Marketing for Career Success: A Team Approach

by Todd Rhoad

Looking back over the past 20 years, the most important lesson I've learned about climbing the corporate ladder is that it is not solely a function of how brilliant you are, how much you've accomplished or how hard you work. Everyone coming into the workplace now has a good education and useful skills. That's why so little training is done in organizations today on activities related to the job. Career advancement is obviously focusing on the softer side. If you've already demonstrated knowledge and performance with little success, continuing to perform them with anticipation of different results is futile. As with most new products on the market, you spend time building your product (i.e. earning a degree), then you test it to show functionality (i.e. work hard and produce results). This is where most of us lose direction. We continue to demonstrate functionality without ever focusing any effort on getting our product off the shelves. We think hard work and great results are sufficient selling points. Just like unknown actors with great talent, you can't achieve greatness without being seen. Nothing gets you there any faster than a lot of "face" time, and to get that....you've got to market yourself. To help you, I've outlined the best method I've seen used.

1. The first step in your marketing strategy is to create a career map. Define where you want to be in the end. Then, you can work backwards to identify the skills and experience you will need in each logical step. Focus on highlighting the skills and experience you don't have. Once you know what you need, start outlining methods for achieving them. Don't worry too much about finding solutions for everything you'll get help with that shortly.

2. Here's the unusual part and something the standard approach would never suggest. However, it's the best way to overcome numerous hurdles with ease. Select two individuals who share similar goals to you. They will most likely be someone you trust and respect like a close co-worker. Encourage them to create a career map. Compare and contrast everyone's results. Now you can improve your solutions for enhancing your skill sets that will help you move up. Lastly, gain commitment from your team members in supporting each other's activities on the road to success. By keeping in mind where each other wants to be, you train yourself to recognize opportunities that will lead to some level of success. I've done this by overhearing a management discussion on a new high profile project where I recommended a team member which provided my team member instant exposure. Then, we secretly helped him complete it on-time and on-schedule, creating a big success for the company.

3. Using your team, probe management and key players in your company for their perceptions of you. Establish plans and strategies for modifying bad perceptions, supporting existing good perceptions and creating new perceptions. Managers don't spend a lot of time around their employees to create accurate perceptions. Using other people's perceptions of you carries much more influence than your own. Having a team of employees dedicated to painting the perfect picture of you will save you years in trying to do that yourself. If you want a successful future, create it.

4. As you begin to exercise this approach, you will still encounter roadblocks that will seem to plateau your efforts. After all, the Rule of 99% states that almost everyone will plateau at some point due to the pyramidal nature of organizational structures. Use your team to help you identify when your methods are no longer producing the desired results. Once this occurs, start back over with the process. Measure perceptions and set new plans to change them.

5. Depending on the size of your organization and goals, this process may take some time. The more you engage in the process, the more likely you are to achieve your goals. The more goals you achieve, the more you should celebrate. The more you celebrate, the more driven you become. You'll also be motivated by the reduced impact of failures since they can be repaired by your team. That's right, say good-bye to those ever so damaging political faux pas.
One of the biggest roadblocks to successful careers is not based upon what we know about people but what we think we know. Most managers know little about what employees actually do on the job yet they still form an opinion of how good you are and what they are capable of doing. They do that by listening to others who may not know you. A simple solution to avoid this dilemma and give your career the direction you want is to simply create the perceptions you want them to have using the efforts of your team. Stop waiting on opportunities....create them!

About Todd Rhoad
Todd Rhoad is an author and speaker specializing in Career Development Strategies. He is the author of the book "Blitz the Ladder" and speaks frequently at colleges, businesses, conferences, and organizational associations. Todd is Technical Director for BT Consulting, an Atlanta-based Company, and holds both a MSEE and MBA. He can be reached at Todd.Rhoad@blitzteamconsulting.com. Your can read more about his book at www.blitztheladder.com and his company at www.blitzteamconsulting.com.

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