If you're hitting a glass ceiling at your current company, how do you know whether to keep working on it or look elsewhere? – Life Sciences Executive
Ready to lead? How To Know If Career Advancement Is Possible At Your Current Employer
If you’re not advancing at your current employer, there are only two possibilities: 1) your own individual performance doesn’t warrant the promotion you seek; or 2) if you’re a rock star, there is something about the company’s process that is excluding you. Too many professionals assume one or the other and therefore don’t work comprehensively to fix why their career has stalled.
If you assume that it’s your own performance that is lacking, then you overinvest on upgrading your skills, or you stay in a role too long to get more experience than you need. Your confidence may take a hit, discouraging you from going after a promotion you deserve. On the other hand, if you don’t understand your employer’s promotion process – who the decision-makers are, what your employer prioritizes in leaders – then you might be overlooked.
To advance your career, you need to focus on two things simultaneously: 1) your own performance; and 2) your employer’s promotion process:
1 — Get an honest assessment of your job performance
If your employer offers regular reviews, pay attention to the feedback you’re getting, and ask your manager specifically about your path to advancement and what’s working and not working for you. Get input beyond your manager – from clients, vendors, colleagues, mentors, your direct reports – so that you have a sense for how you’re perceived by different functions and levels.
An online retailer tasked me to coach a high potential marketing director who excelled at individual contributor responsibilities, like analytics. However, her team experienced low morale and high turnover. This director thought her high competency in the job function would compensate for her lacking relationships skills, since she had quickly moved up at the company to that point. Our initial work together was to collect an honest assessment of her job performance as a leader, which unlike previous reviews, was lacking and preventing her from continued advancement.
2 — Use real-life, recent data to gauge your potential for advancement
This life sciences executive references a glass ceiling, so there might not be other females at the seniormost levels in her company. Pay attention to who gets promoted at your employer –backgrounds, tenure, recent roles. If your manager has promised you promotions in the past, only to move the goalpost once you hit the initial criteria, actions speak louder than words.
Another life sciences professional I coached (not this reader) had been tasked with turnaround assignments and additional research, with the promise of a title bump and more pay. Unfortunately, just when she checked off all the boxes, additional issues arose that she was asked to handle. Or, her specific promotion was delayed by restructuring. Since her performance reviews remained strong, she realized that just doing more was not going to be enough and refocused on external activities and self-care.
3 — Identify gaps in your skills and experience
For the marketing director, her gaps included running inclusive meetings where team members weren’t too intimidated to speak up. She also needed to improve management skills, such as giving constructive feedback and flexing her approach for direct reports with varying competencies and temperaments. While this marketing director had previously prioritized the functional aspects of her work, as she ascended into leadership, she had to develop a different set of skills.
4 — Identify gaps in your visibility and support system
For the life sciences professional who was passed up for promotions despite stellar reviews, she focused on building relationships and gaining visibility outside her immediate area. Her manager proved unable (or unwilling) to follow through on promotion promises, so she couldn’t rely on just his support. At the same time, she published articles in her field and sought out speaking engagements to broaden her network outside her current employer and throughout her industry as a whole.
5 — Mark yourself to market
Increasing your external visibility doesn’t mean you have to actively apply for jobs, but by putting yourself out there, you get a sense for how valuable you are in the market. The life sciences professional landed several side consulting projects based on her guest blogging and speaking topics. The marketing director, having improved relationships with colleagues, found herself referred to bigger roles, both within her current employer and outside.
You don’t need to decide between staying or going to make forward progress
The original question about the potential glass ceiling limiting advancement may never be definitively answered. In the meantime, this reader should pursue what is within her control to secure her advancement – getting honest feedback, identifying and filling in any leadership gaps, raising her visibility and pursuing both possible advancement right where she is, as well as outside. The question of staying or going doesn’t need to be answered until you have somewhere to go. Continue to pursue both options.
