We often hear about people and international civil servants complaining that the organization or UN agencies they work for is unfair, does not promote the right people, that incompetents seem to climb the ladder easily, and some others, although brilliant, are not getting promoted or recognized. Are these statements true ? I happened to have just finished a book that is about success in organizations: "Empowering Yourself, the organizational game revealed", by Harvey J. Coleman.
How to achieve success in the professional environment ? How to work your way to the top (or even how to be regularly promoted) Here are my 4 takeaways from this book on how to achieve success in your UN agency or in any organization.
Success comes at a price: are you willing to pay ?
In my view, the major idea advanced by Harvey Coleman in his book is to say that there is a price to pay for being successful, and that your career will plateau when you decide there is not enough to gain for the effort requested. The ones willing to pay that price will keep moving, and you will stop.
It is not difficult to see that the women who decide to prioritize their family over professional advancement seem to hit a glass ceiling. According to Coleman, it is not so much they are stopped but rather the consequence of having other people around them ready to prioritize their professional lives over other things. It is true especially in the UN system, where people are expected to answer calls at all time and everyday of the week, often for things that aren't real emergencies.
So, the author stresses the importance of the choices we make all along our lives: for example, the decision to go to college versus stop at high school may have a significant impact on somebody's outreach in the professional environment.
Play by the rules...the United Nations are political by nature
Another big idea of the Empower Yourself self-help book is to emphasize the importance of the rules that govern all organizations. For instance, the UN is a political organization: based on that, it is obvious that the people more likely to be promoted to the higher positions should have political competencies. Conversely, a company like Google will most probably value technical skills much more. Being aware and accepting the rules that is essential for success. Refusing those rules is a choice, and this choice has consequences: for example, refusing to take action to gain visibility is like auto-sabotage in the UN agencies.
So it is important to take the needed time to understand and comply with the rules of the higher level, should you wish to be promoted.
The PIE model: Performance, Image, Exposure and derived powers
This is the most famous model for success in the organizations, the PIE. Basically, your potential to be promoted will depend on 3 factors that do not have equal weight:
- 10% - Performance: producing good work lays the foundation, but only counts for 10%. Basically it only gets you in the door; then the real work begins. Power of Knowledge.
- 30% - Image: the image you project, and what people think of you, your reputation; derived from your attitude at work (clothing, way you walk and address people, your willingness to help and to get involved). Charismatic Power.
- 60% - Exposure: who you know and who knows you / knows what you do: a staggering 60% ! That will give you the Power by Association - the admin / secretaries to the Directors in some UN agencies are sometimes super powerful, more than the technical staff !
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Importance of the sponsor to get a promotion
It may seem like cheating but
everybody needs a sponsor. A sponsor is somebody more advanced in the organizational ladder,
who has the power to promote you or to influence a decision toward your promotion. So you must choose your sponsor carefully.
The best thing is to identify from the start who has the power in your department or organization and build a relationship with them in the long run. If
you prove to be a motivated, reliable and helpful colleague, naturally, you sponsor will be more inclined to help when an opportunity opens for you; after all, it is human nature.
Overall, reading this book has been extremely instructive. Harvey Coleman himself is a former IBMer who missed a promotion several years in a row because he was only focusing his efforts on producing outstanding performance, but did neglect the other pieces of the pie: his colleagues with weaker performances got promoted; was he hitting a glass ceiling ? Was it because he is African American ?
The good point about this story is that he eventually quit IBM and was able to analyze thoroughly the situation, which resulted in writing the self-help book Empowering Yourself: The Organizational Game Revealed.
It is about things we already know, but seeing them clearly laid out as the path to success / model definitely has a bigger impact. So if you are clueless about how to evolve in your job or career, this book is for you: read it and tell me what you think in the comments !