Professional Success + Promotion Stagnation = Confusion: The Surprising Truth About What May Be Holding You Back And What To Do About It

Manny was a materials engineer who was celebrating 5 years employed by his company.?

?During that time, he had proven himself a loyal and hard-working professional.? He advanced to the level of Project Manager and supervised jobs important to the company.? He was well liked by his boss, peers, and direct reports.? He was considered an expert in his field and worked hard to stay abreast of advancements.

?But Manny was feeling stuck and confused because once again he had been overlooked for promotion to lead a segment of the materials testing division.

?Conversations with his boss about his missed opportunities provided him with clarity about the reason.? He was told he lacked “decision making skills”.? When he pressed for more, he was told he was too slow in making decisions, got stuck in the weeds too often, and always seemed to need “more data” to make decisions in a timely way.?

?Now, this was not news to Manny, and it was not what was confusing him.? He had received this feedback in the past, even before missing out on promotion opportunities.? The confusion was why, despite working to change this characteristic, he continued to get the same feedback.??

Manny is a great example of how identity as a professional can get in the way of advancing to higher leadership positions.? This identity is formed by a collection of beliefs about how you need “to be” to obtain success.? I call these beliefs “Success-Drivers” because that’s exactly what they do.? They drive your success and further reinforce your identity with the success they bring.

?Success-Drivers are formed from messages you got as a child.? These were the messages about how you needed “to be” to get what you wanted from important adults in your life, such as parents – their love, affection, admiration, support, encouragement – you get the idea.?

Because These Success-Drivers are adopted at an age when your personality is forming, they get woven into that personality, making them difficult to change. ?Manny was discovering this firsthand.

?To help Manny, I had him identify the top three to five ways he wanted to be viewed by his colleagues, and to phrase them as “Be” statements.? Here’s what he came up with:

• ?“Be precise”
• “Be methodical”
• “Be analytical”

?Can you see where this is going??

Manny’s identity was tied up in being viewed in these ways by his colleagues.? They worked well for him as a materials engineer.? But making quick decisions with limited or ambiguous information, like leaders must do, was not going to be an outcome of that identity.?? ?

?The solution is, as I frequently like to say, “simple but not necessarily easy”.?? There are four steps I took Manny through, and you can do them for yourself:

?1.????? Develop the awareness that Success-Drivers exist, the impact they have on your actions, and results you get.? Many people never get this far.? Congratulations, you are already on your way!

?2.????? Identify your specific Success-Drivers phrasing them as “how to be” statements like Manny did.? Now, this is not a laundry list of ways you want to be viewed, but rather the TOP three to five ways you built your identity through the messages you got as a child. ??

?3.????? Recognize that those Success-Drivers got you where you are today and continue to provide value, but they may fall short of getting you where you want to go.? And here is the key – they fall short when you use them in the wrong context.? In Manny’s case, his Success-Drivers worked for him as a materials engineer, but not as a leader.? ?

?4.????? Identify situations in which your Success-Drivers are not appropriate for the context in which you are using them.? These are situations that never seem to work out for you because of your success drivers! In those situations, be intentional in shifting your mindset to a more appropriate belief that drives a more appropriate action.? In Manny’s case this meant sticking with his Success-Drivers when doing technical work, but shifting to, “Be decisive” when faced with ambiguous leadership decisions.?

?Those four steps gave Manny the information he needed to manage his Success-Drivers, rather than them managing him, and earned him the promotion he was seeking.? You can do the same.??

Learn more about Success-Drivers and how to manage them in my book, “Ignite Your Leadership, The Power Of Neuropsychology To Optimize Team Performance”.? ?Get it on Amazon.?

?

?

?