Conspired against by her unusual, yet highly effective skills, hired by the ‘wrong’ division and stalled in management fast-track, this clever, yet frustrated, specialist wants the recognition she deserves. But how?
Margaret is a highly skilled, educated and intelligent technical specialist working for a blue-chip organisation. She is recognised by peers and seniors for her specific and unusual combination of skills, and often praised for the high-quality content of her contributions, and her willingness to share information or mentor others. She is particularly good at new or ground-breaking projects.
Margaret is also on the management fast-track programme, which does not appear to stimulate her or make any significant impact on the ‘fast-tracking’. Because of her rare set of combined capabilities, and a ‘blip’ when hired (taken on in one division because of headcount availability, but meant to work in another), she does not fit the professional band of the HR systems. The result is that she is either expected to do junior roles or not considered for appropriate roles because her banding is below requirement.
Her crusade, so far unsuccessful, has been to convince (with evidence) HR and other decision-makers, that she belongs to another band and level of seniority than she is on today. She is at a loss as to how to resolve her situation, and disillusioned in spite of the stimulation and contribution she is clearly making, but which are formally unrecognised. What next?
ADINA TARRY
Director, Rich Answers Int.
Margaret’s coaching agenda is quite complex, ranging from personal and professional short- and long-term answers and desired outcomes, to her interaction with wider organisational systems, across functions.
Our coaching work would begin by asking her to reflect on priorities and to do a preliminary ranking of importance: What would you like to discuss first? How would you prioritise? Are there links? Would you need to work on some concurrently?
An important aspect is to explore and clarify motivations and aspirations. Another is to cover behaviour and actions, with desired outcomes: How would you go about it? What would you need to do? Are there other people involved? What would you need to obtain from them?
By when would you need to do this? What would you need to prepare beforehand? How much time would you build in for this action? What would be a good outcome?
Every session is likely to present concurrent and deeper layers of Margaret’s individuality and reflect her personality, thinking style, skills, values, beliefs and aspirations, self-awareness, behaviours and the way she engages with the outer system through her ability to use her strengths.
Her uniqueness needs to be the key driver, beyond coaching method or model, and should determine the pace, direction and agenda of each session.
An important element of the outcome would involve facilitating Margaret’s awareness and decision-making about the energy invested in things she can change or could influence or decide to leave alone for the time being.
JANINE WALDMAN
Owner, The Solutions Focus
Tempting though it may be to explore the difficulties Margaret has encountered, I would start by asking her to clarify exactly what she wants. Would she be satisfied only with the higher professional banding, or would she be content with more stimulating work and having her talents recognised?
If it’s the latter, I would be keen to explore with her the times she has had some of what she wants. Perhaps she has worked on the kind of project she is looking for, or negotiated work that is interesting and challenging. We could then find out how she did that, and what she knows about creating these kinds of opportunities for herself.
Where are her skills being recognised, and by whom? How did that come about, and what might be useful for her as she seeks further recognition?
If Margaret is adamant that she wants the correct professional banding, then I would find out when and how she has successfully influenced decisions before. There may be others in the organisation she knows who have achieved what she is trying to. She might be able to pick their brains.
Or perhaps she wants something else – something that emerges during the coaching conversations.
There is always the possibility that Margaret cannot get what she wants in this organisation. She suspects other companies may be worse. Perhaps her next project could be exploring the opportunities beyond her company.