|
COVER STORY
Move On Up
Career Success for Purchasing Professionals
By Marla Goldstone
You are getting discouraged that promotional opportunities to senior-level positions are getting fewer and farther between. Your experience of the glass ceiling may be the result of baby boomers who have cornered the market in corner offices. In addition, their collective retirement is nowhere in sight. If you are feeling stuck and wondering about how to get ahead, it's never too late to 'course correct' your career strategy.
First the bad news. You are president and CEO of "Me Inc." and the sole person responsible for creating your own success. There is no magic formula that will guarantee a coveted place in the purchasing agent winner's circle. If you are ambitious you simply cannot afford to wait passively or depend on the kindness of bosses - or other strangers - to give you a chance at the brass ring.
The good news is that it is never too late to relaunch your campaign. The tips and strategies that follow will provide you with a jumpstart to getting ahead.
Create a Career Plan
As the old saying goes, if you don't know where you are going, any road will take you there. Where are you now in your career and where would you like to be? Defining your goals will create the deadlines that will give you both a focus and a sense of momentum.
Promotions are going to be more plentiful in expanding rather than declining industries. How healthy is your company and/or its industry currently and how viable for the future? Is the business cycle one that is moving into an upwards trajectory or a downward spiral? Closer to home, are there any upcoming or potential promotional opportunities in your organization? What will it take for you to be considered for them?
If you had a choice does it make more sense for you to work in a "line" position with its advantage of hard-core experience in cost containment and profitability? On the other hand, is it preferable to work in a "staff" position which offers better access to decision makers, a company overview and a range of future choice openings?
Ask your human resources department for job descriptions or previous job notices for these advanced positions. Take note of the significant duties or responsibilities of those positions because these are exactly the skills, knowledge and abilities that you need to acquire and/or develop every chance you can get.
For each major duty or responsibility, set yourself the objective to gain this experience or proficiency. For example, if you have strong capabilities in the principles of inventory and operations control, focus on other areas of knowledge that you will need. A promotion may depend on your enhanced understanding of supply chain management or new developments in supplier selection and price strategies.
Learn A Living!
Identify your current strengths and weaknesses and make a commitment to broaden and deepen your professional expertise. Regularly upgrade your knowledge, ability and skills and keep up-to-date on emerging trends and issues - not only in procurement but also your industry. Discuss training opportunities with your manager or your HR department. Your organization may be willing to pay all or part of the tuition for development so take advantage of it! Check out the Purchasing Management Association of Canada and their provincial counterparts. You will find lists of courses and other training events that will help you build your network as well as your skills (www.pmac.ca).
Learn from both your mistakes and successes. Regardless of your experience or seniority, it is a fact of life that you will make mistakes. What is more crucial is to take responsibility, learn from them and move on. The more you are able to graciously admit and learn from your mistakes, the greater the likelihood that you will succeed.
One of the best ways to get further ahead in any career is to find a mentor. The definition of a mentor is person who is a wise and trusted counsellor. Having someone more experienced and seasoned to guide and support you is an invaluable career boost. Watch and learn from them because this person is now where you want to be.
Do Your Homework
Look at your company with a fresh pair of eyes. Employ the same attention to detail that you would use if you were researching a new supplier. What are your company's strategic goals and objectives? What really matters to your internal clients - whether they are in an operating area or in corporate? What are your clients' departmental priorities? Create successes that will reflect well on your abilities. Offer solutions that will save money, and/or provide better service. Find short-term projects that will have an impact - usually something that will create value and produces results that are "better, faster and/or cheaper"!
Build Positive Working Relationships
Ask your boss what else you can do to make yourself a valued employee.
Share your aspirations with your manager. Use the performance review process as a time to ask about your future with the organization. Let your manager know that you are interested in progressing and learning more. Freely offer to assist any colleagues if they are buried in work or have been absent a few days. This kind of team work and support is appreciated.
When you're working on a project, don't be shy about asking a few influential people for input. It's a great way to network and it gives you the opportunity to show them what you can do. Others can widen your knowledge of their departments and what's happening, or even speak positively to management about you. And, by internal networking, you might get a heads-up on a job opening before it's official. Talk to other staff to find out more about what you will need to do to get ahead.
This cannot be emphasized enough: network both inside your company and externally with other purchasing professionals. Become an active member of your local purchasing professional association. Schedule lunches or informal meetings with other members and ask them to tell their stories about how they moved up and what it takes to succeed.
Ready for Your Close-up?
Become an indispensable star performer! Anticipate and manage other people's perception of you. When you do a good job, don't minimize your role or effort. Share the credit but also take the credit when you've earned it. Find out exactly how you are doing by asking others for feedback.
Here's a terrific suggestion from Gordon Miller's book The Career Coach: Winning Strategies for Getting Ahead in Today's Job Market. If your company does not provide one, do your own informal 360 feedback assessment process. You will get valuable insight into how you are perceived, and critical information about your impact - intended or otherwise - on your company, your suppliers and your colleagues.
Begin by reflecting on how you would rate yourself and your work performance. Consider looking at the following: organizational, administrative and financial skills, communication style, your firmness versus your flexibility, problem-solving, responsiveness, negotiation skills, client service orientation, etc. Ask people you trust for comments and suggestions. Look for three colleagues, three suppliers, three internal clients and of course your boss. Get past any of your defensiveness to listen for any recurring themes - positive or negative. Where is there an opportunity for you to develop yourself further?
Step Up
Being proactive is featured as one of Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Demonstrate this quality by accepting responsibility and making things happen. Step up to the plate by getting involved and showing extra initiative. Even if some projects aren't directly related to your interests or specific promotional opportunities, volunteer and build your manager's trust and confidence in you. Go the extra mile and do more than what is expected of you. By going above and beyond your regular job responsibilities you will increase your visibility within the company and may get more challenging projects. The trust and confidence you earn will provide you with even more opportunities to "strut your stuff."
However, always remember the 80/20 rule or Pareto's Law. Eighty per cent of our success comes from twenty per cent of our efforts. Focus your efforts on those work activities that will optimize your achievements.
It's clear that nothing succeeds like success. To get ahead, it's not enough to do a good job and hope for the best. Who else knows about it? You must also take responsibility for managing your own positive press. While most of us are taught from a very young age to be modest and not show off, our accomplishments do not always speak for themselves. When you produce a report, or get results that may be of interest to others in your company or department, find a way to get it in front of them. It may be a simple e-mail attachment with a note, "Thought you might be interestedÂ…"
Another excellent strategy is to develop a personal career portfolio or a "brag book." Maintain records of all of your work-related achievements with details of exceptional work, letters of recognition and anything else that demonstrate good job performance.
Pause for the Reality Check!
Don't set yourself up for failure. Having big dreams is important, but temper them with what is both practical and possible. Before you get your hopes up on being offered that vice president's job by the end of the year, be realistic about your qualifications, your experience compared to that of other candidates and the likelihood of leapfrogging over three or more management layers in one huge jump. Know these things take time and do not happen overnight. Remember to be tenacious, resilient and patient! In many cases it can take two years or longer to win that coveted promotion.
On the other hand, it may be that after you have done your homework you decide that for whatever reason, striving for the next rung up the ladder is not for you. Perhaps work/life balance issues tip the scale in favour of making your outside interests or family a higher priority. Up is not the only way to a fulfilling and satisfying career. Many purchasing professionals are more than happy to be acknowledged and respected for their unique skills and expertise without the additional headaches, responsibility or workload of being higher up the ladder. b2b
Marla Goldstone is the manager of training and development at Rogers Publishing and the principal of "Learning Works," her own career coaching and consulting practice.
|
