Harvard Business Review on Advancing Your Career by Harvard Business Review

Author:Harvard Business Review [Harvard Business Review]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Personal & Professional Development
Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press
Published: 2011-05-16T16:00:00+00:00

How to Ask, How to Listen

Getting past executives’ reluctance to provide direct and difficult feedback is tricky. When asking for input, project a sincere desire to understand what’s holding you back—and avoid appearing to lobby or argue. Your core question should be “What skills and capabilities do I need to demonstrate in order to be a strong candidate for higher levels of responsibility at some point in the future?”

Get into active-listening mode. Any comment or body language that conveys defensiveness will most likely cause the other person to either clam up or move the conversation to easier (and vaguer) territory—such as the need for more “seasoning” that Ralph kept hearing about. Ask clarifying questions, but don’t challenge the content. (You can attempt to correct factual errors with the right person later; this isn’t the time.) Be alert to code words and phrases masking fundamental issues—general observations about the need for “increased leadership ability” or “better teamwork” or “improved communication.”

For instance, a manager I’ll call Terry was told by her boss that she needed to improve her leadership skills before she’d be eligible for her next promotion. She was managing multiple initiatives, and her teams were functioning effectively; she didn’t see how to improve her leadership except by taking on more projects. Fortunately, she had worked for her boss’s manager earlier in her career and could set up a meeting. In a series of probing questions, she asked the manager to help her define what “better leadership” would be in her case. She discovered that in her dedication she in fact had been doing herself a disservice. She’d been given an ever-increasing number of projects because of her superior organizational and people-management skills and her ability to stay on top of details. However, senior managers were concerned that she was maxed out by her personal involvement in every initiative and wanted to see that she could delegate more and create processes and systems that would ensure flawless execution without so much direct supervision.

In response she put considerable effort into rethinking how she spent her time: which issues she should be involved in personally, which she could—with some coaching—learn to delegate to others, and what kinds of meetings and reports would allow her to stay as close to projects as was needed. She revamped her team’s staff meeting and the level of preparation required. She also designated a direct report as chief of staff to follow up on deadlines and alert her to situations that required her intervention. Terry admits that it was initially difficult to extricate herself from the details on some projects and confesses to poring over the status reports submitted by the staff. But with practice she got better at letting go. A year later she was promoted to lead a large operational unit.

Things don’t always work out so well. Ed, a highly proficient finance manager, had advanced quickly because of his technical knowledge but recently missed out on several key promotions. His boss told him not to worry, everything was fine.

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