This year, I have worked on a number of projects with client organisations who want to nurture and develop their high potential leaders.  It’s an endeavour that’s full of pitfalls for everyone involved, though this is a topic for any number of other posts.  Today I’ll pick just one to explore, which seems timely as Christmas approaches.

One of the people I worked with this year was John.  We’ll call him John, though he could have been called any number of names.  Indeed, he could have been any number of people I met this year.

John’s employers were sponsoring a leadership assessment as part of their High Potential Leader programme.  The interview technique involved asking for examples of recent successes and he described a complex project, fraught with difficulties, which he had led to a successful conclusion on behalf of his employer.  Based on the evidence he gave, I was confident that he had a strong and rounded skills set and was ready for his next promotion.

At the same time, John’s work had left him feeling exhausted.  As he looked around him, he could see that successive reorganisations had reduced the number of opportunities available going forward.  What’s more, having nominated him to take part in their HiPo programme, his employers seemed to be leaving him to it and this was fuelling a creeping resentment on John’s part.

Waiting for your next senior promotion?

If you’re feeling ready for your next promotion, it’s possible that you can relate to John’s experience.

Maybe, initially, you felt really pleased to recognise that you’re ready for the next challenge.  However, as time has gone on and without being able to see your way to your next job, you have started to feel bored in your current role, or frustrated with the long wait for an appropriate opportunity to come up.

If you’ve had successes like John has, you may share his sense of resentment.  After all the things  you’ve done for your employer (and all the personal sacrifices you’ve made in order to do them), it’s hard to see how little is coming back the other way.  No thanks.  No offers of help to move to the next level.  No recognition, even, that just because you’ve handled one big hairy project well, you may not want to take on another.

In truth, if you’ve been working as hard as John had, you may be feeling physically exhausted and emotionally drained.  This is especially likely to be true if, in order to do what you did, you had to draw on strengths that are in your repertoire but which don’t speak to your true self – the things you most love to do.  This, too, will fuel your resentment:  after you’ve given so much time and effort to make a success of something you don’t even enjoy very much?!  You may wondering when it will be your turn to do something you really enjoy.

When it’s time to change your career management strategy

I think I was drawn to John (and others like him) because I recognised myself in him.  There was a time in my career when people would express surprise when I was promoted (“I thought you were already [insert more senior job title.]”)  I was often last in my peer group to be promoted, even though I was seen by my peers as someone who could be relied on to deliver.

At the same time, I’m aware that John was making a classic career management mistake.

He was waiting for the next job to come to him.

Let’s be clear, early in his career, jobs had come to him.  John was purposeful.  He got things done.  He was skilled in handling objectives and getting people on board.  Team members loved him.  Because of these and other skills he stood out amongst his peer group and was often sought out for interesting projects.

Increasingly, John needed to use a different career management strategy, because promotion at senior levels is different.  Whereas John stood out by a country mile in a junior peer group, there were more people to match his talents in his more senior peer groups and all of them chasing a smaller pool of more senior jobs.

There was more.  Early in his career, it was enough for John’s immediate manager to be impressed for the opportunities to appear out of nowhere.  At his current level, the stakes were higher for his organisation and the jobs were spread more thinly and widely.  He hadn’t realised that, as well as networking with senior stakeholders to gain buy-in to important projects, he also needed to ask for their support to progress in his career.

What’s driving your career management strategy?

To me, what was more important to John than a change of career management strategy was this:  the reasons behind his strategy.  I was pleased to have the opportunity to explore this with him in our feedback session.

What quickly emerged was that, fundamentally, John was looking after his employer’s interests but he wasn’t looking after his own.  Somehow, he imagined that if he did a good job for his employer they would do a good job for him.

This was partly a reflection of his early experience.  When he’d done a good job for his employer they had done a good job for him.

This was partly a reflection of his early experience… but only partly.

John realised that, to a significant degree, he wasn’t giving himself permission to look after his own interests.  To seek out a job, yes, in which he could contribute to the success and progress of his organisation.  But also to seek out a job he would really enjoy and which would lead him towards other jobs which really worked to his natural strengths.

Armed with this insight, John realised that he needed to increase his permission levels before he could truly follow through on changes to his career management strategy.

Filling your own cup first

On the surface, this posting has been about finding your next promotion.

At the same time, the principle that applies when managing your career, applies in every sphere of life.  We have to fill our own cup first.

John was doing a good job for his organisation.  His organisation wanted him to do more of the same.  But the projects he was executing so successfully were proving exhausting.  Yes, he could do them, but they weren’t really his bag.  They were missing key elements of his ideal job.

As a more general principle, whether as a leader or in life, it helps to know that if you want to give to others, it helps first to give to yourself.  It’s easier to give with a glad and pure heart when our own cups are already full.  As Christmas approaches, it seems particularly timely to remember this principle.

I want to end by saying, in all humility, that I don’t always get this right myself.  Recently, after a challenging year in 2013 and a challenging start to 2014, I have been taking time refill my cup.  This is one reason why I have been silent on the blog for some weeks now.

I also invite you to ask yourself, are there any areas of your personal or professional life in which your cup is half full?

I’m glad to be back.  I hope you are still with me.  And I sent you my heartfelt wishes for your own emotional, mental and physical well-being this Christmas and throughout the coming year.

 

PS  In case you’re wondering, the photos in today’s blog are from a recent holiday I took in South Korea.  Just one way in which I have been filling my own cup first!