Hands Off My Job! Find One of Your Own!

A friend recently told me this story…

He worked in a large bank.  His manager’s job was to sell accounts, and his was to manage them.  Classic split between sales and client relations.  In his organization the sales job was the “sexier,” more senior and sought after position, which is why his manager wanted it. But she wasn’t suited for it.  She was a quiet person who enjoyed playing with numbers. Details and spreadsheets were her strong suit.

So instead of doing her own job, she did my friend’s!  She would reluctantly go on sales calls (so there wasn’t much new business … a problem in itself), and for existing clients she took over all the relationship tasks.  Leaving my friend, who is talented and enjoys his work, with nothing to do.  The result?  My friend quit in frustration.  And as you might imagine, the manager was eventually moved out.

At the heart of this story is the manager’s lack of insight into what she is good at and the kind of job that is right for her.  And this lack of awareness hurt two careers – hers and her employee’s.  She did not appreciate or focus on her strengths.  And she fell prey to the siren song of a promotion.

There are many ways to gain insight into the best job for you (books, self-assessments, 360 feedback, performance reviews), but perhaps the easiest place to start is by finishing these two sentences:

“I’m excited to go to work today because I get to do …”
“I really don’t want to go to work today because I have to do …”

Knowing this will help prevent you from taking a job that’s not right for you and, equally important, heighten your awareness of areas where you could be moving in on your employee’s territory.