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What Stops You

The forces that hinder your developing a broader view are organizational—the policies and practices of your organization—and personal—your beliefs and understandings about who you are and what you believe to be true.

Organizational Forces

Your organization can hinder your ability to develop the broad organizational perspective needed to be successful. Primarily, the organization does this by

• developing individuals in a stovepipe or silo—allowing them to make small vertical moves in a single functional area (providing people with more of the same)

• moving people too quickly through jobs in another functional area

• failing to give effective feedback

• punishing failure without providing the opportunity to learn

Stovepipes and silos. Many organizations see moving managers out of their current functional area as a major risk. They are reluctant to gamble a known quantity—your skill and performance—for the chance that your ability will translate to added value in a different functional area. It’s much easier and less risky to keep people where they are and move them up in a narrow channel.

Kelly was an exceptional salesperson who was able to meet her quota year after year. Though she wanted to get into product marketing, the organization believed it needed her in sales. Whenever Kelly mentioned her desire to try product marketing, the organization reminded her of her success in sales and how much they appreciated the work she had done. She pressed further about moving to product marketing, but her superiors became firmer, stating that she was needed in sales. To keep her focused on staying in the sales channel, the organization made sure she was appropriately compensated, and offered her larger territories with more prestigious accounts and a title with more senior-level status. Later in her career Kelly went on to become a sales manager and then a sales director. When the position of vice president of sales and marketing became available, a position Kelly really wanted, the organization disregarded her, believing that she did not have the product-marketing skills necessary to do the job.

Quick movement. Many organizations offer managers rotational assignments in order for them to get experience in other functional areas. Unfortunately, managers often move through those assignments so quickly that they never get to learn from the experience.

Yuri was hired as a production assistant, and because of his educational background and prior experience, the organization put him on the fast track. This included brief stints on the production line and in maintenance, scheduling, and quality control. None of Yuri’s assignments lasted longer than a year. As a result of these short stints, he never had the opportunity to see the effects of his decisions, nor did he fully grasp any of the organization’s processes and their relationships to each other. When Yuri was made director of manufacturing, he made numerous costly mistakes that dramatically affected his facility’s production.

Feedback failure. Many organizations don’t do a good job of giving people specific feedback that they can act upon. People tend to receive vague feedback based solely on their results instead of on the process used to reach the results.

Hong Mei’s abrasive style served her well in the call center. Though she had a high turnover rate among employees, she nonetheless had the results, she thought, to justify her behavior. In fact, the organization often gave her feedback describing her as a producer, a real results-oriented individual. After being promoted several times, she was suddenly and unexpectedly called into her boss’s office and told she was being let go. Her direct reports could no longer stand her abrasiveness. Hong Mei never knew what had happened or how.