A Contrary Approach to Career Growth

Working Harder or Working Smarter for Your Next Promotion. Which Will Get You There and Keep You There?

How do you plan to advance your career? If you are like most Professionals it is through hard work and developing stronger technical skills. But did you know that approach is the equivalent of working harder, not smarter?

Warning – Are You Trying To Develop Your Career The Wrong Way?

When I was in high school I worked on a farm during the summer. One day my employer announced that we were going to tear down an old chicken barn. His plan was to knock it down and then burn it. I looked up at the roof of the barn, which was one long continuous piece of steel, and asked him how we were going to get it down.

“Through brute force and awkwardness” was his answer. He was right – we did it with absolute brute force and awkwardness and a whole lot of danger thrown in at times.

What would have been a way of “working smarter” in this case? Well we planned to burn the barn (and roof) anyway. It was in an isolated location. Why not just burn the barn and let it collapse bringing the roof down with it. We would have accomplished the same result and there would have been a lot less danger.

Are You Attempting To Do the Career Equivalent of Removing a Roof when it’s not required?

I used to!

When I was a young IT/IS professional I wanted to grow my career. I wanted to earn more money, receive more respect, and get all the other benefits that come through advancing one’s career.

I would work harder and longer. I spent hours at home learning new technical skills that I could apply on the job. I invested and invested to become better at my current job. The end result was that my company expected me to work harder, longer and to learn skills I needed on my own time.

All that hard work made it more comfortable for my employer to keep me exactly where I was.

I was not giving my organization any incentive to promote me to a position with any influence.

I learned about the hard way from watching others as well.

I was amazed when I saw the senior team members receive promotions and then falter.

These were the people who could do no wrong. They had all the answers. They were in every meeting. A decision was never made without consulting them. They worked their way slowly up the corporate ladder through hard work and eventually receive a promotion to a supervisory position. They would receive some management training and then set off to lead a team.

And Then Their Career Would Collapse.

They were not prepared for their new job. They wouldn’t feel comfortable leading a team. They would end up trying to either manipulate their team members or outright control them. Finally they usually ended up taking back their old job because they felt more comfortable doing it (although the excuse that was given is that it was not being performed adequately).

Often they would end up destroying the morale of their team, dramatically reducing its effectiveness, and ruining their own careers at the same time.

People usually describe what happens to them as the Peter Principle – they hit their level of incompetence.

But I would like to ask you, “Since when is incompetence terminal.” We are constantly incompetent when it comes to new technology. New technology is released and we have to learn it. So why do we consider someone who incompetent at motivating people with no training a failure?

Learn from the Mistakes You Witness Others Make

Have you ever witnessed a situation similar to this? Someone who is the brightest and most capable professional have their career plans fall apart? Have you realized like I did that there were skills that these hard working, indispensable professionals had failed to learn?

The Skills They Are Missing Are Leadership Skills

Most people don’t realize that any organization requires three competencies in order to remain operational in the long term. The three competencies are:

• A reason for existing. In the case of a corporation that reason is a product or service that can be sold. In the case of a volunteer organization the purpose is their cause. Without a purpose the organization will cease to generate revenue and cease to exist.

• A means to manage that purpose. There is a need to administer the fulfillment of that purpose. In the case of a corporation it would be accounting principles to track the creation of the product and/or service that is being created along with managing the finances of the organization.

• A means to lead. Leadership is the ability to motivate, influence, and inspire others. Organizations need to be able to motivate individuals both within and outside of the organization. Without leadership skills employees do not capture the vision for the organization, potential customers don’t get excited about the product or service, and potential shareholder look elsewhere for a place to invest their capital.

These three skills are not only required for an organization, such as a corporation, but also for the sub-organizations within it – such as the individual departments or teams.

It is Leadership Skills that these people are missing

The Professionals who are growing their careers by working harder, not smarter were not developing leadership skills. They had the technical skills, they had the ability to manage those skills, but they didn’t have the ability to motivate others – especially the members of their new team.

I was doing the same.

By not developing leadership skills I was headed for the same destructive circumstances. I needed to change my career plans. I started to study leadership from every source I could find. I started to learn about the various ways to motivate people. I learned about motivating individuals through both verbal and written communication. Finally, I learned about the most “dreaded” form of motivation there is – public speaking.

If you look around at a bookstore you will see a lot of information about leadership. It feels like I read all of it. In truth I consumed a high percentage of it. Some of it was excellent and a lot of it was mediocre.

I made it Easy for my Organization to Promote Me (and they did).

More importantly, so can you. In fact you are already ahead of where I was simply by reading this report. It took me a long time to figure this out. By becoming aware of this early you are already in a position to make a choice. The choice of whether you are going to work harder or smarter when developing your career.

Now am I suggesting that you sacrifice your current responsibilities in favor of developing skills for your next position? Absolutely not! You need to perform to a level of excellence in your current position to be considered eligible for a promotion, and besides, if you are being paid to perform a job it is only ethical to do it properly. However, don’t bank on your performance at that job being the key to being selected for a promotion – instead bank on yourself. Take the time to learn the skills that will make you more valuable to your organization in the position that you desire.

One such skill is public speaking. Organizations need people who can articulate their thoughts through verbal communication. www.EffectivelySpeaking.Com's goal is to help you develop this skill. One means of assistance is the newsletter which will provide you with regular news and tips about public speaking and presentation skills. Occasionally it will discuss other career building skills such as negotiation, team building and leadership. If you haven't done so already, sign up now and get started on developing this valued skill.

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Copyright © 2007 David Mudie
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A Contrary Approach to Career Growth