Hugh Dooit is a personable, intelligent fellow who by all conventional standards should be enjoying a reasonably successful career. He isn’t. He’s blocked by an outdated expectation that others will guide his career and provide the criterion and access he needs to reach his goals.
Hugh, there was a time that your boss, your human resources rep, and if you’re lucky, an internal mentor would work with you, charting your course as you worked your way up the corporate ladder. Today, you’re lucky if you can find a ladder to climb over the transom of your well defended boss’s office. No one has time to talk about career tracking; they’re all busy keeping their companies on track and their respective careers from derailing.
Hugh Dooit.
“If I knew how to do it, I’d have done it! I need help!”
Hugh, settle down. Let’s put together a do it yourself program.
For starters, what are you good at doing?
“I’m a trouble shooter. If you’ve got a problem, I’m the one who fixes it. Are your systems chaotic? Are your procedures a mess? Is your place so disorganized you could lose your car in it? I’m the one who streamlines, organizes, expedites, and gets you out of the mess you’re in.”
Any thing else?
“I’m the one that employees go to when they need something done quickly. I find the answers while they’re still defining the problem.”
Does any of that impact the bottom line?
“You bet it does. I save the company time and money and since time is money, I save them a heap of it.”
Hugh, you’re saying you’ve got the ability to cut to the chase and get the job done. What greater impact can you have on your company?
“I can do a heap more than I’m doing, that’s for sure. Right now I’m not much more than a glorified go-fer. I know I’m appreciated. But that doesn’t pay the bills and doesn’t make me feel like I’m living up to my capabilities. Supervisors are always telling me that they’re surprised I don’t have a more important job in the company yet it doesn’t occur to any of them to promote me.”
What job would you like to have?”
I’m a great #2 person. That’s right, the person who works for #1. I’m not a visionary, but I can take a vision and turn it into a reality. I’m not a theoretician, but I take theory and change it to practical application. I make things happen.
Where would you like to work?
“I want to work for a company that does what it takes to meet the needs of its customers. If that means reassessing direction, reformulating products, reevaluating after-market quality and internal customer service, they have the courage and capability to do it. I want to work for a company that’s tough when it’s called for and flexible when that’s what’s required. I want a company that listens to, and respects its internal customers like it does to its external clients.”
You sound like you’ve given this a great deal of thought.
“It’s all I think about. I’ve got so many ideas for this company it’d blow you away.”
Why don’t you tell anyone?
“No one asks. No one’s interested. Everyone seems to so focused on getting their jobs done they lose sight of what the company needs to improve.”
All the more reason for you to tell them what you can do for them and what you can do for the company. Hugh, get in front of decision-makers. Talk to them like you’ve talked to me. Tell them you want a chance to prove yourself by being assigned a project that you can take and make something worthwhile happen. Don’t give up on them unless you’ve given them a chance to see who you are and what you can do.
Take charge of your career. If you consistently make your case and no one listens; if what you value most in a company is valued least where you work, and you haven’t the flexibility to do what takes to be successful, what are you waiting for?
It’s up to you, Hugh, do it.