May Busch* says hard work by itself won’t get people promoted — they have to think, act and sound like they’re ready to move up.
You’ve been working in your team for a while. You’re contributing and doing great work. You get things done.
Yet somehow your managers still see you as that amazing worker who can really crank out the work and get results.
They don’t realise you’ve grown and that you’re no longer ‘just’ that terrific worker-bee they’ve relied on for years.
You’re ready for management but they haven’t seen that you are.
Unfortunately, what people perceive about you is not in your control. It happens at their end and can feel unfair.
However, since we can’t implant a different view of you into someone’s brain, the key is to focus on what’s in your control.
It’s far more energising to be able to take actions that move you toward your goal instead of waiting and feeling frustrated.
So, here are three areas you can work on right now to help your managers see you as someone who’s ready for management.
How you think
Your thinking affects your behaviour which affects your results. Here, the result you’re after is to be seen as ready for management.
So, what kind of mindset do you have and what do you spend your time thinking about?
As a team member, I was so busy working on tasks that I had very little time and brain space to think about the next level of strategic issues and opportunities.
So if you’re like how I was, stuck in fire-fighting mode, it’s time to lift yourself out of the minutia periodically and start adopting that next-level mindset.
If you don’t know what managers in your organisation are thinking about, this is a great time to ask and find out.
In my case, I wanted to be in management because it was the next logical step, but I didn’t have much insight into what it really meant to be a manager.
Part of me was afraid I wouldn’t measure up.
The first person you need to convince is yourself. If you don’t believe it, no one else will either.
The way you act
Think of this as what people would see if they shadowed you for a day.
What does your behaviour show about your maturity under pressure?
If you’re frazzled and frantic over deadlines, which was common for me when I was a ‘worker bee’, it won’t help you come across as ready for management.
Managers are expected to remain calm under pressure and in doing so, help calm the rest of the team so they can perform at their best.
As a high achiever, you’re probably working constantly and making great contributions, but are they the right kind of contributions?
I used to think that being busy, showing how hard I was working and producing loads of output would make me a natural candidate for upper management. Wrong.
Getting things done led to my being given more tasks to do since I was so good at it, but these were the kind of projects that would keep me in the same role.
Your choice of actions and activities is largely based on how you think of yourself and what you think about.
So step back and ask yourself: What am I doing in my day?
For example, I love taking notes and it felt natural for me to sit in meetings and write down what was being said.
I came to realise my behaviour made me look junior and unimportant. Like the court stenographer instead of the judge or lawyers.
The way you sound
Think of this as the audio recording of you going through your day.
One of the things that differentiates someone who has management potential from a worker is how they speak in meetings.
It’s hard to gauge what kind of manager you’d be if people don’t hear you speak up.
For the longest time, this was an issue for me. I struggled to have the confidence to put my hand up and make a point in meetings.
I would sit there and agonise over whether I should say something. By the time I got up the courage to open my mouth, someone else would have said it.
Then I’d get down on myself, which made it even harder to speak up. The longer the meeting went on, the worse things got.
When people in management speak, they have opinions and they voice them in an appropriate way. They’re talking about the big picture rather than the details.
They sound confident and leader-like in their tone and choice of words.
While you can’t snap your fingers and magically have people see you’re ready for a management role, you can help them along by focusing on the areas that are in your control.
Which area will you work on right now to help your managers to see you as someone who’s ready for management?
*May Busch works with smart entrepreneurs and top managements to build their businesses. She can be contacted at [email protected].
This article first appeared at maybusch.com.
