Positioning Oneself for Promotion

The struggle to find a title for this article lead me to reflect on why particular words were causing me angst. So, why did I settle on this title and what was so problematic?

Positioning – this term seems to evoke many negative reactions. A quick scan of the Microsoft Word meanings perhaps explains some discomfort with the term. Positioning can be seen as strategically placing oneself in an advantageous position for battle, or to win a race or contest. This attitude to seeking promotion makes many people uncomfortable. And yet the language of leadership aspirants when discussing or reflecting on the selection process is riddled with terms referring to contests, competition and game-play. Aspirants consistently refer to ‘winning’, ‘losing’, ‘players’, other aspirants are ‘the competition’. They even have supporters, including coaches. Family members might even barrack for them. This attitude towards promotion sits uncomfortably with a mindset that sees a career as a vocation.

A more useful view of positioning is to see it as being strategic about achieving career goals. That is, knowing what you want and enacting a plan to achieve that goal.

Staff considering taking more senior leadership roles need to engage in activities and reflections at two levels. At a personal level they need to question what they want to do, that is defining (or refining) ambitions. Having defined this they must ask themselves if they have what it takes to do that job. Leadership aspirants frequently complete this part of the process.

It is the second aspect of the positioning process that is less frequently achieved. Aspirants need to follow-through by ascertaining what they need to do to gain this position or role and who they need to convince that they have what it takes (Gronn and Lacey 2004).

What do I want?

Throughout the last six years when I have been intensively involved in both researching teachers’ career goals and providing a level of career counselling to other members of staff, I have come across only a handful of people who have the long term career goal firmly in their mind. Some people, and I very much include myself in this group, have a bit of an idea of what they would like to be doing over the next three to five years. Many others, as the quote below illustrates, enjoy their current role and only think of changing roles when this position is either no longer available or a more appealing role is presented to them.

I have found that throughout my career interesting positions and opportunities have landed in front of me and I have gone mm, … that would be fun, I’ll apply for that. There are all these interesting things. And every time I do something different other people, not me, other people say that will be good on your CV. And I go, Oh, I suppose it would and then just move on. Other people seem to want to structure my career much more than I do… other people send me in my life direction. ¹

Many people do not consider applying for, or aspiring to a senior leadership role, for example in a school such as an assistant/deputy principal or principal, until someone in a more senior role to themselves suggests it to them.

I really never have bothered with goals or anything but it changed me with being encouraged in the first place to apply for the aspiring program that we did and it is since then that I have thought to myself can I do…. So I do have a clear goal or clear pathway in my mind.

In fact, there is often a workplace culture of not discussing career aspirations. Why the taboo? Finding a safe place to discuss career goals, that dirty word ambition and our feelings as we navigate this process helps aspirants along this sometimes bumpy road. This ‘safe place’ might be colleagues we have met at leadership courses, our own private learning journals, a spouse or other family/friends.

Do I have what it takes?

What indeed, does it take? What are the skills, knowledge, attitudes needed to perform the actual role? Do I have the emotional resilience to survive the process? How do I measure up?

Participating in leadership programs or gaining formal qualifications, shadowing and/or observing leaders, reading, participating in professional learning teams all help aspirants gain an understanding of the requirements of the role. Formal and informal feedback from workplace supervisors, using tools such as 3600 feedback instruments, and participating in professional development programs designed to provide personalised feedback can help to establish strengths and gaps in our own leadership profile.

At this stage it is important for aspirants to be able to visualise themselves in more senior roles. As the aspirants below illustrates in their reflections, this transition phase can be personally challenging.

The week since induction has been quite emotionally charged for me – the challenge of thinking about myself differently or at least of confronting the notion that others see me as different to the way I see myself, has left me feeling ‘all over the place’. … in short, the realisation that I am not a fraud sitting in a leadership program was quite (well, almost) as challenging as the reverse would be.

I have also found out the I will be acting AP (Assistant Principal) for the first time next week, I’m looking forward to it and see it as a bit of a milestone, perhaps a little egotistically I also believe that this is a task that I am ready for.

Both of these aspirants are beginning to see themselves now as legitimately aspiring to these senior roles.

People who are beginning to believe that they do have what it takes and applying for positions are at a very vulnerable stage. Inevitably many will face knock-backs in their first attempts. This stage requires aspirants to exercise emotional resilience through coping with this perceived rejection and ‘hanging in there’.

I think it is hurtful when you don’t get what you want and that unless I set myself some real goals for what I want to achieve I will always opt out. Because I know there will be a lot of pain involved when I don’t get what I want. So I actually do set myself some real goals because I would opt out. That’s part of my personality. And because it would be hurtful and I don’t want to do things that are going to hurt me. And I don’t want to do things that are going to be hard for me. But I know I have to force myself to do it or else I would be in a leading teacher position forever and ever doing what I’m doing forever and a day.

What do I need to do?

As commented on earlier, few people take a proactive role in managing their career progression. More often than not, it is a serendipitous process of luck. Having determined what career goal one has in mind it is useful to determine a plan for achieving this goal. To be the successful candidate you will need to convince the selection panel that you have the requisite skills, knowledge, and attitude. That you have had appropriate experience, and (perhaps most importantly) possess the desired personal qualities for that role in that place at that time.

The career plan identifies gaps and develops strategies to fill them. A strategy that many leadership aspirants find useful is to place themselves on a selection panel.

This week has been really interesting in that I was the staff elected rep to be on the (selection) panel. This was a very worthwhile experience to be able to actually see what the criteria were really asking for. I guess having an extremely motivated and academic minded Prin also helped me learn some of the current “jargon”. I was in a difficult position of having to interview my work partner. This was very awkward and I just made sure I kept a straight face. I valued the chance to be able to reflect on what I have done and see how this fits into the criteria. I now realise that I have a huge gap in the financial area. I am aware of the processes but haven’t got a lot of practical experience.

This particular aspirant was most strategic in thinking through her professional development needs to achieve her career goals. She had moved laterally from primary to secondary sector to gain a broader experience, enrolled in a Masters program, and consistently reflected on her observations of leaders both within and outside her school.

Another aspirant ‘responded to a request for people to be part of a group that interviews graduate students’ describing this as a ‘PD opportunity’.

A significant part of this ‘what do I need to do’ stage is developing and maintaining strong networks. Like ‘positioning’ the term networking seem to have developed negative ‘press’ by some members of the community. To me, networks are my personal connections to people or relationships with colleagues. We need to ensure that we have wide and diverse connections with others in the profession. Who are your professional supporters, significant peers, mentors, coaches and role models? And equally, for whom do we play these roles?

Whom do I need to convince?

The obvious answer to this is the selection panel. The less obvious but more important person to convince in the first place is - yourself. Unless you can see yourself in the role, others are unlikely to.

There are many articles and professional development programs designed to assist aspirants manage the selection interview. I am not going to attempt to replicate that information here. The harsh reality is, however that selection decisions are frequently influenced by prior knowledge of candidates. Get out into your local professional community. Take on leadership roles. Be visible.

And now

Can you answer these key questions of what do I want, do I have what it takes, what do I need and whom do I need to convince? By finding your own answers to these questions you will be better able to position yourself for particular roles to which you aspire, be they leadership within a workplace, beyond your current organization, in your profession and/or in your personal life.

Gronn, P. and Lacey, K. (2004). "Positioning Oneself for Leadership: Feelings of Vulnerability Among Aspirant School Principals." School Leadership and Management 24(4): 405-424.

¹ The quotes throughout this article come from a range of research projects conducted by the author over the last five years with principal-class aspirants.

About the Author

Kathy manages her own consultancy business, Right Angles Consulting Pty Ltd. She has been a consultant in business and education for over nineteen years. Kathy is currently working at Monash University with professor Peter Gronn to extend her PhD findings to include studies of teachers’ leadership aspirations in Tasmania, Queensland and Victoria.