Author: Marcia Zidle

A reader asked for career advice on this situation.

“A new position, which will be a promotion, has just opened up in the company. It sounds very exciting even though I haven’t had much experience in that kind of responsibility. But I have a good track record and friends are urging me to go for it. I think I’m bright enough to take it on, even with my lack of background. Is it too big a risk?”

The Peter Principle

It states that “in a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.” In other words, the cream rises until it sours. So if you don’t have the appropriate background, you’re obviously going to have to be able to get up to speed fast. Here are some things you need to consider before throwing your hat into the ring.

1. Would your boss be supportive or offended if you moved on?
2. What are your strengths and how can you leverage them for this position?
3. How much time would you have before you’re expected to perform at top speed?
4. What skills do you need to be successful in the position and where will you get them?
5. Will the person in that position train you or will you have to dive in and either sink or swim?
6. If you do succeed in the new position, will it advance your career or just be another line on your resume?
7. And most important, if you fail or don’t meet expectations, how might this affect your career?

These are just a few starter questions to help you assess the degree of career risk involved in going after this position. Find someone objective, like a mentor or coach, who can help you look honestly at the pros and cons. Then decide is it worth the time, effort and the stress of taking on this kind of challenge.

Career Success Tip

Make sure you don’t get caught in the Peter Principle. Choose your assignments carefully. They can make or break your career. Also, be aware of Murphy’s Law. If anything can go wrong, it will. Nothing is as easy as it looks. Everything takes longer than expected.

How well do you choose your assignments? How much career risk are you willing to take?

Do you want to develop Career Smarts?

What do you see on the horizon? I bet it’s change and more change!

In these days of takeovers and mergers, of downsizing operations of multiple “rightsizings”, chances are that you are going to be caught up in some form of major workplace change at least once in your career. Probably many times!

See Part 1 for Stage 1. Something’s Up and Stage 2 Getting Acquainted. Now Take a look at the last two stages.

Stage 3. Settled In: The Six Month Benchmark

Now that the dust has settled, it’s the time to gauge your career health. Do I feel like an active participant or am I on the sidelines looking in? Have I gotten reassuring comments or positive feedback? If you are in the dark, take the risk and request a meeting with your boss to discuss your performance.

You need to be direct. Say, “I’ve been working hard to cooperate and adjust to the changes. So how am I doing? Are there things I need to work on to be more effective?”

You may get an indirect response such as: “You’re doing fine, keep up the hard work”; or “Let’s set a time to discuss this further.”

However, don’t be satisfied with an evasive or avoidance answer. Performance feedback is essential during times of organizational transition. If all the signs are looking good, you can start breathing a sign of relief. But, don’t let your guard down completely. The next six months are also very important.

Stage 4. A Year After: Is The Coast Clear?

By the time you’re a year or more into a major change, it’s reasonable to wonder: Has my work life settled down at last? Has the sense of crisis passed? If this is the case, great! You’ve come through the storms of change and now are going on to calmer times, at least for the short term, – long term who knows?

Or, is the atmosphere still very hectic despite many attempts to try to fix what’s not working? Or, is everything on hold again for the nth time waiting for someone to make the decision? Or your workload is not easing up but getting worse? Sad to say, sometimes things never calm down especially in troubled company or rapidly changing ones. If this is your scenario, you may decide to take a break from the relentless change. You can try to find a calmer port within your company or you may need to seriously consider finding a new position somewhere else.

Career Success Tip

Taking control of one’s career sometimes means making some very hard decisions. But once a decision is made and action is taken, then you can get on with your life. Isn’t that what career management is all about—taking charge of one’s destiny?

Readers, are you currently dealing with a new boss, a direction or other workplace changes? If so, what stage are you in? How well are you doing? Let me hear your stories.

Do you want to develop Career Smarts?

Change is a fact of life. Don’t resist it; thrive in it!

In these days of takeovers and mergers, of downsizing operations and multiple rightsizings, chances are you’re going to be caught up in some form of major workplace change at least once in your career. Probably several times!

Whether it’s a new job or a new boss or a new direction, the best career survival strategy is to respond effectively to these four stages of workplace change.

Stage 1. Something’s Up: What To Do Before The Change

If you’re lucky, you’ll have some advance warning and time to prepare. But most of the time, you just have an uneasy feeling. There might be lots of hushed conversations or closed-door meetings. Top management might seem especially busy and inaccessible. Or the rumor mill is running high.

This is not the time to stay buried behind your desk or in your office hoping everything will be OK. Rather get out there, keep informed and start thinking about your options for riding the waves of change.

Stage 2: Getting Acquainted: The First Couple of Months

In the first weeks of the transition, take extra care to be visible, productive and open to change. This is not a good time to go on vacation for two weeks. Ask yourself: Is there still career opportunity here or should I now begin looking elsewhere more earnestly? You need to decide to put your energy into making a go of it or starting to let go.

If you have a new boss, ask for a meeting to discuss your background, to provide an update on your projects and to find out about the new priorities for your team, department or division. If it’s a restructuring, understand the reasons behind it. What is the company dealing with now, that it wasn’t dealing with in the past? What goals is it trying to accomplish in the reorganization? In what way can you contribute to these new goals?

Career Success Tip

It’s time to get off the fence. It’s time to make a decision and take action. Are you going to hang on and ride out the storm; or hunt for opportunities in other areas in the company; or start looking for a new position somewhere else? Whatever you decide, do it with commitment.

The next post will focus on Stage 3: settling in and Stage 4: a year after. Learn additional career survival strategies.

Do you know what YOU do today will directly influence your career in 3, 5 or 10 years?

• For more resources, see the Library topic Career Management.
• Start right now to be a Career Builder!
• Take charge of your future with the Career Success System.
• Get performance and career boosters in the Smart Moves Blog.
• Copyright © 2011 Marcia Zidle career strategist and leadership coach.

“Your #1 priority must be to launch and grow a business called Me, Inc.”

That’s according to Tom Peters, leadership author and consultant, who encourages everyone to see themselves as self-employed, even if they work for someone. Therefore in this world of downsizing, right sizing, restructuring and mergers, you need to be focused on managing your career as a business that has assets, liabilities, customers, profits and losses.

Are you ready to launch Me, Inc.?

Here are three things you need to do today to be a career entrepreneur.

1. SWOT yourself.
First examine what you bring to the employment table. Review your Strengths (your skills and experiences that can move you ahead) and your Weaknesses (the lack of skills and experiences that can hold you back). Next look outside at your company or industry. Review Opportunities (situations that can move your career ahead and Threats (situations that can derail your career). Use this information to plan your next career move.

2. Establish an early-warning system.
Don’t be a modern day Rip Van Winkle. As the pace of change accelerates, careers will be profoundly affected by what’s happening inside and outside your workplace. If you can get a sense of where your company is heading, then you can avoid that nasty, but all too frequent, occurrence of the future creeping up and taking you by surprise.

3. Think resume in everything you do.
At the end of each year, whether you are looking for a new job or not, take the time to write or update your resume and compare it with last year’s. See if it has gotten noticeably better? See if it shows growth in a variety of skills, or growth in satisfied customers, or completed projects. Avoid becoming a professional dinosaur. If you don’t evolve, as in nature, you will face extinction.

Career Success Tip.

Most people forget they really have two jobs. The first is to do what they get paid for and do it better than others. The second is to do what’s required to ensure their career success isn’t left to someone else.

Readers, what actions can you take be a successful career entrepreneur?

Do you want to develop Career Smarts?

How well do you toot your own horn?

There’s a well know saying: “It’s not what you know …but who you know?”

Well in today’s changing world, replace it with this: “It’s not only what you know, it’s not only who you know, but, as important, it‘s who knows you.”

In order to be known you can’t just stand there and wait for things to happen. Don’t assume people will notice the wonderful quality of your work or that of your department. Rather, build your reputation as a can-do professional or leader. Successful people don’t hide their achievements. They broadcast them at the right time and the right place.

Build Your Reputation and Career

Do you dread the idea of touting your skills and your work; think self-promotion smacks of showing off; and believe that it’s playing politics? If you do, then you‘re missing out on a key skills of managing one’s career. Here are some tips to get you started.

1. At the end of each week, document your accomplishments.
   This will ensure that you have an accurate record of the value you provide. It will also make it easier to talk about your achievements without feeling that you’re exaggerating.
2. Be seen and known in your organization.
   For example: Take on a high-profile assignments, volunteer to be on a multi-departmental task force, attend community events sponsored by your company, write an article for the internal newsletter or blog, etc.
3. Grow and maintain your network.
   Stay in touch with clients, supplier, partners and industry leaders because they also need to know of your accomplishments. They can be a great source for information, contacts and referrals.

Career Success Tip:

In a fast paced, changing workplace, it’s who sees you and knows your work that matters. Promote yourself, not be your title, but by the outcomes or results of what you do. Don’t assume people will notice the wonderful quality of your work or that of your department. How well do you toot your own horn?

Readers, what’s your experience with promoting yourself? Has it helped your career?

Do you want to develop Career Smarts?

Relationships are the bread of career life. So make and break bread with others.

In times of change, contacts are the sources of information, opportunity and even power. Don’t let your everyday responsibilities isolate you from others. Move out from behind your desk. Move around in a variety of circles. Move quickly, eat hardy and often. Consider your current assignment as temporary and maintaining your networking as permanent. You never know who will play an important role in your evolving career or life.

Evaluate Your Network

You need to examine three factors: the size, the diversity, and the strength of your contacts. Here’s how:

• List the key people who are in your career world inside and outside your company.
  How many people do you know? The greater the size or number, the more access you have to information and support.
• Review that list and write down what they do or who they work for.
  Are most of your contacts in your functional area or profession? Or are there linkages to other parts of your organization and outside to customers, suppliers and others?
• Assess the quality of those relationships. Are they strong or weak?
  One way to decide strength is: How soon will they return your phone call or email, if at all?) The stronger the ties, the more you can go to the well for water – the more you can ask for their time and contacts.

Career Success Tip:

Power networking is not just the number of contacts you have but the breadth of those contacts. If you have a diverse and strong network, you then can tap into a wide variety of resources and information. How well are you networked? How well do you connect for success?

Readers, let me hear of your success stories. How did networking get you your present job or a great project or opportunity or partners for your business venture?

Do you want to develop Career Smarts?

What do you bring to the employment table?

As organizations continue to change -they’ll grow, restructure, merge, right size, outsource – an increasingly vital career strategy is to make sure your competitive edge continues to be well honed, razor sharp, and very, very productive.

Get this image in your mind—you are carrying a large suitcase or portfolio that holds all of your skills, experiences, and accomplishments. It is unique to you. You carry it, wherever you go. Is it heavy with many skills or is it light with only a few? Do you know if your portfolio would be of value in lots of different places or just a limited few?

Periodically inspect your skills portfolio.
Realize you are more than your job description. Rather, define yourself by what you do well and where you can use them. Which skills are state-of-the-art and in great demand? Which skills are somewhat rusty that need to be improved? How many are transferable to other areas inside your organization or even outside to other companies or industries?

Think resume in everything you do.
At the end of each year, whether you are looking for a new job or not, take the time to write or update your resume and compare it with last year’s. See if it has gotten noticeably better. See if it shows growth either in skills and competencies or in high valued assignments or projects?

Take charge of your career.
So, are you waiting for the company to magically tell you what you need to do? Or are you taking responsibility to keep your skills and expertise up to date and marketable? How often do you…

• Examine your skills portfolio on a regular basis?
• Determine if you have both breath and depth in your functional area?
• Pinpoint specific skills and knowledge that you need to acquire or upgrade?
• Periodically review educational opportunities that may help your career advancement?
• Evaluate each potential assignment on the merits of growth, exposure and visibility to key people? Not all are equal.

Career Success Tip:

Your career security in a changing workplace lies less in your position and more in how marketable you are inside and outside your organization. So, have transferrable skills and therefore you will travel. View yourself as a roving skills portfolio to stay employable the rest of your life.

Readers, what skills do you think will be necessary to succeed in the future?

Do you want to develop Career Smarts?

Do you have all the puzzle pieces and know how they fit?

Just for a moment, visualize your career as one huge jigsaw puzzle with many different pieces. One piece can be your department’s goals; a second your company’s challenges; a third your industry and how it’s doing; a fourth the economy in your city or region and so on.

As the pace of change accelerates, careers will be profoundly affected by what’s happening inside and outside your workplace. Do you know what’s going on? What puzzle pieces do you have; which are missing?

Information is power so be on constant alert.

For the company puzzle piece, look for signals everywhere, every day. Read your company’s blog, annual reports and other publications. Talk to people in other departments and business units. In fact, google your company regularly. Yes, this takes time and effort. However, you will come across information that can impact your career trajectory – either up or down.

Here’s an example. As I was getting my visitors badge in the reception area of a company where I was presenting a career management program, I noticed the monthly employee newsletter lying on a table. There on the front page was the president outlining the company’s five strategic initiatives for the coming year.

During the “What’s Happening in Your Company” part of the program, I asked the participants: “What are XYZ’s strategic initiatives for the coming year? How might these priorities affect them?”

In other words, what was the company trying to accomplish and how could their department, team, business unit or division be impacted? No one was able to answer questions even though the information was right under their noses.

Can you answer these questions about your company?

• What are your organization’s top strategic initiatives?
• How might these priorities affect me, my job, my department or my career goals?
• Are there any actions I should take right now to make sure I’m competitive and employable?

Career Success Tip.

If you can stay in tune with the changing workplace, then you will be better able to see both the danger and opportunity signs. Anticipate and prepare for change so that you won’t get sidetracked or derailed in your career.

Readers, what do you think? Is information power? How has information helped you in your career?

Do you want to develop Career Smarts?

A not so great performance review doesn’t have to be a career setback.

Recently I coached a talented project manager who had received a not so stellar performance review that could impact her career advancement. Getting negative feedback from your boss is not a joyride. In fact, it can be devastating. I know from experience. So what do you do?

My first reaction was to go home and hide under the bed covers – not a very mature response. But the next day, I let go of my embarrassment and started a list of concrete actions that would lead to performance improvement. I then went to my boss, now feeling more confident, and reviewed my list. We agreed on two performance areas that needed improvement; scheduled training and special assignments to develop specific skills; and finally set a time table to keep me on track.

What did I learn from that experience?

1. Reflect before reacting.
It’s far too easy to be defensive. Let the results sink in before you do anything. Does the feedback ring true? Is there concrete evidence? Does it resonate with things you’ve heard in the past?

2. Decide what to change.
What feedback is most important to you as a leader, manager or professional? What are the two or three things you can start working on immediately to get results? It’s important to show improvement quickly so you won’t get labeled as a poor performer.

3. Get support from others.
Ask your manager, as well as other key people (peers, direct reports, mentors, etc) to give you regular feedback as you make the needed changes. Avoid vague questions like: “How am I doing?” Rather, ask for specific feedback. “How was my presentation on target and off target?”

How did the project manager avoid a career setback?

Well she choose to work on her leadership style. She admitted she was a perfectionist – detailed oriented, focused on facts, and very cautious to take a stand fearing it may be the wrong decision. That led to her projects getting behind schedule. So she decided to improve her delegation, decision making and communication skills. She also kept her manager in the loop and requested regular feedback from him.

Bottom line: Her projects are meeting the milestones set by her boss; she is more self assured and able to let go of responsibility and authority; and she’s back on a career track for advancement.

Readers, how have you turned around a poor performance review?

Do you want to develop Career Smarts?

About a year ago I finished my MBA. I expected there would be plenty of opportunities for advancement. That has not happened. What should I do?

That was a question from an analyst in a financial services company. That situation has come up several times in coaching recent MBA’s and Executive MBA graduates. They thought once they got that coveted degree, their company would quickly promote and advance them. When that didn’t happen, they were disappointed, unappreciated and wondered if they should stay or leave.

Your career advancement depends on…

1. What you can do now that you couldn’t do before your MBA.
Note that I said “do” not “know.” You may know a lot more, but does that translate into concrete tasks or projects that are helping your company? For instance, you may have studied international finance and politics, but if your company’s market is primarily the Midwest United States, it’s not helpful to them.

2. Where the company is today and will be tomorrow.
You may have started you MBA before or just as the recession started. You had high hopes. The company had high hopes. Now the economy and your company’s future are different. The expectations you had may not be realistic today. So reevaluate your situation, your company’s viability and potential opportunities. You may need to make a lateral move to gain more hands on experience before you are seen as promotion material.

3. How you are utilizing your MBA.
Think of your MBA in terms of the skills you’ve developed or enhanced and the application of these skills in your present position as well as potential opportunities within your company. Focus on accomplishments or the impact of your work. For example, you increased sales by 15% or cut down time to 3% which then led to what? Can you give a crisp answer to: How is your MBA benefiting the company or how will it benefit it in the future?

The worth of an MBA.

I think MBAs are great, but without underlying experience, they aren’t worth nearly as much. The burden of proof, that you are more valuable now than you would be without the degree lies, firmly on you. It’s not that you have an MBA that counts. It’s what difference you are making with the skills and knowledge you leaned from it.

MBA readers, what do you think?

Do you want to develop Career Smarts?