Vareity What’s Up

Here’s the blitz of what’s on my mind and what I am doing right now:

1. Anon vs Brand? Should I keep blogging anon? What’s the value to me in doing that? If I keep blogging anon, nobody connects my expertise and writing skill to me, myself, and my actual brand — which I need. But if I don’t blog anon, can I still effectively write about the tender parts of my career development, and about the object lessons from staff and colleagues? But is blogging about others anon ethical?  I am getting alarmed with myself that I am NOT being ethical! I am leaning towards scrapping this whole thing and starting anew, as myself.
2. Is Penelope Trunk crazy or the true new wave? Is she taking the blend-your-professional-and-your-personal-and-tell-all meme to the non-useful extreme, or is she just the new normal? At least she’s ethical.
3. I am pissed at my boss. And I told him so. But I don’t think I told him effectively enough.  He stripped me of a responsibility (goal) without telling me that he’d done it nor telling me why.  And this after he happily agreed that we should de-prioritize it.  His action was more about getting control of one of my peers (he gave my goal to her boss) than about punishing me.  It’s well known that I don’t effectively influence her.  But not telling me was reactionary, and somewhat chickenshit. I’m pissed at myself for fumbling a great opportunity to be more candid. It will be on my agenda at my next career development status with him.
4. I am doing a personal brand assessment using Reach 360. They are a very interesting company that I have been following for a few years, but I’ve never used their 360-degree brand assessment tool before. I will let you know what I learn. They have good teleseminars – go check them out.
5. I am reading Back of the Napkin, and thinking about how to apply it to both project planning and communication.
6. I got great feedback from two people this week. That’s nice.
7. I am giving up one of my direct reports to someone else. I was expecting this, at about this time of year – her project is ending and she is working on something new.  But I am still bummed. My little empire is shrinking, that never feels good!
8. I think my least-resilient employee wants to kill me. Too bad. That’s her responsibility.  Just imagine how pissed at me she’ll be when I share the consequence of her behavior, hostility and inability to engage with the team — she is missing out on a great opportunity because we the management team won’t offer it to her due to track record of behavior, hostility and inability to engage with the team.
9. I am giving a stretch assignment to one of my other employees. That always feels great!
10. The stretch assignment involves an initiative I own that stems straight from the CEO. THAT always feels good!
11. I am recommitting to networking. I have set up regular lunches and coffees with some key leaders with whom I want to reconnect and talk both work and development. I still need to set up regular connections with three VPs with whom I’ve worked in the past, and one VP whom I’ve never met (but he went to my college and he may be the only other Obie at the F50C).  I have also set up some tracking so I can better manage my contacts, track stuff I want to talk about, and not let so much time go between meetings.

Cheers, y’all!

Weekly Review 12/21/08

How did I do against the developmental goals I focused on last week?

1. Goal: strengthen reputation as outperformer. MIT: push hard hard hard in the goal/objective setting offsite Monday to ensure the management team in general, and I specifically, do NOT sign up for ANY objectives that are not seriously specific and measurable.

Sort-of accomplished.  The way the goal-setting session was run, it was hard to push for measurable objectives, because we rarely got down to the objective level.  However, I was an active participant and was vocal about making our goals specific and not boil-the-ocean big.  I was also able to ensure all my goals were represented and that I didn’t sign up for anything vague or that I didn’t expect.  And I made it abundantly clear — I was funny, funny, funny about it but very serious — to my boss (shout-out for managing up!) & a couple of peers that I am not signing up for any work that isn’t prioritized, meaning: doesn’t align to my goals

2.  Goal: strengthen my reputation as an outperformer. MIT: once the offsite locks down the management team goals/objectives, lock my g/o into a final draft by Friday.

Accomplished.  I noodled all week and took the the goals I owned coming out of the goal-setting session down to the objective level.  All my objectives are measurable, even the more strategic ones. (Don’t get me started on strategic objectives).  I’m working now on crafting a reference document that actually lays out the measures I’ll use. This will help me track performance and gather data along the way, and I’ll also review this document each Friday during my weekly review at work, to keep me focused.  I’ve also got my G/O document out for review & feedback with to of my favorite (read: smartest & most trusted) peers.

3.  Goal: be courted for new roles & new jobs.  MIT: work on re-opening my network, by scheduling two coffees, lunches or statuses, one with a hiring manager who has a prospect for me, one with a former manager, director or VP, to reconnect, hear what’s up in their world, drop my elevator speech, and remind them (sweetly, graciously) how great I am. 

Not accomplished!  I did set up coffee with that hiring manager, for after the holiday break. But I totally shied away from reaching out to any of my former leadership at that Director or VP level.  Why am I so shy about this? Well, reaching out and taking positive risks is the big weakness in my resilience profile.  What am I so skeezed out about? I have been thinking about it all week: more to come in a post about it some time this week.

Goals & MITs for next week:

1. Goal: strenghten my reputation as an outperformer. MIT: finish crafting the measures for my objectives. Review and revise my goals overall.

2. Goal: Be courted for new roles and jobs. MIT: figure out why I’m so gun-shy about networking with leaders way above my pay grade.

Only two goals this week, and probably fewer posts too: Merry Christmas!

Weekly Review 12/14/08

OK, here’s the deal:  I’m going to stop weekly reviewing about my goals for this blog, because my goals are basically to write great content and to comment a lot on career blogs that interest me.  Those goals aren’t going to change any time soon, so I’ll drop back the blog weekly review to quarterly or so.

What I really want to talk about and what you really want to read about is not how I’m managing the blog but how I’m managing my career development.

So going forward my weekly review here will be all about the career development stuff I don’t put into my public flash status at work.  I’m all about being public about wins, ah-ha moments and regrets, but some career development stuff just isn’t appropriate for my direct reports to read, and/or I just don’t want analysts six pay grades below mine all up in my beeswax.

Recap of last week:

Done, but of course I always feel I could & should & want to write more and comment more, so I will keep focused on that.

On to next week:

1. Goal: strengthen reputation as outperformer. MIT: push hard hard hard in the goal/objective setting offsite Monday to ensure the management team in general, and I specifically, do NOT sign up for ANY objectives that are not seriously specific and measurable. Our work lists towards the squishy strategic side.  It’s very hard to make strategic objectives measurable.  Without measurability and specificity it’s very hard to set a baseline.  Without a baseline, I cannot set a bar.  Without a bar, I do not know what success, or outperformance, looks like. I DO know that performance reviews looks best with outperformance on it, and I want some o’ that:  I’m really good at what I do, but I want to stop relying on subjective assessments and start proving it objectively. (Tim, I am imagining that you’re reading this and chuckling, ’cause yeah we’re often pretty squishy.  Let me know how well you think we do.)

2.  Goal: strengthen my reputation as an outperformer. MIT: once the offsite locks down the management team goals/objectives, lock my g/o into a final draft by Friday. Let’s get this crap out of the planning stages and get some game ON!   Bias for action, holla!

3.  Goal: be courted for new roles & new jobs.  MIT: work on re-opening my network, by scheduling two coffees, lunches or statuses, one with a hiring manager who has a prospect for me, one with a former manager, director or VP, to reconnect, hear what’s up in their world, drop my elevator speech, and remind them (sweetly, graciously) how great I am. D’oh, better update that elevator speech!

Promotion vs Lateral Move

I have an interesting problem, and it’s a really good problem:  do I engineer a promotion in my current role, or do I engineer a lateral move to an over-the-moon-ideal role?  Both are real, likely possibilities, they are somewhat mutually exclusive, and both have serious pros & cons.

Real, likely possibilities.

Promotion in Current Role:

• My boss and my former director have each stated explicitly that they are positioning me for promotion.
• Each are big advocates of mine who know and advertise the value I deliver.
• My current role has been tweaked in order to give me more visibility to senior management, an important part of the positioning.
• My former boss (an interim boss from earlier this year) told me I need to change my mindset and should expect promotion within the year. This was before my pregnancy was announced, so the timeline has shifted somewhat due to my leave.
• My current role plays to my strengths and I have a reputation for delivering results, cutting out confusion & spin, and moving teams forward to deliver results.

Lateral to Ideal Role:

• There is a director in the department I am targeting who is a big advocate of mine and a big supporter of my coming over.  He believes I would be a great fit.
• He is actively working to help me expand my network within his department, so that I can build relationships, understand what role(s) would be best for me, and help others think of me first when roles open up.
• He knows I am goaling to promote to manager Level 2 and has stated he would absolutely not stand in my way (there are consequences to this; Mutually Exclusive, below)
• The VP of this department also knows me, thinks well of me, and believes I would be a good fit.
• My former director from my current role also understands I’d be great in this department and has been a supporter of the idea so far.

Mutually Exclusive.

• Promotion in current role makes me a Level 2 manager.
• In the department I am targeting, a Level 2 manager usually has 10+ years of communications-specific experience, often both agency and corporate.
• I do not have communications-specific experience.  Rather I have communications talent, managing-people talent and a deep understanding of my company language, culture & finance organization.
• It is tricky to even move me over as a Level 1 manager due to my current pay grade.
• If I promote before moving it will be extremely hard to make it a lateral move, and step-down moves aren’t that much easier.

Pros & Cons.

Current Role:

• PROS – Promotable very soon. The role plays to my strengths and I have a reputation for delivering results, cutting out confusion & spin, and moving teams forward to get things done.  I can leverage existing relationships. I have been in variants of this role for three years so I have both context & expertise.  I am very good at managing my boss because I’ve worked for him for so long.  My boss is somewhat challenged in the feedback and career development mentoring/coaching department so it would be refreshing to have a new boss who has a different style.
• CONS – The next important stage for my boss’ organization is to move away from IT project work and into hard analytic & reporting consulting for clients: I’m not talented at hard analytics and I dislike doing it; would I be stuck with golden handcuffs in a role I hate?  And I can’t keep working for my boss.  In my organization it is very important to work for a variety of people and demonstrate that your success isn’t linked to just one person. I’m overdue for that change.  Finally, my current role is starting to feel like running in place, trying the fight the same old boring fights and solve the same old tiresome problems over and over again.

Lateral Move:

• PROS – Communications work is the stuff that feels not like work but like play to me.  Since communications is one of my core talents, the long-term upside of being in that organization is probably greater than the long-term upside of staying in business intelligence.  I am sooooo ready for a new challenge and new problems to work on. I’m wanted by a director and a VP;  They both assure me that extensive communications or agency background is not needed.
• CONS — No roles are currently open, and due to the external economic environment, nothing is guaranteed to open soon. If I promote first, I may not be able to come over; if come over at my current pay grade,  I may not be able promote for a looooong time.  I will have to learn a whole new organization, departmental culture, client set, etc, which is a big learning curve and a big investment.  I may be managing people with extensive communications background and agency experience — how weird or problematic would that be? I will have to learn a whole new boss’ style and figure out how to manage up. I’m untested formally in this type of role so there’s some risk & fear there.

What will I do?

See what an exciting problem to have? I’m so refreshed to have a “good” problem for once!  May I learn how to always see the good in my problems as a result.

In any case, here’s my plan: be very open and honest with my current boss, my former director and my advocate director about my interests and plans.  Continue to pursue promotion in my current role because, hey, promotion will open more opportunities than no promotion, and it doesn’t rule out a lateral move, just makes it more tricky.  Plus, no roles in my targeted department are guaranteed to open soon, whereas my existing role isn’t going anywhere. Continue to network with my targeted department, build relationships over there, and seriously review/consider/pursue (if right fit) positions that post.

Play it by ear.

Make no moves for at least 30 days.

And continue to focus on attracting my true desired outcome: Promotion to Level 2 manager and lateral from there into my targeted department.  Just because it’s tricky doesn’t mean it’s impossible.