3 Steps To Begin Your Innovation Journey

On By Joe DeRosaIn BusinessLeave a comment

innovation

Regardless of how long you’ve been in business selling what you sell, STOP! Step back. Look at the market. I mean really look at the market. If you want to do more than survive you need to innovate. Innovation requires you to think differently. To be open-minded, honest, and critical of your current operation. I am not suggesting to be negative, but rather to be realistic and honest about what has changed around you. Take these 3 steps to begin your journey of innovation.

1. Complete a SWOT analysis. This is a detailed look at your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.  A SWOT can help provide much needed insight into your next steps. This exercise will force an outside-in view of the market.
2. Create a customer advisory board. Always an odd number of members, a small advisory board of between 5 and 7 customers can provide clear and honest feedback relative to your current products or services, as well as a great testing ground for new ideas. Make sure each member signs an NDA binding them to confidentiality of the information the board discusses.
3. Get a mentor. In an earlier blog titled Great Mentors – The Difference Maker, I talked about the purpose and importance of having a mentor. To be truly innovative requires a different level of thinking. Innovation tests previously held beliefs. In doing so, you will need someone to guide your thinking and keep you honest. Human nature is such that we tend to develop explanations for things we don’t understand or agree with…simply to make us feel better. A great mentor will make sure you face the truth even if it hurts.

Remember, to remain static is to lose ground. You’ve got to have the courage to try, and fail. Push your limits, test your boundaries. As Theodore Roosevelt said, “Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure…than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy or suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.

The Marketing Mix Has Changed

On By Joe DeRosaIn Business, Marketing2 Comments

Marketing

For those of us that have studied Marketing on our own or in college, we learned of the 4 P’s, either in a book, or in our first marketing class.  The idea of the 4 P’s was founded in 1960 by E. Jerome McCarthy, a marketing professor at Michigan State University. Professor McCarthy created what became known as the “marketing mix” which contained four specific elements including: Product, Price, Place, Promotion.

Every business has to decide what Product it will sell.  Features, benefits, and functionality must be defined. Once complete, the business moves to the next P which is the Price of the product (or service). Most times, the price is dictated by how much the business owner wishes to make…profit.   After pricing is complete the owner decides where he/she will sell their product – the Place. Traditional approaches assume that the bigger the city the better the opportunity. And so businesses take their product, and their price and head toward the cities with the largest populations assuming success. Finally, the owner makes the decision on how to best Promote, advertise or communicate their product to the marketplace.

Many business schools and books still tout the 4P’s of the marketing mix with little change. Unfortunately Marketing students end up with a very elementary view of the subject, not fully comprehending the seismic shift in the role and importance of this crucial business function. So what’s changed?

Perhaps the biggest change in the marketing mix is the arrival of 2 new P’s;  Person and Proof.

For years products and services were developed based upon an inside-out view…what the business felt was needed in the market. Little concern was given to what the market was lacking, needing, desiring. Build it and they will come, was the general sentiment.  However, companies like Apple, Samsung, Wegmans, Southwest, and Google came along and turned this belief on it’s head by focusing heavily on the Person. They looked at the market to determine what was there and what was missing. They listened closely to consumers to understand what they wanted. Instead of slamming a square peg in a round hole they changed the shape of the hole and in many cases created a custom fit, which has lead to an era of innovation.

Complimenting the Person was the arrival of Proof…or data.  Marketing automation systems, metrics, and dashboards have all contributed to marketing’s evolution as a profit center versus a cost center.  Data drives proof or disproof of the effectiveness of actions or activities.  Blending these two new P’s with the traditional P’s in the marketing mix allows marketing practitioners to create strategies and tactics that yield predictable and consistent results.

Two resources that offer great insights into the importance of these new P’s include:  What The Customer Wants You To Know by Ram Charan and Hubspots 120 Awesome Marketing Stats, Charts and Graphs.

Great Mentors. The Difference Maker.

On By Joe DeRosaIn Business, LeadershipLeave a comment

partner

In my previous blog, 5 Important Differences Between a Coach and a Mentor, I provided clear differentiation between these two advisers. Both play a valuable role in your development but go about it in entirely different ways. Understanding your current circumstances and having semi-clear objectives – goals – is critical in knowing which, a coach or mentor, would provide the greatest value.

While most coaches tend to have very specific areas of expertise, mentors are completely opposite. Mentors bring a broad set of skills, perspectives, insights and opinions to your developmental party. If you are fortunate enough to have a real mentor in your life consider yourself blessed…and lucky…for they’re not all that common. Remember, you select a coach, a mentor selects you. Great mentors can come from a variety of areas in your life. A relative, a friend, co-worker, boss, or business associate can all be potential mentors. What are the ingredients that make a great mentor?

  1. Deep life experiences. These experiences do not need to be in the area of your specific profession. The mentor has been in and around many different situations that have provided them with incredible insight and perspective.
  2. Demonstrates a personal interest in you. The mentor takes a proactive role in wanting to help you by providing valuable feedback, and guidance. Often times they proactively reach out to check in with you rather than waiting for your call.
  3. Excited and passionate about your development. The mentor never makes you feel like you’re on the clock. Instead they make you feel like they exist specifically to help you. Their energy and authenticity is tangible and easily recognized.
  4. Honest in a positive and constructive way. The mentor provides hard-hitting, honest feedback and observations, but does so in a way that doesn’t put you on the defense, or belittles you.
  5. Teacher, Coach, Counselor, Motivator all rolled into one. The mentor has a natural ability to weave in and out of these roles effortlessly with a near “cloak of invisibility” as they do so. Their deep understanding of you allows them to take the role most effective for the situation at hand, with the genuine intent to aid in your development, while never lecturing or criticizing.
  6. Trust. The single most important ingredient for any great mentoring relationship is trust. A strong, trusting relationship with a mentor creates the bond that is necessary for free-flowing, honest, personal, and sometimes difficult feedback without the fear of embarrassment or intimidation.

Great mentors do all these things and more. Having the benefit of a mentor gives you the ability to make better decisions, broadens your perspectives, and often times provides the clarity you need to move forward. These unique and wonderful people grace us with their active presence in our lives, teach us in ways others can’t, and provide us with the strength we need during life’s most crucial moments. Great mentors are in fact the difference makers in a life full of success and personal fulfillment.

5 Important Differences Between a Coach and a Mentor

On By Joe DeRosaIn Business, LeadershipLeave a comment

Helping-Mentor

Throughout your career, you will encounter moments that will present great challenges and/or opportunities.  Knowing what to do at those specific times depends on several things including experience, attitude, skills and capabilities, and the strength of your personal support network.    As you grow personally and professionally, the complexity of these circumstances increases and may create anxiety as you determine your next steps.  And while this is perfectly normal from a developmental standpoint, having a coach or a mentor by your side can make a huge difference in the quality of outcomes.  Understanding the difference between the two is the first step to making the right selection.

Many people believe mentors and coaches are the same…interchangeable terms.  But they’re not.  Mentors are quite different from coaches.  The key differences between the two are listed below:

  1. You select a coach, a mentor selects you.  As such, mentor relationships tend to last for years, if not a lifetime.  By the mentor selecting you, he or she is demonstrating their personal commitment and genuine desire to help with your personal development.
  2. Coaches focus on improving specific performance, usually on the job, while a mentor focuses on your overall development with a much greater focus on you, the person.
  3. Coaches interact through a formal structure, usually the same day and time each week – office hours.  The session follows a certain flow or formula for the review and update on the items discussed in your last meeting.  A mentor interacts as needed.  They’re “on-call” and happy to be so.  Less formal in nature, free-flowing, and very personal.
  4. Coaches tend to be “career-point-in-time” resources.  Meaning, few coaches can provide value in all stages of someones career.  A great high school football coach does not automatically equate to a great NFL coach simply because he understands the game of football.  As the stakes grow higher in your career, you will need to find a coach whose skills are equally equipped for the circumstances you are encountering.  The coach you had when you were 35, and in your first senior manager role, most likely will not be as effective for you when you are 45 in an executive role.  In contrast, a mentor is always focused on the “broad YOU”, gathering deep and intimate knowledge of the real you, thereby allowing them to provide valuable insights and guidance in nearly any circumstance.
  5. Finally, and perhaps the biggest difference between a coach and mentor is how they are paid.  Coaches, at least professional coaches, charge a fee for their service.  These fees range anywhere from a few hundred dollars per session into the thousands depending upon the circumstances, and length and frequency of the engagement.  A mentor has no fee.  They’ve taken you under their wing.  They have a personal connection with you and are committed to your development and success.

It’s important to understand that while different, there is a need to have both a coach and mentor in your life.  Both play very different, yet important roles in your personal and professional development.  Having a general understanding of your circumstance, time frame, and objectives will help guide your decision on selecting the right coach or mentor.  I will visit specific benefits of coaches and mentors in upcoming blogs.

The Best 6 Inspiration Books You’ll Ever Read

On By Joe DeRosaIn LeadershipLeave a comment

enlight

The self-improvement or self-help book market is estimated to be an $11 – $12 billion dollar business.  While the notion of self-improvement dates back to Greco-Roman times, self-help did not become a real industry until the last third of the 20th Century, marked as the post-modernism period.  Currently Amazon.com shows nearly 60,000 titles in their self-improvement category.  The question is, with that many titles and that much material being written, how much is really unique?  Of those 60,000 titles how do you know which ones provide the greatest insights that lead to those ever-coveted “ah-ha” moments?  To help you bypass sifting through 60,000 titles I’ve included my 6 favorite  self-improvement books that have inspired me over the years.   I have read each of them several times over as I have encountered different life situations.   I included some key learnings and some valuable excerpts from each below.

  1. Failing Forward, by John C. Maxwell.  Key Learnings:  Failure is the price you pay for progress.  “I’m not a failure, I failed at doing something.”  In 1922, Harry S. Truman was thirty-eight years old, in debt, and out of work.  In 1945, he was the most powerful leader of the free world.  Failure is not forever.  George Bernard Shaw said, “A life spent in making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.”  The problems of people’s pasts impact them in one of two ways:  They experience either a breakdown or a breakthrough.
  2. Authentic Leadership, by Bill George.  Key Learnings:  When leading people recognize that the collective knowledge and wisdom of the team vastly exceeds your own.  Spend time identifying your life’s “crucible moments”, those times during which your circumstances and experiences resulted in life altering perspectives.  Authentic leaders must have:  Purpose (Passion), Values (Behavior), Heart (Compassion), Relationships (Connectedness), Self-Discipline (Consistency).  Cultural change is never an easy task, and far more cultural efforts fail than succeed.
  3. Quite Strength, by Tony Dungy.  Key Learnings:  If you want to win, do the ordinary things better than anyone else does – day in and day out.  Why would you let anything stop you from doing what you have the ability to do?  Focus on the job, not the surroundings, and embrace each situation rather than try to change it.  People look more closely at our actions during rough times, when our emotions are raw and our guard is down.  What’s important is not the accolades and memories of success but the way you respond when opportunities are denied.
  4. Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance? by Louis V. Gerstner. Jr.  Key Learnings:  The marketplace dictates everything you should do.   Manage by principle, not by procedure.  When addressing groups of people whether employees, clients or shareholders, stand up and speak from the heart.  Sooner is better than perfect.  Sales is about fulfilling the demand that marketing generates.  Organizations are nothing more than the collective capacity of its people to create value.  If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.  Stay connected to your top 25 clients…always.
  5. Thanks For The Memories Mr. President by Helen Thomas.  Great presidents (leaders) set great goals for mankind.  Be who you are.  Be consistent.  Focus on what matters most…the truth…and have no agenda.  Treat everyone equally regardless of their (political) affiliations.  This book showcases the importance of humor especially during times of extreme conflict, stress, and pressure.  Plain old funny.
  6. His Excellency by Joseph J. Ellis.  A powerful book that chronicles the unassuming rise of our first President.  Stresses the importance of possessing qualities including perseverance, commitment, determination, honesty, and courage.  Also suggests a role that perhaps fate played in George Washington’s rise to become President.  In the face of constant adversity, the necessity of a powerful and enduring will to keep moving forward appears almost super-human.

While these are just a handful of favorites, I have also found a great deal of inspiration in reading biographies, and autobiographies of historical leaders.  Presidents, world leaders, and even those of celebrities who conquered extreme childhood trauma or disappointments yet rose to become revered and respected are true inspirations.  I believe the greatest opportunities for learning and improving ourselves, can be found in the footsteps of the great ones who have walked before us.  Sometimes being reminded to do the basics well, can produce incredible world-changing results.

Your Leadership Style + Your Company Culture – Is There a Disconnect?

On By Joe DeRosaIn LeadershipLeave a comment

perception

Carrot and stick.  And so goes the age-old debate of how to achieve great business results.  Do you shower your employees with accolades and pats on the back?  Or do you focus on the consequences for under performance?  Is your tone one of optimism and assumed-success?  Or is your temperament such that you lead with a, “if we fail” mentality?

There are as many different leadership styles as there are leaders.  Our styles are born from our life experiences from childhood, up to and including, the role we currently occupy.  How you were raised is as important as how you were managed in the first several years of your career.  Most experts agree that the “formative years” for a child occur in their first 12 years of life.  Likewise, the formative years of someones career is their first 5 years in the workforce.

Human beings are natural-born observers.  We watch.  We absorb.  We learn.  We take what we learn and begin to construct potential outcomes for the scenarios we encounter later in life.  Like, cause-and-effect, we begin to build a mental inventory of outcomes based upon actions and reactions.  We learn how to alter outcomes by changing our actions or behaviors.  Yet we all learn in different ways.  Two people can experience the exact same event and have completely different views or perceptions of that event.  And herein lies the formula for how our leadership styles evolve.

Are you a positive motivator or negative?  How do you know?  Ask yourself the following questions:

  1. Do you work in your office all day with the door closed?
  2. When was the last time you sent a communication to recognize a team member?
  3. How often do you walk around the office making eye contact, saying hello, and simply engaging people?
  4. How many people on your team do you rate as a top performer, and if so, when was the last time you told them how much you appreciated them?
  5. Are you losing more than 20% of your employees each year?
  6. Do you hold regular team meetings or even informal get-togethers?
  7. Do you consistently meet, or miss, your numbers?

How you answered these questions may be an indication of your style of leadership.  On the other hand it may also be a reflection of the culture within your workplace.  Either way it’s worth your time to evaluate.  Why?  Because there are several reasons to have a true understanding of your personal style and that of the culture in which you work.  If you genuinely want to build lasting value – for your company or your client – the first step has to be the development of relationships.  In the absence of trusting relationships a company will not be able to experience sustained growth, and nor will you.

According to an article published earlier this year by Forbes, the number one reason people left their job was for stability reasons.  People leave when they don’t feel secure.  Insecurity is often the result of a bad manager.  In fact a subsequent article in the Huffington Post Small Business, it cites the number one reason employees quit is “Their boss sucks”.  Micromanagers and poor communicators topped the list of horrible bosses.  The negativity that flowed from these bosses infected the workplace so much so that people run for the doors.

According to the American Institute of Stress, the top 2 causes of stress in the workplace are work overload and people.  The AIS estimates that stress causes American businesses more than $300 billion each year in lost productivity with a major contributor being a negative workplace.  So how can you change it?  First change your behaviors.  Try doing these three things each day:

  1. Walk around the office at least twice a day and say hello to folks.
  2. Work with your door open (if you have an office) when you can.
  3. Look for the good things that are happening and recognize them.

These are all within your control.  If you’re working for a company that has a negative-tone culture you may need to reevaluate what’s most important to you.  Remember, jobs come and go, but your reputation stays with you no matter where you are employed.  Don’t let the dynamics of an organization define who you are and how you act.  If your belief system is in direct conflict with the office culture, you may need to make a change.  Great teams are built by great leaders, and to be a great leader you’ve got to recognize and acknowledge that your people are in fact your biggest asset.   Only by growing your workplace relationships, developing trust, and displaying respect will you be able to develop a high performing team.

Responsible Leaders Vs. Accountable Leaders. Which would you prefer to follow?

On By Joe DeRosaIn Leadership1 Comment

weaklink

Who’s responsible?  We’ve all heard that before.   Whether at home or at work, someone is always looking for the person in charge…the one responsible for things.  Who is responsible for this failed project?  Who broke mom’s favorite serving dish?  Who didn’t let the dog out?  Who ordered all these office supplies?  And on, and on, and on.

Whether we’re looking for someone to blame, or someone to recognize and promote, the fact is, we should be looking for the person accountable rather than responsible.  But is there a difference?  You bet there is.

Being responsible simply means you’re the person charged with getting something done.  But if you’re accountable you’re the person who ultimately answers for the outcome of the work done.  If the purchase order placed is wrong, the person who placed the order may have been responsible, but their boss is the one accountable for the result produced by the wrong order being placed.  Likewise if your son was responsible for letting the dog out and in the process the dog bites a neighbor, it is you, the parent who is accountable for that action.

Think of the picture above.  The link in this picture, represented by a twist-tie, has the “responsibility” to connect two ends of the chain.  However, this same link will not be held accountable when the chain breaks given that it’s size, strength, and structure are clearly not the same as the other links.  In the end, accountability lies with the person who attempted to take a short-cut and use a weaker link to hold the entire chain together.

Saying you’re responsible simply means you’ll get something done or taken care of.  It does not in any way provide a stated commitment to the quality of your action or work.  However, to say you are accountable means you’re willing to be held liable for any and all outcomes of the work or action you’ve taken.

It’s no wonder that most people are willing to say they are “responsible” individuals, but few are willing to be held accountable.  This is evident in everyday places from families, to companies, to government.  Often times you hear people say, “Well, I’m not the one responsible”.  What they are saying is, they were not the person who was charged with doing the thing that’s being criticized.  Skirting responsibility is actually quite easy and we see these behaviors daily in news reports.  If someone is truly accountable, and they accept total accountability, they in fact are standing up to say “whatever the outcome is you can blame me or congratulate me…I own it either way.”

Strong leaders take accountability for the results of the team they lead…good or bad.  They don’t hide behind someone else’s lapse of responsibility, but instead stand tall and take the high road.  Being accountable energizes and emboldens them to the work at hand.  Those are the leaders people line up to follow.  Those are the difference makers.

4 Simple Ways To Stay Informed

On By Joe DeRosaIn BusinessLeave a comment

overload

Unmanageable.  That’s the word that comes to mind when you think about the volume of information flowing 24/7 at break-neck speeds every day.  Your customers, competitors, employees, and partners, are all struggling with the same challenge.  There is simply too much information to get your arms around.  How do you find the time to reign it all in and still be able to do your job…and live your life?  The secret is technology.

The same vehicle that has created this avalanche of information is also the same vehicle that can help you sort, sift, and manage what’s important to you on a daily basis.  By picking up these apps you can customize the topics you find of interest as well as those topics you need to effectively perform your job.

  1. Zite, Flipboard, Pulse.  These are news apps that you can customize with key words or topics that are of interest to you.  Using those words or phrases these apps go out into the web and search for articles that are a match for the topics you created.  They each have their strengths and weaknesses which are mostly in the eye of the beholder.  Zite uses a lot of white space while Flipboard and Pulse fill the pages with big picture blocks.  Zite and Flipboard allow you to integrate your other social networks while Pulse does not.  For content, Zite is king.  It applies great intelligence as it looks for content it “thinks” you may be interested in based upon your profile.
  2. Google Alerts.  You can create alerts which are sent via “Push” to your desktop, laptop or any smart device.  Setting up alerts for “small business”, or “Apple”, result in a push notification any time Google sees those words used in the news on the internet.  You can set alerts for virtually any topic, company, or person you want to follow.
  3. Twitter.  It’s not enough to have a Twitter account.  To maximize Twitter you need to be following the right Twitter users or “Tweeple“.  Of course “right”, depends 100% on you and your interests.  I personally find great value in following:  Forbes, Hubspot, SiriusDecisions, Harvard Biz Review, CMO.com, and American Express’ Open Forum.  Each of these contributors provides great perspective that is relevant to my interests.
  4. LinkedIn.  Today’s conventional thinking suggests that even college students should establish a LinkedIn profile.  Executives should have at least 500 contacts in their network, as well as membership in at least 6 groups.  There is virtually a LinkedIn group for any topic or interest you may have.  Connecting with the right groups and participating in discussions within those groups will help keep you informed while building your credibility as a thought leader.

Lastly, it is important you set a specific time each day dedicated to your personal “information gathering and education” sessions.  Getting in the habit of setting a set time each day for you to monitor the news that is most important to YOU is another way to control the flow of information and help you stay informed easily and effectively.

7 Traits of a Great Boss. Do you have one?

On By Joe DeRosaIn Business, UncategorizedLeave a comment

bad-bossIn the movie Horrible Bosses, Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, and Jason Sudeikis find themselves working for truly horrible people.  The movie, a fictional story, offers some very funny moments as these 3 employees ponder ways to be rid of their bosses.

Let’s face it we’ve all been there.  We’ve all worked for someone less than honorable, less than respectful, or less than human!  Unfortunately these bosses are everywhere.  Finding a great boss is no easy task.   It starts with you having a clear understanding of what attributes or traits your ideal boss would possess.  If your definition is incomplete, or worse, not formed at all, you will find it nearly impossible to end up with a great boss except by a total stroke of luck.

So what makes a great boss great?  Focus on the 7 traits below as you assess your current boss to decide just how great they are…or aren’t.

  1. Intellect.  I’m not talking about their GPA or MBA.  I’m referring to their ability to absorb information, assimilate it, and apply it to the work at hand.  Are they broad thinkers?  Do they have opinions that they can defend or support with data, healthy debate, or other validation points?
  2. Common Sense.  Does your boss make decisions solely based on data or can he augment his decisions by infusing common sense?  Great bosses (leaders) can look at the data at hand but use common sense to make quality decisions.  I suppose the folks at Coca-Cola had data suggesting people wanted a different tasting Coke which in turn led to the launch of “New Coke“.  It was a colossal failure and one that Coca-Cola had to walk back quickly.   Common sense could have save millions in wasted resources.
  3. Intuition.  What is your bosses background?  Have they been around or is this their first rodeo?  Intuition, unlike instinct, is formed through experience and thoughts as opposed to those things that tie back to our DNA over tens of thousands of years.  Intuition suggests an evolution or development.  Great bosses have strong intuition as to their decisions and direction.
  4. Humility.  Who wants to work for a glory hound?  Someone always seeking the attention and limelight.  A boss that operates with arrogance and egotism will always act to ensure their own personal status and self-preservation.  Often times a boss who is not humble creates a work environment that is overly aggressive and can border on hostile.
  5. Vision.  People want to follow a leader.  But people will only follow if they believe in the direction you are heading and embrace that direction.  Great bosses provide their employees with a strong vision as to where they are headed, why, and what it looks like when they get there.  Jonathan Swift said, “Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others.”
  6. Gracious.  How kind and courteous is your boss?  Does she say good morning when you come in?  Does he thank you for the work you’ve done?  Is she giving of her time when you need help, or do you feel the clock is always ticking?  Great bosses are kind, courteous and generous.  This does not mean they are soft or weak, but fair and gracious.
  7. Humor.  When was the last time you laughed at work?  Better yet, when was the last time you laughed in a meeting at work or just in talking with your boss.  Great bosses have good senses of humor.  They’re not simply jokers or pranksters but possess and overall good sense of humor.  Having the ability to laugh at work is the difference between a productive workforce and one that’s burned out.

If your boss has all 7 of these traits then you have found yourself a pretty great boss.  No one is perfect but it’s those that are still comfortable and confident with their imperfections, skills and critical talents that make for a great boss.

No Promotion, Now What? Ask Yourself These 4 Questions.

On By Joe DeRosaIn BusinessLeave a comment

no-self-promotion

It’s been a grind for months.  You’ve been working 12 – 13 hour days and weekends to prove you can do it and do it well.  All eyes are on you.  The project you’re in charge of is critical to your company’s future success.  It’s a big deal.  You complete the project and sit back ready to be showered with accolades and compliments by your boss and your peers.  Deep down you know this will be your defining moment…your own personal Mozart Concerto.  You wait…wait a bit longer…still longer…and nothing.

Wow!  What happened.  Your finished work was unbelievable.  You peers and other industry partners even commented on your end result.  Your boss seemed pleased along the way but hasn’t shown any real celebratory emotion.  Of course after all, aren’t you expected to deliver high-quality, near-perfect work?  This scenario is not atypical, but in actuality very common.

So what do you do when you hit this wall?  What actions should you take when the work you thought would seal a promotion turns out to do little more than generate a brief passing smile in a hallway at the office?  Do you quit?  Leave?  Complain?  Ask these 4 questions to help you determine your next course of action.

  1. Why did I expect to be promoted in the first place?  Perhaps you assumed that by delivering an amazing performance you’d somehow get that big title or bigger paycheck.  You may have even believed that your boss would just create a brand new position for you with the big title.  Maybe in a prior conversation your boss alluded to “big things” for those who step up and deliver a solid performance.  If the reason you expected your work to result in a promotion doesn’t contain a “this for that” in your explanation then you yourself have set yourself up for disappointment.  Learning:  If you take on a project, job, initiative that you expect will lead to advancement, be clear with your boss up front about this and get their reaction and their commitment before starting.
  2. What can I do to improve my performance?  This is a tough question to ask.  Most of us believe we’re already doing all the right things.  We sometimes confuse hard work with smart work.  High performers are constantly learning, constantly seeking knowledge, new ideas, perspectives, etc.  Focus always, on improving yourself first.  Personal development should never be weighed against a promotion.  Learning:  Adopt the attitude that you will be the best at your craft regardless of what happens in your work environment.  Even if you don’t get that promotion you can still have confidence in your ability to produce great results. And ultimately those results will be recognized even if by another employer.
  3. Is my boss my advocate?  Does your boss share success or does he take all the glory?  What happens when things go bad?  Are you hung out to dry or is your boss there to absorb a “team loss”?  Does she create situations that allow you to shine and be recognized?  Has he taken the time to introduce you to his boss to create an opportunity for interaction?  Learning:  A boss that lacks confidence or self-esteem will always be a barrier to your progress.  If you find yourself working for a boss that fits this profile…and progression is important to you…you may need to move on.
  4. What do my peers think of me?  This is perhaps the most overlooked area when dealing with promotions or lack of.  Many organizations have implemented performance programs that gather feedback from your peers to include in your annual performance review.  The ever-popular “360” became all the rage in the early 2000’s and still exists today with some variations.  A poor relationship, rapport, or perception of you with your co-workers can kill your career aspirations as quickly as those of a bad boss.  Learning:  Put yourself out there.  Build relationships with your peers as well as those above and below in the organization.  Most companies today place great value on workers who are proficient in influencing, bridge building and negotiating.

Especially in times when the outcome did not match your expectations, self-reflection is critical.  Taking an honest look inside will always help bring perspective to each and every experience you encounter.  Thomas Paine said, “The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by reflection.”  Basically know…it’s okay to talk to yourself.