What you are about to read are tested and proven ideas for succeeding under some of the most challenging situations possible in paid employment.
It Can Happen To You – So Get Prepared
Just in case you’re telling yourself this cannot happen to you, let me assure you that it can. By this, I refer to a situation in which you assume a new position at short notice, and without the benefit of a handover from the original job holder.
It happened to me a number of times in a space of about three years while I was still a middle level manager working shifts. There were other competent persons that could have been chosen for the roles assigned to me. Some were more than a few years senior to me in age, on the job and/or in the company.
The fact that I got picked so often suggests the decision makers believed I would add worthwhile value. My success in handling those early career opportunities, eventually won me high profile senior management roles, later in my short career (I quit after 7 years, to pursue a long standing dream of self employment, despite mouth watering career prospects). I narrate some examples later in this article.
Adapt the strategies described below to your unique situation, and you’re likely to achieve similar or better outcomes to mine.
1. Visualize The Possibilities: There’s no guarantee you’ll get it right. But you need to carefully consider what positions in the company (within and outside your current company location), you can reasonably expect to be assigned, in the event that the need arises.
Check out the backgrounds of senior or more experienced colleagues and/or bosses who started out from your kind of position. That’s one reliable way to know what can happen. If they could have gotten where they are today, by starting from where you are now, then it’s possible you can too.
And sometimes, even if it took them 5 years to get there, circumstances could make it take you just 6 months to do the same. Somebody could resign (or get fired) without warning, and there may be no other person except you with the needed training, background, education, skills, experience or maturity, to fill in the gap.
"Solagbade! Do you want to do what some people did in 5 years in 5 months?"
A senior colleague actually made the above statement to me, less than two years after I joined the company. And he was not exactly smiling when he said it either.
Among other things, I had been identified for my spreadsheet automation skills, which got me nominated into a company wide computerization project team, alongside senior managers. This put me in the spotlight, to the extent that departmental heads courted me to help automate their routine reports. I got a lot of attention – and some priviledges too. This apparently irked him, and at some point, he could no longer hide his feelings.
Expect that this may happen to you too, if you excel. Be as glad as I was if/when such person(s) voice their "frustrations". You’ll be able to steer clear of them if necessary. As Robert Kiyosaki noted in one of his books, vicious backstabbing is common in the workplace. If you plan to go far up the ladder, watch your back.
2. Get Familiar With Job Descriptions and Workplace Instructions/Guides: Every position in a company – no matter how small – requires a clear definition of roles and responsibilities to be played by the job holder. A job description is a document in which such details will normally be found. In addition, key processes and operations need to be documented in a way that ensures continuity and consistent quality/output, regardless of which employee is involved.
In other words, these documents would provide step-by-step guidance for carrying out every key operation or process in the company. If followed diligently work gets done to completion with minimal or no errors. It is to be expected that your company will have a formal system for creating and updating such documents in place.
Their existence in companies referred to as "world class" or "ISO certified" enables them routinely churn out top quality products and services based on a Right First Time philosophy. So, to get up to speed with the right way your job should be done, and also how people under your supervision should be operating, job descriptions and work instructions/guides will prove invaluable.
If it so happens the company does not have job descriptions and/or work instructions, view that as an excellent opportunity to make a difference while there. Get approval to have them developed, and (if time permits) champion the process. Your achievement will not go unnoticed, I assure you.
3. Read Books and Study Workplace Archives: I did this a lot anytime I got seconded. I never told anyone though. It was my little secret. Usually during the first week or two, I would spend many extra hours AFTER close of work (whether shift or normal working hours), reading through old handover notes in the file cabinets; daily, weekly and monthly reports; special project files and as many other documents relating to the job I was to do as I could find.
This helped me quickly internalize useful details about the job, and what had happened before I came in. I used that knowledge to ask questions when I spoke with those I had to work with. It was always amusing to see their surprised looks when I spoke with familiarity about stuff that took place before my time. Quite often I won their trust, respect and cooperation subseqently – because they saw that I was prepared to work.
Of course, by studying experience based books on management (by gurus like Peter Drucker for instance), and applying the mostly simple concepts, I was able to leverage the knowledge I gained from studying archival material in the workplace, in doing my "temporary" job effectively.
4. Identify The Competent/Long Serving – And LEARN from them: Whenever the opportunity presented itself, I got close to older and more experienced colleagues, to have informal coaching conversations with them. Those sessions usually revealed valuable insights I later found use for. I also periodically courted senior managers or departmental heads. Usually when they called on me to use my spreadsheet skills to generate reports based on their data. While with them, I casually studied the work they did, and how they did it.
All of this helped me greatly, as I was able to over time demonstrate the ability to "think" like a senior manager while still a middle level manager. By the time I got assigned to act as Production Manager in February 2000, I already knew quite a lot about what the job entailed – including complex aspects like calculating capacities, planning production etc.
Anytime I found myself around top level executives from my function in the workplace, I was never shy about showing what I could do. You should not be either – because the company needs people who can help it progress. This strategy got me noticed by those who mattered. It can work for you too.
5. Acquire Knowledge and Skills That Enable You Make A Difference: The company did not send me on any special management courses to prepare me to do those "surprise" jobs. I had to learn on-the-job. There was often no time that could be spared. So I resolved not to let those who gave me that opportunity down. I invested hundreds of hours before and after my shift periods/normal working hours, to learn anything extra that could help me do a good job. If you are sincere about contributing to the company’s progress, opportunities will appear to you, to achieve that purpose.
One Example: During my one year induction in Lagos brewery, I showed active interest in the custom Lotus spreadsheet based report automation I saw my expatriate Training Manager – RAC – doing for the company.
That won me his trust. Especially when I demonstrated the aptitude to quickly grasp the little he exposed me to. He soon gave me a laptop, so I could help check for errors in the massive formulas used in the Variable Cost Analysis Spreadsheet application he built for use in the different breweries.
By the time I was redeployed to Benin Brewery on completing my training, I got thrust into the spotlight when (on RAC’s recommendation), I successfully corrected an error in the Benin Brewery version of his spreadsheet application. After that, all kinds of opportunities to work with other senior managers began coming my way. When you work with senior managers that early in your career, and succeed in impressing, you WILL get talked about.
This last point is the key to succeeding perpetually at work . You do not need necessarily need to acquire a special skill like I did. But it would be worthwhile to LEARN to do useful (not fancy) things that can help you overcome obstacles, or make others happy to have you around.
Why You Should Take The Ideas Offered Here To Heart
I successfully employed the strategies described here – REPEATEDLY – to achieve superlative workplace performances in the large corporate multinational I worked over a 7 year period.
Within a year of joining the company, I went from being a green horned production shift brewer to packaging shift manager (actually back and forth between packaging and production departments over a 2 year period – at least three times).
Once, while working as a brewer, I was informed of my immediate "temporary" redeployment to packaging, to fill a vacancy arising from a recent promotion exercise. The Packaging Manager explained that the suddenness of the incumbent’s promotion made it imperative to pick a replacement, who could quickly fit in, even if brought in at short notice. I apparently fit the bill. Some weeks later, after a replacement manager had arrived, I returned to the brewing department. Indeed, almost all my movements at the time had one thing in common: They were implemented at short notice.
Between late 1995 and the end of 1997, I went from being management trainee to packaging shift manager, production shift brewer (actually back and for the between packaging and production departments over a 2 year period). Not long after that, I was removed from shift duties and re-assigned as Brewer-In-Charge of the Malta processing section (which was like a separate department, with its own multi-shift workforce).
In 1998, I was nominated twice to act as Technical Training and Development Manager (a high profile and sensitive position, one step above middle management level). The first time, it was for a month. And I got a handover from the job holder who was going on annual leave. The second time around, it was for a 3 month period. And I got NO handover.
What’s more, my new boss (i.e. the Technical Manager) chose to go off on leave during this second period. I was – as they say – O.M.O i.e. On My Own! That was a classic example of a trial by fire situation I was put in. Management sometimes does this to "test" a young manager’s mettle and see if s/he will crack under pressure. I never did "crack". Instead I excelled repeatedly. And my appraisals reflected it. When I chose to leave the company, the brewery head felt he had seen enough in 11 months of working with me, to stick his neck out by writing the following glowing comments about me (see below) in a send forth greeting card:
Summary
Going on secondment to do another person’s job – even if it’s not in a higher position – is an opportunity to show decision makers what you can do. How you handle it can determine how far you go in the company. It’s like competing for a place on the team to the world cup or Olympics. Or presenting a popular TV show on prime time. You need to make the most of it. But do so, with the aim of making a useful or positive contribition and impact. And not just for selfish glory.
What helped me succeed was my willingness to learn from ANYONE and EVERYONE I felt could help me – even if I had to seek them out myself. This was in addition to plenty of hard work and personal sacrifice to acquire useful knowledge/skills and use them to make things work the way I wanted them.
If you really want to fly high in the corporate world, you must be ready for sudden or surprise assignments – because they will come. And those who nominate you to will expect you to deliver. Every time you do, they may become more willing to send greater career advancement opportunities your way.
Opportunities that many others may not get easily would tend to come to you as if magically. You will have become a high performing employee, regarded highly by your company’s decision managers as an asset to be used to boost the company’s ability to achieve its goals.