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Is it me?
I've worked for my current employer for abut four years. I'm in a Director's position but I feel like nearly every time I say, this is something I think we should do, and get agreement from ED that we should do as organization, and I mention that's a project I would like to lead, that my ED reminds me about getting stakeholder buy-in and how things are a team effort. Of course, I understand that get any initiative off the ground you need team buy-in but I also believe that teams need leaders and if someone is qualified to do a particular thing that they should be the one to lead the group in the effort.
These interactions irk me and leave me wondering if it's me or my ED. Like, am I wrong for wanting to lead so many projects or is my ED insecure about somebody else getting too much visibility? Is it something somewhere in the middle? I like many things about where I work and would like to stay a long while but I don't know about investing a lot more time where my ambition could possibly be stifled.
Christine K
Engineer in Endocrinology
18
10/26/20 at 8:33PM UTC
It is never only you.
Building on the previous comment, several questions immediately come to mind. When ED “agrees,” do they _really_ agree, e.g. your suggestions are implemented but not by you? Have any of your co-workers complained - even jokingly - about your collaboration style? What have your stakeholders said about your contributions to past projects? When in the past has overloaded bandwidth negatively affected the team or the company? How would your proposals lead to a different outcome? Can you get any insights from observing how other directors interact with ED?
I agree with Jiang that until you get to the true source of ED’s concerns, you will not be able to address the problem. Figuring out how your actions may have contributed to this scenario will take subtle detective work because if someone is uncomfortable with you, what they say to your face will not be what they say to ED.
Generally I have found more success when framing requests in a goal-oriented way. For example, “I have been in this role for X years and am looking opportunities for professional growth. Taking the lead on this project would increase Y and Z skills, which would help accomplish [long-term professional goal].” The key is being specific enough that if you are not granted this specific request you may be given a similar one.
Anonymous
10/26/20 at 9:06PM UTC
As recently as a few weeks ago a proposed a new project and the ED agreed it was something that needed to be done and then green lit it and made it pretty clear that the relevant stakeholders should be supporting this project and even made a whole point to give me a featured spot three weeks running in the all-staff meeting to offer updates and share how the process had iterated. Which only leads to further confusion on my part as to why some things just get the go-ahead and then others seem to hit this wall.
In terms of collaborating with others, I've received pretty strong positive feedback about working well with others. I'm often brought into meetings which in many times I consider out of my purview because I'm known to ask good questions and consider multiple perspectives on an issue.
Joanna Jiang
40
10/26/20 at 6:06PM UTC
I guess we have to look into the specific parts or reasoning behind why would the ED not supporting your lead. Does the ED have bigger leadership or visionary concerns? Would a full-scale plan/presentation of how you will lead the project help the ED to visualize where everything is going? Getting down to the core of the problem usually solves the mystery. These are just my intuitive thoughts based on what you have shared :)
Anonymous
10/26/20 at 6:41PM UTC
I'm not sure if a presentation would, given that my ED usually acknowledges that what I'm saying is correct and should happen. We're a small team so I'm sure part of the concern is bandwidth but I think that if these were long-term projects where people could work on them in small pieces, progress could still be made without overwhelming someone.
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