When it comes to career advancement, your immediate manager has a lot of influence. They are the primary determinant or deterrent of your status. They are one of the most important sources of information to you and about you.
Your immediate manager will be the one who identifies future potentials for advancement. They are responsible for designating someone as a high-potential (those who fast-track the leadership ladder). That is a lot of influence for one person to have.
When it comes to executive discussions around career advancement opportunities, a person’s manager is the voice that speaks up or stays quiet. A person’s manager is the focal point and decision maker when it comes to decisions about status and future opportunities.
Why Is This a Problem?
Unfortunately, many managers today define high-potentials based on current performance and not future potential. Current performance determines who should get the next high-visible, mission-critical assignment. The problem here is obvious; what if a person’s current role does not fully play to their strengths? But what if those strengths could excel in future roles?
Getting into future roles is dependent on what your boss is saying about you, and with whom they are saying it. It can become a dangerous, never-ending cycle if you and the manager on the same page. The problem could become compounded if you have worked for the same manager for an extended length of time.
How to Balance the Influence of Your Manager
Firstly, you have to work on your relationship with your manager. There has to be a mutual level of respect for one another, and that has to be evident. For that to happen, you have to work at it, just like you work on a relationship or marriage.
Professionally speaking, you do this by purposefully having meaningful one-to-one’s. You bring real business problems along with solutions. You solicit feedback and their ideas on how to approach or fix something. One by one, you start getting more airtime with them.
Secondly, you have to have an external network. Nothing stalls a career faster than having all your eggs in one basket. Don’t go behind your immediate manager’s back, but that they know you are having these conversations and you keep them updated on their statuses.
Schedule skip-level meetings and meet with your manager’s boss. Build genuine relationships with all levels in all departments. Understand what is important to them and how you can help support those things.
You never know who an influencer is or how much impact they have or worse that they have none or negative influence. So you want to build your network up and down the organizational chart. You do this by having general manners such as saying thank you and the like. Provide non-threatening suggestions for improvement. Praise them publicly, privately or elaborate on an accomplishment of theirs they are downplaying. Take an interest in what projects they are currently assigned. These are all Relationship 101 advice, yet so easy to forget.
What You Need to Do Daily
Lastly, you have to be putting forth the right effort and doing the right things. Seeking out and being engaged in coaching sessions and meetings. All the Work Ethics 101 stuff like being on time, not taking too many breaks and following policies and procedures.
You also have to express curiosity, be brave, and suggest new ways of doing old things. Show some enthusiasm for job or company pride. Put yourself out there in a manner that demonstrates your actions match your words that match your goals.
You may not be the best performer, but your effort, willingness to accept feedback, demonstrating it, and asking for more help will put you in a small category of people, the high-potentials.
Sometimes, you will have a manager you don’t get along with or one that will never see your full potential. In those cases, do your best daily, try to coach up, focus on your external network, and eventually, you will get the rewards and recognition you were meant to have.
Last updated on July 13th, 2019 at 06:34 am
