What’s one thing you can do today to put yourself in a stronger position for advancement and/or promotion?

Strengthening your ability to request and graciously receive direct feedback to build your awareness of your strengths and weaknesses will serve you well as you work to expand your career possibilities. The key is to have an open and honest dialogue with your manager and other stakeholders to ensure clarity about how you are perceived.

I interviewed a variety of Financial Services executives and HR colleagues about how and why people do or do not get promoted to more senior levels. Some of the perspectives they offered behind closed doors might seem a bit harsh. The good news is that by providing transparency about the tough reality, they help us to take actions to navigate the scene with aplomb.

In seeking examples of those who sailed through the system well and those who did not, there were many mentions of promising performers who were passed over for promotion and didn’t know why.

“...was behind others -- has never been given feedback to understand why they’re trailing their peers…”

Easily promoted rock star performers, on the other hand, were described consistently as asking for and listening to feedback, receiving it openly, and doing something about it. 

“Do not assume you’re doing a good job. Find out whoever makes the decision about promotion and what they’re looking for – if it’s a panel decision – make sure you know who they are. Make it easy for them. You can’t be oblivious to how decisions are made and how to influence the decision. Must ask for it.”

In preparing your advancement plan, it is possible to ascertain the overall sense the key influencers hold of you, the behaviors that you exhibit or have exhibited that led (rightly or wrongly, doesn’t matter) to that impression…and what behaviors would be exhibited if you were perceived to deliver to the desired performance or results. In many cases it's possible to address any disconnects to restore good working relationships going forward - if you are aware of what needs to be done.

“It’s a function of not having gotten the right feedback or not knowing honestly what somebody thinks about you. Most of the people not getting to senior levels are taken by surprise. They don’t get promoted or for some reason they don't get the next big assignment, big dollars or advocacy. But they can’t put their finger on it. This person has never been given the feedback they screwed something up they shouldn't have screwed up (like a major presentation), or that they pissed someone off and for someone at that level this is unacceptable.”

In general, critical feedback seems to be challenging for executives to give.

“Listen to the feedback you are and aren’t receiving. When they have good things to say, they are articulate. When they have bad feedback there is silence and awkwardness. Listen to all of that. Men are not good at negative feedback. And it gets worse with risk.”

And apparently this becomes an especially critical puzzle for women to proactively solve, as there is even less candid information coming our way.

“Women get lost in our industry. They’re not managed as well – managers don’t like to have open conversations with women. They’re concerned how they’ll react. Will they bring a lawsuit? Women are dealing with a lot of unspoken issues.”

Again, it’s important to be strategic in collecting the feedback from the right people. It seems like doing that makes it possible to mitigate unfavorable opinions.

 “Figure out the person who is least supportive of you and get his or her feedback – if you can convert that person – everyone else falls into line.”

A few important practices underpin your ability to become self-aware about your own performance and make sure you are a high performer. The first is building a broad network with the kind of relationships where people will tell you the truth about how you are perceived will clue you in to any blind spots.

“Get feedback from a third party – direct manager, manager’s manager, a lateral person, or client. Seek the information that isn’t getting fed, get over the wall preventing you from hearing what you need to hear.”

Second is cultivating the composure and clarity of mind to take the feedback as data and act on it rationally and without upset -- with detached commitment. This allows you to collect perspectives to synthesize for analysis, action planning and implementation, without attaching any personal meaning to it. This mindset shift is easier said than done, but the muscle gets stronger as you practice.

“Get the feedback, don’t argue with it. Process it, don’t argue. Especially if not good. Just do something about it.”

A third is being able to ask clarifying questions to help you focus on exactly what you need to do going forward. Sometimes the feedback is general and doesn’t define the specific gap between the desired performance and what we’re doing. Asking the right questions while not having an upset or defensive demeanor allows us to engage the feedback provider to elicit needed details as well as future guidance and feedback.

This is all important because good self-awareness is one of the key attributes considered as indicative of high potential by executives and talent managers. And, if you get the lay of the land while you’re early in the advancement / promotion planning process, you can find out about any deal breaking perceptions and clean up any spills ahead of time that would have otherwise gotten in the way.

While you’ll want to collect feedback periodically, consider that your manager may be best positioned to help you understand how you are perceived in the organization immediately following a Talent Review. Feel tongue tied about what to say? Sometimes having the right words to start makes a difficult conversation easier. See the attached freebie for four different clear and focused feedback request scripts.

Knowing how you're perceived and by whom gives you a powerful platform to continue your development and effectively manage your performance as well as your image and exposure. The video above will walk you through how to shape the feedback you request so you can use it to best build and prioritize your development plan.