Stuck Stories: Promotion Needed!
Megan’s story
Megan was desperate. Only six months remained. If she didn’t get promoted by then she would be fired. That was the policy at her company, move up or get out.
Things were going great just two months before. She was leading a big project, which meant she would get promoted, which meant she could finally stop being so anxious about the deadline.
Then everything changed. Her manager asked to speak to her. “Megan, I’m really sorry, but due to shifting priorities, your project has been put on hold. Don’t worry! I’ll find you a new project. For now I’d appreciate it if you could help out on Project X, which is really important and is falling behind.”
Now it was two months later and nothing had changed. Her manager was still promising to find a new project and she was still helping out on Project X. She was stuck. She could see the end now. She was going to lose her job and there was nothing she could do about it. She was a tiny, helpless cog in an uncaring machine. And it was going to spit her out very soon.
Stuck!
Megan told me about her situation. “It’s all my manager’s fault! I’m going to be punished for their inability to find a project! It’s hopeless. There’s nothing I can do. All I can do is wait.”
I call this being stuck. It’s the state of feeling absolutely helpless. Where there’s nothing you can do except watch as you slowly lose your job, day by day. We’ve all been stuck before. It’s frustrating and depressing, and it totally sucks.
The good news is that there are ways to get unstuck. I’m starting Stuck Stories because I hope to inspire everyone who is stuck to find a way forward.
Technique: Challenge your assumptions
When we are stuck, we’ve concluded that we know what is going to happen: something bad. How did we come to this conclusion? It’s based on a series of assumptions that we’ve made about the situation and what will happen. One technique I have for getting unstuck is to examine these assumptions and challenge them. Often I find my assumptions are actually my fears disguised as “facts”. In fact, the word assumption is defined as “a thing that is accepted as true or as certain to happen, without proof” When I become a skeptic and challenge these assumptions, I find that they fall apart quite easily!
Megan’s Assumptions
Based on Megan’s description of her fate, we identified the assumptions she was making:
The current project is a dead end
She needs to wait for her manager to find a promotable project for her to lead
There’s nothing she can do but watch helplessly as she loses her job
Then I started to question them starting with the last one on the list.
Assumption 1: There’s nothing she can do but watch helplessly as she loses her job
Me: “You have to wait until you lose your job? There’s nothing to do before that? Can you at least prepare for it?”
Megan: “That’s a good point. I can definitely prepare and practice interviewing. In fact, now that I think about it, there’s a whole process that happens before I get fired that takes months... that would give me almost a year. I could almost certainly interview and get a job before that. Then instead of getting fired, I would be joining a new company!”
Assumption 2: She needs to wait for her manager to find a promotable project for her to lead
Me: “Does it have to be your manager? Can you get projects elsewhere?”
Megan: “It doesn’t have to be my manager. Maybe I can talk to other managers or engineers and get more exposure to other projects.”
Assumption 3: The current project is a dead end
Me: “Is this really a dead end for getting promoted? Isn’t it supposed to be ‘really important’?”
Megan: “Yes, it is important, but Project X already has a lead engineer. The work I’m doing is fragmented, I’m just picking up any area they don’t have time to work on. To get promoted I need to actually lead something. There is plenty of work though and in fact the project is at risk of not being completed in time! I wonder... hmm, I just thought of an idea. There’s a different way we can split up the project so that we can both lead parts of it. And it would actually be more efficient than what we’re doing now!”
Multiple outcomes
Megan enthusiastically agreed that she didn’t have to get fired! We realized there were multiple outcomes to her situation.
First, she decided to sketch out her proposal for Project X and discuss it with her manager and the lead engineer. The engineer was quite overwhelmed and happy to offload a larger portion. Her manager was also grateful as the project had originally looked like it wasn’t going to be completed in time. In the end, Megan got the project and the promotion she wanted!
Megan didn’t stop there. She started setting up regular chats with managers and engineers and kept a running list of possible projects. She would never again be in the position of waiting for a project. Even if her project ended abruptly, she would always have a backup plan. She also decided to study interview questions and do practice interviews once a year to stay sharp. If she ever needed to find another job she was ready.
You can be Megan too!
Megan started out a helpless victim of the forces around her. She challenged this mindset and came out of it stronger and more prepared for the future no matter what happens.
What are the problems you are stuck on? Don’t accept your fate. Try challenging your assumptions. There is always a way forward.
Have a story to share?
I love to hear stories of people getting unstuck! If you have a story you’d like to share or if you are currently stuck and need help, feel free to reach out to me at me@winwinjeff.com.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Jennifer Lin, Chris Wong, Philippe Izedian, Leo Ariel, Yao Cheng, and Sharon Kam for reading my drafts and giving me feedback!