The often-overlooked component in promotions

I have been reflecting on my time watching and studying leadership and management for the last few weeks. I was fortunate enough that I was promoted early in my career in the fire service, however many times I believed it was a curse. The one thing it did allow me to do is observe people in basically three different phases; there is the no upcoming promotions phase, the we are three months out from the promotion phase, and the phase after the promotion (if they got promoted or not). There are also two buckets that we usually put people in that we see as valuable to the organization.

The first bucket is the politicians (chameleons), these people know how to play the political game. These people are the hardest to figure out for leaders because they are always showing the leaders of an organization a face that others don't see. The leaders might even hear reports about this person's actions and behaviors but are quick to dismiss them because these people are always telling them how pretty they are and who doesn't like a little ego pump?

These people are usually playing the long game, so they are going to be on the lookout for opportunities to lift themselves up, shed blame, or push another person down through the first two phases. Common traits I have observed in these people are they are always overselling themselves, they are quick to let their superiors know when they have done something good if it goes unnoticed, they will shift blame for something they have done to someone, not their to defend themselves, they will find a way to get themselves on a high profile project or task, and they will walk past the day-to-day things that are not so fun because what I perceive as the task is beneath them. The difference you will see in these people especially if they haven't practiced emotional intelligence is their behavior after they don't receive the promotion.

The second bucket is workhorses, these are your people who come to work and give you all they have, not looking for praise because they know it is the right thing to be done. The work for the organization as a whole and as a group is getting a lot of the work for the organization done, even if the chameleons swoop in after the work is done or near completion to get their names associated with a project, task, or achievement. These are the people who most times will get promoted in a public organization because it is often perceived that someone who is good at one level will also be equally good at the next level. In the private sector, these are often the people who will get overlooked because they don't want to lose their productivity.

These people you usually will not hear from unless they see injustice and/or things broken in your organization. You might even dismiss the workhorse at first because they don't typically voice their opinions and when they do, it is usually something that is going to make you take a pause and reflect. These people are consistent as the day is long, you are not going to have many issues with them as long as they feel they are able to contribute with bullshit from the chameleons or something that is broken in the organization.

Can both of these groups serve the organization? Of course, they can, we need politicians and workhorses in every organization. Without the politicians the organization to struggle to get things they need at every level. And without the workhorses, you will see your mission fall flat on its face. So there has to be a balance and recognition of what they are and what they bring to the table.

Bringing this article back around to the title, which is why you probably clicked on the article to begin with. The missing component is we often recognize these people for who they are, but one thing we often don't take into account is how they treat their customers. In the public sector that is the citizen (are they friendly, do they go the extra mile?), the crews they currently supervise (while this one is sometimes hard because their crews might love them, because of what they think they can get done.....e.g. fighting the man), and other team members when they are in competition against each other. In the private sector are their customers often dissatisfied with them, do they take an "us vs. them" attitude, and do they go the extra mile for the customer?

If you want a culture that flourishes, you have to seek out those who know how to take care of your internal and external customers and the rest is all teachable.