Career Management: Are You Meeting Your Career Expectations? - By: Ramon Greenwood

Understanding the different expectations held by your boss, your direct reports and your peers is crucial to climbing the career ladder.

That’s the word from Bill Neale, a founding partner of Denison Consulting, a firm dedicated to studying the link between organizational culture and leadership to bottom line results.

Here’s a quick summary of research conducted by Denison:

The boss expects you to set and achieve strategy and objectives that support the long-term mission of the organization. “You can be the greatest team player in the world, or a wonderful ‘people person,’ but if you ignore the mission of your organization you’ll never satisfy the boss,” declares Neale.

Your direct reports expect you to promote teamwork, delegate authority and responsibility, as well as encourage personal development to reach career goals. Neale says getting direct reports involved, motivated and committed is crucial. “If you don’t truly engage the folks who work for you, you won’t win a vote of confidence from them, and you’re not likely to fully leverage their energies and talents.”

Peers expect you to be adaptable and consistent, and committed to the organization’s principles and values. Organizational peers are a difficult group to satisfy. “They may have less information about you, or view you as a competitor,” Neale says. “Peers, however, do place a high value on flexibility, the ability to surmount organizational boundaries and constraints, and to push alignment in the workplace.”

Neale says organizations are complex and demanding. Each is unique, so there is no simple formula for assuring personal career success. “If you’re serious about succeeding, however, the first order of business is to become familiar with the various expectations—both spoken and unspoken—you need to satisfy.”

Agree upon them. Put in writing. Decide how your progress will be measured?

Get regular feedback. Are you meeting expectations? Have expectations changed?

While you are at it make sure those who report to you understand what you expect from them.

What To Expect From Your Employer There's another side to the expectations equation: What should you expect from your employer if you want to be a first-class player  and a winner? Most of all it essential to expect to work in an environment where there is opportunitywhich hard work and achievement are rewarded. This means you will be encouraged to grow as fast as you can, broadening your capabilities and building  your experience every step of the way. You will be allowed to assume all the  responsibilities you can handle. This environment of opportunity should allow you to take common sense risks with  knowing that you will be rewarded when you are right and not punished when you are wrongout to be wrong. You should expect your employer to provide you with the assets you need to get  your assignments done on time and in a manner that produces profits. You have  little chance of being a winner unless you are employed by an organization that  satisfies this expectation. You should expect your employer to maintain a highly visible connection between  the effort you make, what you accomplish and how you are rewarded. You will not have a nurturing soil in which you  can grow to be a winner in the absence of a reward system that distinguishes  between doing and "gonna do." There is little incentive to make your best effort  where the annual compensation review almost always results in across-the-board,  cost-of-living raises for one and all alike, loafers as well as producers; where  winners are never singled out for a pat on the back. Over time, the absence of opportunity, the lack of resources and the failure to  reward good work will kill the fire in even the most ambitious of us. These failures  will also cripple organizations. Those who have a passion to win success on the career path will wise to either change such adestructive environment or leave it.

About the Author

To get more common sense advice to protect and advance your career during tough times, sign up at http://www.CommonSenseAtWork.com for a free subscription to Ramon Greenwood's widely read e-newsletter and participate in his blog. He coaches from a successful career as Senior VP at American Express, author of career-related books, and a senior executive/consultant in Fortune 500 companies.

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