Narrative: Noun; an account of a series of events, facts, etc., given in order and with the establishing of connections between them; a narration, a story.
Most prospects and some clients often approach me and ask why they are not able to get any upward movement in their careers. Those out of work think that it is the job market, those stuck in their careers think that it is the internal politics, and others simply wait for their manager to promote them when the timing is right! In the last instance, frequently, their manager goes away in a year or so and that cycle begins all over again, often thwarted by the new manager’s bringing their own protégé with them!
In most cases the simple reason for this cycle of hard work, promises of advancement, and new manager (or being suddenly laid-off) continues and many professionals surrender to this reality by blaming everything external to their plight: bad economy, cutbacks, bad manager, too much politics, and bad timing! Although some of their reasoning has merit, most get sidelined for reasons entirely created by their own handling of their career and how they project their message of leadership through their work, résumé, and their everyday behaviors at work.
Let me explain:
As an employee of your company you have an obligation to create value for your company and grow in the process. This growth, in turn, creates greater value for your company, creating a virtuous cycle. This does not mean that you must get increasingly more challenging tasks or greater responsibility to demonstrate your potential. What it does mean, however, is that you show initiative in understanding your own mission for continually creating greater value for your group, department, the organization, and ultimately, your company. This requires that you not merely take orders from your manager to comply with each order, but that you show initiative to descry what is not happening around you and find avenues to make that happen. This undone or ignored work must connect to improving the customer experience, making things better in your own organization, or advancing the state of knowledge in your area of work. This is what leadership is and this is what one is expected to do; not just do the work from your Job Description!
Now, once you are able to change your mindset to understand your responsibility to create greater value for your organization, that accomplishment must be presented in a narrative that captures your leadership and shows how you think, how you find opportunities, and how you deliver value above and beyond your mission. This, now, becomes your leadership narrative. Without this leadership narrative, you are just a cog in the wheel and are there at your place of work for a paycheck! Looking at the above definition of “narrative,” having this story with a constant thread of insightful actions stemming from how you see your work, not as merely following orders your manager gives, but as an endless mission of creating increasingly greater value to please the customer (or to please yourself if you do not have a direct customer connection).
So, what are some of the behaviors you must embrace to be able to showcase your leadership narrative in your own everyday work? Here are some suggestions:
- Understand what business your company is in and how that translates into the work that your immediate work group does. Find out how what you can do makes a difference to the end user or customer. The answer to this question may not always come as doing more work faster, but as doing different work differently! Find a greater purpose in your own area of work.
- Look at what you do and find out new avenues to do that work. Look at the workflow and see how the input and the output from where you sit affect those at the two ends of the mini-supply chain. Reach out on both sides and see if you can optimize that loop.
- See what your group is struggling with in everyday work. If it requires a new process, take it on as an assignment; if it entails approaching someone higher-up to get them to rethink what has already been decided, then learn how to get your point across and influence their thinking to make a change; if it is miscommunication between groups find out ways to create a better communication process. The opportunities are endless!
- When looking for opportunities for improvement start with the ones that affect what you do the most. That way you can claim a bullet about that in your résumé. A bullet that reads, Discovering that analyzing field failure data took too long to incorporate that into the ongoing design improvements for the next product release, decided to go to the source and gave Field Engineers an online method of capturing data, eliminating the paper entries, and making each entry available in real-time, will put a shine on your otherwise dull résumé! Similar bullets with such stories will now make up for a strong leadership narrative.
- One way to motivate your actions is to foreordain a bullet on your résumé and then take on that task to honor your commitment to yourself.
- Frequently meet with your manager and review your “above-and-beyond” contributions, so that they are aware of your value. Also, send out an email to those that matter touting your accomplishments. If such emails are written in recognition of the work others did to support your cause it becomes politically more acceptable and those who helped you will get due credit in the management’s eyes. Remember, the real hero here is YOU!
- Compare your résumé with those of your peers (especially those seen as stars) and see how your narrative compares with theirs. If you cannot compete with their formidable, raw talent and the depth of their technical contribution, trump them with your perspicacious business outlook and value added to it by improving how things happen! If you do not have access to their résumé, looking up their LinkedIn Profile can be an acceptable proxy to this. Always keep your LinkedIn Profile current.
- Look for the job description for next level of promotion and try to bring that language in your résumé as you do your current job. It is much easier for your manager to champion you if you are already performing at a level where the opening lies or can be created to accommodate your desire to get promoted.
- Always keep yourself marketable and become a passive candidate. Manage your LinkedIn Profile and spruce it up with strong Recommendations from those that matter.
- Do not get too attached to your own job. If you follow this approach you’ll become highly marketable as you do your everyday work, without even having to look for another job to get yourself promoted!
Good luck!