In my years of Big 4 consulting, this time of year meant end of year reviews, round table discussions, rankings, and deciding who would be promoted. Every year, a significant number of high performing seniors learned they were not going to be promoted to manager, and high performing managers learned they were not going to be promoted to senior manager. The shock, the horror, the frustration flowed through the hallways in the weeks that followed.
Each of these individuals compared themselves to a peer that got the promotion to the next level, and they felt far superior to the promoted individual. For me, this alone indicated a lack of maturity and leadership within the individual. When assessing one’s peers they only picked the data points that they felt made them superior; they did not observe the key attributes of the promoted individuals that led to their promotions. They compared their effective delivery to their perception of the delivery of their peers that were promoted. The slighted individuals overlooked the attributes, such as client relationships, leadership, and commitment to the firm that drove the promotion of their peers. Are we to trust theses individuals with the careers of others?
In all my years of watching this process unfold, only once did I witness someone worthy of promotion being passed over. In this case, the individual demonstrated readiness for promotion, but they failed a certification exam required for promotion. I did witness people who were not ready for promotion being pushed along. I then watched them crash and burn at the next level, thus having to sit in the ranking discussions the following year to determine if they should be rated a 2, “Does not meet expectations“.
I know that I am not alone in this world of working to help people understand the skills needed to go to the next level. I hold an ongoing suspicion that the user “DirectorOfWhat” on MyBlankJob works for a large consulting firm based on some of her rants, including one that I more than relate to:
Being great at project delivery does not translate to being great at a manager or senior manager level in consulting. At a manager level in consulting, one should be owning and driving outcomes, not kicking every difficult situation over to their account manager or director. At a senior manager level in consulting, one should own relationships at all levels within their client’s organization from IT personal to staff accountants to C-suite executives. If one cannot get a senior accountant to sign off on their design doc of undeniably high quality, they probably lack the relationships to exceed expectations at a manager level. They do not meet the expectations of a senior manager level resource.
The old saying, “technical skills get you hired, soft skills get you promoted,” more than applies, even in today’s job market where technical skills are highly valued. If you are finding yourself passed over for promotion in the consulting ranks, first look internally at your contributions over the past year. Did you demonstrate ownership of client relationships? Did you independently own projects from inception to successful delivery or were you a delivery resource? Do those that report to you demonstrate a strong drive and commitment to their work? In other words, are you effectively motivating staff members?
These are hard questions, and we often do not self-assess well. This is because we excel at skills we value, and we tend to overlook skills which we do not value in others. As I often say, whatever you do, when you do not get that expected promotion, do not vent to your coworkers. Trust me, they are taking that back to the decision makers to promote their own careers. MyBlankJob is a great place to take your frustration. It is also a great place to find career counseling resources, to help identify your blind spots in assessing your attributes and the attributes of others – Respite From Your Job, Resources For a New Career | My Blank Job.