A client, with whom I had worked a few years back, got back in touch with me recently to apprise me of an evolving situation at work and to ask for my advice on how to leverage this development to advance her career. She has been leading a team of software developers reporting to a director. She has a small local team (of four) and a larger team in India (of 12) with responsibilities for developing software products in a highly competitive Adtech space.
Ever since she joined this company as a software manager two years back she has been whipsawed by constant management changes and misguided leadership in how to develop market-leading products. The company has missed most of the release deadlines due to a variety of reasons, which has resulted in increased pressure on the few who are performing well. My client is one of those unfortunate solid performers, who takes their work seriously and who has been on track with her deliverables, despite the turmoil around her.
Recently, her boss, director of development, got fired for lack of leadership. They are having difficulty filling that position because of the reputation of this company. A tough job market in the geography where her workgroup is located is not helping, either. So, when she described to me this evolving landscape at her place and asked for my advice on what to do next, my response was obvious: Go for the director promotion and claim it during her next meeting with the big boss.
When I made this suggestion her reaction to it surprised me. She recoiled in disbelief and some horror that Id even suggest such a course of action. This was obvious to me in view of what she had laid out as antecedents to the current chaos. Seeing this expression of disbelief on my face after her reaction, I asked her why she would not take this opportunity to advance her career and claim the director-level position, her answer surprised me. It also got me thinking about all the similarly hard-working professionals, who may be missing out on a great promotional opportunity because they did not see it coming, and because they did not prepare themselves for it. This lack of preparedness often results in some stranger taking over your boss role, causing you to lose a great opportunity to further your rsum and your career.
When I asked why she would not even consider proposing such a course of action to her uber boss, she gave me three reasons. All of these point to how failure to plan can negate our hard work and great accomplishments:
1.Lack of will to pursue higher leadership roles due to fatigue and due to the feeling of doom,
2.Lack of succession planning as you grow in your own role to get ready for your next promotion,
3.Lack of understanding of how taking on senior management roles does not translate into multiplying your workload, but merely in multiplying your responsibilities.
So, let me expound on each of these factors and provide some countermeasures to avoid you from having to deal with similar situations yourself:
1.Fatigue: In the case of my client she was actually doing two+ jobs: During the day she was diligently leading the local team and doing hands-on work to make sure that all her deliverables were on track. After going home she was managing the India team as it started its new day there and guiding its work. There was no team leader in India, so she was forced to drive each team members activity, which was quite a job in itself. Miscommunication and cultural issues further exacerbated this problem for her. The other part of the workload was her arduous commute. She spent over four-plus hours commuting to work each day (both ways). In addition, she has two kids and a working husband, to boot. Now you can see how fatigue can become a factor in how she sees herself taking on an even greater workload.
2.Succession Planning: My client was so focused on delivering her obligationsand she always did, despite all the confusion around herthat she did not even think of finding a second in command. Both locally and in India she failed to develop a solid succession plan, even after being in her role for two years. This lack of succession planning severely curtailed her ability to manage the two teams effectively. Also, she developed the mindset that by becoming a director and by taking on four more teams similar to hers she would multiply her workload many times (linearly).
3.Management Process: After our discussion it was clear to me that she did not understand how the management process works. This was perhaps because she never herself asked this question. Secondly, there was no one there to mentor her on such matters. As you move up in management your workload does not have to multiply by the number of workgroups you manage, but only by the responsibility of managing these workgroups. Management work (Leading, Planning, Organizing, and setting up Controls) requires a different skill and is not a substitution or proxy to doing more of your workaday technical tasks. You must put in place a management structure, doing management work that only you can do. The other key factor most up-and-coming managers miss is that they fail to understand that management work and technical work are orthogonal. You cannot execute management work (responsibility) by doing more technical work (workload).
Although I discussed these concerns and insights with her during our two meeting after my client approached me I realized that this was too late for her to grasp and to internalize this to have the right mindset when she met her uber boss. If she had prepared herself for this event and done the homework starting with knowing about these three factors we would have had a very different approach to her meeting with the big boss and with a different outcome. As it turned out she ended up asking for a reasonable raise to her current salary and getting it as a result of her diligence; a far cry from what might have been!
So, if you see yourself in what has happened to this client in this use case reflect on your own reality and see if you can change the course of action for yourself to manage your own future the right way.
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=2608
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