Seven reasons why you did not get promoted - 3

By : Adetayo Okusanya

5. Your nickname is “Tornado Tom”

You get the job done, no matter what. You have developed a reputation for setting aggressive deadlines and completing projects ahead of schedule. You are great at keeping emotions out of business issues and you drive yourself and others hard. The return on investment (ROI) on your projects is thrice that of your peers. Your ability to milk revenue from clients and slash project costs is the stuff that legends are made of. Indeed, you have become a legend in your organization.

Here is the challenge. No one wants to work with you. You are a legend for all the wrong reasons. Your customers feel cheated, your vendors feel bullied, your team members feel assaulted and your manager is overwhelmed with complaints about your work style. You get the job done but you leave a trail of disgruntled and angry stakeholders in your wake. You are frequently reassigned to new accounts to appease clients who threaten to take their business elsewhere and your colleagues have been known to resign to avoid working with you. Congratulations! You have mastered the fine art of being infamous!

6. You have lost your boss’ vote of confidence

You believe your boss is inept and you wonder how he was able to advance his career. He defies every notion you have about who, what and how a manager should be. His communication, management, decision making and fashion styles leave a lot to be desired. In your opinion, he is not fit to lead you or anyone else, and you could probably do a better job with one hand tied behind you. You constantly gripe about how your success is being impeded by his incompetence, and you consistently criticize, challenge and defy him in public.

Here is the challenge. Your father neither owns nor holds majority shares in the company that you work for, and your boss, who is the key decision maker in matters related to your development and advancement, has come to dislike and distrust you. In his view, you are a disloyal subordinate and a threat to his success. Consequently, he has determined in his mind to ensure that you do not achieve the success that you desire on his watch. Instead of investing your time and energy in building a strong, positive strategic alliance with your boss and demonstrating loyalty, support and cooperation, you have created a hostile work relationship between you and the one person that decides what you do, the value that is placed on what you do and the rewards that accrue to you. Congratulations! You have mastered the fine art of career suicide.

7. You may not be as good as you think you are

You equate the length of time in your current position with the ability to deliver quality results. You are a major proponent of maintaining customs and traditions and you wonder why others get frustrated by your insistence to do things the way they have always been done. Your relationship with your boss is perfect, and his open door policy gives you the opportunity to stop by his office regularly to discuss problems that you are facing. A recurring topic of discussion with your boss is your frustration with the various change initiatives that the company seems to be constantly implementing. As far as you are concerned, such changes are unnecessary and increase the scope and complexity of your work. In your opinion, “if it isn’t broken, don’t try to fix it”.

Here is the challenge. Your environment is constantly changing but you have stayed the same. Your organization is doing its best to react agilely and adapt to changing economic, political and global climates. There is now a new normal and a higher baseline for performance standards, but you are still clinging to old customs and practices that no longer serve the company or its stakeholders. Your boss, to no avail, has asked you several times to be more proactive and autonomous in problem solving and proffering solutions, rather than simply identifying problems. You have stopped adding value to your role and no longer demonstrate a commitment to continuous learning and improvement. Congratulations! You have mastered the fine art of becoming antediluvian.

Being passed over for promotion can be a major disappointment, but it is not the worst thing in the world. It is a temporary setback that creates an opportunity for self reflection and course correction. Maybe you are yet to miss a promotion; this article affords you the opportunity to proactively maintain your track record. It is my belief, similar to the Pareto Principle (80/20 rule), that most of your success in advancing your career will be determined by how YOU choose to pro-act and react in your team, department and organization.