Three Ways to Make a Career Comeback

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Hit a wall in your career? Being passed over for promotions? If you don’t find out why soon and repair the damage, it won’t be long before you’re on your way out the door.

Unfortunately, it can be difficult to get the answers you need. Clearly, your managers haven’t been candid with you about your performance to this point. Perhaps they expected you to read the writing on the wall and draw your own dire conclusions. Appraisal avoidance shouldn’t happen, but it often does when the news is going to be bad.

Your job then is to gently initiate some kind of conversation with the boss you’re closest to, even if it is just to obtain a vague sense of what’s going on. But just as important, you need to start pouring energy into getting back on the radar screen.

The most effective way to do that, not surprisingly, is to over deliver. Whatever you’re doing, do it better and faster. Expand your job’s horizons to include bold new activities. Come up with a new concept or process that doesn’t just improve your results, but your unit’s results and the company’s overall performance. Surprise everyone.

A second powerful comeback technique is to raise your hand when the call goes out for people to sign up for major projects and initiatives, especially ones that don’t have a whole lot of popularity at the outset. Volunteer to work in a branch office in a tough competitive market or jump at the opportunity to be part of a big, new quality drive. A global assignment right now may take you too much out of the picture for your immediate purposes, but it is directionally correct. You need to prove you’re willing and able to go the extra mile.

Finally, if you are draining away political capital within the organization in any form, stem the flow immediately. That means you may need to stop disparaging fellow employees, even in jest, or acting in any form like a wet blanket. Right now, your attitude needs to shout one word: “Yes.”

Can we guarantee that these three “fixes” will revive your career? Of course not. The facts are, sometimes a person has been underperforming for so long that they get an embedded reputation. No matter how hard you try, you will always be seen as the same old you.

If, after a period of trying, you get the feeling that’s true in your case, we suggest you jump before you’re pushed. Find a company with a better fit, doing work you like. Then don’t wait for the silent treatment to alert you: From Day One, start building the results and reputation that will make you the new kid rising through the ranks.

Jack Welch is Executive Chairman of the Jack Welch Management Institute at Strayer University.Through its online MBA program, the Jack Welch Management Institute provides students and organizations with the proven methodologies, immediately actionable practices, and respected credentials needed to win in business.

Suzy Welch is a best-selling author, popular television commentator, and noted business journalist. Her New York Times bestselling book, 10-10-10: A Life Transforming Idea, presents a powerful decision-making strategy for success at work and in parenting, love and friendship. Together with her husband Jack Welch, Suzy is also co-author of the #1 international bestsellerWinning, and its companion volume, Winning: The Answers. Since 2005, they have written business columns for several publications, including Business Week magazine, Thomson Reuters digital platforms, Fortune magazine, and the New York Times syndicate.

Jack Welch
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Be A Manager or Be Managed

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Most companies think that “management” is simply a title given to someone in charge of a particular area of their business. In my opinion, that person’s title would more accurately be “Employee I Really Like In XYZ Department.” The title of manager should be more respected and reserved for someone who truly manages.

How do I know this and what makes me the expert? Seeing it done all wrong. I've had more managers in my day (as we say here in Missouri) “than you can shake a stick at” and very few, if any at all had the skill or mindset of a great manager.

In our initial quest to find employees here at Go By Truck, we found our top candidates were drawn to our mission to unite a great American industry and wanted to be a part of making real change happen. As a start-up, we needed specialists rather than generalists, in order to cross every “t” and dot every “i” before going live.

Taking my previous education into account, however, I knew without a doubt we could not launch without great managers (typically generalists) as the cornerstones of our operation.

With this in mind, prior to company launch, I pulled these early employees aside, telling each of them they were being given the opportunity to lead their respective areas of expertise and if they failed at the task, they would instead be led. They looked at me with bewilderment and shock. Each had assumed that because they had been hired at the point of the company’s inception, they would be granted high level management positions.

Having said this, there’s nothing wrong with needing to be managed. I have some of the world’s most dedicated, intelligent and skilled employees. Most simply aren't managers, and those who aren't, now know why and are truly happier for it.

So what’s the point? The point is that although everyone wants to be a manger, few are. Knowing who you are (generalist, specialist, social, non-social, organized or perfectly chaotic) will help save you time and prevent bad decision making on your professional path...

If you’re currently a manager or aspiring to management in the future, ensure that you truly understand the task you’re taking on. Be sure that you've got it in you to do the hard things at the hard times, to sometimes be the fall guy, and to be the hardest working guy or girl in the room. If you’re in the wrong position, you’ll never experience growth. You will only be average, at best. If you allow yourself to be placed in the right position, whether management or not, your growth will become exponential.

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BY: DAWN STROBEL
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Top Rookie Manager Mistakes (That Make You Look Like a Jerk)

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Congratulations! You just received your first big promotion. Woo hoo!! Chances are you’re about to make one of these rookie mistakes:

Saying how troubled the business is that you’ve just taken over. That way, if your results are poor, it’s not your fault, because you inherited a dog. And if the results are good, you’ve been successful in the face of almost-impossible circumstances. People see through this.

Talking badly about people who quit. Like talking badly about the business you’ve just taken over, this is another transparent means to manage your ego. But this only serves to make your team wonder what you might say about them one day. And while being gracious to departing colleagues might seem obvious, you’d be amazed how often “Well, I was just about to fire him anyway” is said, even at the most senior levels.

Immediately replacing the old team with “your” team, and particularly a team that looks and sounds a lot like you. There’s comfort in choosing everyone on your team, all of whom then “owe” you for their jobs. But the best business strategies can emerge out of discomfort, and that can mean having people on your team whom you may not particularly want to have to your home for dinner.

Getting detached from the clients. Customers and clients are messy. It can be very easy to spend more time away from them. PowerPoint slides and spreadsheets deliver much crisper answers than what you can hear from an actual person.

“Taking the hill” on your strategy without first getting buy-in from the team. The days of decreeing a strategy and then telling folks to execute on it are fading in the rear-view mirror. And that’s a good thing, because a strategy that doesn’t incorporate what your team and customers can tell you will almost certainly be sub-optimal. I’ve seen more than one manager decree a not-well-thought-out strategy and have his team essentially wait him out; after all, the next boss will be announced soon.

Not recognizing that your words carry more weight than they used to. Once you’re in management, your words (and your mood and your tone) are subject to interpretation by those who can be impacted by them. A poorly thought-out comment or joke can cause significant unintended anxiety.

Being overly certain and acting like you’re invulnerable. The right types of candor can go a long way, such as recognizing the uncertainty in a business situation. Being absolutely certain and then dead wrong can be fatal for a new manager. It’s ok to let your team see you sweat a bit. That said, there are few highly successful pessimistic leaders; optimism, even in the face of adversity, goes a long way.

Continue to do your old job, because you can do it better than the new guy. A corollary of this is insisting that your replacement do your old job the way you did it.

Getting too big for your britches. Years ago, when I joined Citi, one of my new partners invited me to lunch. When we sat at the table, his assistant brought him a stack of message and papers; he read them while I sat on ice. Then he barked at her to get various people on the phone so that he could dole out some orders while I twiddled my thumbs. Classic power play. I never liked him from that moment on.

Talking more than listening. I’ve written before that I recall sitting through one business review in which the senior person did literally 90%+ of the talking. I wondered why he even bothered because he certainly didn’t learn anything….but I’m sure he felt pretty important.

Not talking enough. Yes, I recognize that this flies in the face of what I wrote above. But once you have settled on a strategy and communicated it doesn’t mean that your team has taken it in. People typically have to hear it several times, in several different forums, for it to sink in. I saw this first hand from a friend of mine who worked as a senior banker at a competitor. Every once in awhile, over a glass of wine, I used to pretend-casually ask her about her firm’s latest strategic initiative or product roll-out; she typically had little idea what I was talking about.

These are the rookie managers errors I’ve observed most often. What did I miss?

Sallie Krawcheck is the Business Leader of the professional woman’s network, 85 Broads. 85 Broads has more than 35,000 members, around the world and across industries.

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BY: SALLIE KRAWCHECK
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Cultivate Focus to Avoid Social Gaffes

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There are situations where most anyone will be “off,” at least at first. For instance, we are prone to inadvertent gaffes when we travel to a new culture, where we arrive blind to the fresh set of ground rules.

Those who do business with diverse sets of people in a global economy require particular sensitivities to such unspoken norms. In Japan, I learned the hard way that the moment of exchanging business cards signals an important ritual. We Americans are prone to casually pocketing the card without looking, which there indicates disrespect. I was told you should take the card carefully, hold it in both hands, and study it for a while before putting it away in a special case.

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A talent for cross-cultural social sensitivity appears related to cognitive empathy. Executives with sharp perception, for example, do better at overseas assignments, presumably because they can pick up implicit norms quickly, as well as learn the unique mental models of a given culture.

Ground rules for what’s appropriate can create invisible barriers when people from different cultures work together. An engineer from Austria who works for a Dutch company lamented, “Debate is highly valued in Dutch culture; you grow up with it from the time you’re in primary school. They see it as necessary. But I don’t like that kind of debate; I find it upsetting—it’s too confrontational. For me the inner challenge is not to take it personally, and to stay connected and feel respect during the confrontation.”

Attention to context lets us pick up subtle social cues that can guide how we behave. Those who are tuned in this way act with skill, regardless of the situation. They know not only what to say and do, but also, just as vital, what not to say or do. They also instinctively follow the universal algorithm for etiquette, to behave in ways that put others at ease. Sensitivity to how people feel in reaction to what we do or say lets us navigate hidden social minefields
While we may have some conscious ideas of such norms (how to dress for casual Friday at work; eat only with your right hand in India), attention to implicit norms is largely intuitive, a bottom-up capacity. Our felt sense of what’s socially appropriate comes to us as a feeling in our body — when we’re “off” it’s the physical manifestation of this doesn’t feel right. We may be picking up subtle signals of embarrassment or distress from the people around us.

If we’re oblivious to these sensations of being socially off-key (or never have them in the first place) we just keep going, clueless as to how far off course we are. One brain test for context focus assesses the function of the hippocampus, which is a nexus for circuits that gauge social circumstances. The anterior zone of the hippocampus backs up against the amygdala and plays a key role in keeping what we do appropriate to the context. The anterior hippocampus, in conversation with the prefrontal area, squelches that impulse to do something inappropriate.

Those most alert to social situations, Richard Davidson hypothesizes, have stronger activity and connectivity in these brain circuits than do those who just can’t seem to get it right. The hippocampus is at work, he says, to make you act differently when with your family and when at work, and differently again in the office versus with your workmates in a bar.

Context awareness also helps at another level: mapping the social networks in a group or at a new school or on the job—a skill that lets us navigate those relationships well. People who excel at organizational influence, it turns out, not only sense the flow of personal connections but can also name the people whose opinions hold most sway — and so, when they need to, will focus on convincing those who can in turn persuade others.

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Author: DANIEL GOLEMAN

Think back to a social faux pas you committed (or witnessed) at work. How might attention-training been useful in preventing the slip up? Leave your example in the comment field, or tweet to @DanielGolemanEI.