KAMPALA – Recently, i received requests from cronies to share my career story, which is a grass to grace scenario. Maybe, that rise is not for everyone, since there are fewer positions. So, how do you grow in your career if you don’t become a manager? First, you have to be realistic about your path moving forward. You probably won’t be promoted into managerial role to achieve job satisfaction or even success in your career.
Where your work meets your life. Most of us grew up thinking that in order to be truly successful, we had to be “the boss.” But this is a myth. You don’t need to be a manager to have a lucrative and fulfilling career. It starts with appreciating where you are now to be able to seek satisfaction at any higher rank.
The professional landscape has changed dramatically in the last several decades. With advances in technology, there are countless opportunities for people who want to focus their growth on developing specific skill sets and technical expertise. Many of these paths don’t involve managing a team. You could grow your career, if being the boss is just not for you.
First, know that if you do not go into management, you have to be realistic about your path moving forward. There are certain opportunities that won’t be available to you. But when one door closes, another opens. It’s useful to understand and weigh your options based on the following parameters:
You probably won’t be promoted into a managerial role. People who grow into these roles usually do so through years of experience managing people and are often responsible for running teams of their own.
You probably will have the opportunity to grow as an individual contributor, develop expertise in your field, and become the best at what you do. Because you are not formally in charge of others, you’ll have more time to focus on your personal contributions to an organization or industry and master a particular skill set.
Keep in mind that some industries are better designed to develop individual contributors, while others have few growth opportunities for people uninterested in management. For instance: in telecommunications, consulting, publishing, and technology, leaders can climb the ranks and even land senior roles without directly leading a team. By contrast, sectors like advertising or product management more readily promote those who are interested in people leadership.
What does success look like for you? There isn’t a right or wrong answer when it comes to what makes you happy. In fact, career success can take on many different forms:
having a good work-life balance, exercising your creativity, or making a lot of money, to name just a few. Your version of success depends on your goals.
If you’re not sure what your goals are yet, block out some reflection time on your
It is not about growing into a boss calendar. Write down specific instances when you’ve been happy at work or in school. Think about moments when you were completely enveloped, when time flew by because you were focused or content, energized or inspired. Now do the opposite. Write down moments when your work was boring or draining.
Look at what you’ve written. Do you notice any patterns?
After contemplating, you will start to see a trend. For example, maybe you’ll notice that focusing on creative work like content ideation drives your motivation. Or maybe you’ll find that you prefer heads down, technical work that requires concentration and a solo working environment. Whatever you discover, start to think about how can you do that more often in your career.
After you’ve defined what makes you feel happy and successful as a sole contributor, look for opportunities where you can step into this kind of role. To do this, you will need to be proactive. You may need to create an opportunity for yourself that your manager can help refine. A good first step is developing a proposal that outlines the opportunity you would like to initiate and move ahead with over time.
To start, ask yourself the following questions:
• What value do I add to the company? • How do I help the company reach its goals?
• Can I cite any metrics to demonstrate the value of my impact?
• What would my role look like if I continued as a sole contributor?
• As the company grows, how do I see myself growing within it?
Use your answers to these questions to draft your proposal. Think of this as a plan for your future growth that you can present to your manager during a performance review or one-on-one discussion. Finding the right time to talk to your manager is crucial; you want their full attention. For example, don’t schedule a lunch meeting at the end of the quarter, when your manager has many other demands to sort through..
Over the course of many conversations, she and her manager refined her initial proposal for the role. They came up with a few goals that would be mutually beneficial to both her department and her career development as an individual contributor. Had this leader failed to take the initiative and present a clear picture of the work she wanted to do and why, she would have never landed the role she really wanted.
Each year, plan on taking an hour to think about your current role and where you see your career going. Keep it simple and ask yourself the following questions:
• How did I track towards my goals this year?
• What does my manager say about how I’m doing?
What has been going right?
What can I work on?
What is the gap in my skillset?
• Does my career still align with my values?
With these buckets, you can better determine how to move forward, no matter what path you choose. Your definition of success may change over time, and you can always switch directions and decide you want to take a different path. Spend the quiet time to learn, look for patterns, and understand your strengths. There are many avenues to growing your career. With planning and deliberate action, you can set yourself on a path that makes you feel confident, energized and excited.
The writer, Michael Jjingo, is the General Manager Commercial Banking at Centenary Bank