Who is responsible for the law of success or failure of your dreams? You are. That is right, in the end, you have ultimate responsibility. Are you upset that you have only gotten to a certain level in your career? I once knew a woman, let's call her Martha; she was always thinking a person getting promoted quickly was unfair. She was a hard worker and had spent twenty-plus years getting to where she was-a journeyman level IT specialist. She had the hardest time with people moving up the ladder faster than she did. Although she never reflected on "why are people moving up faster than me?" The reason was that she lacked motivation to pursue the tools required for advancement: education, professional development and aggressive career management. She happily bought into "I am a victim of the system" and would rather criticize people succeeding than making a change herself.
She never went to college or earned a degree. She entered into the Information Technology field when there was a super-high demand-she knew more about computers than her peers at the time. Time though, moves on. Martha failed to move with it. She entered into a professional occupation without the ambition to becoming a better professional. Great professionals get education, training and experience no matter the cost. If their organization does not pay for it, they pay for it, because in the end it helps them get to where they want to be. Today there are people with graduate degrees in Information Technology working for half what she earns-yet she expects more. Candidates these days, in her field, have degrees. She places little value on a degree and thinks that people that have them think they are better than those that don't. (Not true in most cases.) What she fails to realize is that a degree opens the door, what people do once they get in the door is the key.
Martha is automatically at a disadvantage when someone with experience and a degree applies for a job she wants. She thinks "they only got the job because they have a degree" not realizing that they got the job because they had the experience and the degree. Advancement takes work, beyond the work put in at your job!
Another common complaint was that the organization does not pay for enough training. Again, you have to pay for it-it benefits you the most. The organization will benefit from you training of course, but you will be providing the benefit-your leaders will notice that you take the initiative to get the job done. It will pay off in the end; Martha never realized the cost is relative.
The last area where Martha fails to take control is in the aggressive management of her career. Many highly qualified professionals move around and take jobs to broaden their skill base. Martha stayed in the same job for years-and-years. She has a family. No excuse; she could have aggressively asked her local employer to allow her to work in other areas of the organization. She did not have to uproot her family. Martha probably thought "they would never let me." Aggressive career management means you give them reason to allow it and stand by your desire. Martha could have said she needed to gain more experience. She could have said something like this: "to better provide information technology services to the different and unique areas of the organization, I should rotate through their operations. That way I know first-hand what they require from me." It is hard to argue with an employee that rationalizes their request with organizational improvement.
John C. Maxwell, in his book, 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader, quotes Haddon Robinson as saying "If you want to get rich, invest in victimization. It is America's fastest growing industry." Martha was a victim, of herself. She did not believe that it was her fault for not getting a degree, not pursuing additional training or seeking broader working experiences. She is happy thinking that she is a victim of the system. There are a lot of victims out there; Haddon Robinson may be right, a person could get rich giving people tips on who to blame other than themselves.
Geno A Bulzomi
http://www.bulzomi.com
Articles on International Affairs, Leadership and Business.
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