What to Do When Your Boss Is Blocking Your Career Growth

do you have a career Blocker in your company perhaps this is someone with authority credibility and influence at work this person is preventing you from getting the visibility and from achieving your career advancement goals is this person happen to be your director manager as well so what should you do if your manager is blocking your career growth in this video I want to share with you how I overcame my career blockers and got consistent promotion and become the vice president of the two largest companies in Sweden by market cap in my mid-30s in case you new here I'm Tiffany in this channel we talk about all things to help middle management get executive positions subscribe if you want more content on this topic now let's get into it the first thing you want to do is to release your boss from unmet expectations I know this can be unfair and frustrating especially when your boss does not advocate for you or support your growth beyond your current job description however listen to me it is in your best interest to not take it personally there are many possible reasons why your boss may not be advocating for you or blocking your career and maybe because your manager sees the challenges of your role and she knows that if you moved up replacing you would require a significant investment in effort and time this could also be because the unique capabilities and competence you've developed in your position such as your relationships with key account customers or your leadership in product development if that's the case you should celebrate because it's a recognition of your competence this could of course be that your manager has unconscious bias and this lead him or her to have a misevaluation of your performance and capacity for taking on bigger roles and bigger responsibilities perhaps your manager is trying to advocate for you but lacks the political capital and ability to influence to successfully make the case and get the results for you or perhaps your manager May simply not want to be your Champion I actually made an entire video while your manager doesn't promote you I'll link it in the description below but whatever the reason may be what you you don't want to do is to force manipulate or blame someone else the very first thing you want to do here is to let go of your anger frustration or hurt you have developed because of your manager why would you want to do that well when you don't take personal responsibility and instead blame your manager for the lack of promotion you actually give the power to another person this would only make you feel powerless hopeless and resentful you surely do not want to find yourself in any of these positions and as it is the most self-damaging place to be tip number two is you want to choose your battles wisely but be willing to fight for yourself there may be times when you realize that your career is being blocked but it may not be in your best interest to raise every issue you have with your manager you want to decide which battles to take up with your manager and you will come across as thought for and be taken seriously probably the last thing you want is to be perceived as someone who is constantly putting pressure on other people and complaining well also it is not possible to fight every battle that comes your way you will become a person who is stressful and frustrated so how to choose which battles to fight you need to understand what's important to you for example is recognition for your leadership team more important or getting the job title that reflects the work you do more important or do you want to work at a higher job level and make more strategic decisions and a bigger impact by Leading more people once you identify the doors you want to open it becomes easier to choose which battles to fight let's say your current priority is to get a promotion that you believe you are ready for and you deserve you can pinpoint the obstacles in your way now if your manager doesn't give you the credit for your accomplishments or is not advocating for you to have exposure to the upper management it could impact your visibility and your career advancement in this case it is a battle really worth fighting for next tip you guessed it is that you need to have an open and honest discussion with your manager you can schedule a oneon-one meeting this can be a regular oneon-one you always have with your manager or through a specially arranged meeting dedicated to discuss your career development you don't have to wait for the yearly or half yearly performance review time personally some of the best discussions about my career development have happened while traveling with my manager for example over a drink before our team dinner the atmosphere is normally more relaxed and we often find ourselves celebrating the success of these trips could be right after the event and it truly is one of the best times to bring up these conversations for me personally if you find this is difficult you can also send your manager a meeting invitation and prepare him or her in advance showing that you are interested in talking about challenges related to your career development here's how you can ask I would love to have a discussion with you about some challenges I have been having lately related to my Career Development are you open to taking some time discussing this in our next one-onone sending this agenda will show that you are serious respectful and allows your manager time to prepare and avoid any surprise during the meeting you can talk about your desire for career development and bring evidence to support your case for example you can talk about your most impactful achievements contributions to organizational goals or positive feedbacks that you have got from your colleagues or customers or any documented milestones in emails or conversations with your manager now if your manager is a career blocker they may give you additional obstacles for example they would say you need to develop communication skills as a leader if this happens you want to ask for more details about expectations success criterias and how they plan to measure and support you here's how you can ask the question during the second quarter this year I presented at one of our Tong Hall meetings I spent effort and time to prepare and received very positive feedbacks are you open to share your observations on what specifically I show further develop my communication skills for the next level for whatever advices your manager gave to you you want to document your discussions and follow up with your manager with an email summarizing the agreements and tracking process including kpis positive feedbacks from colleagues the next tip is find another Advocate ideally you would like to have your direct managers support and advocate for you but your manager is not the only person in the organization who can promote your career development there are other influential leaders who can give you the help you need what you want to do is to identify and Wing the support of other Executives and cultivate some sponsors so what is an ideal sponsor an ideal sponsor is a powerful and high ranking Ally within your organization who will bring up your name with the right people at the right time they will provide you with access to the opportunities or strategic assignments now many people confuse mentors with sponsors there's a clear difference here mentors guide you while sponsors accelerate you now Mentor shares knowledge and provides you with guidance a sponsor actively provides you with access to opportunities at work advocates for you and for your career advancement so don't be over mentored and UND sponsored I have said the same in so many of my videos and I will say it again performance and hard work alone is not enough to get you from middle to top positions you need to strategically increase your visibility and earn your sponsor political Capital to go from middle to top is not about what you know and who you know it is also about who knows you even when you finally have a sponsor that's just the beginning of the journey most likely your new sponsor will not be going all in with his or her political capital for you right in the beginning your sponsor is likely to want to test the water before they increase their commitment on the other hand a longtime and committed sponsor may also drop their sponsorship if they see the return on investment does not meet their expectations the next is it's not about what you know who you know it's about who knows you before I was promoted to the vice president Ro I spent four years in one of the director positions I had and during this time I worked really hard to deliver and perform and I make sure that I always exceed expectations on my performance review rating I was intentional about building strong connections with people across the organization so when the performance review came around and I felt confident about my chance for the promotion however I was once again surprised by my manager response he rejected my promotion and here is how he explained it I'm not questioning about your performance in fact you are like my delivery guy every time I open the door your package is right there you are very productive and you consistently bring results but to be considered seriously for a more senior role you need to gain the support of more people in the company especially influence influential leaders who can speak to your work and can advocate for you when you are not in the room my voice alone is not enough to get to these executive positions you need a network of Champions we all need Champions who are willing to advocate for us when we cannot speak for ourself and when your manager doesn't do it it can be frustrating and challenging but it does not have to stop your progress and career advancement you could be just one project one committee or one meeting one conversation away from getting noticed for who you are what you can do and your potential to achieve even more the next tip is use positive outside pressure well building your status outside the organization can often gain you the visibility inside of it your leaders do notice who is visible to customers media and the broader industry you need to choose a way that suits you the best for example you can join industry Association and hold a leadership position there you can also build a Following on social media by demonstrating your thought leadership and you can also engage with other influencers in your industry one of my clients has been consistently producing high quality thought leadership articles on his LinkedIn newsletter he's getting attention from industry leaders and the media this visibility also led to an invitation to speak at various Summits and conferences and his leadership team obviously noticed his impact on these social media platforms they actually proactively approached him and provide him with a career plan to make sure he has the next step in the organization and he's not going somewhere else and don't forget to collaborate with your internal PR team when I was a director of external communication we were always looking for Thought leaders within our organization who could be the spokesperson of electrom Mobility sustainability and automation because we want to position ourself as a thought leader in these areas and it was super challenging for our team to find experts who are not only well spoken but also willing to dedicate their time and effort to these activities you can reach out to your PR team to understand how you can best support them in their goals and meet their needs you can provide them with interesting topics and volunteer to be quoted or interviewed for various media Outlets this can establish you as the go-to person for that topic and our team also in return gave them media training and they become even better communicators as they practice more I have seen several colleagues who were not only knowledgeable and eager to contribute but also dedicated a significant amount of their time and effort to prepare for these media interviews and prove read the articles and their efforts definitely paid off one example was one of my Engineers working in electromobility Solutions had the opportunity to meet Emanuel macron the president of France he was thrilled when he Stood Beside a product shaking hands with the president if all this fails you can also have an exit strategy to transition to your next chapter outside of your current organization now if you are serious about advancing your career to the senior executive level in the new year submit your application to the 1% Academy program where you'll be coached By Me Not only that you will also have a network with other like-minded leaders go to inspiry day.org slapp or click the link in the description below to book a free strategy call with my team or myself I will leave you with this video now to find out the steps to make a better midcareer transition I'll see you there

Channel: Tiffany Cheng

Views: 871

Keywords: What to do when your manager is sabotaging your career, talk to your boss about growing your career, how to talk to your boss about career growth, questions to ask your manager during your 1on1, how to deal with a toxic boss, how to deal with a difficult manager, how to get respect from your boss, how do you talk to your boss, tiffanycheng

Id: jwBQH3h75NY

Length: 12min 30sec (750 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 18 2024