Career Progress: A Search for Leadership Opportunities

Even the most empowered employees often feel it is up to management to tap them on the shoulders and offer them a new position. Because people think management holds all the strings, frustration leads the more vocal to complain, while the rest simmer in silent resentment.

Possible outcomes include demotivation, negative attitudes, lowered productivity, passive resistance to change, and premature departure for greener pastures. The key problem is that people focus on their own needs, what the organization can do for them, rather than the other way around. Instead, you need to discover or create new roles by finding ways to add value. You need to become a leader, not a pawn on a chessboard.

View yourself as a self-employed business person that provides services to internal customers; your colleagues are potential strategic partners. If you want to effectively manage your career, seek opportunities to show leadership. Then, champion changes that benefit the business. This ultimately will generate personal career opportunities.

Learn how to influence upwards in a manner that does not come across as an attack. Cultivate a strong external focus to learn more about the needs of end customers and how competitors are meeting those needs. In short, learn to think like a leader.

Management's role is to foster bottom-up leadership rather than serve as the gatekeepers for a pool of existing job slots. Otherwise, people see managers as blockers rather than as enablers.

Manage your career

It is not always possible to decide in advance what you want to do with the rest of your life. Sometimes it is a matter of discovering what you like through trial and error, networking, and career window shopping. It is like house hunting. You can make a list of the main criteria you want in a new house, but once you start looking at houses, you might revise your criteria because you discover features you hadn't thought of in advance. You shouldn't feel a lack of confidence just because you feel uncertain about where you are going in your career.