Managers put up walls for you to break through

  • 0 min read

One tactic I find commonly used in the workplace by the most experienced managers is to set up scenarios where their subordinates are tested.  Managers who have high confidence in certain individuals, or are who are wondering what workload they can handle will use this tactic, especially if pressure has been applied to them from above.  I call this concept “the wall”, just like any other wall that is a challenge to pick through or get around, in management the wall is a test to see if individuals have what it takes to break through it.

These walls are obstacles and opportunities for you in the workplace and are the only way you can truly learn and “break on through to the otherside” or be promoted.  People are promoted because the scope of their jobs and responsibilities have expanded and they have been able to handle it.  In order to do this, you must not only work harder, work smarter, but be strategic in how you handle your new responsibilities.

What this means for your Personal Brand:

  1.  A promotion is an increase in your total perceived value
  2. When you are pushed down and pressure is applied, you learn more and knowledge is power
  3. Your boss will have more confidence in you, causing your credibility to increase
  4. You will be given more important projects, which will boost your resume
  5. Opportunities may be created for you to network cross-functionally

Either way, you must seize this opportunity by displaying professionalism, competency and having a positive attitude.  You should want your manager to keep putting up walls, so you get stronger and stronger and your brand thrives in the process!

Picture of Dan Schawbel

Dan Schawbel

Dan Schawbel is the Managing Partner of Millennial Branding, a Gen Y research and consulting firm. He is the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Promote Yourself: The New Rules For Career Success (St. Martin’s Press) and the #1 international bestselling book, Me 2.0: 4 Steps to Building Your Future (Kaplan Publishing), which combined have been translated into 15 languages.

TRENDING AROUND THE WEB

We tend to blame the speeding-up of years on age, but memory researchers point to novelty: a childhood summer felt long because everything in it was new, and new is what the brain records — a repetitive year passes without being filmed

We tend to blame the speeding-up of years on age, but memory researchers point to novelty: a childhood summer felt long because everything in it was new, and new is what the brain records — a repetitive year passes without being filmed

The Vessel
The term for the brain packaging a whole routine into a single automatic unit is chunking, and studies at MIT traced it to the basal ganglia — the deep structure that lets you drive a familiar route while remembering none of it

The term for the brain packaging a whole routine into a single automatic unit is chunking, and studies at MIT traced it to the basal ganglia — the deep structure that lets you drive a familiar route while remembering none of it

The Vessel
The 36 questions supposedly designed to make strangers fall in love came from a study that only set out to measure closeness — and the famous wedding was a single parenthesis

The 36 questions supposedly designed to make strangers fall in love came from a study that only set out to measure closeness — and the famous wedding was a single parenthesis

The Vessel
Writers who reread their own old work and physically cringe aren’t bad judges of their own quality, they’re the only kind of writer who has actually gotten better

Writers who reread their own old work and physically cringe aren’t bad judges of their own quality, they’re the only kind of writer who has actually gotten better

The Blog Herald
The Society of Authors just launched a label that goes on the back of a book jacket reading “Human Authored,” and it runs entirely on an honour code, which means the only thing standing between a reader and the truth is a writer’s word

The Society of Authors just launched a label that goes on the back of a book jacket reading “Human Authored,” and it runs entirely on an honour code, which means the only thing standing between a reader and the truth is a writer’s word

The Blog Herald
A song engineered with a sound therapist to slow your heart rate has been available since 2011 — and almost nobody who talks about anxiety has mentioned it to you

A song engineered with a sound therapist to slow your heart rate has been available since 2011 — and almost nobody who talks about anxiety has mentioned it to you

The Vessel
Load more
CATEGORIES
Explore