Frustrated and defeated clients often call me when their repeated requests and promises made by their bosses for raises, promotions, transfer, and career advancements remain unfulfilled. A typical case entails the dreaded Annual Performance Review (APR) cycle when the client is convinced that they are going to get the next promotion. However, they wake up to a different reality: Their conviction is often vitiated by the new reality which now stems from the crossing of previous signals their boss had give them throughout the year, without actually promising that they would be getting that promotion (or, raise, or stocks, or whatever). The other aspect of this conviction is the clients own perception that their undertaking would be significant enough to warrant a worthy consideration that advances their career.
It is at times likes these that I get called by my client who is now distraught over yet another dashed hope and an intense feeling of disloyalty to their group, boss, organization, and company. In most such cases they just want to pack up and leave their job in protest of how they have been treated. If they executed on their impulse, in most such cases, the client would be left without a job with all the associated uncertainty of what comes next. Equally humiliating is the thought of having to explain why they left when things were going so well!
Being Forehanded
In most such cases the root-cause of their problem is not proactively managing their own expectations, further exacerbated by how they present their case and how they manage their boss perception after they have been ignored without any consideration. A good example would be a recent case of a client who had worked very hard during the past three years building an India center from the ground-up and staffing its technical talent (engineers, technicians, and support staff) from nothing to a team of 25. Not only was she successful in staffing this center with top talent, during the three years, but she also had set up a good management methodology by developing a solid team structure, a process for delivering products on a rhythm, and releasing a train of products that had done well in the market.
Where she came short in this episode was that she did not proactively manage her boss expectations of what would be an adequate consideration for her success and accomplishments, right from the get-go! She expected her boss to notice this stellar success as she was delivering with diligence and hard work, and expected him to acknowledge it with a suitable reward that would advance her career. What she should have done, instead, was once she had the plan in place tell her boss what to expect, deliver it, and then ask for that reward she was promised before it was set in motion! Just to protect herself from wholesale org changes (see below) she should also have sent an email about this plan, acknowledging her boss promise to her.
From how I saw it her accomplishments were the tour de force that demanded management recognition, particularly as she also succeeded in doing her hands-on development job locally in difficult circumstances, here in the Silicon Valley. Throughout the three years she was working two shifts: During the day keeping her local project on track, and during the night building, growing, and managing the India team, guiding it to emerge from a scrappy, chaotic, cowboy-like operation to a disciplined team that delivered like clockwork.
The Martyrdom Trap!
The sad part of this storyfor my clientwas that soon afterwards there was a massive re-org and all her bosses were gone (next three levels). New bosses came in and started wholesale reorgs, bringing in their own buddies to populate the ranks in the reshuffled organization. In the shuffle my client was re-orged and given a project as an individual contributor, taking away her team, all her hard work during the past three years, and consigning her to an insignificant role, albeit on a potentially important project. Her new boss was also generous enough to let her keep her previous Manager-1 title, despite a great chasm in what she did before to her new responsibilities and role. She was, rightfully so, outraged!
This is when the client called me and told me her woes. So, when I asked her what she planned to do to move forward in this highly uncertain and spiraling situation her emotional response was typical of someone with a martyr mindset. She proclaimed that she was going to march into the VPs office (her skip-level boss) and angrily lay down her complaint about how she had been mistreated despite her hard work, successes with the India team, and on-time releases of market-worthy products that she had worked on during the past three years. She then was going to ask the VP that unless they restored her status leading a team and gave her some power to run her project she was going to go look for another job!
Hwooh! I said to her after a short silence on our phone call. I reminded her that the management had already decided that she was not of much value to them as evidenced by her recent station and assignment on that project, despite the projects potential importance. By giving her skip-level boss, who barely knew her, an ultimatum, I assured her of his most likely response, which would be to ask her to leave, freeing up yet one more slot for their buddies. If such were the response then she was out of a job, having lost all the momentum she had created and built over the past three years and that she would have to go explaining why she was out of a job with such a stellar record of accomplishments.
Putting Them First
I suggested to her an alternate approach: Instead of storming into the VPs office and giving him an ultimatum, do some research on her current project assignment and showcase its importance to the company in view of how the market was changing and how the competition was moving forward. Then I asked her to create a detailed project plan and show how this project could be released to lead the market and positioned to generate significant revenues if they prioritized its release with proper resource allocation. She would be leading the chargeand the teamto ensure that the project would be on track, invoking her successes during the past three years.
Despite her initial seething rage she saw some merit in this approach and assured me that she would give it some thought. A week later she came up with a plan that essentially addressed the issues I had proposed and came up with a proposal to the VP to take charge of the project with her own team reporting to her. As one might expect, the VP consulted her boss and they both agreed that her proposal was cogent and compelling. Within the next few weeks, they re-scoped the project, gave her the team resources she asked and agreed to her timeline to execute the project. Once they agreed to her plan she was now smart forehanded enough to ask for a better role and a promotion if she was successful in its delivery. They agreed, which she acknowledged in an email back to the new VP!
Although this changed course of action is still fresh, the turnaround in how a new outcome was created by simply repositioning the priorities is an object lesson of how shifting the focus from what you want to what your employer could benefit from, can shift the tide of your fortunes in situations, which can otherwise be most unfavorable to your career, enough to even scuttle it.
So, what is the lesson from this episode: Learn how to shift your mindset from what you want Vs. what your boss and company would benefit from and then develop a plan that includes you in making that happen. Youd be amazed how youll get what you want without asking for it! Although this approach is quite counterintuitive, especially in times when your own emotions can get the best of you, it is worth taking the time to step back and doing what is best for you, by putting ahead what is best for them!
Good luck!
| About Author | |
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Dilip has distinguished himself as LinkedIn’s #1 career coach from among a global pool of over 1,000 peers ever since LinkedIn started ranking them professionally (LinkedIn selected 23 categories of professionals for this ranking and published this ranking from 2006 until 2012). Having worked with over 6,000 clients from all walks of professions and having worked with nearly the entire spectrum of age groups—from high-school graduates about to enter college to those in their 70s, not knowing what to do with their retirement—Dilip has developed a unique approach to bringing meaning to their professional and personal lives. Dilip’s professional success lies in his ability to codify what he has learned in his own varied life (he has changed careers four times and is currently in his fifth) and from those of his clients, and to apply the essence of that learning to each coaching situation. After getting his B.Tech. (Honors) from IIT-Bombay and Master’s in electrical engineering(MSEE) from Stanford University, Dilip worked at various organizations, starting as an individual contributor and then progressing to head an engineering organization of a division of a high-tech company, with $2B in sales, in California’s Silicon Valley. His current interest in coaching resulted from his career experiences spanning nearly four decades, at four very diverse organizations–and industries, including a major conglomerate in India, and from what it takes to re-invent oneself time and again, especially after a lay-off and with constraints that are beyond your control. During the 45-plus years since his graduation, Dilip has reinvented himself time and again to explore new career horizons. When he left the corporate world, as head of engineering of a technology company, he started his own technology consulting business, helping high-tech and biotech companies streamline their product development processes. Dilip’s third career was working as a marketing consultant helping Fortune-500 companies dramatically improve their sales, based on a novel concept. It is during this work that Dilip realized that the greatest challenge most corporations face is available leadership resources and effectiveness; too many followers looking up to rudderless leadership. Dilip then decided to work with corporations helping them understand the leadership process and how to increase leadership effectiveness at every level. Soon afterwards, when the job-market tanked in Silicon Valley in 2001, Dilip changed his career track yet again and decided to work initially with many high-tech refugees, who wanted expert guidance in their reinvention and reemployment. Quickly, Dilip expanded his practice to help professionals from all walks of life. Now in his fifth career, Dilip works with professionals in the Silicon Valley and around the world helping with reinvention to get their dream jobs or vocations. As a career counselor and life coach, Dilip’s focus has been career transitions for professionals at all levels and engaging them in a purposeful pursuit. Working with them, he has developed many groundbreaking approaches to career transition that are now published in five books, his weekly blogs, and hundreds of articles. He has worked with those looking for a change in their careers–re-invention–and jobs at levels ranging from CEOs to hospital orderlies. He has developed numerous seminars and workshops to complement his individual coaching for helping others with making career and life transitions. Dilip’s central theme in his practice is to help clients discover their latent genius and then build a value proposition around it to articulate a strong verbal brand. Throughout this journey, Dilip has come up with many groundbreaking practices such as an Inductive Résumé and the Genius Extraction Tool. Dilip owns two patents, has two publications in the Harvard Business Review and has led a CEO roundtable for Chief Executive on Customer Loyalty. Both Amazon and B&N list numerous reviews on his five books. Dilip is also listed in Who’s Who, has appeared several times on CNN Headline News/Comcast Local Edition, as well as in the San Francisco Chronicle in its career columns. Dilip is a contributing writer to several publications. Dilip is a sought-after speaker at public and private forums on jobs, careers, leadership challenges, and how to be an effective leader. |
Website: http://dilipsaraf.com/?p=2626
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