Diamond in the rough
A Leadership Freak reader asks, “If you thought you were a diamond in the rough who was not being found, what would you do?”
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Getting to the next level in your career depends in large part on the level you currently occupy. For example, front line employees create a platform of success by excelling at execution. On the other hand, supervisors and managers are noticed by effectively delegating.
You could say people on the front line rise up by doing while mid-levels rise up by not doing.
After excelling at your current job…
Regardless of your current level, think like the boss. Understand and embrace the boss’s values, mission, and vision. Appreciate their challenges and help solve their problems. Be a solution maker not a problem creator.
Additionally, People move up by looking down. Look down on your organization as if you were over it. Learn what makes things ticks. Embrace the official and unofficial power-structure. Rest assured if you do everything the right way but you offend unofficial leaders, you’re stuck.
Remember, people tend to overestimate their good traits and underestimate their negatives. It’s likely you think you are better than you really are. Off set this tendency by soliciting feedback from decision makers, insiders, and influencers. This is a delicate matter. If you aren’t careful, you’ll come off needy.
After soliciting feedback, follow through and follow up. Once a month explain in specific what you are doing to improve.
Avoid the tendency to frequently express your desire to get ahead. In this case, put your head down, excel, improve, and wait for the best opportunity.
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I’ll post more on this topic Friday, Oct. 22. Tomorrow Jim Kouzes is back and I’m reviewing, “The Truth about Leadership.” In addition, we’re giving away five copies.
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What are your suggestions for a person who wants to get noticed and move up?
My suggestions are best described in the Five S’s: Show Up, Step Up, Stretch Out, Stand Out and Share
(I am currently writing an artilce on this and will share it on completion)
Cinnie,
Thanks for your 5 S’s. Let us know when you post your article.
Best,
Dan
Cinnie, I like your 5 S’s as well and look forward to the article. thanks, Al
I’d add: volunteer for the tasks no one wants to do. Make yourself proficient at it. Learn to have fun at it. If the least like tasks are done by someone with a good attitude, everybody notices. Eventually, everyone appreciates it.
Hi Scott,
Thanks for stopping in. I like your advice but it’s too hard. 🙂
Best to you,
Dan
Then I’ll do it 🙂
This ties in nicely with yesterday’s post.
This is good advice for someone who has an internal identity of a leader.
But what about those who see themselves as ‘suppportive’ instead of ‘agressive/assertive’? These people have never given themselves permission and have not had encouragement.
I feel they are the overlooked in our society, similar to the ‘untouchables’ in India. They are corporate ‘untouchables’.
I wrote a blog about my experience helping those people flourish: http://bit.ly/91x5Jh
It was fun!
I liked your blog post Alan. I will RT on Twitter. Are you on Twitter? Couldn’t find you in name search yet it often doesn’t work.
Kate
I think Alan is @alanhill8 !
(*Note to self, use spell check before posting)
Kate, thank you for the RT and I am alanhill8 (thanks for the follow and the post).
I saw your video on your site and I was impressed.
In fact, it’s clear that Dan has assembled a leadership dream team here.
Kudos Dan.
Very helpful post Dan. Interesting comparison you make Front line people are acknowledge because of execution and managers on delegation. True.
Question: Have you ever witnessed a front liner not being promoted because they were labeled “good at execution” yet “we don’t witness managerial ability in him/her?”
Must a front line employee show strategic ability through their questions, discussions, etc.. while executing the work — to display promotional promise?
Would love your thoughts on this.
Kate
What are your suggestions for a person who wants to get noticed and move up?
It seems to me that this is one of those things that is handled quite differently by different generations (to generalize just a bit). Those of us who are more babyboomer age often adhere to the “work harder, display extreme loyalty, respect the hierarchy” type of mindset than many GenYers and millenials. They often work hard but concentrate their work efforts in different ways; although they may feel an affinity for the organization, they don’t see the organization itself as a “sure thing” for a long career (they have seen too much corporate shift watching their parents and older peers); and they are quicker to question why someone’s space on an org chart defines how much power that person is given.
I talked about some of those distinctions in my piece about a GenY coworker (and friend) who was “moving up” and moving on to a different organization:
http://waytenmom.blogspot.com/2010/09/y-im-not-happy-one-of-my-fave-co.html
Dear Dan,
There are lot of valuable learnings in today’s post about prevalent practices in the organisations. Some of the learnings are- think like a boss, be a solution maker, appreciate good traits of a person.I fully agree to your suggestions. They make you connected, engaged and look committed in the organisation. Your opening question is really simple and universal too. I never thought of this question and now I deeply think , how to answer this question. Actually I see myself as a diamond in the rough. I think when diamond claims that it is a diamond, it loses its shine, similarly when person claims or seeks approval of his worth, it loses credibility or appreciation. I think when people do not find your true value then you should not wait for others approval. Any way you are what you are, so why need other,s approval. Instead one should be more humble and simple, it increases shine. Let your output and contributin speak about you. So, internally driven action is the key to shine more than seeking externally driven approval.
I strongly believe that people get noticed by their contribution and it moves you up. This might not be possible or true to all the organisations, but contribution is the like a shadow which follows you. So, if you are noticed, believe more in yourself, be more humble and contribute more towards organisations and society.
I love your comment about how “people tend to overestimate their good traits and underestimate their negatives.” This is very true and really reinforces the idea of seeking feedback from others. How I see myself is not nearly as important as how others see me. I’ve found, though, that seeking feedback is much harder than it seems. I love hearing about all the things I’m doing well, but don’t really like it when I hear about my shortcomings. When I seek feedback from others I need to be prepared to hear it all – the good, the bad and the ugly – if I’m ever going to grow. Rather than getting angry at the person giving negative feedback I need to seriously contemplate what they are saying and see if there is any truth in it, and if so what I am going to do about it.
Seeking feedback is also hard because it seems that the people I really need feedback from do not always want to be honest with me (possibly being afraid of hurting my feelings), and often the people who are more than willing to give feedback are more interested in telling me why I’m wrong than in helping me grow. Fortunately I’ve been able to build a network of people that are interested in helping me grow by providing very valuable feedback. Unfortunately that network was built through trial and error, which caused a lot of emotional frustration on my end. Anyone have any suggestions on a better way to build that feedback network?
I believe the paradigm of “advancement” has been undergoing a significant transformation over the past decade. Sure nepotism, suck ups, and favorites will continue to move up the ladder, but the world marketplace has become so increasingly competitive and complex that these typically incompetent individuals are being weeded out due to their poor contribution to the enterprise.
Paula’s point regarding the millenials is spot on. Those individuals entering the workforce today face a completely different business model than I faced in the early 70’s. The notion of the “company man [woman]” is going to die with the baby boomer generation. These 21st century workers have a much different set of motivations that drive their lives. If you don’t think so, ask your children who have recently entered the workforce.
I think one of the greatest challenges today’s leaders have is figuring out how to motivate these new workers to deliver productivity to the organization. To assume this new generation of employees is very similar to past generations will turn out to be the Achilles Heel of 21st century leadership. Too many leaders are running their companies like they were run when they first entered the workforce.
Dan, I find it difficult to answer your question on advising a person on how to get noticed and whatever I suggested would fall into a 20th century paradigm because I am not routinely surrounded by working millenials. This is an area that needs serious empirical research attention, especially now with the coming wave of baby boomer retirements.
Dan I do have Millenials working in my organization and Jim is absolutely correct in his assertion about the totally different attitude and disposition of these individuals. I not only see it as he suggests in my children but also in the new physicians recently trained joining our organization. There is certainly more of a balance sought between personal and work time. I like Jim am looking at our mindset as a baby boomer but am also cognizant of the paradigm shift in management taking place. Creativity and innovation is being fostered on the front lines if you will and the key characteristic I personally am looking for in those “hidden high performers” is their ability to work with teams and their disposition and roles on those teams as projects get done. Analyzing the dynamics of the team work will occasionally alert me as to who’s committed to MVV and has manifested more “ownership” than the others but working at the same time in a complementary fashion. I don’t approach these people after a single project but after several have been accomplished and the repeated behavior with the accompanying right attitude is still present. I end up usually asking these folks to serve on committees and use that channel to spark their passion and growth. Thanks for the great post and to all for their comments. All helpful. Regards, Al
This is very compatible with my theory of being as transparent as you can in leading an organization/company/team. Only by transparency the “front line” will embrace your vision and follow it flawlessly.
You make a good point, Gabriele. In family life, I have had issues that I tried to “protect” my children from. Eventually I realized that even though they were very young, they knew something was out of kilter; it was those times when a bit of age-appropriate transparency and a child-level explanation would have gone a long way to restore trust and keep everyone on a peaceful keel!
I would suggest being your best and waiting for your time to come. Think of David waiting for God to put him in leadership. Twice, David had the opportunity to kill Saul yet didn’t do so being a man of integrity and recognizing God’s way rather than his own. If you’re being overlooked in your job it’s probably because God’s trying to refine who you are.
This happened to me on one particular occasion where I could have clearly done the job better than the individual chosen, but was overlooked because I needed God to work in me and change me. The position of leadership for leadership’s sake is infamy. Leaders are delegates of service. And it isn’t necessarily about function but rather the vision the company has. In your own due time, God will stoop down to make you great. Remember diamonds are formed by pressure and time.
Hey Kid just wanted to let you know that I really loved your comment especially “leaders being delegates of service.” AD
Dear Dan,
To answer to your both questions:
“If you thought you were a diamond in the rough who was not being found, what would you do?”
– I don’t think I am a diamond in the rough, this is a thinking of a selfish person. Better is to think that there are a “lots of diamonds in the rough”, many times better than we.
“What are your suggestions for a person who wants to get noticed and move up?”
-My suggesion is: for them to get noticed by they truly honest character and being. If they have truly something to share and to give , is OK to move further in good-up. They don’t have to keep in mind to move up, the “road” of professional or personal life will take them further by their actions every day.
Another great suggestion is coming from Steve Jobs, Stay foolish stay focus.
These are my beliefs.
With kind regards,
This is Steve Jobs complete article, I think all of Leadership Members know it.
http://makeitjust.com/2009/09/stay-hungry-stay-foolish-or-what-i-learned-from-steve-jobs-keynote-address-at-stanford/
Kind regards,
“If you thought you were a diamond in the rough who was not being found, what would you do?”
Dear Dan,
I think I’ll encourage and support him or her to stand to stand up.
Valuable people, sometimes are afraid- this because they experienced some bad situation in their past I think, but they must receive support in order to create a happy life. It depends a lot of their faith, to do this.
Kind regards,