Mastering the Politics of Promotion

Anita Brick: Hi, this is Anita Brick and welcome to CareerCast at Chicago Booth. To help you advance in your career. Today we're delighted to be speaking with Bonnie Marcus. She is an award winning entrepreneur, president of Women Success Coaching, and author. Bonnie, great book, so informative. We're going to talk about today The Politics of Promotion.

Bonnie has held executive positions in startups and in fortune 500 companies. She's been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, Diversity MBA, and CIO magazine. She received a BA from Connecticut College and a master's in education from New York University, and she is a certified executive coach. Bonnie, thank you so much for making the time. We are so appreciative.

Bonnie Marcus: I'm honored that you’re having me as a guest today.

Anita Brick: Wonderful. Our first question is from an MBA student and he said: “I know my value and I know my value proposition, but I'm not so clear about how to create customized messaging depending on the audience. I want to position myself for a general management role where today I'm in a more technical role. Can you please give me some idea of where to start? And I really thank you.”

Bonnie Marcus: Great. So the value proposition really isn't dependent on your job description. It's transferable because it's how you do the work and how you get results. Not necessarily, you know, the technical aspects of your job. That's the first thing that I want to emphasize. A client of mine, a CEO of a company that was just going through a lot of mergers and kind of in chaos, going through the exercises with her about her value proposition.

We learned that the way she was able to get results had nothing to do with the technical aspects of being a CEO. It’s more about her ability to build trusting relationships, the strong relationships helped the organization stick together and stay motivated through all the change. She was the glue that held the organization together. So it's important to know when you're identifying that value proposition. It's not necessarily your job description. So that’s the first thing that I'd like to say.

The other thing is when you're customizing your approach, you need to understand what other people want and need and then connect the dots for them from what your value proposition and how you can help them meet their objectives or meet their challenges. If you want to be in general management and you're having conversations with decision makers or people of influence, you should ask them what some of their challenges are and then position yourself as somebody who can help them meet those challenges.

Anita Brick: There is an alum who sent in a question, and her question was not even so much about the impact. And I think this plays quite well to what you were saying. She said she's good at letting people know the impact, what she's missing or what she's been told that she's missing is the emotional component. She's all business in her organization that doesn't play super well.

So here's her question: “I know what I've done and can even share the impact of my work. That said, I'm not as good at incorporating an emotional element. I can do this in my personal life, but just not in professional situations.” So how could she begin to bring in really more of who she is as a human being so that she can look multidimensional?

Bonnie Marcus: We get stuck into this idea or this concept that we need to pitch ourselves in a very formal way. It's not emotional in that it's not making a connection with anyone. You need to understand and be clear about what you bring to the table, but you also need to understand other people. And so that means connecting and building these strong one on one relationships where you're asking questions and you're listening, and you're understanding where that person is and what some of their challenges may be. Well, maybe I can help by doing XYZ, because I understand that these are some of your challenges right now, or this is the objective, the mission of the company. And here's how I can support that mission. You're not just throwing something out there that's generic about this is what I bring to the table.

Anita Brick: I think that's good. So there was a related question about relationships. And this MBA student said: “You talk about quid pro quo relationships. How can I still maintain my integrity and authenticity if I live in a you do this for me and I'll do this for you environment?”

Bonnie Marcus: You know, recently quid pro quo has gotten a really bad rap. But I would say this we think of an immediate exchange of favors rather than what I call building up of favor bank over time, you're offering to help without the understanding that, okay, now you need to do something for me as you build relationships over time and you are offering to help, and you are serving your company and different people in your company, you will feel confident in asking for a favor in return at some point. Mutuality, as Corey Anderson says, and that mutuality mutuality mindset helps you to build the types of relationships where there is give and take. And it's a win-win.

Anita Brick: And I think your point is well taken. If I'm waiting for you to deliver something to me because I gave you something and I have that expectation, that's the fakey part. But if I know that I'm doing this for you because I want to do this for you. Yeah. I mean, do I hope that something comes from it at some point? Sure. But if I have that graciousness or that generosity of spirit when I give, then it's going to be authentic. But if I'm doing it with hmm, I think Bonnie is going to do something for me. I'll give her three months, and then if not, I'm done with her. And that's very different.

Bonnie Marcus: No, no, no, there's generosity of spirit for sure. Women, they don't make the ask. They don't ask for anything in return. And the danger there is that you're giving, giving, giving, giving, you know, until you're depleted rather than how can I leverage this relationship? And thinking strategically about that mutuality mindset is a different mindset than the transactional one of, you know, I do this, so you do this for me.

Anita Brick: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And by the way, the asking part from my experience, men don't do it that well either. I think it's challenging all the way around. But that said, if we can shift gears just a little bit and I found this really interesting in your book as well. And an alum said, he said: “You talk about understanding who has the power and who has the influence. This totally makes sense to me. That said, what advice do you have on how to pick up on those cues?”

Bonnie Marcus: We need to pay attention to the dynamics between people and the relationships. Say you identify the decision maker and the decision maker’s influencers. When that decision maker or when those key stakeholders are in meetings, for instance, who do they look to? Who do they call on and seem to value their opinion? So you know, one of the things that I do in the book and there's actually a little diagram template, there is understanding when you identify who has power over your career. Not necessarily just power over everything. Pay attention to who is in their web of influence, because you need to build relationships with all of those people.

And that's not just based on the organizational chart. You will find that a lot of people get things done with senior leadership, and they're not in the C-suite, but they either have the right relationships or they have access to the right resources. And so when I mean pay attention, you need to pay attention to all of that because there are some key players that you can align with that aren't necessarily in the top leadership positions, but they get things done. Pay attention to the relationships they have and how they position themselves.

Okay, good. So here's someone who's been doing that, but it doesn't seem to be leveraged in a way that is supporting her. A student said: “I feel like an outsider in my company. I think I didn't create a good first impression and that perception remains, how do I shift this? Because I really want to build more opportunities now and for the future.”

Bonnie Marcus: Continually ask for feedback. I think sometimes we're afraid to do that. We'd rather live in our little bubble, that I think I did a great job on that, and I got great results and whatever. But we don't reach out for any kind of constructive feedback without that information. You're totally in a vacuum. First thing to do is to reach out to your manager or key people, whether it's your team, your colleagues, sit down and try to have a conversation with them that will lead to more constructive feedback, how you're being perceived and what you might do to improve your position.

If we're anticipating that feedback is going to be negative, we don't necessarily reach out. And here's another thing: sometimes our managers aren't really good at giving feedback. So we need to manage our managers in that, you know, when you say, oh, how did I do on that? Patrick? Oh, you did great. Well, can you tell me specifically what went really well and what should I improve? We really need to help our managers give us the kind of feedback that we need to be successful.

Anita Brick: So what is the feedback? It's coming not directly, but it's coming through projects or parts of projects the person is getting or not getting. So the feedback isn't direct. Feedback is, oh, you're doing well, and here's what's worked. But the quality of the assignments and support, even in a meeting, is not there. If you're not getting feedback, even if you're asking for it. But the feedback is coming through behavior. Any idea of how to unpack that or what to do with that? I know that's a tricky question, but I thought I'd floated out with you.

Bonnie Marcus: That requires a direct conversation with the decision makers, and then to have that conversation about feedback, I would never let that just go, or you're going to set yourself up to be blindsided. I would definitely want to know. I've noticed this. Say you weren't invited to a key meeting. Well, I would find out who was in charge of putting that agenda together. What the agenda is, and build my own business case, really for my ideas why I should be included. Here's what I have to offer. Building that consensus would require maybe one on one conversations with some of the people who are going to be in that meeting before the meeting, kind of build consensus around your ideas.

Anita Brick: That sounds good. Yeah. Socializing ideas before you ever walk into the room is super important. I'd like to shift gears a little bit again and talk about two different sides of the idea of getting a promotion. One comes from an alum. The alum said: “I work hard and have been promised a promotion more than once, yet nothing has materialized. What things can I do to improve my chances in the future?”

Bonnie Marcus: I hate to sound redundant. You need to get feedback. If you were passed over, it's time to sit down with a decision maker. What the reasoning was, how the decision was made. If you want to be proactive, it's important to understand what it takes in your organization to be promoted. Different depending on the manager, the department powered decisions made and a lot of that. Again, Anita is paying attention. If you look at some of the people who are being promoted, what kind of relationships do they have? Who are they connected to? Look at their behavior. Make a note of what it takes to get ahead where you are, and don't make assumptions that it's just your work. What are all the factors to be considered? How do you build allies and champions across the organization? Who can stand up for you? Really, you can't make a plan really, until you understand the reality and then figure out how to position yourself appropriately given that information.

Anita Brick: And sometimes you have to leave.

Bonnie Marcus: Sometimes you have to leave.

Anita Brick: Yes. Yeah. Okay. So here's the flip side of that, which I found a very interesting question and she said: “I received a promotion in an area I don't want yet. There was a lot of pressure to say yes after all, leadership had championed me. How can a person graciously say no to a promotion?”

Bonnie Marcus: If you're ambitious and you're seeking promotion, you need to sit down with your manager. Have a conversation about what that looks like. How do I get from where I am now to where I want to be, and getting their feedback about what the potential to be successful in that? Is this pressure to be something, to do something else? I'm feeling like maybe that conversation never really happened. So stating your career goals and what you want beforehand. Again, how important is it to leadership now that you take that position, now that that's been offered, and will that jeopardize your ability to have other promotions in the future? You have to assess that. And that pressure is so strong and maybe you can negotiate. You'll take that position until either they find somebody else or you train somebody else. Maybe it's a six month assignment. Try to negotiate something where then you can move into a position that you really would like.

Anita Brick: Okay. Great advice. Do you have time for a couple more questions?

Bonnie Marcus: I do.

Anita Brick: Okay. Great. This is an interesting question and I have my own opinion about that. I will ask you the question and I'll leave my opinion and then maybe have a little discussion about it. An MBA student asked: “I really don't like the politics in the global company that I work for, so I'm thinking about looking to work for a smaller or mid-sized company. If I do that, how would you advise someone like me to better manage politics?” I think the assumption there is smaller is less political.

Bonnie Marcus: It can be more political. Let me just state that right now politics is everywhere, right? Everywhere. If you're moving because of the politics, you may be jumping out of the frying pan into the fire. If you are moving to another company, it's important to again pay attention to what's going on. Sometimes when you're just joining a company, you have a grace period where people are necessarily coming right up to you for all the answers, and it gives you a little space, Anita, to look around and assess the situation and say, oh, I see that person really jumps to it when they're asked by this other manager or, you know, you can really see the dynamics more clearly when you are a little bit of an outsider at first. It gives you an advantage to do that. But it's important to understand what are the unwritten rules here that might trip me up. Let me look at the dynamics and what's going on. The relationships between people you do have that advantage for a little bit.

The challenges when you're in a position and you're in a company, you've been there a while to kind of pull yourself back a little bit to that outsider status, where you can objectively look at the players almost like a chess game and say, oh, I see what's going on here. And I don't know without being terribly emotionally involved, got it?

Anita Brick: That makes sense. I really enjoyed, you know, The Politics of Promotion. If we were going to boil it down, what would you advise someone listening? What are three things that someone who wants to be positioned for promotion and actually get the promotion? Which of those people should be doing beginning right now?

Bonnie Marcus: The first thing I would say is the key is understanding your value proposition. I can't stress how important that is. Not only does it give you confidence to own your value and your talent, but it lets you see how you can best serve the people in your organization and the organization as a whole, and how you can help that organization move forward. But you're able to build influence based on that.

And that's the second thing for you to strategically create a network. And by strategic, I mean it's focused on what you're hoping to achieve your career goal. That's where you start. And then who do you know and who do you need to know to help you reach that goal potentially allies and sponsors. So strategically looking at okay, this is where I want to go. This is my goal. Now I'm going to build a network to help me get there. That's the second most important thing.

And then as we've mentioned a lot pay attention in the book. I say, well, there are three major things you need to pay attention to. What are the rules and what are the unwritten rules, most importantly, the unwritten rules. What does it take to get ahead? What does it take in your organization? Who do you know and who do you need to know? Understanding all of those unwritten rules helps you to figure out a path and how you're going to position yourself and overcome barriers. But if you're not paying attention, you're setting yourself up to be blindsided.

Oh, another unwritten rule I want to mention is what kind of behavior is rewarded and what kind of behavior is not rewarded. Once you are looking through your magnifying glass, which I use in the book, you're going to see this stuff. It's going to become much more obvious to you. Once you use that filter the next thing to look for is who has power and influence, which we've talked about. Who are some of the key decision makers who is in their web of influence? Two of the people who get things done and including those people, if appropriate, in your network. The last thing is really understanding the culture where you are that could be different depending on department. Is it innovative? Is it traditional and slow and hierarchical? What is the culture where you are and what kind of behavior is rewarded?

Anita Brick: Very, very important. You're absolutely right. When you're new to an organization that's critical. I believe that periodically you need to approach things as if you are new to the organization, because sometimes people can put blinders on after they've been somewhere for a while, and they stop learning because those rules and the unwritten rules will absolutely change.

Bonnie Marcus: And I guess the last thing I want to say is maybe this is obvious, maybe it's not, is that you just can't rely on your great performance. It takes more than good work, and it takes more than hard work to get ahead. Being politically savvy and paying attention is crucial. If you have the ambition and you want to move your career forward.

Anita Brick: Brilliantly said, Bonnie. Thank you so much. I appreciate your time. Also, thank you for writing the book. I read the whole book. I found it informative and insightful. So thank you very, very much. If you want to learn more about Bonnie, there are some really great things on her website which is bonniemarcusleadership.com. Thanks again Bonnie. It was delightful to have time with you and really appreciate the synthesis of a lot of information that people take for granted but don't always execute well on, so thank you for that as well.

Bonnie Marcus: Thanks, Anita, I really enjoyed our conversation.

Anita Brick: Wonderful. And thank you all for listening. This is Anita Brick with CareerCast at Chicago Booth. Keep advancing.