Working harder in the face of challenges, redoubling efforts, and doing overtime does not show you up as a confident leader unless you manage your presence and raise your profile. Image: Dreamstime.
May Busch has identified three patterns of work, easy to fall into and often comfortable to continue, which if not addressed can lead to career dead ends.
When you feel stuck in your career, it’s often because you’re stuck in a pattern. Yes, that does sound better than ”stuck in a rut”, but it amounts to the same thing.
When those patterns play out long enough, they become career problems. Throughout my 24-year corporate career and now as an executive coach, I’ve seen three career-limiting patterns that hold good people back.
Stick with them long enough and you may not even realise the quiet damage they’re doing.
Here they are:
The Grinder: Does excellent work but isn’t visible to decision-makers. This was me when I transferred to London to start a new role.
I stuck with my old pattern of just working harder in the face of challenges, redoubling my efforts, and doing overtime without making it known what I was focusing on.
It backfired because not only did it keep me from showing up as a confident leader, but my bosses also started wondering whether I was at my limit for bigger responsibilities. Worst of all, I also came within millimetres of burning out.
Getting out of this pattern starts with working on your Self. Once you’re self-aware of this pattern, you can pull yourself out of Grinder mode, manage your presence and raise your profile.
The Lone Wolf: Delivers results but has weak relationships. The pattern here is to go it alone. To focus on getting the work done but not bringing people along.
My colleague Simon (not his real name) did things without considering how his stakeholders and colleagues would be affected.
Sure, he brought in a lot of new business, but he left a string of bad feelings in his wake, and when it came time for promotions, he was not on the list.
You break this pattern by working on the People side of things, like managing your stakeholder relationships and communicating what’s going on before you make big moves.
The Executor: Gets things done — but isn’t seen as strategic. One of my team members, let’s call him Greg, was an exceptional ”do-er”.
Trained as a project manager, he could set up systems and processes and execute better than anyone else.
The trouble was, Greg had grooved his thinking process so long that he struggled to ask the strategic questions that would help him see the bigger picture.
A decade later, he was still setting up systems and processes and doing tactical work, while his former colleagues had moved to bigger roles.
Clinging to his comfort zone was keeping him stuck where he was 10 years ago. Getting out of this pattern means developing your business capabilities to move beyond being the Executor. Specifically, your ability to think strategically and envision broader opportunities.
Like the metaphor about the boiling frog, it’s easy to stay in your comfort zone while the temperature slowly rises.
To get unstuck and keep advancing, you need to continuously learn, grow, and strengthen your capabilities in these three areas.
Which of these types are you most likely to fall into?
May Busch’s mission is to help leaders and their organisations achieve their full potential. She works with smart entrepreneurs and top managements to build their businesses. She can be contacted at [email protected]. This article first appeared on May’s blogsite.
