Despite their best intentions and efforts, some competent executives seem to advance more slowly in their careers. The incorrect perceptions can hence affect your career growth. Other executives, however, seem to thrive in spite of their bad behavior. Have you ever wondered WHY? Here is the answer:
There are many competent and hardworking executives who harbor big dreams but do not act strategically. There are two things you need to take into account from the standpoint of leadership readiness: In any organization, you are expected to demonstrate certain behaviors that will make you be considered a good fit for the current role or ready for the next level.
Right behaviors alone are not sufficient. Perceptions of you greatly influence your reality. It is your responsibility to shape perceptions of yourself since no one else can do this for you.
How Incorrect Perceptions Can Affect Your Career Growth?
Based on the behavior vs perception relationship, you can see four situations, each of which accelerates or decelerates your career progression. So as to not let the incorrect perceptions affect your career growth, let’s have a quick look at them:
Situation 1: Behaviour is excellent. Perception is excellent as well or even better.
Situation 2: Behaviour is excellent. Perception is incorrect. They are not considered ready by influential people. They need to be diligent to make sure that your hard work each year does not go to waste.
Situation 3: Behaviour is poor. But perception is great. Clearly, they had some luck there, but they need to get their plans and act soon before it’s all over.
Situation 4: Behaviour is awful. Perception is also poor. Either they need to change their behaviour or shape their perceptions immediately.
In most cases, executives who get stuck are in situations #2 and #4. In these cases, you have to take steps to rectify perceptions to avoid ending up as an easy target – someone who is easily replaceable. You must focus on demonstrating the right behaviours, establish relationships at all levels, including peer, supervisor and above, to shape positive perceptions.
There is nothing worse than doing the work and other people taking credit for it. A similar problem is when you are busy with work you shouldn’t be doing in the first place.
In order to be successful, you need to take massive actions. You need to find your blind spots, adopt strategies, and take action to overcome roadblocks to both sustain at your current level and progress to the next level.