ALT-4 Understanding Corporate Culture why you Feel Stuck
Do you think that you are entitled to a great raise and a great review at your company? Do you feel that you are not appreciated at your company because you work so hard and so many hours and no one acknowledges you? If your answer is yes, then you are probably stuck in your career and frustrated. But it doesn't have to be this way.
The reason you are frustrated is that, you're wrong. Sorry, I am sure you have been told this before, but maybe coming from a complete stranger will make it truly sink in. Remember, I have no say in your future and I really don't care what happens to you. So here is my honest objective reason why: you think you are entitled to all of these things, but you are not. You are not entitled to a great raise or review regardless if you think you are working very hard for it. What you are entitled to is fair treatment, and a safe work environment as defined by the employment laws in your state. You are expected to work for your company in order to get paid for the work you do. To get a head in your career is not an entitlement you don't automatically get ahead; you don't get that great raise or promotion just because you show up every day and do your job. You get all those great things by knowing the rules of the game, understanding your company's culture and learning what the company needs to grow. If they grow you grow, if they succeed you succeed.
Think about the difference between entitlements vs. expectation. An entitlement mentality is evil. Thoughts like, "I deserve this" and "They don't understand how much I do" will never help you to get ahead and worse they could be your down fall. If you can break that entitlement mentality you will be happier day to day without changing anything else.
Do you want to move head in your career and get promoted? Excellent! Great! First, stop thinking that you deserve it (even if you do) and start working on earning it, every day until you get it. Figure out what your company wants and needs and fill that gap. Then they will notice and you can advance.
Learn your company's culture and learn it well. What are criteria they use to judge your annual performance? What is the language that they use to describe what is expected vs. what is excellent? Do they care about how you behave or how you treat your colleges? Do they value work life balance or do they always want you to be at the office? Figure out what is considered acceptable behavior and what is exemplary behavior and start mimicking the exemplary behavior in those that are getting ahead or are already doing well, as perceived by their management team. Once you have learned about the culture, assess whether or not you agree with it and feel that your own personal values will allow you to succeed playing by these rules. If not, you need to leave, don't waste your time trying to excel in an environment that doesn't meet your own personal standards.
The reason that I use the word culture instead of rules or guidelines is that rules and guidelines are written. At some very good companies they even put their culture or what they would like the culture to be into words. But culture is how people work together and how they define success and failure, how they define excellence and mediocre and how they define if you are one of "us" or not. So you have to know the written and unwritten culture of a company and decided if you want to be part of it and then figure out how to succeed there.
Determine if your management, the folks that give you promotions, are living that culture or are they driving against it. You want to be aligned with the people that are working with the culture of the company. If you are working for management that is "doing there own thing" they will not be open to you working with in the company's culture and if you choose to side with this manager than you will alienate yourself from the rest of the company. My suggestion is to find a new person to work for at this point. You will go no where working for someone like this. If this person is working for someone who IS in sync with the culture you can choose to ride it out because the chances are good that they will be gone soon. Learn about your boss's boss. If they are not inline with the company's culture then it's a hopeless place for you to be.
Once you know the culture and who the players are you need a game plan on how you are going to change to succeed in this environment. This may mean that you have to take more classes and learn more about different parts of your job that you thought were useless. It also means that you may have to work FEWER hours or not work such a long day but still get your job done. It may also mean that you have to ask for help more or work with others better. Don't close your mind to change and always be flexible.
Remember those people whose behaviors and actions you're learning to follow? Dress like them too. People judge other people within the first 30 seconds of when they meet them. And that initial perception is very difficult to change once it has been made, almost impossible if you confirm that perception with your actions and words. This can work for you or against you. If you dress the part, you will be perceived as being worthy of the part.
The last thing is to remember is to adapt to the world around you and not expect to be accepted as you are if you want to be successful in any environment. You have to adapt and change constantly to that environment; you have to play by their rules. The great thing is that you have choices, you always have choices. You can choose to change, you can choose to move and grow. You can become successful, get to the top and then change the rules for everyone else. You can start your own company and create all the rules yourself and then be whom ever you want to be. You are in control and you can do anything you want to do.
You can choose to take this advice to heart or you can choose to ignore it. If you ignore it you can stay miserable and unhappy and wonder why nothing good ever comes to you.
The choice is yours, no one else's, just yours. Choose well.
