King and Queen-Making

Chris Bart, PMP

Many of you have asked me to write down my thoughts on how to jump-start your career. Now I am also hearing from people concerned about job security. The answer I have is the same for both groups: Help others get what they want, and we can ask for help in getting what we want.(I do hope you restrict yourself to helping only those with moral goals, but I suspect this works just as well in other settings!) Let’s look at some examples.

Your Boss

Do you know what her goals are? Perhaps you feel that her only concern is messing up your life. There are supervisors like that, but mostlypeople are concerned about their own path. They may or may not have our best interests in mind, but they are rarely out to get us. It’s not in their best interests. Let’s see how we can turn this to our benefit.

Perhaps she would like to advance in her career. She’s made a good start, but she must show that she is doing her current job really well. She needs to show that she is helping her organization meet its goals.

What can you do? Try a little research on those. Is the organization on track to meet them? What about your group, the one that her boss runs. How is it doing? We’re not looking for dirt and gossip here, we’re looking for what is and isn’t working. What are the problems? What are the opportunities?

Perhaps you are thinking that this is way too high-level for you. I disagree. Knowing what your boss’s boss’sgoals are will position you very well. Consider whether there is anything, no matter how small, that you can do to improve the situation. Then go do it.

After others have seen their goals met, they will be much more open to hearing about yours. If they are consistent with the organization’s goals, I believe you will be rewarded.

My Boss’s Boss

Our parent company was going on an aggressive acquisition push. My boss -let’s call him Fred- gave me an earful about it. He was under great pressure to reduce costs, and send cash to the parent company. I mentioned that ours was already one of the most profitable companies in the group. He agreed, but said the parent needed a bit more, particularly in the next two quarters.

I was the director of the services group, an aspect of the business that was not expected to make money. “If it’s broken, fix it.” That was our job. It wasn’t glamorous, but it did involve a lot of responsibility. We had service centers world-wide, and it was my job to keep them running smoothly. I had already reorganized us to improve our response times, but I felt there was more we could do.

I knew that one place to get dollars was from customers. I began to think about how I could help them, my boss, the parent company and myself, all at once.

I knew that our customers usually wanted their equipment fixed “yesterday,” and that it cost them money every extra day (or hour) it took us to fix their units. This hurry-up approach was stressful for all of us, and did not meet their needs ideally. Putting all this together, I began to sell preventive maintenance contracts to our key accounts. I also began flagging older less reliable units to our sales group as possible replacement candidates. By the following quarter, my boss was able to report out the increased cash flow that he was charged with, and most of it came from my group.

The first time Fred’s boss came to our site, I was one of the first people he met. I had just sat down in Fred’s office when had to step out for a few minutes. There I was alone with this immensely influential man.

Nervously I said: “You have to travel all over the world. That must make your at-home time precious. What do you like to do?” He mentioned that he liked a particular breed of horse. I am not an expert horseman, but as it happened I have ridden the type he admired. I said that I might know of an excellent book on the subject, and asked him for a business card.

True confession: I didn’t know such a book, but I was about to remedy that. As soon as I got back to my office, I got on Amazon, browsed through books on that type of horse until I found a promising one, and had it shipped to him with a little note.

Thus began an important acquaintance, and it all started with the idea of King-making -helping others get what they want, so you can get what you want. I found out what my boss wanted and saw how to match that up with what others needed. In the process, I met my own goals.

A Client in Trouble

A few years later, I had started a little training company, and business was slow. Everyone I approached just shook their heads. Then I went to see my best account. I was about to launch into my tale of woe when my contact -I’ll call her Sarah-launched into one of her own.

Apparently, she had made some giant blunder, and was on the edge of losing her corner office, if not her job. I never found out what she had done, but it must have been bad.

I asked how her boss was taking it. “She really doesn’t want to talk to me right now,” was the ominous answer. I asked: “So, what does she want to talk about?” Sarah burst out: “She’s ruining our whole training operation! All she’s interested in is this idiotic on-line approach. Doesn’t she know that stand-up trainers are essential? How are we going to foster learning discussions when the group is spread across the country?”

Sarah and I agreed on that point. I much prefer a real classroom to a virtual one. I was about to dive in and make a few negative comments of my own when a different thought hit me: Maybe therewas a way to make all of this work to everyone’s advantage.

“Sarah, let’s look at all of this together:

You’re on the outs with your boss.
She wants on-line training.
You want to preserve the quality of training for the students.
It sounds like some on-line training is inevitable.

If all of that is true,who better to create it than you and me? Let’s be proactive and build some really good classes.”

When Sarah found out I had some experience in web-design, she got excited. Never mind that my past efforts were pretty basic. Minutes later we were sitting in her boss’s office pitching the concept. Ten days later, I was at work on my first web training. Within a month we were on-line, and after some adjustments, we started getting good feedback.

A year later I was invited to the organization’s national meeting to tell our success story. I made sure that Sarah co-presented with me. Not that she needed any further help; her corner office was once more secure.

Help others get what they want, then ask them for help getting what you want.

It also works with co-workers, subordinates, and even people that don’t seem very important at the time. Here’s a story about that.

A Kid in the Way

I once owned a couple of media center stores. One day, I chanced to be working the floor alone. Business was really slow. In fact, the only person to show up was a young boy. He rodeinto the parking lot on one of those kid bikeswith the small wheels.

The equipment we sold was very expensive, and I knew that his allowance wasn’t going to get him anything. I joked to myself that even if he did have the money for something, he couldn’t get it home on his bicycle. I was about to say something abrupt, but he politely asked if he could lookaround, and so I said sure.

Then I thought about it, and decided to treat him like a real customer. I had to stay on the floor and I also figured I could use the practice. Soon we were going at it hot and heavy, comparing specs on this, performance on that. He was very bright and learned quickly.

He also had expensive tastes. I remember thinking ruefully that when all you have is fantasy money, your budget is unlimited!I consoled myself with the idea that maybe when he was older he’d come back.

As it turned out, I didn’t have to wait that long. The following Saturday a new top-of-the-line Lincoln pulled into our lot, and the same kid got out of the passenger side. He led a well-dressed gentleman into the store and proceeded to show him the system we had discussed. After they were done, the man looked down at his son, and then up at me. “We’ll take it.” Something in his look told me he was more open to trusting a man who would take time with a kid.

As I loaded the system into their car, I reflected on how helping the powerful can be good for your career,but it’s also agood idea to treat everyone else the same way.

Your Turn

I hoped you enjoyed my stories. You can go back to work now, and I hope your day goes well. But beyond that, what will you do differently today? Who can you help attain their goals? How will they help you attain yours?

Good luck!

Chris Bart, PMP

Arvada, CO

303-246-0536

P.S.: Are you, your boss, or someone you know facing a serious challenge? Do you have an interesting opportunity to capitalize on? Call me. I will gladly contribute one full hour of consulting time to move the situation forward. If I can be of more assistance, let me know. The Bart Group is seeking Project Management and Training challenges. The trickier the better!