Too often, employees mistakenly assume that their hard work and results will be enough when it is time for leaders to make decisions about their performance or promotion. Employees can become solely focused on results and ignore the equally important aspect of building relationships for their career success. Unfortunately, this can leave employees feeling overlooked when leaders make decisions about advancement and promotions.
It is important to be strategic and proactive about building relationships if you aspire to rise to new levels in your career. Building a strong relationship with your immediate manager and having a senior-level mentor are proven to accelerate career growth opportunities. Below are best practices for how to actively build these two important relationships.
Immediate Manager
One of my favorite quotes about the importance of having a good manager is from the Gallup Organization:
“The talented employee may join a company because of its charismatic leaders, its generous benefits, and its world-class training programs, but how long that employee stays and how productive he or she is while there is determined by his or her relationship with their immediate supervisor.”
A manager that actively supports your career growth is critical for career advancement. Establishing a strong professional relationship with your manager is not a one-way street. Healthy relationships require that both parties work to demonstrate care and trust. Employees must share the responsibility with their manager to establish a healthy relationship by showing a desire for guidance, feedback, and coaching for improved performance and career growth.
3 Practices For Building A Strong Relationship With Your Manager
1. Ask for Feedback Regularly
High levels of performance are the baseline for being considered for advancement or promotion. Employees who make themselves available for continuously receiving feedback reap the benefits of increased self-awareness and improved performance. Unfortunately, giving feedback is risky, even for managers, because of the potential for defensiveness and relationship damage. To help minimize these risks, employees should:
- Ask for Feedback Often
- Be Specific about the Feedback You Desire
- Avoid Defensiveness
2. Advocate for Yourself
Managers are limited in their ability to effectively assess employee performance through a lens distorted by human bias and the complexity of judging individual performance within a team construct. This is why it is important to be a self-advocate about the value you bring and how you contribute to the overall success.
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Visibility matters; when you receive compliments from clients or customers, request that they send a note to your manager and their manager. Advocating for yourself and demonstrating your value is important for being considered for higher-level assignments or promotions. Just make sure you balance your advocacy with regularly acknowledging and appreciating the work others have done, as well.
3. Recurring Development Conversations
If you and your manager do not have ongoing conversations about your career development, it is your responsibility to initiate these conversations. Take the responsibility to ask your manager if you can set up quarterly meetings that focus on your performance and ongoing development. Put together a set of draft development goals for your manager to review and give feedback. Show up prepared to engage with them about your performance, future development, and career aspirations.
Senior-Level Mentor
A senior-level mentor can help advance your career in ways your manager may not be able to support. A senior-level mentor has a broader view of potential future opportunities, can introduce you to their peers, and be an advocate for development opportunities that are outside your immediate manager’s scope of influence. Some of the improved career outcomes associated with having a mentor include higher compensation and receiving a greater number of promotions.
If you are not in an organization that provides opportunities to senior mentors or you have not been included in a formal mentoring program, do not give up on building a mentor relationship. The truth is that most effective mentor-mentee relationships are initiated outside of mentoring programs.
3 Practices For Finding The Right Mentor
1. Define Your Career Goals
The first thing you need to do is be clear about what you are looking for in the mentor-mentee relationship. What do you want to accomplish professionally in the next 3, 5, or 10 years? The more specific you are with your goals, the easier it will be to find the right mentor.
2. Identify Potential Mentors
Answering the following questions can help you identify potential mentors or clarify the type of person/role that you desire as a mentor.
- Who do you admire professionally?
- Is there a job or type of role that you might want to do in the future?
- Is there someone you know that is doing this type of work?
- Do you have direct or indirect connections with any of these individuals?
3. Make the Ask
Asking someone to be your mentor might seem a little awkward, but it does not have to be. Most people are flattered by being asked to provide guidance or expertise to help someone else travel a road they may have already traveled. Experts in their fields usually have a passion for it and get excited about other people who share that same passion. Below are a couple of actions to consider when making the ask.
- Tell them what you respect about their work and career
- Demonstrate how you share the same passion that they do
- Articulate your professional goals and how you feel they can provide guidance
- Suggest an introduction meeting to get to know each other
During this time of rapid change and limited in-person interactions, it is even more important to make time to develop or nurture these two key relationships to ensure that you have access to the opportunities for career growth and development that you desire.
