Avoid the glass roof

Have you ever heard of the glass roof? A lot of mid-level managers with ambitions know what it is, a lot of hard-working engineers know what it is - and it seems inpenetrable. It is the invisible obstacle that stops you from climbing the career ladder within your organization.

Do you have ambitions to climb to the top, or at least to higher altitudes? Most organizations are somewhat hierarchical; only so many positions are available at the top and the number of broilers trying to climb is large... How can you avoid bumping your head against the glass ceiling?

As always - it boils down to strategic thinking. First of all, you need a career vision, a goal. You need to know where you want to end up, why you really want that, and what you are willing to pay to get there (in whatever currency is relevant; time, money, work, lost friends, whatever..). Then, when you know, identify all necessary career steps to get there and make a realistic plan to get there. Identify locations of possible obstacles. Typically, getting from mid-level management to top-level is hard and time consuming. When your plan is clear cut, start implementing it and monitoring progress. With fixed time intervals, ask yourself survey questions such as:

• Am I at the level I planned to be at the current time?
• How did I get here: according to plan, or did something else happen?
• Are the obstacles still the same?
  
• How can I go around or avoid obstacles?

And also, finally, the most difficult question:

• Is my goal at all reachable at an acceptable cost from my current standing?

If the answer to this question is "No" - you need to rethink your strategy. You can stay where you are and be happy with it, or change the situation such that you have a feasible goal. One possible answer would be to switch to another company - or start your own.

If keeping focus is hard - you may resort to tracking numbers. Create your own performance indicators and savor those informal reviews from your subordinates as well as your managers. Always be self-promoting, but also easy going. Get the point? Good luck!

Keeping focus - happiness on vacation

Germans are known to be focused and "zielgerichtet". This may very well be true for building cars and exporting chemicals, but they seem to loose focus when travelling, according to Germany's largest newspaper, Bild.de (article, in German). Germans are, according to Bild, the people who complain the most and let themselves be more annoyed than anyone else by small setups during flights. This seems to me as evidence that the most goal-focused people I know of, tend to forget the true goal when travelling - focusing on destination, your next business meeting, the upcoming vacation, or maybe the beer the stewardess is bringing in a second. Staying focus on what is really important allows you to not care about small things happening. Being annoyed over something that you can't change is only going to hurt yourself. So, as an advice to disgruntled German flyers; set a personal goal for your next flight, use measurements (at least mental ones) to montor progress and when the flight is over, ask yourself: are you happy? Was it a nice trip? I bet it was. Gute Reise, Leute!

Personal finance for today's objectives

As I mentioned in my previous post on personal finances, there is the long-term strategy and there is the short-term strategy. Normally, the long-term takes priority and then one has to adapt the short-term. However, saving for retirement should not make everyday life infeasible. So, if you have to put away 1000 $ /month, do you have enough to live your life in a way that is good for you? If you are broke all the time 'cause you want to be a rich old person some day in the future, you might not live to see that day. Broke people are often unhappy. Unhappy people have shorter lives. Therefore, don't make a long-term plan that limits your life today severely.

I am sure you have stuff you wanna buy tomorrow and you like going out. You should set up a plant that takes that into account. Say you have a long-term plan. If you are short on cash in your everyday life because of this, you have to think. What are the options?

• Get a new job that's better paid?
• Cut some expenses?
• Change the savings plan?

I'd postpone the savings plan until I have figured out what to do, at least partially. If my job today isn't cutting it, and if I don't have any other extremely good reasons to stay, I will look for another job. I put priority on this. At the same time, I'd look for expenses to cut.. Can I find a cheaper grocery store? Save on gas? Electricity? Stuff like that. Then, if this fails (both job and expense cutting): change the savings plan (and get more agressive at saving when you have the better-paid job)!