They threw her out with the trash ???

She had nothing to fall back on…

For six years, she worked at that company, and they threw her out with the trash.

At least it felt that way…

Never had she thought this would happen to her… but it did.

Susan started at the company as an assistant, and in six years, she worked her way up to senior manager.

She loved her job and gave it everything…

She worked long hours… made many, many, many personal sacrifices …

But, it was worth it for her (so she thought).

She loved her job, her team and her boss.

What more could one want, right?

But then… her boss left, and a new one came…

At first, she was her bubbly self… but she knew something wasn't right three months in.

She stopped being invited to meetings.

Stopped being kept in the loop.

Information about projects she was leading became hard to get…

And whenever she mentioned something, her new boss quickly dismissed the conversation and told her to just focus on her deliverables.

So she did.

Susan thought that keeping to herself and working harder than ever before would show her new boss what she was capable of.

When her boss would see what she could do, everything would go back to normal...?

But that didn't happen, unfortunately.

The relationship became harder and harder until Susan's position was made redundant just before Christmas.

How did that happen…

A few weeks later, Susan heard from an ex-colleague that they had hired someone new in her position. They gave the position another title, but essentially it was the same job…

Wow.

Susan was beside herself and couldn't get over the injustice of it all.

What had she done wrong?

And when I first spoke to her and listened to her story… I reassured her she didn't do anything wrong…

We worked together to get her a new position and when she landed her dream job, we developed an internal networking plan.

You see, when your boss isn't the only one you rely on for promotions, appointments to high visibility projects or having influence, and you have a strategic internal network of alliances and advocates, you future-proof yourself.

Susan didn't have that before… she had just focussed on doing a good job but hadn't paid any attention to who in the organisation knew about her, what she had done, or what she was capable of.

And this is something you too should create...

It's not what you know.

It's not who you know.

It's, who knows what you know…

If you want to learn how to build your internal network and create a support squad of advocates, join The Roundtable today (it's free).

If you don’t know what The Roundtable is, it’s a free workshop-like interactive event. Every week we discuss a different topic. No slides, no pitch, just pure value.

THE ROUNDTABLE.

Come and join me :)?

Photo: Photo by Pete Willis on Unsplash