Exit a Dead-End Job 6: Find Related Outside Opportunities

This continues our series to help all of you who feel trapped in a dead-end job to find an exit

Sally found herself trapped in a dead-end job. She worked hard and delivered great productivity and quality. She worked to get the education the company required for advancement. She anticipated being promoted to branch manager when her branch manager retired. Instead management brought in an outside manager. Sally decided to take some of her skills and start a part-time business. Her business flourished and gave her a venue for her creativity and satisfaction.

Opportunities to Use Your Motivated Skills

Never have as many opportunities existed to find ways to use your skills outside of, but related to, your job. Today’s information/technology world requires little capital to start microenterprises, moonlight, or earn money. True, security suffers and risk increases, but can still be managed.

Ensure that your outside opportunity uses your motivated skills—and does not conflict with your career values—or you will find it unsatisfying nor rewarding. I do not have space to list all the opportunities to use all of the skills. However, some opportunities include:

• Contracting for projects on Elance, Guru, or other project or freelance web sites provide paid work for graphic designers, web designers, typists, editors, programmers, marketers, and other skills
• Work from home on your off hours for employers listed on RatRaceRebellion and other web sites (Though do not click on the ads. They are not screened.) for tutoring, accounting, legal, secretarial, call center, writing, graphic design, and IT skills
• Create or buy products and sell them on Ebay, Etsy, or other specialty sales sights
• Write, blog, or record something related to your skills and sell it through CD or Book Baby, monetization, or just for fun and fulfillment

Cautions about Conflict of Interest

Carefully review your employer’s policies about intellectual property, conflict of interest, and other restrictions the company may place upon your after-hour or creative efforts. Make sure they do not own all your thinking or products.

Monday we review how you can let your current job pay for fulfillment unrelated to your job

Exit a Dead-End Job 5: Create Opportunity on the Job

This continues our series to help all of you who feel trapped in a dead-end job to find an exit

Lori found herself in a dead-end job with 14 years to retire. She knew her career had peaked 11 years earlier.  She managed one of the top 5 branches out of 360 worldwide. Her performance consistently placed her among the top 1-3 employees in the system of 780 employees. Money was not an issue even though she had maxed out on the pay scale. Consequently she received very small raises in spite of her great performance reviews.

She did not want to leave the company because they grandfathered her with a defined benefits pension and a great medical package. She also remained passionate about the company and the service they provided. However, she refused to stagnate in her current situation. She created opportunities to grow, stay current, and work at her potential within her current position.

How to Create Opportunity in Your Current Job

You may create opportunities in your current job and increase your satisfaction by

• Mentoring other workers into promotions and management positions
• Exploring ways to do your job faster, better, more efficiently and more effectively
• Discovering better products, services, outlets or market niches for the work
• Serving on community boards of associations your employer recommends you join
• Volunteering to serve on committees and development teams for the company
• Studying on your own and attending professional development workshops
• Reaching out to, or networking with, others in the company or community

Involve Your Supervisor Before You Act

You should keep your supervisor informed before you begin changing what you do on the job. You may face consequences if you change things without informing management. You may propose

• Changes in procedures, workstation layout, or work processes
• Reorganizing staff (as Jim Collins says) to get the right people in the right seats on the bus
• Adding new responsibilities to your current responsibilities
• Trading responsibilities you do not enjoy with co-workers for performing more of your motivated skills

Friday we discover how to find outside opportunities for satisfaction related to your job

Exit a Dead-End Job 4: Transfer Within the Company

This continues our series to help all of you who feel trapped in a dead-end job to find an exit

Warren had worked for the same division for more than 12 years. He started in a branch in a small rural city. He transferred to a branch closer to the corporate headquarters. This transfer gave him greater visibility to headquarter personnel. He received a promotion to the headquarters office because of his great performance. His director passed him over for four promotions in the next 3 years. His career seemed dead-ended in that division, when the director of another division in the same department offered him a promotion. He took the transfer and began his new assent.

Exploring Your Options Within the Company

You may find transferring to another job within your current company allows you to exit a dead-end job. Of course, this option only exists if your current company is big enough to provide transfer opportunities. You do not need to transfer to a promotion. Lateral transfers may provide the new boost you desire.

Remember, you want to explore your options before transferring. Too many people transfer to new positions without understanding enough about the new position to verify they will enjoy it. You want to identify the following information about potential teams or divisions you may transfer into:

• Typical assignments, responsibilities, and tasks performed by the team
• Management, collaboration, and interpersonal styles within the team
• Expected performance and how they measure productivity, efficiency, effectiveness, and quality
• How much time you will use your motivated skills versus skills you don’t enjoy
• Sources of satisfaction and frustration from the other members of the team
• Projects, goals, or challenges they have that you may help them achieve or resolve

Build Relationships Within the Company

You enhance your potential for transfers within the company as you build relationships with members of other teams. I suggest you follow the keys to relationships outlined by Jared and Sarah Stewart in their book City of Influence to build professional relationships at work

Wednesday we demonstrate how you can create new opportunity within existing structure

Exit a Dead-End Job 3: Move to Another Company

This continues our series to help all of you who feel trapped in a dead-end job to find an exit

Justin felt trapped in the job he held for 7 years. His forecast for the future did not indicate future growth. He and five others would compete for his manager’s position if the manager ever moved. However, his manager was in his late 30’s and did not seem to have any growth potential having been passed over for promotion three times. Justin could transfer to other stores around him, but they also had 16 middle aged managers all competing for 1 divisional manager’s slot. Justin decided to find a job with a competitor. His new job paid 18% more, a promotion, and several avenues for further growth. Justin received two more promotions within 12 years.

When to Consider Changing Companies

Some people move to another company every five years if they do not progress within the company. Some people consider staying with one company without frequent promotion taints your reputation. Others may consider you stagnant, unmotivated, or not promotable. Some people accept that personal ambition replaced loyalty as a positive attribute years ago.

I find that thinking flawed. You still must perform well, but wise companies reward performance and loyalty.

Nevertheless, the following situations may dictate you change companies:

• Small, family-owned companies that give the responsible positions to family members
• Small branch offices where promotions require relocating & you don’t want to move
• Assignments that lack challenge or motivation and your skills are atrophying
• Lack of challenge leads to poor performance with an eventual termination
• Possible despair or depression resulting from an unfulfilling or rewarding job
• Management passes you over 3-5 times for promotion

Downside to Changing Companies

You should consider the following challenges when contemplating changing companies. You may

• Move to an even worse situation
• Lose money in benefits and pension
• Lose seniority and the new company makes layoffs
• Break unwritten rules of the new culture

Research new companies thoroughly to avoid these possibilities.

Monday we discuss how to accelerate a transfer to another part of your current company

Exit a Dead-End Job 2: Identify Your Motivated Skills

This continues our series to help all of you who feel trapped in a dead-end job to find an exit

Brad was business manager for a large college within a major university. He enjoyed both the college and the university and his co-workers. He had been doing the same job for 12 years. While the college changed deans three times in those twelve years, his job did not change. He felt he was going through the motions on the job. His problem, however, he didn’t know what he could change. Most importantly, he didn't didn’t know that he wanted to do. He lacked the excitement to go to work, but did not want to change his co-workers, workplace environment, or status. He just wanted to feel greater fulfillment and challenges from his job.

Discover Your Motivated Skills

Stewart, Cooper, and Coon (the executive placement firm) offers Richard Knowdell’s Motivated Skills Test on their web site. It will help you identify your

• “Level of proficiency in a broad range of functional-transferrable skills”
• “Level of motivation to use these skills”
• “Plan to develop skills you enjoy but lack competency”

They also offers his Career Values Test. The values test will help you

• “Define factors affecting your career satisfaction”
• “Determine the intensity of your feelings about these factors”
• “Determine areas of value conflict and congruence”
• “Apply what you learn to your career decisions” that we will discuss in future posts

Explore How to Spend More Time on Motivated Skills

You can enhance the fulfillment of a dead-end job by performing the skills that motivate you the most. So, analyze what percent of your time you spend performing each skill listed. Explore how to increase time performed on those you enjoy and decrease time spent on those you don’t.

For example you might—in consultation with your supervisor:

• Trade certain tasks with a co-worker who doesn’t enjoy doing what you enjoy and vice versa
• Negotiate appointments to projects using the skills you enjoy most
• Look for other opportunities to use your motivated skills

Friday we examine the benefits and risks of moving to another company

Exit a Dead-End Job 1: Overview

This begins a series to help all of you who feel trapped in a dead-end job to find an exit

Kelley worked for the same company for 18 years. She enjoyed her job, but saw no room for advancement. In addition, her salary already exceeded the maximum allowed by the company. As a result, her annual increase did not cover the increase in cost of living. They grandfathered her into their benefit-defined pension, valued at more than $1.5M. She loved the work environment, her co-workers, and the purpose of her work. Yet, she knew she worked significantly below her capacity and potential.

Growing Trend in Dead-End Jobs

You may feel trapped in a dead-end position with little room for growth. Corporations in the late 1970’s flattened levels of management from an average of 17 to 6 levels. Less layers of management changed career ladders into career stepstools. Fewer layers of management meant fewer opportunities for advancement and promotion.

In addition, you find salary increases get smaller each year as you move higher in the salary ranges. Salary schedules used by companies were designed for greater upward mobility. So, people max out their range more frequently.

Several reasons contribute to the lack of movement and advancement:

• People in the levels above you who don’t retire or move onto other jobs
• Smaller companies, departments, or divisions created smaller pools of opportunity
• Grandfathered pension plans create golden nooses binding people to the company
• People stay in great places to work and flee hostile or unfriendly workplaces
• People sacrifice upward mobility and pay raises because of other intrinsic factors

Options to Dead-End Jobs

You can pursue options to exit dead-end jobs:

• Identify your motivated skills
• Move to another company
• Transfer within the current company
• Create opportunity within the current structure
• Find outside opportunities related to your job
• Let your job pay for fulfillment unrelated to your job
• Surrender to the monotony and lack of fulfillment

We will explore each of these options as part of our series Exit a Dead-End Job.

Wednesday we explore how identifying your motivated skills can lead to more satisfaction

Effect of Education on Bigger Raises and Better Jobs

This continues our series analyzing current economic and workplace trends

Brad worked 24 years as a successful sales representative. He always provided for his family very well. The economic downturn affected his job. First one company, then a second closed while he sold for them. Suddenly, he felt his lack of a college degree deprived him of work. He applied for jobs only to watch people with less experience but more education get the jobs.

Pew Proposes Education Protects Jobs

The Pew Charitable Trusts recently released a study titled How Much Protection Does a College Degree Afford? The Impact of the Recession on Recent College Graduates. The study provides interesting statistics including:

• “Before the recession, just over half (55%) of young adults with a high school degree (HS) were employed, compared with almost two-thirds (64%) of those with an associate degree (AA) and 7 in 9 (69%) of those with a bachelor’s degree (BA)
• “Job losses during the recession made existing employment gaps even worse”
• “The employment declines for those with HS and AA degrees were 16% and 11%, respectively, compared with 7% for those with a BA degree”
• “Before the recession, BA graduates had more than twice as many college-level jobs as AA graduates and more than four times as many college-level jobs as HS graduates”
• “6% of the HS & AA groups lost college-level jobs compared with only 3% of BA graduates”
• Wages decreased for all education groups, however, the decrease was less pronounced for recent 4-year college graduates.”
• Weekly wages for BA graduates was only 5%
• Weekly wages for AA declined 12% and HS graduates declined 10%

Still Uncertain

The study shared an interesting conclusion

• “Young college graduates are finding it much more difficult to get jobs, are accepting much less desirable positions, and are increasingly ‘camping out’ at home and in schools when they cannot get jobs” are false
• “It is evident that recent college graduates were well-protected against the worst effects of the recession”
• “Decline in training was slightly greater for associate degree holders”

Monday we explore how identifying your motivated skills enhancing your job

Effect of Education on Bigger Raises and Better Jobs

This continues our series analyzing current economic and workplace trends

Brad worked 24 years as a successful sales representative. He always provided for his family very well. The economic downturn affected his job. First one company, then a second closed while he sold for them. Suddenly, he felt his lack of a college degree deprived him of work. He applied for jobs only to watch people with less experience but more education get the jobs.

Pew Proposes Education Protects Jobs

The Pew Charitable Trusts recently released a study titled How Much Protection Does a College Degree Afford? The Impact of the Recession on Recent College Graduates. The study provides interesting statistics including:

• “Before the recession, just over half (55%) of young adults with a high school degree (HS) were employed, compared with almost two-thirds (64%) of those with an associate degree (AA) and 7 in 9 (69%) of those with a bachelor’s degree (BA)”
• “Job losses during the recession made existing employment gaps even worse”
• “The employment declines for those with HS and AA degrees were 16% and 11%, respectively, compared with 7% for those with a BA degree”
• “Before the recession, BA graduates had more than twice as many college-level jobs as AA graduates and more than four times as many college-level jobs as HS graduates”
• “6% of the HS & AA groups lost college-level jobs compared with only 3% of BA graduates”
• “Wages decreased for all education groups, however, the decrease was less pronounced for recent 4-year college graduates.”
• Weekly wages for BA graduates was only 5%
• Weekly wages for AA declined 12% and HS graduates declined 10%

Still Uncertain

The study shared an interesting conclusion

• “Young college graduates are finding it much more difficult to get jobs, are accepting much less desirable positions, and are increasingly ‘camping out’ at home and in schools when they cannot get jobs” are false
• “It is evident that recent college graduates were well-protected against the worst effects of the recession”
• “Decline in training was slightly greater for associate degree holders”

Monday we explore how identifying your motivated skills enhances your job

Comments on February Jobless Report from All Over

This continues our series analyzing current economic and workplace trends

Kent was laid off when Hostess closed its doors. He worked as a route salesman for more than 12 years at 3 major firms. His performance impressed his bosses, but each of the companies suffered unbelievable losses during the period. Kent started looking for work immediately. He targeted a major company in his market. He networked into the company. He gathered information. He built relationships. Finally, a position opened. He—and 100 people—applied for the job. His work paid off when the company offered him the position.

The Good News: The Rate Dropped

The US Department of Labor releases the monthly report on the Employment Situation (more commonly known as the unemployment report). The report issued on March 1 heartened most economists.

The summary of the report began by saying “Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 236,000 in February, and the unemployment rate edged down to 7.7 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment increased in professional and business services, construction, and health care.”

The report gave the following details:

• Professional and business services added 73,000 jobs
• Construction increased by 48,000
• Health care added 32,000 jobs
• Information industry added 20,000 (mostly motion picture and recording industries)
• Retail continued to trend up with 24,000 jobs

The Bad News: Uncertainty

The worst news dealt with how the sequester and other inaction by government will affect this modest decrease in the unemployment rate. Sequester cuts will affect local, state, federal, and education payrolls. Those cuts will ripple into private sector buying triggering more possible layoffs.

Average hourly earnings failed to keep up with cost of living increases:

• “Average hourly earning for all employees for private nonfarm payrolls rose by 4 cents.”
• “Over the year, average hourly earnings have risen by 2.1%”

The following key areas basically remained unchanged:

• The number of long-term unemployed (jobless for 27 weeks or more)
• Employment-population ratio held at 58.6%
• Number of persons employed part-time for economic reasons (they would prefer full-time) at 8.0 million

Friday we review education and training challenges hindering your successful career

“Stickiness” of Upward Mobility in American Dream

This begins a short series on recent statistics released through various sources

The other day Talk of the Nation on NPR discussed upward mobility and the American Dream. We encourage you listen to the broadcast or read the transcript and apply it to your experiences. The program was hosted by Lynn Neary and featured Erin Currier, director of the Economics Mobility Project at the Pew Charitable Trusts, and Marilyn Geewax, senior business editor for NPR.

Decreasing Mobility Dampens the American Dream

In the program, Geewax said “We tolerate income inequality a great deal, but we want to know that we can move up and down based on our own efforts and not just who our parents were…But I think most studies tend to show these days that people make more than their parents, but that's because, you know, we're better educated, we're more productive…But are you moving up relative to your parents? Do you start out in one of those lower economic rungs and get to run your way up? Well, I think what we've seen in the last couple of years is that in sort of the big, broad, squishy middle, there are a lot of people who are maybe a little bit more upper class, and they slid down to middle or lower-middle class, and that's pretty darn painful because people lost jobs.”

Education is Key, but the Right Education is Mandatory

The experts continuously expressed the necessity of education to achieve upward mobility. They.

• Discussed college degrees, graduate degrees, and junior college degrees.
• Highlighted that training in the right skills were essential to moving out of the bottom twenty percent.
• Stated that factory jobs where you could learn a skill and move up would not exist

I’ve seen thousands of people with college degrees working in poverty jobs. So many get an education, but cannot get ahead. Either they got the wrong degree, or they did not learn the unwritten rules to get ahead. Too many schools offer expensive programs with cheap futures.

Wednesday we examine the new jobless reports released by the Department of Labor

Meet & Exceed Expectations (Reprise)

This is a reprint from August 2011. This applies to our series to earn the biggest raises & better jobs.

You must meet management’s expectations if you wish to avoid layoffs. You must exceed their expectations to get the biggest raises and the better promotions. Then, you must communicate your return on investment to management. While this seems simple, most workers fail to do the first. Even more fail to do the second. Barely 10% do the last. We will deal with meeting and exceeding expectations this week and how to communicate return on investment next week.

Bennie’s Story

Bennie managed a small, out-of-the-way operation of an international corporation. His efforts could have gone unnoticed, except Bennie understood how to meet & exceed expectations. He discovered that the corporation published some of their expectations, but did not publish others.

Bennie began to explore those unpublished expectations. He found the production goal, how much he was supposed to produce, well known. He also found what effect his production should have on the clients, and how management measured it. He had to dig deep to discover that management measured the cost of each production item to determine the efficiency of each operation. In addition, they measured the efficiency of how many hours it took to produce each unit. While management did not post the cost per unit or the hour per unit expectation, they tracked it at headquarters.

Bennie discovered all of the metrics that headquarters used to measure productivity, effectiveness, efficiency, and quality. He created graphs to track the progress of his operation compared to headquarters' expectations.. Bennie began working on improving his performance on each of the expectations. He first met their expectations. Then, he exceeded them. He shared better, faster, more effective ways to do the job. He communicated his improvements with management.

Over the next three years, he shared his improvements with other managers. Headquarters asked him to present at various internal conferences. He gained a reputation for excellent service. Finally, Bennie received a promotion to headquarters where his insights to meet and exceed expectations improved all the operations throughout the world.

He continued meeting and exceeding expectations so well, that he is ending his career in a job he loves doing, among the isles of the Caribbean Ocean.

Employee Responsibility to Discover Expectations

Unfortunately, few companies communicate their expectations effectively to employees. Yet, the responsibility to discover and meet expectations remains with employees.  You probably will need to use several sources of information to discover all the expectations. May I suggest just a few sources you may select:

• Read published information in operations guidelines, human resource manuals, job descriptions, and other company texts
• Ask specific questions of your co-workers, supervisor, and human resource workers
• Discuss company expectations with your mentor and network within the company
• Identify possible benchmarks (comparisons of production of different companies in similar industries) through trade or professional associations or private consulting firms.

These represent just a few of the sources of information you can use. Now, let’s discuss what questions you may ask.

PEEQ: A Simple Way to Define Expectations

The acronym PEEQ represents productivity, efficiency, effectiveness, and quality. PEEQ provides a simple method for outlining typical expectations. You can use the formula to structure your questions in the following manner:

• What is my expected productivity?
  • How many units (pieces, pages, words per minute, sales, contracts, etc.) do you expect me to produce per hour (day, week, month, quarter, year).
  • How much money do you expect me to earn (or save) for the company?
  • How many clients do you expect me to service per day? Traffic in the office or store?
• How do you measure my efficiency?
  • What time, money, overhead, or other costs are used to cover my work?
  • Have you set a cost per unit, hour per unit, or other measure of my efficiency?
  • How do you think I could improve my efficiency?
• How do you measure the effectiveness of my work?
  • What do you want my portion of the work to impact on our business?
  • How does my contribution add to the bottom line of our department?
  • How could my efforts improve satisfaction of our clients?
• How do you measure the quality of my work?
  • What constitutes failure on the part of my work? Prevent satisfaction?
  • How could I improve the quality of my work? Or our final product?
  • Would you be interested in ideas to improve the quality of my work?

Once you verify the production, efficiency, effectiveness, and quality management expects from you; you can begin planning how to meet their expectations. Once you meet their expectations, you can begin to exceed them. Meeting and exceeding expectations will help you get the biggest raises and the better assignments or promotions. However, only if you communicate your return on investment to management.

Next week we will explore how to communicate your return on investment to management.

Here’s wishing you more money, better living.

Written & Unwritten Rules (Reprise)

This is a reprint of my post from August 2011. It also applies to this series.

Every organization or community requires rules to avoid anarchy, according to traditional thinking. Most businesses operate based on sets of written and unwritten rules. Your compliance to the written and unwritten rules will affect your raises and assignments within the company.

William’s Story

William started working for a company as a sales representatives. He kept to himself and performed his duties well. In fact, he usually exceeded his sales goals. He determined that his vast experience in sales transferred directly to this new company. He focused his networking on clients and did not build a network of people within the sales department or company in general. He did not seek the assistance of a mentor.

Unfortunately, the sales department operated on conflicting sets of written and unwritten rules. For example, the policy stated that sales representatives  needed to submit their paperwork by quitting time each Friday. The sales vice president, however, wanted all paperwork submitted by Wednesday. In addition, the company HR guide stated that sales representatives could wear “white or light colored shirts”. However, nobody who wore colored shirts ever got promoted. Finally, the sales department set official sales targets very low, but expected their sales representatives to deliver double the targets.

William’s lack of network and mentor prevented him from learning all these unwritten rules. One lady in the sales support staff tried to inform him. William, thinking her position as menial, did not believe her. He continued to submit his paperwork on Thursday, thinking he was early. He continued to wear colored shirts. He felt underappreciated when his sales exceeded 60% of his targets.

The sales vice president decided William did not fit into his sales team. William’s consistently submitted his paperwork late, did not dress appropriately, and did not achieve his sales goals. William did not get assigned the key accounts. He did not receive the best sales support, nor did he get invited to some of the sales meetings. He also did not get the bonuses he felt he deserved.

He felt his efforts were unappreciated by management and left for new employment never realizing why the company treated him the way they did.

Rules within Business

Companies record written rules in policy manuals, procedure or operations guidelines, memos, signs, and posters on walls and screens. Litigation increasingly pushes corporations to create more written rules, and to  enforce the rules they wrote. Frequently, the human resource division (HR) receives the assignment to draft written rules, while management remains responsible for enforcing them.

Nevertheless, codifying every facet of human interaction remains a daunting task. As a result, most businesses still maintain unwritten rules or commonly ignore written rules. Understanding and abiding by both the written and unwritten rules affects how management perceives employees. New employees, or long-term employees who wish to rise within the organization, face the challenge of learning both the written and unwritten rules.

The responsibility for teaching written rules falls on the human resource department during orientation. In addition, employees must assume responsibility to read and abide by guidelines. Some employees, fail to recognize this and think they can excuse mistakes by saying “I didn’t know”. Management expects people to study the rules, internalize them, and abide by them.

However, no one officially receives the assignment to teach unwritten rules. Traditionally, employees considered on the “fast track” received tutoring from mentors. Today, mentors and internal network contacts pass on the understanding of unwritten rules and how to comply with written rules. Employees that fail to develop network and mentor contacts frequently fail to learn the rules. As a result, they do appear to fit into the business or project team.

More on This Topic

Several sources of information on written and unwritten rules exists. Adrienne Mendell writes about how women suffer a disadvantage from unwritten rules. Bill Swanson, CEO of Raytheon, wrote a list of unwritten rules of management in 2001. Annie Mueller shares some general ideas for complying with unwritten rules. A current best seller is First Break All the Rules by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman.

Fit Into the Organization (reprise)

This is a reprint of my post from August 2011. It applies to this series.

Most of us have worked with someone that did not fit into the group or team. We experienced those uncomfortably awkward moments when someone said or did something that broke a company taboo. Today we will discuss the need to fit into the corporate culture.

David’s Story

David, a graduate student, worked as a research assistant at nationally recognized university. The team he worked with developed cutting edge technology for the government and NASA. David contributed significantly to the software development that drove the project.

David, while a brilliant researcher, lacked certain social skills. He misread situations. He worked best alone rather than in groups. David prided himself on arriving to work at 7:45 everyday, and leaving at 5:15. Unfortunately, the rest of the team, including the boss, usually arrived around 10am and left after 7pm. David considered their lack of punctuality character flaws. While David preferred to work alone without interruption. The rest of the team enjoyed multiple informal brainstorming sessions around the foosball table or other game. In many ways, David, who left at 5:15, seldom participated in the late night pizza busts with the rest of the team.

David’s software performed exceptionally well. NASA invited him to present his work to them. He continues to contract with NASA and other government departments. He manages his own consulting company. He is the only employee. He loves what he does.

The rest of the team commercialized the research. Together, they formed a separate company that applies their research to commercial situations. They formed the company together with their boss as the CEO. David was the only member of the team not invited to participate. He just never fit into their team.

Why Fitting In is Important

Organizations, like machines, function best when all components work together. Production and collaboration stall when the corporate rhythm stutters or skips because one element does not fit in. Team cohesiveness requires team members to fit together.

Significant research validates the need for cohesive teams. Jim Collins cites the need to have the right people in the right seats on the bus for an organization to achieve greatness. He cites the importance of culture in many publications. Bruce Tuckman postulated that groups pass through five stages to become highly effective. His research spawned continued analysis of the need to form, norm, storm, perform, and adjourn. 

How do People Fit In or Not Fit In

Unfortunately, fitting in requires social skills that many, like David, lack. Frequently, the person that does not fit in is the only one not recognizing it. This highlights the need for a good mentor and an honest network of contacts. Some examples of not fitting in:

• You are loud and noisy when the rest of the organization prefers silent productivity
• You remain aloof while the culture prefers free wheeling, informal collaboration
• You come to work at times different than the group.
• You work 35 hours. The rest of the group works 60 hours.
• You want to socialize after hours while the team favors a family value of going home
• You don’t produce as much as the rest
• You produce so much more they brand you “rate buster”
• You constantly seek public accolade in a team that performs anonymous miracles
• You wear shorts and tee-shirts. The team wears dress slacks and shirts

Fitting in not does mean that we all act as brainless copies of the same person.In the past, we felt that ethnic, age, gender, or other issues legitimately precluded people from fitting in. While we still can improve on those issues, legislation outlawed those issues of discrimination. Today, we rejoice in age, race, gender, and other diversity.

Your mentor and internal network can help you learn the organization’s culture and hot to fit in. They observe you on the job and share suggestions for change. They monitor your changes and share what you changed well, and what you still need to change. Learn to listen to your mentor and network. Resist the natural urge to justify or defend your current behavior.

Failure to fit in results in lower raises, no promotions, and even possible termination. So, learn to fit into the organization.

Get Bigger Raises & Better Promotions: Deliver It!

This continues sharing how to get bigger raises & better promotions at work

Kyle worried about his career. He struggled to meet management’s rising expectations on his performance. He hired a personal business coach for a year. The coach met with him multiple times for the first two months to help him deal with the mental barriers that prevented him from believing he could deliver. Once he realized he could achieve the management’s expectations, the coach helped him improve. Within the year he not only met expectations, but he exceeded them. His promotion to the corporate headquarters followed within two years.

Discovering Managements Expectations

Frequently, management may fail to clearly communicate their expectations. Sometimes, they communicate partial expectations, usually about expected productivity. They tell you how much they expect you to deliver. For example, they will tell you how many:

• Calls they expect you to process an hour
• Grocery items they expect you to run through your cash register an hour
• Words they expect you to type per hour
• Doors to weld on cars as they come down the line
• Dollars in revenue you should increase per month

You need to deliver more than productivity to get the bigger raises or better promotions. You need to also discover what they expect in terms of:

• Efficiency: how much you deliver using less time, money, people, or other resources
• Effectiveness: how well does your work achieve the results management expects
• Quality: how excellent, or free from errors, is your work

You can discover managements expectations through a variety of methods:

• Reading company materials and guidelines
• Learning from your mentor, supervisor, network, or co-workers
• Listening to carefully to conversations, directions, & instructions from management
• Asking questions to verify you explore and understand what management expects

Achieving and Exceeding Expectations

You can achieve and exceed management’s expectations if you:

• Believe you can do it and change your paradigms
• Monitor and graph your work
• Explore how to improve your work
• Share your ideas and results with your results with your supervisor

Monday we explore how following the written and unwritten rules get you better promotions