Need reputational credit? Time to ‘sync’

Do you ever see other people progressing and wonder why you aren’t? Perhaps you hear a lot about certain people’s successes and feel as if, in comparison, you are not being noticed. What’s going on and can you do something about it?

Too often, people expect that just doing a good job is enough. Sometimes it is but more often it takes some pro-active communication and management of expectations. Why might that be?

Let’s consider Amy, a fictional character that you first met in a previous Blog [To stay or not to stay]. In summary, Amy, 26 an Assistant Brand Manager, wants to get promoted but her Manager doesn’t think she is ready. When we last met her, she had been thinking of leaving her organisation in the hope that she could get a more senior role elsewhere. You had a coffee with her and shared some things to think about. As a result, she is now considering trying to make a go of things in her current organisation and recognises that she needs to do something differently – but what?

Amy decided to talk to another manager that she trusts, Matias.

He has progressed in the organisation and is well thought of. Amy explains the situation to Matias sharing how hard she works and how she makes sure she doesn’t bother her manager and gets on with delivering what he has asked for. Matias smiles slowly and then, noticing that Amy is wearing a fitness monitor, asks Amy what it is and what it does.

Amy explains that it is a fitness tracking device that she was lucky enough to be given for her birthday – one of those wrist devices that monitors your sleep, your steps, heart-rate, and works out your calories expended.

Amy explains that it is a device which stores up to 7 days of data for you and which you can ‘sync’ i.e. synchronise to a phone or tablet for longer term dashboard review. Matias asks her how she is finding using it. Amy explains that all was going well for the first few weeks as she learned a lot about herself but then she started to have some problems with the syncing mechanism and was surprised at how much this affected her. Having got used to having regular updates she was missing not being able to clearly see what was going on and any progress being made, whether this was good or bad. She found she was getting frustrated about it.

Matias asks Amy if she can see any parallels between this and her situation with her manager. Amy is puzzled so Matias explains. ‘Imagine what it must be like trying to understand how you are getting on with your goals, what you’ve achieved, who you have involved and what you have overcome. Perhaps your manager is used to his team members managing his expectations by giving him progress updates and keeping him appraised of any issues he should be aware of? He doesn’t seem to be getting that from you and it’s possible, just like for you when your fitness device stopped syncing, that he likes to get regular updates and in their absence is thinking the worst.’

If you can see parallels with Amy’s situation, what can you do to make your achievements more visible without feeling you are bragging?

1. Have a conversation with your manager. Ask them how they like to be kept informed, how often, with what information, in what way?
2. Consider the other people that have a stake in what you are working on. Talk to them in a similar way to understand their needs. This is about giving other people what they need which has the added benefit of building your reputation with them.
3. See the time you need to communicate the above as a key part of your role rather than an addition to your role.

In summary, Amy now better understands how to build her reputation – she will aim to keep her ‘syncing’ frequent so that her manager gets to see the progress she is making, the successes she is having with her goals and the capability that she is building.

Do you have any synching issues with your manager where they are guessing and filling in the gaps? What is your first next step to ensure a positive reputation and the freedom to lead?