You Have to Be Available!

Being available can be crucial. A friend of mine was up for advance-ment in the H.R. department of a large bank. She was a superstar who everyone thought was being groomed to be the future head of the department. But she missed a key promotion because she was put in charge of a headquarters move that made her unavailable for one full year. Right in the middle of that year, her dream assignment came up but was awarded to one of her rivals.

During that year, the bank went global, putting its first branches in Taiwan and Singapore, hiring its first offshore workers, and set¬ting up its first offshore H.R. function. That was the assignment she missed. A headquarters move is critical, but not sexy. Going global is sexy, and she missed out.

You have to be able to draw your work into some kind of closure, and hand it off, to be promoted. If a rival is ready and you're not, she may get the nod while you are passed over.

The savvy careerist intentionally finishes projects just as a pro-motion becomes actionable. He'll speed up, slow down, hand off, or whatever it takes to make the timing work. Managing time in concert with the needs of the larger organization can make a huge difference in career advancement.

You want to be the person senior managers think of automatically when new opportunities come up. You have to be seen as some¬one who can finish projects. Follow-through, completion, and being ready to pick up the next project-this is the description of you that you want in the minds of the decision makers.

Never Be Irreplaceable

In order to minimize any problems associated with leaving your old assignment, as well as maximize your attractiveness for the projected new assignment, never be irreplaceable.

Irreplaceable people are never promoted. You may be on a critical assignment that makes you temporarily irreplaceable, but in every organization there are some irreplaceable people who are intention-ally so. To make themselves feel important and indispensable, they

withhold critical data from others, refuse to delegate anything but the most mundane tasks, and retain all decision-making authority. They actually create a scenario in which their absence from work

,

for even a day, brings their unit or department to a halt until their return.

They are often talented people actually working at assignments below their abilities. By creating complexity in a function that doesn't necessarily require it, they appear indispensable. Or they may be limited in their organizational and procedural abilities, prefer¬ring to embody in themselves all the structure that their function may require. Over time, they've come to be their position rather than serve in it.

Irreplaceable people are the long-tenured accounts-payable clerk who refuses to train anyone in his function; the trust officer at a bank who just "knows" all the accounts and all their arcane rules'

,

t~e foreign sales rep who refuses to introduce any junior people to

hIS accounts; the project engineer who withholds key information from her teams and thus will always be a project engineer; the legal secretary whose boss cannot get along without her. None of these people can be promoted.

To be a fast-track person you need to make yourself easily replace-

able. T~ accomplish this you will need to:

             Dowment your job.

             Train and develop your subordinates.

             Cross-train your lateral colleagues to cover your position.

             Pick a lieutenant and be sure she is ready to step into your shoes.

Documenting your job means that you have written procedures for everything you do, ready and available for your replacement. Policies, procedures, techniques, decision triggers, suppliers, vendors, :he secret sauce recipe, all of these can be compiled in binders or Intranet files. These, plus the assurance that you will be available to answer questions, can be a one-way ticket to advancement.

Remember, organizations optimize the outcome if'the staffing change.

They don't hire or promote the best person for the job. Being easily and smoothly replaceable is, in fact, a major part of reducing the resistance to promoting you.

High performers are like engineers. They're always working them-selves out of a job. There's an old joke among engineers: An engineer and a priest die together in a car accident. The priest is absolutely delighted with the afterlife. "This must be Heaven," says the priest. "Look at this magnificent city of gold."

"No, Father," says the engineer. "This surely must be Hell, for I can see that everything' already works perfectly here."

Since I knew you were coming over today, I came up with'my own Top Ten career points for the overly ambitious.

1.            The world is set up for early birds. It's grossly unfair, but there is a halo around the employees whose biological clocks most resemble a rooster's. People respect the early birds because¬let's face it-most of us aren't willing or comfortable getting up at 4 a.m. five days a week, and it makes those who are seem superhuman. Every minute that you arrive before the official start of the workday is worth at least fifteen of staying after the official end of the workday because nobody really cares if you work late. You can even leave at 5 o'clock as long as you beat the boss into the office in the morning. If you absolutely can't be early, then be consistently on time-but it's crucial that you show up before your support staff. How can you be seen as the leader if you are following your subordinates in the door each day?

2.            It is a fact that team players go far. Managers like to promote team players (and conversely don't like to fire them) because

Be generous trammg and developing your staff. As your staff becomes better able to cover for one another, your organizational systems will be more successfuL Relying on structures to get work done is safer than relying on personalities. And anybody who relies on heroes or irreplaceable people is at their mercy.

I once had a contract with AT&T to teach internal job-seeking skills to all the workers in a business unit. I thought the unit man¬ager was crazy, that he would lose all his best people. He pulled me aside and said, "AT&T has just decided that a major identifier of executive talent is going to be how well we develop subordinates to take on leadership roles after they leave the unit. I'll take care of training and developing them, and you be sure they get promoted. I've got some really good people right now, and I think this can be a breakout move for my career." And it was.

In case you've never thought about it, teaching is a critical execu-tive skill. CEOs spend a lot of their time making presentations, giv¬ing speeches, conveying ideas, and arguing against bad thinking in the organization. They are teachers in the truest sense of the word. Teaching, training, developing, guiding, and mentoring your subor-dinates can be career-advancing practices. And if you can't do this yourself, if you're not naturally a teacher, outsource the function to others within and outside your organization.

And you do not have to have a big staff or an important leader¬ship role in order to implement this career strategy. You can start to become known as a trainer and developer of staff. If a new janitor is hired and you're already a janitor, volunteer to train the new hire. Training is a promotable skill, and it becomes more important, not less, as you rise up in the org chart.

You need to have your own succession plan. Who will replace you if you are promoted? If you have someone in mind, you can bring this information into the promotion equation. If you can be easily replaced because of timing factors or because you've done a good job of developing a subordinate or you have someone else in mind who could take over, you may get the nod even if your rival for the promotion is a much better performer.

I r-- --------•-INT-ER-VI-EW-WITH AN

,                               ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE IN

I                                               PUBLIC RELATIONS

1 workplace morale stays high if a likeable person gets pro¬moted but plummets if a jerk is advanced-even if the jerk is a great performer. Everyone in business wants to be treated well. Teamwork is recognizing that everyone is a valuable con¬tributor and that you must treat the people you work with with the same respect that you would if you worked for them. It only takes one slighted secretary to stick a knife in your repu" tation. Remember, everyone is selling something, and people buy from likeable people. You don't have to be charming, but you should make an effort to cultivate relationships with those people you work with and for. Show that you genuinely care and give credit where it is due. Selfish people don't go far. Not everyone can be charismatic, but everyone can improve their Iikeability.

3.            Know when to keep your mouth shut. In a typical work day, there are hundreds of opportunities to demonstrate your ignorance by talking too much. I once worked for a guy for over a year who barely ever spoke, but when he did, he slayed. He waited until he found an opportunity in a discussion for t'lim to really contribute something. So instead of getting up to bat and strik¬ing out, he only hit home runs and was thought of as some kind of genius.

The fact is that everyone interprets a simple sentence in their own way. After you say the valuable thing, shut up. Don't over elaborate or make the mistake of over explaining. Your effort to sound smart may just backfire.

4.            It's your client who writes your paycheck. Your client's loyalty to you is your key to success. If the clients love you, your company will love you. And even if they don't, they won't be able to fire you without risking the relationship with the client. Make your clients love you and you make yourself bulletproof.

But don't mistake intimacy for a relationship. The superficial smiley face is not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about show¬ing your clients, that you are their champion-that you have their back. Sucking up to your bosses is relatively worthless. Take care of your clients and they'll take care of your bosses.

And by the way, once you have a loyal client, ask for referrals.

The only thing more bulletproof than a great client manager is . a rainmaker.

5.            Sales matters in everything. The bottom line, in business, is sales. Everyone sells: ideas, products, budgets, whatever-all the time. Don't wait for the proper time and place. You should be selling all the time, even if it's just "I thought I'd run this by you." And if you aren't completely sure who or how you will deliver, remember what a wise man once told me: Sell it first, then figure out how you're going to deliver.

6.            Don't waste energy trying to figure out how you're getting screwed.

I once worked with a very smart woman who had her MBA and years of practical experience, but she was bitter. When she wasn't working, she was looking for how she'd been screwed, how she might be getting screwed, or how she was going to get screwed in the future. We were at the same level in the organization, and when they gave us both new offices, she said, "It's about time." I wrote a short email to the president, cc'ing my boss and my boss's boss, thanking them all for my great new space. She is no longer with the company.

There's no need to grovel, but it's important to have an atti¬tude of gratitude. If they know that rewards and opportunities are' well received, they are more likely to give you more.

7.            Understand rush season. Every business has a crunch season-when your goods or services are in highest demand, when you will be staying late, working weekends, doing whatever it takes. Inevitably there are three basic employee reactions to this requirement: ignore it and leave at 5:00, grouse about it and trudge through, or roll up your sleeves and get it done. If you want to get ahead, you must understand that your extra effort during rush season isn't laudable. It's table stakes if you want to win. Even if you've delivered all year long, if you don't really deliver at crunch time, it's wasted. In the end, plodding doesn't get rewarded like sprinting. Periodic heroics are even better than daily reliability because they get you noticed.

8.            Demonstrate passion. If I had a dollar for every job candidate I've interviewed that told me, "I'm passionate about this indus¬try," I could afford the medicine I need to keep me from vomit¬ing on the next one who says it. In reality, most workers are not passionate about their industry. There is a word for those who are: entrepreneurs.

But there are employees who have a fire in their belly. They are exceptionally interested, exceptional people who think on their feet, create new solutions, and enjoy doing it. They want to work. If you are one of these people, you've got to let that show internally as well as with the client, because it doesn't count if nobody knows about it. Really successful people are as help¬fully active within their organizations-in new business pitches, in morale- and team-building activities, in coaching and sup¬porting-as they are with their external clients' businesses.

9.            Manage your review process. Don't leave your work history to be written by your boss. Even if she likes you, she isn't the one carving the notches in your belt. It's up to you to record every accomplishment; keep your internal resume live, recording those bullet points as soon as they happen. If you don't keep a running record, you'll forget the small stuff, and it adds up.

If you want a promotion, get on your boss's calendar six months prior to your review to discuss your career track and what it will take to get you to the next level. Don't make it a secret that you want to advance, or just assume it's going to happen. There may be good reasons why it can't happen this year, but you need to know what they are, so ask and then make any necessary changes or adjustments.

The biggest mistake employees make is to think that promo¬tions are given based on past performance. It's not what you've already done-it's what you can do next. The onus is on you to clearly show the benefit to them of promoting you. The fact of the matter is, the world is full of good administrative assistants, but it's hard to find a good business leader.

10.          Find your guardian angel. The best career advice my father ever gave me was that in every organization, you need to have a guardian angel. They need to be several steps up from you, so

they can protect you if necessary. They must be someone who obviously likes you. The softer the spot they have for you, the• better. Cultivate that relationship, but don't tax their time. Don't refer to them as your mentor-being a mentor, while flattering, is a responsibility and a general time suck that they may not be co~fortable with. Show them that you are eager to learn from them if and when they have time to teach. It's up to you-not them-to manage the special relationship. Perhaps there is something you could do to lighten their load, but don't suck up. It's important that they understand that you're a person of integrity, and yours is a relationship of mutual respect, so some time when you really need them, your guardian angel can step in on your behalf.

That's everything I know about getting promoted, but I'm learning more every day. Come back and interview me again in a year.