You can’t “Dab” your way to the top

I have spent a lot of time in one-on-one informal coaching discussions with professionals who were frustrated with the lack of upward movement in their careers.  The key theme that I picked up in those discussions was that the professionals’ perception of promotion readiness were misaligned with their employers/superiors’ definition.  Today, I want to share a few things that I discussed in those informal discussions.  I know that context matters.  So, please consider these ideas against your own realities.

1. Don’t hate the player nor the game.  The most common thing I heard from professionals was that promotions were all about politics.  Hiring managers played favorites and the person did not get promoted because he or she did not play the game.   Office politics is actually a good view into the corporate culture and values of your employer.  If favoritism is indeed what drives promotions at your workplace, then you need to dig deeper and find out what makes that person a favorite over you.  If you discover that discrimination or unethical behaviors are commonplace, then you should question whether or not you want to work there at all.

The more common thing I encountered was that the individual did not see what was really happening.  Companies, leaders and managers recruit and promote people whom they feel are a match for their cultures and values.  At times, this becomes more important than the technical capabilities or performance history of individuals.  If you are passed up for a promotion, then you should explore the reasons behind the decision.  If you are not getting good answers, then spend time reflecting on your differences, and how those differences may have signaled the other candidate’s readiness over you.  You can use published company values and career level specific behaviors to assess how you stacked up against your competition.

I learned to trust that people are trying to set me up for success and would never promote me if they felt that I would fail shortly thereafter.  The tactics that seem like “office politics,” such as being a self-promoter and spending a lot of time with the boss, may actually be the types of things that one should be doing to demonstrate they have the capabilities for the next job.  Soft skills associated with value articulation and relationship building are critical for executives.

2. Being a “Top Performer” is a trap.  I have witnessed one too many professionals who had high performance ratings completely meltdown because they were passed up for promotion.  Year-end evaluations typically carry two dimensions. A.) Performance and B.) Promotion Readiness.  The performance part focus on how well the individual performed their job.  The readiness is about whether or not they demonstrated behaviors consistent of the next job.  The two use very different metrics and yet, more often than not, are lumped together in one conversation leading to misconceptions that A leads to B.

Often, Top Performers end up being less attractive candidates for promotion because they were overly focused on performing well, and not focused enough on the other dimensions necessary to demonstrate promotion readiness.  In some cases, that could be Top Performers did not lift as they climb and trained their replacements.  In other cases, they were heads down performing and did not look around for opportunities to make an impact for their team and company in other ways. 

If you find yourself in the situation of being a Top Performer but passed up for promotion, then you will need to regroup.  It likely bruised to your ego and you were probably angry.  You cannot lash out and complain to whoever will listen.  You cannot retaliate by taking a back seat on your performance.  You need to take a breath, then find out where you came up short.  Rally the decision makers to coach you through the next cycle so they have skin in the game for your success.  Create believers and advocates by demonstrating you are not only a top performer but you are also ready to move up.

3. Change what gets you up in the morning.  There is a thing in consulting where we always ask our clients, “What is keeping you up at night?”  A positive spin on that question is, “What makes you get up in the morning?”  Either way, you need to keep in mind that what you focus on to be successful for your current job is too narrow for a promotion. 

In math, the term “dynamical systems” refer to the similarities of micro and macro systems – a piece of broccoli looks like the whole broccoli, the solar system is a small version of the galaxy, etc.  The metrics that matter to your job are a subset of larger metrics that matter to your boss.  The priorities that you follow are a subset of the priorities that your boss follows.  Therefore, if you are able to align your thoughts and actions with the bigger picture, then you will demonstrate that you are performing at that next level.

For your next conversation with your boss, try to understand how your performance ties into the bigger picture, what keeps he/she up at night, what gets he/she out of bed in the morning.  Then articulate how your performance supports those things in your subsequent conversations so that they start to see you caring about right things for promotion.  It helps to dust off what you learned about business imperatives in your MBA programs (or learn about them).  I got my MBA shortly after my undergrad degree.  I did not have the job experience to fully appreciate what I was learning.  After years of being heads down and focusing on my technical skills, I had to relearn all those business concepts to get ahead.

4. How are you an equal?  Would your boss enjoy doing the things with you that you enjoy doing with your peers, such as sharing a meal or catching up over drinks?  Do you look, act, and sound the part?  I spent a lot of my career being subservient and respectful to the hierarchy.  It was part of my upbringing and culture as an Asian.  I still catch myself doing this with clients or superiors.  I find myself excessively expressing my gratitude for their time and sometimes lost for words leading to awkward silences.  Worst, when my boss was looking for me to demonstrate that I could be strong and equal in handling my clients, I only showed them that I was good at being their ”Yes Man” in a cape.

Part of being promotion ready is being seen as a peer to your superiors.  You have to help your boss and their peers “experience” you as ready to be one of their peers.  This means you need to prioritize the right things, use appropriate tone for that level of authority, and show that you can walk in their shoes without tripping over yourself or needing a lot of hand holding.

The “Dab” seems to be a popular dance move these days.  However, I will say that you cannot dance your way to the top by burying your eyes into your arm and ignoring what the universe is trying to tell you.  There are many signposts for success and many more people who are willing to help you get there.  If you become frustrated and do not learn from the experience, then you will only slow down your momentum.  Quitting just takes your problems to your next job. 

That’s all from me today.  I hope you have found these points to be useful.  Please comment if you want to share your insights and experiences, and share with your networks if you enjoyed the post.  For all of those who are celebrating, Happy Lunar New Year.  May prosperity, happiness, and good health find their way to your homes.

Stay Cheesy,

The Rambunctious Rat

How do people experience you?

 Hi everyone.  Today, I want to apply the concepts of customer experience to career progression.  "Experience" has been a heavily used buzzed word for the past decade.  Corporate functions and consulting offerings have been built around customer experience.  The idea is that a customer's experience heavily influences purchase decisions.  As an Omni-channel consumer (catalog, online, app enabled, and in store), I wholeheartedly agree.  If I am frustrated by my experience at a store, a website or an app, then I will less likely complete my transaction or shop there again. 

I had conversation recently with a retired executive.  We discussed how people's experience of an individual greatly influences his or her career progression, especially at the executive level.  Most executive development programs include psychiatric and 360 assessments to help participants benchmark themselves against behavioral models and explore observation and feedback from others.  The first time I participated in these assessments, I was humbled to find out that people’s experiences of me were different (in good ways and bad) than my own perception.  

So let's explore five major customer experience metrics and apply them to career progression:

1.) Net Promoter Score – This is arguably the most important metric when it comes to customer experience.  It is a score that answers the question, "Would you recommend this provider, product or service to someone else?"  

Executives will make sure their peers are comfortable with their protégés before recommending them as successors.  They will build the “net promoter score” case for promotion by allowing the other executives to "experience" their protégés’ capabilities.  It is important for the protégés to come off  as equals with the other executives with the right tone and presence.

2.) Response time – Another key metric to customer experience is response time.  Like me, you can probably think of a few people at work that you turn to regularly because they respond quickly.  You can probably also identify a few people that  you have reservations about because they only responds when you CC the right person or name drop, or never respond at all.  This is a very interesting metric to crowd source because while you may think your response time is appropriate, others may disagree.

3.) Problem resolution and reliability – Obviously, the more positive experiences people have around your problem resolution skills and reliability, the better.  I have had some hard lessons learned here.  At a certain level, you become the face of quality issues.  This is true even if there are legitimate reasons and other parties that were directly responsible for the issues.  Problems are sticky, especially for people who have a tendency for having blind spots.  They will recall their experience of you for all the wrong reasons for a very long time.  It is important to resolve issues quickly and rebuild trust by delivering issue free experiences going forward.

Keep it real – if you ever had the experience of receiving a cheap imitation of the product advertised online, then you know that people will share negative reviews of you with others if they discovered that you were not authentic.  

4.) Contact volume – Are you interacting enough to develop a "relationship" with your customers?  The depth of people's experience of you will depend on the frequency with which you have had meaningful interactions with them.  I have heard positive feedback about leaders who are known for spending the effort to interact with their constituents.  I have also heard negative experiences from employees who felt their supervisors only came around once in a while, usually with one-sided constructive feedback.  It is important for you to strategize and plan meaningful interactions that will improve people's experience of you.

5.) Relationship economics – Who are you focused on when you are interacting with others?  Clearly, people's experience of you will be much more positive if it results in something of value to them - business benefits, reputation, advice, information, connections, job opportunities, etc.   Information is an interesting one.  I have had some very frustrating experiences when I cannot quickly find the information that I needed to make a purchase decision.  Think about how others experience your ability to provide useful information to them.  Are you articulate?  Do you respond with the right information with the right level of detail?

As I took you through this analogy, I found myself gravitating to the importance of having an open dialog about how others experience you.  In the past, I have made the mistake of leaving a lot of things unspoken.  Why make waves?  Why force uncomfortable dialog?  Unfortunately, when there is no open dialog, all the bad experiences end up festering and sticking to our brand.  All of our bad habits become more solidified because they are not being called out as areas needing improvement.  So, it is good idea to schedule self-assessments and solicit feedback from your own board of advisers.  

That's it for now, thanks for reading.  Go out there and get your 'likes' and '5 stars.'  Please comment with your thoughts and share with your networks if you found this post to be helpful.

Stay cheesy,

The Rambunctious Rat