopsis of an issue of her newsletter that really resonated with me (Link https://newsletter.weskao.com/p/the-unspoken-skill-of-finesse). It was on the topic of Finesse in Communications. You could also think of it as communicating like a leader.
In Wes' article, there was a situation where a customer had asked about the limits of a software system. Several people were in a chat thread formulating a response. The first person offered a factual number based on the highest limit observed in the system. The second person clarified the limit with a lower number that had shown acceptable performance plus a plan to increase the performance for a higher limit. The third person took the response from the second person and reframed it to have less of a negative connotation but still convey the same results.
Finesse is the ability to refine your message based on understanding the situation and the desired outcomes it is the ability to use good judgement in delicate situations. None of the responses were wrong per se, but the first answer could have led to disappointment by the customer if they approached the technical limit and experienced the performance degradations. The second answer provided additional context around the limits but may have caused the customer to look elsewhere for a solution that didn't have those limits. The final answer with a more positive message invited the customer to be optimistic about the solution being able to scale to meet their needs.
For some, the ability to have finesse in their communications may come naturally. But for others, like any skill, you can improve your abilities with focus and practice. The more you practice, the easier it will be to know when to apply finesse and the more likely it will come to you without consciously thinking about it.
First, you need to recognize when situations require finesse to handle. As you start practicing, look for situations where the outcome is not well defined or where there are people involved that you don't regularly interact with. That isn't to say that other situations would not benefit from nuance and finesse, but when you are learning the skill, the situations with the most uncertainty will be the ones most obvious to you that using finesse will be appropriate to lead to a positive result.
Once you have identified a situation to practice your skills, think about your desired outcome and what aspects have the least clarity. When you discuss them with others, pay attention to how the other people react to what you say and how you say it. You aren't just looking for surface level reactions such as responding verbally -- whether in agreement or to counter your points. Look at those micro-reactions such as that fleeting expression when your point hits home before they recompose and make their point. These types of responses can give you clues as to how your approach has been received such as whether it is too direct or needs more context or whether it's too aggressive or too passive. As the interaction proceeds, make adjustments and pay attention to how that changes how your arguments are received.
Finesse is not just about what you say and how you say it, but it's also about what you DON'T say. In Episode 56 - Presenting to Leaders, I talked about how my background in an analytical field lends itself to providing every detail because they all matter when solving technical problems, but when presenting to an executive, I had to focus on stripping my message down to only the most relevant bits. This is another part of exhibiting finesse in your communications. Understanding when to include and when to exclude information to direct the situation towards the outcome you are pushing for. This doesn't mean to lie through omission -- that leads to losing trust. But understanding which details are important to your audience and which details are noise is part of framing your message clarity.
Because finesse is in large part driven by the PEOPLE, there are no hard and fast rules about how to handle each situation. But what you CAN do is bring in someone who has a better handle on how to apply finesse such as Person Three from the example story. Have them observe your approach and provide feedback on how you can do better. You can also watch them when they are interacting with others and then have a review session afterwards where you can ask them about the different decisions they made about how to approach the conversation.
Go read Wes' full article on finesse which you can find linked in the show notes (https://newsletter.weskao.com/p/the-unspoken-skill-of-finesse). There are additional insights and strategies that can help you perfect your finesse skills. Improving your communication skills will help you advance your career no matter what level you are at and finesse is an important aspect of that.
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The goal of most people in the corporate world is to get promoted. Along with that promotion is usually personal growth, more responsibility, and increased pay. But, what happens if you find yourself promoted too soon?
There could be many reasons that you receive a promotion. Someone more senior could have left -- either the team or the company. You could have also pushed for it with your leaders and everything aligned for them to promote you. You may have even received a promotion that you weren't expecting.
When you receive a promotion when you are ready for it, it can be a great experience. But, when you are promoted early, it can lead to possible complications. Check out Episode 26 - Should You Be Promoted for insights into whether you are ready for a promotion or not.
The first complication is not having the necessary skills to perform the new role. Often promotions build on the skills you've already been using but there are additional new skills that you will need to develop. If you are promoted early, you may not have had the time to build those new skills. The more advanced your position, the more you are expected to just "figure it out". As soon as you are notified of your promotion, you should begin working on those skills in whatever form of learning works for you best.
Finding training courses for the more technical skills should be fairly straightforward. When it comes to the soft skills, it may be time to reach out to your mentors or your network to find someone who can provide the insights you need to be successful.
Another complication could be strife within your team. If there is someone else on your team that was angling for the same promotion, they may be resentful if you receive a promotion over them. This may make working with them difficult, especially if you now have a position of authority over them. If you foresee this as being problematic, you will need to work to build -- or rebuild -- that relationship.
If this leadership position is a new type of role for you, you may not be well positioned to navigate these types of relationship problems. Lean on your leader and your human resources department for insights into how to best smooth this rocky situation.
If you feel undeserving of the promotion, you may have a sense of Imposter Syndrome. This complication can completely undermine your ability to be successful in your new role and possibly even future roles. Imposter Syndrome as a topic is very large and I should probably do a future episode on the subject, but the number one way to combat it is to build your confidence.
You probably just said, "That's easier said than done". Confidence comes from skill and experience and support. I've already covered how to build the skills required of your new role. And your mentors, network, leaders, and HR should offer the support you need. The only remaining component is experience and the only way to gain that is to put yourself out there. Go back and review Episode 051 - Success or Failure that talks about how taking action and building on small successes can lead to much greater success. This success will build your confidence and dispel the feeling of Imposter Syndrome.
The final complication is more of a factor of the environment that we currently face. There are many companies that are looking for ways to cut costs or increase profits and one avenue that they pursue to achieve that goal is to reduce their workforce through some sort of layoff. Being promoted early could put you at higher risk of being selected for any pending layoff. With an early promotion, you will be one of the lower performers at your new level until you have addressed the other potential complications. Lower performance combined with higher pay is usually the attributes that lead to selection.
There is no easy solution to this complication because it is more of a factor of the situation. The best you can do is to work quickly to bring your level of performance up to the standards of the role.
If you've listened to most of the other episodes of this podcast, I talk about different things you can focus on that will make you more promotable. You should be prepared with the tools you need so that any promotion does not include any of the above complications.
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I was reading an article on LinkedIn by Christine Laperriere that was titled "How to get on the AAA team". This article talks about how a new leader could build a AAA team - a team with the three A's: Accountability, Autonomy, and Authority. From a leader perspective, it's important to build a team that everyone wants to be on, but what about you as an individual, if you are a AAA talent, you can help your leader attract other AAA talent to your team. In this week's episode, I'm going to talk about what it takes for you to become a AAA talent
Accountability is about taking responsibility for your actions and owning the results of them. But beyond just YOUR actions, if you want to stand out, you need to have a sense of ownership for the results of your project and team.
In order to build accountability, start with fulfilling your commitments. If you are assigned a task, see it through to the end. Be clear about the deadlines and raise concerns when they are at risk. Be proactive in clearing roadblocks, the earlier you can clear them, the better. When completing a task, don't just do the bare minimum, but complete your work with the highest quality.
If, in completing your work, you make mistakes, don't be afraid to own them. Go back to Episode 055 - Owning Your Mistakes and review the guidance there.
Once your commitments have been met, you should also look to help your team complete their tasks as much as is within your ability. Do as much as you can to elevate the quality of the team.
When your leader knows that, no matter what, you get stuff done with very little of their oversight, you build their trust. If you consistently deliver their trust will grow. Bringing that accountability to the rest of the team will set a good example and show your leadership skills.
Trust leads to the next A, Autonomy. Once you have proven that you are accountable, your leader will allow you to be more independent and own more decisions. When you are not autonomous, your assignments will sound like a list of tasks to complete - do this, do that. But, as you gain autonomy, your assignments will be less defined and sound more like desired results with a lot of the "how to get there" being left up to you.
To prepare yourself for more and more autonomy, start by mastering the core skills of your field. This knowledge and understanding will provide confidence as you make decisions. Next, work to understand how your tasks fit into the bigger picture. How do the things you are assigned lead to results in alignment with your team's goals?
With a better understanding of the mission of the team, you should begin to understand the priorities of your various tasks. As you complete a task, if you know where that task is leading, start working on the next task without being told. By taking initiative to do the "right" thing next, you'll build additional trust with your leader.
The last thing to work on to build more autonomy is to showcase your decision making skills. When your leader has given you a level of autonomy, they expect you to make some decisions without their input, but larger decisions they may still want to be involved in, at least initially. Instead of bringing the problem to them, bring the problem as well as the solution you would take. By showing them that you would make an acceptable decision, they will let you own larger and larger decisions leading to the final A, Authority.
Authority is the power to make decisions that impact your projects and your team, not just your assigned tasks. You grow your authority by strengthening your relationships with your extended team and sharing what you've learned as you've progressed from an A talent to a AAA talent. This builds credibility such that, not only will you gain trust with your leader, but you will gain trust with the rest of your team. When your team trusts and supports you and you communicate your decisions clearly, your decisions will be followed and your authority will grow.
Taking the steps needed to transform into a AAA talent, will help you grow not just as an individual but as a leader and a teammate that other AAA talent will gravitate towards. Helping your leader build a AAA team reinforces the trust you've gained and will put you on a fast track to advancement.
Do you have questions or topics that you would like me to cover on a future episode? If so, go to the ManagingACareer.com website and submit them via the Contact Form. I would love to be able to help you with your career questions.
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