Today's high performers are all but losing their career mobility due to a few highly unexpected factors.  It's hard to believe a high performer could hit a 'mobility roadblock,' but it is occurring more and more.  In fact, it is occurring so often, it has become an easily identifiable evolutionary process.  Here's how it goes. 

They graduate from college.  With intense motivation and their degree in hand, they enter the workforce.  They get a fairly good starting pay.  Maybe not all they want but they can make that up later.  On the job, they begin to learn all they can.  They make themselves the local expert that everyone needs.  They tackle big issues and seek out big responsibility, all within 6 months to one year in the job.  Their great accomplishments usher in the birth of the next big pay increase or promotion (or so they think).  Well, they may not get the money, but they do get a little peer recognition.  This will fuel their drive to be successful further down the road.  

With little upper level management recognition for their efforts, they begin to question whether or not they have the right skills to move up in management.  So, they expend time and effort to get those skills.  Maybe they get an advanced degree, like a MBA, or some other certifications.  This should definitely create a buffett of opportunity to be spread before them.  They now have an advanced degree, have worked long hours, and accomplished great personal feats.  These achievements will surely set them center stage.  Awards, recognition and praise will fall like rain upon them.  Yet, the next performance appraisal identifies none of these great things.

They've accomplished everything other people said were important to move up in the organization.  For that matter, they have the credentials to move up in any company.  So, they move to another company in hopes of reaching their brass ring.  They are smarter now so the game will be much different this time.  They breeze through the interview and get everything they ask for.  Just a few months after starting the new job, the company changes.  Maybe it's a reorganization, buyout, layoff....who knows.  The great opportunities have now diminished.  So, now they sit with a bigger job title, a good college education, experience and a great set of skills but....they are back in the same situation as before.  No amount of hard work, demonstration of excellence and mastery of skills, or quantity of degrees can seem to move this stationary object; that is, their career.  Why, oh why, is it so difficult to fly?  Why do we strap the plow to a race horse?

The prognosis is simple.  Management isn't really watching.  Henri Mintzberg (Harvard Business Review, March-April 1990) has shown us that management has a tendency to focus on their career, not yours.  Great accomplishments aren't rewarded because nobody knows about them.  You can't solve difficult problems if no one knows you have the ability to.  Managing your career has more to do with managing how others see you (and making sure they really see you). 

The best way to do that is to use the "Blitz Approach."  It's an innovative team-based approach to getting where you want to be.  It's a form of global, subliminal marketing. You create a team of high achievers.  Your team manages your career and you manage theirs.  The team forms mutually rewarding goals in career plan for each member.  Then, they work together to achieve the defined activities.  Once an activity is completed, the team communicates the achievement throughout the organization and up the corporate ladder. 

The team-based approach ensures individuals overcome the many obstacles that face individuals in an organization, such as office politics, tasks beyond their skills, lack of influence on key managers and much more.  The team work diligently to manage the perception of its team members so that negative reputations never develop and likability of the team members is constantly reinforced.  

Too often we try to compete on an individual scale.  It's much better to increase your odds of winning by using your TEAM to compete against the other individuals.  By using the efforts of your team, you can easily identify and overcome the obstacles you would normally face alone.  Creating strategy, defining achievable goals, building new skills, and getting rid of old habits no longer become difficult.  Your team is your peer group.  They advise you, support you and motivate you to become your best. 

Your journey on the road to success begins with the three keys of the Blitz Approach; that is, managing perception, developing a real strategy and building a team.

The first key is the mastery of perception, or an advanced form of tooting your own horn.  Too many employees rely on their reputation to be the prime mover for their success in the company.  More than ever, employees work hard and accomplish great things but act as if someone in a position of authority will notice them and automatically record their performance in the company’s notebook of outstanding performers.  After enough points have been earned, the company will reciprocate with a raise, promotion or other recognition for their exceptional contributions.

Organizational leaders are busy trying to understand how to respond to market and industry dynamics, so they don’t effectively measure an employee’s value, if at all.  These responsibilities fall on the employee.  If you want upper level managers to know that you are doing great things and they should keep you by their side, YOU have to communicate that value to them.  Defining the value you should communicate is accomplished by highlighting those characteristics the managers deem important, which can be found through observation.  If you combine this key with a team-based approach, you can add considerable horsepower to your reputation.

The second key to increased success is the creation of a strategy map.  While the future is an unknown to all of us, it’s useful to have an idea where you want to go.  Most of us don’t travel to a strange city without a map, general directions or a GPS, unless you don’t mind being lost.  The life of your career in any organization is no different.  One day opportunity is here, the next day it’s gone.  By charting your desired course, you identify the potential twists and turns, roadblocks and speed bumps on the road to your ultimate goal.  Many times these are new skills that you need to develop, influential people that you should network with or worthy individuals on your team.  Getting it down on paper locks it into your subconscious, which will always be on the alert for any opportunities that get you closer to your goals.

The third key is teamwork.  It is approaching your career from a team perspective; that is, I help you and you help me.  Most of us feel that it is our own efforts that get us recognized and rewarded.  That’s assuming someone sees them.  However, consider the impressions you could make if you had a team of individuals paving the way to your advancement and the marketing of YOU.  Imagine having others help you identify the obstacles, accomplish tasks, build new skills and identify the impressions managers hold of you.  This information would certainly add detail to your career map.  It’s frustrating to spend a lot of time and effort trying to impress a manager that doesn’t know you or you have little interaction with.  This is where the team benefits really pay off.  You’ll gain access to their network and perspectives on your career development that could save a lot of energy.  For those in the highly political arena, your team will serve as a force against unfair practices that unfortunately thrive in these organizations.

While each key is useful, in and of itself, it’s the combination that will open the doors of opportunity.  A team-based approach provides sufficient direction and motivation to get you to your desired destination. As your team engages in regular meetings, you will optimize your approach by adding more detail to your map and reducing resistance to your efforts by improving how others see you.  Then, as you gain success, your team will increase synergy and grow in efficiency and effectiveness.  Improvements made to any key will improve the other keys, resulting in a self-sustaining, self-motivating path to getting what you want from your career.