Today’s guest contributor post is by Mona Reiser. Mona is a former Customer Service and Supply Chain Executive who resides in Atlanta. She now helps other businesses to be set up for success and will be getting her real estate license soon.
Though it’s not wise to measure your progress by someone else’s standards, it’s also the way the world works, more or less, in the practical order of things. Think about what they’ll be judging, and gear up for it.
So that was my horoscope for 12/8/17. It’s not often I actually read my newspaper’s horoscope, but today was the day.
It made me stop and think about the truism in those words. Whether we like it or not, we are measured, not only by our progress, but by all other traits and characteristics. Basically by ‘someone else’s standards.’ Those are standards that we may know, but more often than not, we don’t know. Is it fair? Heck no! But just like any form of diversity, we have a subliminal desire for others to be like us.
So how do we “gear up for it” and more importantly, should we? In order to progress, you would need to figure out what the standards are for success. To gear up, you must channel the observation tool. Easy enough to do by observing your counterparts and what they seem to be recognized for. That will provide a portion of the answer as to what your management is actually judging, recognizing and rewarding. What will always be the challenge, is what your manager/management sets as the standard. But then again a bit of research and the use of regular 1:1’s will provide you with some direction. Take the feedback from the 1:1’s, mid-year reviews and identify what standards are provided you. You will see trends!
Earlier, I mentioned “should we” gear up for it. It is good to ‘gear up’ when you are early enough in your career and have management aspirations. Learning about the company culture/management, how success is measured and how to navigate the organization will help you. As you progress up the ladder, you may just have the opportunity to become the standard.
Friendly reminder! Are you looking up to gear up by learning more about your leadership and communication style? Through the month of December you can get your assessment done to prepare for your 2018 goals. Remember that the assessments are 50% off through the month of December. Send me a note at susan@susanmbarber.com to sign up for your assessment today!