Cairn Partners

One of the most important lessons I learned in my career came at a price.  

Early in my career, I had the good fortune to work with a number of outstanding mentors.  I was young, hard working, and ambitious with a modicum of talent and a healthy dose of respect for my colleagues – most of whom were 20 years my senior.  They allowed me unfettered access to their day-to-day business lives and routinely provided constructive recommendations to me as I struggled to catch up to the high standards they’d set.  To the degree possible, I made every attempt to emulate their behavior and, I suspect, that unintended flattery only engendered more willingness to continue providing even more guidance and support for me over time.

As I matured, so to did the complexity of my roles and responsibilities.  I transitioned from working in small organizations with relatively simple organizational structures to organizations with complex, global hierarchies and matrix-based responsibilities.  The transition was difficult.

Over time, I watched nuances define and, on occasion, divide executives and the teams they managed.   I found collaboration more difficult than it had ever been for me in smaller organizations, where my relationships had always been closer and more direct.  The blue-collar, Midwestern character traits I’d taken pride in early in my career were, more frequently, met with skepticism and mistrust.  Where I’d previously gained allies and mentors quickly, I found guarded conversations and tepid assurances.

I kept my head down, worked hard, and assumed that, over time, I’d be able to cultivate a similar relationship to the ones I’d come to value earlier in my career.   And, for the most part, that approach has been successful.  But, a number of years ago, I learned that approach alone would no longer be enough.  

I was hired into a newly created senior management role.  My charter was to extract additional profit and introduce operational efficiencies to a business that had, previously, been singularly focused on revenue growth.  While most of the challenges were significant, few were unexpected – introducing standard processes and systems to an organization is, after all, rarely easy.  What caught me by surprise, however, was my own manager’s behavior.   After months of working closely with my manager, I still found it difficult to gauge his support.   And, even more disconcerting, I was uncertain how to interpret his insistence to act as the sole channel through which my proposals were raised to the senior executive who responsible for our business unit.  

When my company’s fortunes turned a few quarters later and restructured, I was left with an ambiguous reporting relationship to that same senior executive.   For almost a year, I’d made assumptions that the work I’d been doing was both well known and well supported.   Within a few weeks, two things became apparent to me.  First, not only was my new manager completely unaware of the work I’d been doing.  But, secondly, he had also formed a strong opinion that the very role the organization had created for me was one the business simply didn’t need.  

My lesson?  Good work and good employees can, and routinely do, go unnoticed.  And, at the end of the day, each of us, individually, is accountable for our own careers.   My list of  “should have’s”:

•    I should have worked harder to build a closer relationship with my boss’s boss: “FYI” emails, a few more informal conversations in the elevator or between meetings, or simply more deliberate and direct discussions.
•    I should have found a way to build a broader coalition of support for my work with other executives in the business.  
•    I should have started laying alternative plans sooner once I began to see the writing on the wall.
•    I should not have assumed my manger would behave like a mentor, simply because others had earlier in my career.

Like it or not, you may have to work for a difficult boss too.   The direction your career takes may rest in the hands of someone far from the idyllic mentor I mentioned earlier.  And, at some stage of your career, you will have to navigate tenuous political waters.  And, while I still adamantly believe in a core set of professional values – things like hard-work, organizational insight, and pragmatic action; it is clear to me that there are times when these traits alone are not enough.  

It is imperative that we all never lose site of our own roles in managing our careers.  Here are a few key career management steps you should be taking:

1.)    Build your own career advisory board.   Corporations form boards to provide oversight, governance, and direction for its executives.  Your board should do the same things for you – though in a much less formal way.  This should be a group of people whose opinions you value and whose collective experience far exceeds your own.  Often, it is comprised of mentor’s you’ve developed over your career.

2.)    Have a career plan – ideally, a documented one.  Where do you want to take your career?  And, how do you plan on getting there?  What gaps do you need to close?  And, what skills do you need to develop?  

3.)    Let the right people know about your plan.   The right people may include your current manager – though, often, it does not, especially when your goals conflict with your current position’s responsibilities.  

4.)    Build a strong professional network.  And, keep it strong.  Career changes are rarely, if ever, accomplished in a vacuum.  You’ll need introductions and you’ll need advocates.  A good professional network should be able to provide you with both.