When a project’s scope gets expanded to include ambitious work that was never planned for, it can disrupt the original project plan, stretch the timeline and blow away the budget. Some call it featuritis, as in “We’d like to add these features that weren’t included in the initial project.” When software developers are asked to haphazardly include strange, orphaned features, their software becomes bloated with additions that seem out of place. Hence the term “software bloat.”

Are you feeling bloated? You might be due for a surprise addition at any moment. Scope creep can make you the babysitter of someone else’s unplanned brainchild. As a project manager with a new, unexpected addition to the family, all of its needs, complaints, kicking and screaming becomes your problem.

Some try to prevent project scope creep by explicitly defining the plan, timeline and budget of a project on paper. It’s a good strategy, but those set-in-stone documents can often get ignored if someone has a sudden brilliant epiphany that must go into the project. After all, “big picture” people can’t be bothered with silly trivialities like budget, resources and project scope, right?

Have you suffered from scope creep at work? Have you defeated it? How?

You’d be amazed to find how useful outsourcing could be once you get started with it. Of course, finding the right person for the job and then training him or her might be difficult, but once you’ve got someone taking care of things you don’t really want to do (for example, you’re a social media guy but you’re also doing coding and design stuff), not only you’d be more productive, you’ll make more money too.

And maybe you’ll get your weekends back.

So, do you outsource your non-core tasks? Or do you prefer to do everything on your own?

It’s important to be able to tell the difference between the two.

The person in the leadership position is there because they were either promoted to the position since they excelled in their previous role (some might refer to this situation as the Peter Principle – promoted to their highest level of incompetence – like this example), or they were promoted to the position out of friendship, favoritism, or an ability (and desire) to “lay down the law” as required.  This person will get your company results, but they often aren’t able to trust that their team can perform without them.  “By the Book,” “My way or the highway,” and “Because I said so” are frequent justifications for their leadership decisions.

On the other hand, a leader is the person that makes you want to follow them.  There is something about them that draws you to them, whether it’s the way they encourage you to do the best you can, the way they train you to do things right, or it’s just the way they demonstrate their respect for being part of the team.  A leader will allow you to grow as a person and as a coworker.   They understand their success comes from your success; when you do well, they do well.

What is a leader?

• A great leader will get more out of you than the strictest supervisor ever will.  A leader doesn’t manipulate you or try to trick you into doing extra work when they need it.
• A leader listens before they make a decision.  They will talk with their bosses to find out what needs to be done, and to their team to find out how to do it.
• A leader understands the job can’t be done without you.  A leader doesn’t see you as a tool they need to use to get the job done.

“The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.”

- Theodore Roosevelt

Is a leader always in a leadership role?  Nope.  It might be the newest member on the team that does the true leading.  Think back to some of the projects that you were in charge of.  Were you the one leading the team, or were you just the one giving the orders?

“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.”

- Peter F. Drucker

Even if you see yourself in the first category, there’s still hope.  You can choose to be a leader by working with your team.

Here are five easy steps to help you become a great leader.

1. Tell your team what you need

If you want to make things happen, let your team know what needs to be done.  If you’ve done your job right, they are already experts.  They know how to do their job, all they need is for you to get out of the way.  Tell them what you need, and let them come up with the plan on how to get there.

“Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.”

- George S. Patton

2. Give them the tools, time, and training they require

If you prepare your team properly, they’ll be able to handle just about anything in your business.  Well, even if you don’t prepare them, they’ll figure a way to make it happen, but it’s much better for you if you invest the time and energy into a structured training program that helps them develop their skills.

3. Ask your team what they need

Once you’ve told your team what you need, ask them what they need to make it happen.  This can be difficult for some managers, as they think the team is going to make outrageous demands.  If you’re being open and honest with your team, chances are they’ll be open and honest with you about their needs.  I’ll bet you dollars to donuts they won’t ask for as much as you think they would.  This helps create realistic expectations on timelines and budgets, which you can share with your bosses.

4. Encourage your team as they work

Regular communication is key.  Don’t wait until the day of the deadline to check in with them.  Find out as they go along how the project is faring.  This way you can help them overcome barriers if they need it, or praise them if they are on or ahead of schedule.

5. Thank them for being on the team, share the reward with them

Appreciate your people.  If they do a good job, show them that you are grateful.  This doesn’t mean throw  a big party every time you finish a quarter, but it does mean you should genuinely thank them for a successful project.  If your team helps you get your bonus, it makes sense to pass some of it along to them.  If you have a bonus structure, make sure they benefit from it too – 70% of something is much better than 100% of nothing.

“I must follow the people. Am I not their leader?”

- Benjamin Disraeli

Are you a manager or a leader?  If you are a leader, which style do you use to get the job done?

Organize an initial meeting

Schedule a one hour preferably uninterrupted meeting to discuss how you will work together.  The purpose of this meeting is to clarify the expectations of both parties.

Determine your assistant’s level of involvement

Do you want to be reminded of pending deadlines and meetings you have to attend?  Be advised of an urgent email requiring a response?  These are standard practices for a personal assistant.  Relying on your assistant to keep you on track will allow you to focus on the other responsibilities of your new role.  Delegation for new managers can sometimes be an issue.  A good place to start learning effective delegation is with your own assistant.

Clarify day to day responsibilities

To be blunt, you no longer have time to reschedule meetings in your calendar. Meetings frequently change or get moved.  Juggling meetings in a busy calendar can be time consuming, particularly when meetings with time challenged Senior Management are involved.  Leave this action to your assistant.

Your assistant can also set aside specific blocks of time in your calendar to prepare for regular ongoing deadlines, plan time for you to respond to emails, schedule lunch breaks (which  you may or may not actually take) and work around as many back to back blocks of meetings as possible, though unfortunately sometimes these cannot be avoided.

Be clear on your position involving deadlines

While we all like to think we meet our deadlines, in truth we all know people who are NOT good at getting work in on time.  If missing deadlines has been an issue in the past, you will need help from your assistant to ensure deadlines are met.  Being upfront about your requirements will save you grief later.  Your ability to meet deadlines while producing high quality work will be a defining factor in your success as a manager.

Communicate whether you are a detail oriented or “big picture” person

Some people have a highly tuned attention to detail.  Many need this level of attention to perform their jobs successfully.  If you have a high attention to detail, make this clear to your assistant.  To achieve the best results as a team, your assistant will need to perform on a similar level.

Big picture thinkers may require their assistant and team members to do some of the more detailed work for them where possible.

Have a daily morning meeting

“Not another meeting,” I hear you grumble.

Think of this more as a quick daily catch up.  A ten minute conversation on the day’s priorities should do the trick.  This meeting ensures that your priorities and your assistant’s priorities are aligned.   If your assistant is working for multiple managers, this meeting takes on an even greater importance.

These catch ups can also serve as a time to get paperwork signed or bought to your attention.

Practice regular and open communication

A situation to avoid when you first start working together is a lack of communication.
For example, keep each other up to date on meeting changes.  Having your assistant spend 40 minutes preparing documents for a meeting that you forgot to mention was canceled is a waste of time.

Another common problem to avoid is duplication.  Watch that you are not doing the same tasks as your assistant. This can be easy to do if you are used to fending for yourself.

“Underutilizing” your assistant

Within a short amount of time working together, an experienced personal assistant will generally know whether you have worked with an assistant in the past.  How? They are being underutilized.

Don’t assume that you know what your assistant is capable of simply by skimming his or her resume.  Your assistant may be a whiz with Excel or have experience managing projects.  Ask them about their previous experience.  “Underutilizing” your assistant may result in them yearning to be challenged or feeling they are not adding value to the partnership.

Overworking your assistant

It goes without saying that most employees have overflowing to do lists.  Watch your assistant is not overworked.  If the team is working on a large project where overtime is required to meet the deadline, working extra hours is reasonable.
If no equivalent project exists, yet your assistant is working late every night, coming into the office on weekends and starting to show obvious signs of stress, there is most likely a problem brewing.

Sit down and discuss any workload issues.   Perhaps some less important tasks can be put on hold or another member of the team who is not as busy could assist in lightening the load.

Limit time spent on personal errands

In a manager/assistant role there is often some level of personal work involved.  Asking your assistant to grab you a bite to eat since you have back to back meetings is one thing.  Having them spend hours shopping for your partner’s birthday present would be seen as inappropriate.
It is important to clarify expectations and boundaries early in your working relationship.  Work demands constantly change, so maintain an open and honest line of communication and discuss challenges as they arise.

Working well as a team is the key to a fulfilling and productive manager/assistant relationship.

No matter how good that pay increase may sound or how impressive the title may be, understand that not everyone is cut out for management. Sure, you may have been with at the company for several years now and you may have mastered the skill set required for your current position. But that still doesn’t necessarily qualify you for management. Being an effective manager requires a set of interpersonal skills and personality traits that may not be required for your current position.

Let’s take Carl’s* situation as an example:

A senior graphic designer with several years of professional experience, Carl had longed for the day when he would be able to advance to the level of creative director, a position that requires strong people supervision and leadership skills. Carl was creative and very proficient on the last design software. The position would require him to manage a team of designers, present ideas and be responsible for directing the creative department’s projects. So when a position opened up at his company, Carl jumped at the opportunity to apply. However, soon after his promotion, it became quickly apparent that he had overestimated his preparedness for the position. Despite being newly-promoted, he was often late or absent as he tended to ongoing personal issues, leaving his staff to work around his frequent absences and take on additional responsibilities because he wasn’t available.

Additionally, as a result of his frequent absences, his time management suffered and his projects were often late. On top of that, Carl had low self esteem issues that caused him to feel insecure when leading meetings, making decisions, providing employee feedback, establishing a direction for his team and selling others on his ideas. Soon, his staff lost faith in his ability to lead them. As such, some followed his poor example and began to also slack on their own work commitments, while others began job-hunting, rather than continuing to work on his team. Carl’s boss was forced to give him an ultimatum: Improve your performance or lose your job. Unfortunately for him, Carl’s performance never substantially improved. In the end, he lacked the key personality traits and skills that his management position required – as well as the ability to adapt his behavior enough to correct the problems.

So, before you apply for that next management opening, be sure to ask yourself these 7 important questions (and be brutally honest with yourself when you answer them):

1. Do I have self-confidence?

As a manager, enforcing procedures, establishing a solid direction for your team, providing constructive feedback, and getting buy-in on your ideas requires confidence and conviction. If you have a tendency to crumble when presented with negative feedback or you back down easily when faced with opposition, management may not be a good personality fit for you. If you don’t have confidence in yourself, your team won’t have confidence in you either.

2. Do I have strong planning skills?

Successfully leading a team or implementing a project demands that you not only know what the end-result should be, but that you also have the ability to identify the key steps necessary to make it happen. To do that, you need to be able to create a clearly-defined project plan that will help you and your team stay on track by establishing goals, individual roles, and action items. If this level of detail is just not your thing, you’re likely to have a difficult time keeping your team moving in the right direction and effectively executing your vision.

3. Am I good at quickly making sound decisions?

When members of your staff bring to your attention operational issues (i.e., equipment purchases, departmental processes, etc.) which require you to make a decision, they will expect you make sound judgment call in a timely manner. If you tend to labor over the pros and cons of even the most basic decisions or you routinely delay decision-making in hopes that someone else will make the decision for you, you’re probably more of a follower, than a leader. If you can’t make a good decision, you won’t make a good manager.

4. Do I know how to motivate others?

Getting a team pumped up and keeping their morale high is critical to the success of any team. One of the easiest ways to motivate your team is to be appreciative of the work they do. Simply giving praise for a job well done can be a huge motivator. If team members know that their contributions are genuinely appreciated, they’re much more likely to go that extra mile when it’s needed. But, if giving someone a compliment makes you feel uncomfortable or you believe that the only a pat on the back employees deserve is their paychecks, you’ll likely have a very hard time keeping your team motivated and eager to go above and beyond on the job.

5. Am I good at following through on what I say I‘m going to do?

Nobody likes empty promises. Likewise, your staff will feel the same way. They will count on you to do what you say you’re going to do, when you say you’re going to do it. If you have a bad habit of repeatedly missing deadlines, dropping the ball on key tasks or not following up on issues, that will quickly erode a team’s ability to trust you to meet your managerial obligations. Once that trust is gone, so is your reputation as a manager.

6. Am I a good communicator?

One of the easiest ways to get the reputation as a ‘bad manager’ is by being a poor communicator. If you like the idea relying on occasional emails and meeting infrequently in person to touch base your team, you’ll be in for a rude awakening. Effective managers are expected to meet with their teams routinely to provide them with direction, project updates, constructive feedback, or solutions to operational roadblocks.

7. Would I be able to set a good example for my team?

Becoming a manager doesn’t mean that you no longer have to follow the laws of the land. If you have a tendency to show up late for work, you frequently call in sick or often allow your personal life to impact your work time, you will set a poor example for your team. Do as I say, not as I do may work for children. But, that decree isn’t very effective in the workplace.

If you answered ‘NO’ to three or more of these questions…

Chances are that you’re not ready for management. However, if you feel that you still want to pursue a management position, start taking the steps necessary to improve your weak areas. This may include:

• Enrolling in management training.
• Volunteering to lead a complex team project that requires project planning, task assignment, and interpersonal skills.
• Joining a public speaking group like, Toastmasters, to sharpen your presentation skills.
• Getting potential personal distractions in order (ie., reliable child care arrangements, relationship problems, health issues, etc.)
• Asking a manager whose style you admire to serve as your mentor.

While these highlighted tasks can lead to management skill improvement, it’s also important to understand that other key personality traits (ie, a passive demeanor, a poor self image, low stress tolerance, etc.) may not be as easy to overcome. If you’re currently dealing with some of these personality-related roadblocks , you should seriously reconsider if management is a good fit for you.

The Bottom Line: Before you apply for that next open management position, be very honest with yourself about not only your skill set, but also your personality type and your personal habits. It’s true that the world is full of managers who wouldn’t be able to pass the above test, but we have a name for those people: “BAD MANAGERS.” Don’t become yet another member of that infamous club. Instead, if you believe you have potential to be a manager, set your sights on becoming the most effective leader you can be. Do that by getting your personal issues in check and developing the proper leadership skills prior to throwing your hat into the management ring.

*The name Carl is a pseudonym.

The same applies in a work environment–especially in meetings. We all have different things we bring to the table. What we bring often depends on the role we have in the organization or the area of expertise we apply every day to our work. None of these are really any different than setting a dinner table – every part of the meal is important.

The Centerpiece Object: CEO

Every table often has a decorative centerpiece; it generally reflects the time of year or a mood that is trying to be set. While the table can be a metaphor for the company as a whole, the centerpiece is the thing that ties it all together. I’d liken it to the CEO or person ensuring the mandate and mission of the office is being met. The centerpiece is the focal point: the one thing we don’t lose sight of. If it’s a good centerpiece, you can’t help but admire it. If it’s not, you tend to toss it aside. Ideally, you need to get a good centerpiece.

The Dishes: Management Team

The plates and bowls are meant to take what’s offered and house them so they can be worked on. As with any project, if you put the wrong people in charge of it you’ll end up with a big mess. Similarly, you’re not going to serve soup on a plate. The right dishware is critical to a good meal and the right management are imperative in order to make sure things are properly handled. Not everyone is going to be right for the same tasks every time out, but if you know when and where to utilize these people you’ll have a far easier time managing things. But before you even begin to dig in, you’ll need…

The Utensils: Project Team

Not everything can be eaten with your hands. Most things can’t. The key to getting through a project is having the right tools at your disposal – and those often are the people working on it, day in and day out. They know how to attack the plan and the management team has made it easier for them to do so. They often bring things in that the management team can’t or doesn’t see. They are looking ahead with a different set of eyes. That’s why you don’t see a plate cut a steak. It’s just not “cut” out for it.

(Sorry about that pun. To be fair, I’ve lasted four months without using one.)

The Main Course: The Agenda

This isn’t a person or a role, this is simply what needs to be dealt with. If you have an under-developed agenda, you’re not going to enjoy your meeting very much. More often than not, you won’t even get anything done if it’s not clear and focused. I can tell you that when it comes to dinner, I’m not going to eat undercooked meat. You know why? Because I could get sick – or worse.

That’s what an “undercooked” agenda can do to your organization.

The Dessert: The End Result

Have you ever tried to bake a soufflé? If you have, you’ll know how challenging it is to keep it from falling flat (even if you haven’t, you’ve likely heard about how this can happen). A meeting is similar in that if you don’t handle it accordingly, the end result will fall flat. When a soufflé works out, it tastes great. But a flat one just comes off unappealing – not even worth eating, really. If you want to have a great ending to your meeting, handle it with care throughout. What that means for your office is dependent on a ton of things (your centerpiece comes to mind), but make sure you adhere to it as closely as possible. Otherwise your meeting will fall flat.

The Aperitif: The Rewards

This is post-meeting stuff, but if you are able to have everyone contribute their best stuff – bring something worthwhile to the table and play to your strengths – there will be cause for celebration. Celebration is crucial to team building, so make sure you do it when it is warranted.

When everyone gets together in the office for a meeting, keep in mind the idea that if everyone is asked to bring something to the table, they will. Those that want to put their best forward, will. Those that are interested in the organization’s growth as well as their own, will.

Those that don’t will be left sitting somewhere else altogether.

Repopularized in Tim Ferriss’ The 4-Hour Workweek, the 80/20 Rule is a shorthand term for a series of observations made by an Italian political economist in the 19th Century, Vilfredo Pareto (hence the other name for the 80/20 Rule, the “Pareto Principle”). He noted that 20% of Italy’s population owned 80% of its wealth. He saw this reciprocal distribution play out in other domains: 20% of all of the pea pods sown in the ground produced 80% of the peas, for instance. But just how universal is the 80/20 Rule, and can you apply it in your work and life?

Making the 80/20 Rule Work

The 80/20 Rule has become popular enough to engender an inevitable backlash. Sid Savara argues that problem with the Pareto Principle is that it just doesn’t hold up under scrutiny when you actually perform a numerical analysis. In his post, he notes that 80% of his income does not come from 20% of his clients. In a more recent article, Stepcase Lifehack’s Dustin Wax includes the 80/20 Rule in his list of questionable productivity ideas. “What is ‘20%’ of the stuff I do anyway?”, he asks rhetorically. “What would ‘80%’ of my productivity even look like?”

Stumbling blocks to 80/20 implementation

Both of these articles make some valid criticisms, but they throw the baby out with the bathwater by focusing on the literal. But we shouldn’t blame the authors for that; it’s the term “80/20 Rule” that causes the problem. The term contains two misnomers: “80/20″ and “Rule,” which leads to the first stumbling block to actually implementing the principle.

Taking the ratio too literally. The 80/20 Rule is really a fancy way of saying that a few elements in a set have a lot more leverage than most elements in that set. This is better expressed as an observation than as a “rule”. Whether those few elements comprise 20%, 7% or 45% is less important than the mental exercise of separating the critical few from the trivial many. If you’re starting a new business, critical projects like getting a loan will be far less numerous than trivial projects like getting business cars or purchasing office furniture.

It’s easy to get lost in the semantics of 80/20. Edward de Bono coined a thinking operation he called “HV/LV”, where the user would spend a couple of minutes defining the “High Values” in a problem or situation that had the most impact, then the “Low Values” which also had to be taken into account. Regardless of your preferred terminology, think of 80/20 as a filtering mechanism. Which “20%” of employees in your office account for “80%” of the help you need to get your job done. Who are the few clients that take up most of your time. Which ones account for most of your income?

Undefined metrics. There’s no way to measure criteria you haven’t first defined. Notice that Dustin Wax’s questions, “What is 20% of the stuff I do?” and “What does 80% of my productivity look like?” are rhetorical, presupposing that the answers are nonexistent if they aren’t axiomatic.

Unfortunately, the full inventory of the stuff we do isn’t self-evident. When people trying to lose weight actually write down every single thing they eat and drink during the day, they’re almost always surprised at how much more they consume than they normally assume. There’s no way to know what 20% of what you do each day is unless you track 100% of what you do, at least for a day. But you have to define what you’re going to track first. Otherwise you’ll have no point of reference for whether or not what you’re measuring matters. Definition is the first step to living consciously.

Giving equal weight to all factors. Not all tasks are created equal, but humans have a strange tendency to apply the same standard of performance to all tasks, regardless of their importance. Running errands becomes as time consuming as making sales calls. Someone spends as much time making his website look pretty as he does building traffic. Someone spends as much time inside of her email inbox as she does outside of it.

The 80/20 Rules provides a reality check that forces us to prioritize some factors above others. Again, it doesn’t matter if the ratio is really 80/20, only that we try to identify the few things that matter a lot more than most things. Incidentally, “factors” can be tasks, projects, resources or people.

When you force yourself to look for the critical few, you often don’t need to make an exhaustive analysis of every single factor. When I asked myself two years, “What are the 20% of foods I eat that cause 80% of my excess weight?”, it only took a couple of minutes to identify the obvious ones: candy and pastries. Cutting them out entirely — not easy by any means, but extremely simple — I lost 1.5 pounds in nine days.

Test It Yourself

If the 80/20 Rule isn’t hard science, does that make it an urban legend? The only way to really find out is to test it. Think of a few procedures you’d like to optimize, define all factors that lead to their outcome, then ask yourself which few factors either have the most positive or negative impact on the outcome. Get in the habit of dissecting situations and defining what parts have the most leverage.

What about this article? What are the one or two points raised (~20%) that had the most leverage? What are the one or two points that fall short? Let me know in the comments.

And this is when people start coming up with new ideas and suggestions. Often it’s a major decision maker such as your boss who thinks a new feature or two is needed. Do you rework everything? How do you consider everyone’s feedback and respectfully decline the advice? That all depends on many factors. In the end, you need to decide what’s the gain. And some of that advice comes from someone you can’t ignore.

What now? Do you rework everything? How do you consider everyone’s feedback and respectfully decline the advice? That all depends on many factors. In the end, you need to decide what’s the gain. If it’s a lousy idea, it’s easy to dismiss. But good ideas at the last minute are very tempting to implement. You have to decide whether they are worth the cost. Make a honest analysis of what the costs and benefits of a change will be. That last-minute idea could make your launch a success.

But even so, the last-minute ideas can derail the most well run project. It’s tough when someone ignores all your planning and work. Where were they when you planned this thing? Now that all the work is done, they want to tell you what you should have done. Implementing a last-minute idea or two could delay launch.

You know what I do? Enforce an idea embargo. While planning a project and creating a time line, I mark the day that no new ideas will be accepted. That’s right. After that day, keep your great ideas to yourself because we have work to do.

I’m not advocating restricting people from contributing to your work. Encourage people to contribute early. The embargo is simply the last step in a series of communications. Seek lots of input. Early.

First, you need to communicate your project schedule. Include dates for each step. That includes idea embargo and project deadline. The embargo cannot be a surprise to anyone. Everyone in your group needs to be aware of the time line.

Get everyone involved in a brainstorming session. Get their ideas now. But this isn’t the final idea harvest. You need to stay open to feedback.

Announce your progress as you complete parts of the project. Show off what you have done and solicit more feedback.

Ask for advice or bounce your ideas off individuals. Include as many perspectives as you can. Give people chances to contribute more ideas.

You need to foster an environment that lets people contribute. They need to feel they can add something beyond their daily tasks. All of this will be a waste if they stay silent because no one listens to them anyway.

At no point are you required to implement every idea suggested. You need to use your best judgment. And you need to communicate why some ideas won’t be included. There will be good ideas that aren’t right or economical for a particular project. The key is that you are using your judgment early in the process.

Even after you declare the embargo, don’t write your project plan in stone. I know what I just wrote. But you need to recognize that markets change, glitches arise and assumptions are wrong. Schedule testing moments when you question how things are going. You may need to adjust ideas and procedures. The key is to recognize change happens and try to plan for it.

Of course none of this will prevent the last-minute idea or change. Scott Belsky of Behance writes that there is a good reason for this:

“Some of the most productive leaders we have interviewed suggest that their greatest realizations often come at very inconvenient times – often when it is almost too late to change. The reason is obvious: brain power is concentrated and more able to grasp the tangible outcome of a project only in the final stages. While the team may want to discourage any last minute changes, you will also want to capitalize and capture these insights.”

Scott writes that you don’t want to discard good ideas simply because they came after a deadline. He advocates patience and feels that will lead to more meaningful engagement. Hey, I’m all for meaningful engagement. I’m just saying you need to start it earlier.

I’m going to stick with my idea embargo. Simply because it puts a lot of emphasis on collecting ideas and engagement very early in the process. That cannot hurt no matter what you do days before launch. By seriously including many views in your planning, you reduce the likelihood someone will have last-minute ideas. Those ideas are collected earlier.

When I figure out how to schedule unforeseen problems, I will let you know.

I know you have the potential too. But it’s just not your time. When will it be your time? You need to take these steps first.

Make connections

The first time you meet the decision makers in this company should not be when you interview for a promotion. You need to make positive first impressions now.

This means going to company functions and being friendly. Volunteer for committees. Strike up conversations in the elevator. Make eye contact and ask questions.

I don’t want you to suck up. Be yourself. But you need to set the groundwork now for when managers are deciding if they want you to join their ranks.

And be a social butterfly outside the building. Meet people at networking functions and trade association mixers. Get to know other people. Socializing is a skill that you need to practice. And who knows. The good impression you make in the community could become known to the decision makers here. Yeah, that’s a double-edge sword. Bad impressions travel too.

Learn more

You need to keep up your education. Work on your masters, take adult ed classes or enroll in online learning. Whatever it takes. You need to be on top of this industry.

Maybe all it will take is to keep reading. Buy the books and magazines. Spend a few minutes with Google to find blogs and newsletters. Things are always changing and no knowledge is wasted at this company.

By the way, it won’t hurt to let someone know that you’re learning.

Look at who’s a manager

Who gets promoted around here? And don’t say “Suck ups.” That’s just going to cement you in that seat. But all these managers come from somewhere. What is their path to now?

Here’s why it’s important. They tend to like prospects following in their footsteps. It’s a tribute to their career. And they feel like they know what the prospect has to bring to the table. And given half a chance, they will groom people to follow similar paths.

Assess yourself – privately

Unfortunately, management doesn’t like to promote without consulting a set of tests. If they’re not using Myers-Briggs, it’s something similar. Personally, I abhor the concept. But if this is the game you want to play, these are the rules.

So get an advance scouting report on yourself. Take a Myers-Briggs test and see what it says. You might learn something about yourself that you can emphasize or change to make you a good candidate for management.

Take responsibility and show leadership

There are two types of people in this office – people who manage and people who manage to avoid responsibility. Just because you’re not part of management, that doesn’t mean you can’t manage projects.

Take responsibility for getting things done. They’re looking for someone who’s not afraid to lead without a title.

Did I tell you the time I applied to be our supervisor? Joe was doing the interviewing and told me that I wouldn’t get the job. He had it reserved for someone he had been watching who took on leadership roles.

Joe said management was all about making mistakes. Every manager made them. The key was to find someone who has made mistakes and learned from them. The guy who got the job I wanted had been leading small groups and managing projects. He didn’t do it perfectly. But he made the mistakes when the stakes were low.

You can take on informal leadership roles too. Some of the managers have this theory that there are workers who are influencers and have followings. They tend to give good jobs to the influencers so they will encourage their followers to be happy worker bees.

It’s pretty lame, and I haven’t seen it work. But those perceived influencers get the opportunities to advance.

Develop skills outside the office

Join a club or volunteer at a nonprofit organization. But don’t just sit there or do what you’re told. Take on responsibility. Learn those management mistakes outside the office.

I worked with a woman who joined an outdoors club to meet hunky men. But she got into the whole hiking and skiing scene. It wasn’t long before she started organizing and leading trips into the wild. She said she learned a lot about management that way. Her most important lesson was the importance of communication. It was a challenge to make sure everyone knew what was needed to be safe and reach their goals.

And she’s now Director of IT Services.

If you want to stay indoors, try Toastmasters. It’s a public speaking club. Not only do they have a lot of training for speakers but they have a lot of leadership positions. Thus it attracts a lot of people with control issues. But it’s a chance to work on those management skills while learning a thing or two about presentation and confidence.

OK, that’s all I got. I don’t know if this will make you feel any better. But you’re not stuck in a dead end job. You have the opportunity to advance. But you have to prepare yourself.

Just don’t forget us little people.

In many cases, you only see your boss when you fail to meet expectations, or they know that there is some deadline approaching. This also inspires fear in many employees because your manager only appears when something is wrong.

What if you had a different relationship? What about your peers? Do they know what to expect from you when you work together? All of these things require management. You need to manage your boss, your coworkers and your career.

Managing Your Boss

This may sound strange if you have never heard it before, but you need to manage your boss. Obviously, I do not mean telling them what tasks to do and when to get them done. I mean managing the relationship that the two of you have. There is no bullet-point guide or foolproof methods to managing your boss because they are all different people.

For example, a previous manager you had could have been more of a friend, telling you about their kids and asking you to work on various tasks. Your current manager may be one of those people screaming at their team that they are going to stay late until they get the project right.

Obviously, these two people cannot be managed in exactly the same way. However, there are some things you can do to manage many aspects of your relationship with your boss.

First, you need to let them know what you are doing at least once per day. If you manage your own deadlines, send them a quick status email to say that you should be done that high priority task by the end of the day. Managers may be continuously asking for status of tasks from their employees mainly because they have to report on the status of a project to their boss. B

y proactively giving them information before they ask for it, you make their job just a little bit easier and they will love you for it. Just do not go overboard and email them with every task you are completing. There is managing the status and there is “brown nosing”, learn the difference. This leads to my next point, you need to manage expectations.

Managing Expectations

There are a few things you can do to manage expectations. If you are good at your job, expectations will change without your knowledge. Are you comfortable with the higher expectations? In some cases, you may even get more responsibility. Some managers fully assume that when you are given new responsibilities that you will understand everything and be competent at your new job. In reality, we know that this is never true. There will always be tasks that you are not familiar with or even situations that you have never dealt with.

For example, in software development a senior level engineer will likely be named the team lead. This person is expected to manage the technical aspects of the projects as well as the daily work of each engineer on the team. If you are a new team lead and have never dealt with employee conflicts before, you need to ensure that your manager understands this and that you will ask for their help if something arises.

This is good for two reasons. First, it sets the expectations your manager will have. There are always some conflicts on a team, sometimes they are simple things and other times two people basically can not work together. If you have told your manager about your lack of experience, they will be glad to help you because they knew it would happen eventually.

The other side of this is you have given your manager time to prepare for a few things. They know a situation will arise, so they will watch for it. They also know that you are skilled at your job, but admitting your inexperience gives them time to move up the corporate ladder before you take their job. Yes, your boss is probably afraid of one of their competent employees taking their job. By admitting inexperience, you are basically saying that your boss is better at their job than you would be right now. Making sure your boss feels secure is something that can make your job a lot easier.

Managing Your Peers

When it comes to employees that are not your boss, you need to manage them as well. This is not about being their manager, but giving them an idea of who you are and whether you can be depended upon. With your peers, actions can carry a lot more weight than words.

Being someone that everyone knows will finish their work on time and do a good job is immensely important. If you can not do this, then your job needs more help than this post can provide. Is doing a good job enough? Absolutely not, you want to be awesome. So, if you are that person that everyone knows will do an excellent job, do not tell anyone how good you really are. Once you start talking about how good you are, you become a widely hated person, labeled as “arrogant” or even “not nearly as good as he thinks he is”.

Another important way you can manage your peers is by helping them. Helping others, even when the help is unsolicited, is seen as unselfish and for the good of the team. Helping also keeps you in good favor with your coworkers as long as you avoid arrogance. The flip side of this is that other people will be more willing to help you when the need arises.

Another point of note is distractions. If you can manage your peers correctly, they will learn when you are best interrupted and when you are not. For example, some people need to have a cup or two of coffee before they can be approached with a problem. People quickly learn when others do not want to be bothered. Sometimes, a well timed comment or email can set the boundaries. Something similar to, “I get so much work done in the morning before 9 because nobody is in the office”, will alert people to the fact that mornings are a bad time for interruptions.

Managing Perception

Disappointingly, your actions are not the entire story when it comes to your job. When salary or promotion reviews are being completed, opinions and perception rule. Actions definitely help in those cases, but only in determining people’s opinions. Managing other people’s perception of you is probably the most difficult task in this post. You want to talk about your successes throughout your job, but you can’t talk too much about it. You want to talk about how much you know, but you can’t talk too much about it.

So, how do you get your abilities known? First, by doing many of the things discussed above, you are taking the first steps in managing perceptions. Second, when people are talking about successful projects, make sure they know that you worked on that project as well. A simple comment about how hard the project looked at first, or a joke about how tight the deadlines were may get people asking you or other people how you were involved. More importantly, when it comes to perceptions, having other people speak on your behalf is a major benefit.

So, what are you doing reading this? You know what you should do. Go and manage your career for success.