Assignments that are unusual, seen by senior people, and tied to the company's most pressing problem raise a manager's standing, so later proposals get a hearing.
An example
Inventory write-downs had wiped out a year of earnings growth at a sporting goods retailer, the chief executive announced, and every function was asked for ideas. Most sent slides. A supply chain manager in the planning group volunteered for the task force reviewing the forty worst-performing categories, an assignment her peers avoided because it meant reporting to the chief executive's staff meeting every two weeks. She spent four months in the data and on store visits. Her analysis showed that most of the excess came from three categories ordered on a forecast model nobody had recalibrated in three years. The fix she proposed cut the write-downs by a third the following season. A year later, when she proposed a new allocation system, the chief executive put it on the next board agenda.
Why it works
The decision-makers now know the manager and associate them with solving the problem the company cares about most, so the manager's later proposals look better. Power in organizations comes partly from work that is unusual, seen by the people who matter, and tied to what they are worried about. Routine work, however good, earns little of it. Standing built that way carries over to later proposals, which get a hearing they would not otherwise get. The assignment has to be truly central, the work has to be delivered, and the right people have to see it.
The thinking behind it
Rosabeth Moss Kanter Power Failure in Management Circuits (1979) treats power as the capacity to get things done and locates it in position and access to resources, information, and support. Positions that carry discretion, recognition, and relevance to central tasks confer power, as do connections with superiors and peers, while routine jobs leave people relatively powerless. A task force reporting to the chief executive's staff meeting on the company's worst problem offers all three, which routine planning work did not.
When it fits
Work outside your routine, tied to a pressing problem leadership is focused on, is the opening, and it suits people whose routine work is solid but unseen. It needs the willingness to take risk, since visible work can fail visibly, the skill to deliver, and a moment when the problem is live.
How to use it well
Find the problem leadership is most worried about now, by listening to what the chief executive talks about and what the board asks.
- Volunteer for the assignment attached to it, especially if others are avoiding it.
- Deliver something concrete, with numbers, to the people who asked.
- Make the work visible through the proper channel, a presentation, a report, a briefing, and let the results carry it.
- Draw on the standing later, for a proposal of your own that ties to the same priorities.
Choose assignments where you can contribute something specific. Visibility on a problem you cannot help solve does your standing more harm than staying out of sight.
What it costs and where it backfires
Visible work fails visibly, and a public stumble on the company's biggest problem costs more than a private one. Extra work can strain your regular responsibilities, and peers may see you as a self-promoter. Real work on a real problem, visible because it matters, is the honest version. Once visibility is sought by claiming results others produced, or by inflating the problem so the fix looks bigger, standing turns into exposure.
When it is used on you
Visible work on the company's main problem gives a colleague's proposals a lift, and the way to compete is on substance: find the problems that matter and contribute to them. If credit for a team's work is going only to the person presenting it, ask that the contributors be named in the report.