When I used to find myself mentoring green, young professionals, one of the first premises I would always start with is the idea that actively managing their career was their #1 job.
This always proves to be an interesting conversation, because it requires articulating some goals that they have frequently not yet defined, or strengths (and weaknesses) that they have not yet discovered about themselves. To me this discovery process was always one of the most satisfying and enjoyable things about managing young talent.
But once you get deeper into your career, this conversations starts to look different. Many of the things we haven't figured out in our 20's have evolved into habits, self-definitions and attachments by the time we are in our late-30's.
We've learned to think of ourselves in terms of our role -- either by title, dominant trait or by subculture. "I'm an introvert." "I'm a startup person." "I'm a process person." "I'm a relationship person." "I'm a get shit done person."
The challenge with this is, though, that the leadership roles that years of hard work have landed us in require something different. They require a far more multi-dimensional view of ourselves, one that can be rooted deeply enough in our own integrity to be authentically true to ourselves no matter the circumstances, while still also recognizing that we have to tailor our message differently to each of our different audiences.
This is commonly referred to as "managing up" -- but that's a limited view. In reality, if you are a leader, you've got 360 degrees of message managing to do. Yes, you most certainly need to manage up -- and depending on the nature of your organization and your role, this could feel like the biggest, most difficult, foreign part. But you also need to manage your message across, down and out.
Sometimes the hardest thing about this, however, is remembering that each of your audiences needs different things from your message. It is extremely rare that you can get away with only version that can be used for everyone. For busy people who love creating efficiencies, this can be maddening.
It's the same fundamental message. Why do I have to waste my time re-doing this for each group of stakeholders?
This is at the heart of managing your message. For many people a certain degree of this comes naturally -- it is often what makes us successful in our given roles. You may be great at how you communicate with customers, but struggle with your staff; maybe you're fantastic with your colleagues, but you are abrupt with your partners; you may have a great relationship with your boss, but you are intimidated by his boss.
The more of a leadership role you have in your organization, the more critical it becomes to recognize that your success depends on how you manage your message appropriately for each of the stakeholders in your sphere of influence.
If you have unattained career goals that are frustrating you, my questions is this: how are you communicating to your stakeholders regarding what they care about?
