Submitted by munson5282 on
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I work at a large company where most people have the same basic position and of course there are managers and assistant managers. There is a "senior" version of the position I am in which requires more effort and skill, teamwork, is another step towards management, and the compensation is higher.
I have been with the company for 3 years and have excelled at numerous things, for which I have gotten awards and recognition for from former and my current manager.
The position I'm interested in is still under the same management and with the same group of employees. One of my colleagues currently hold the senior position that I am interested in. His qualifications are that he has been with the company for 5 years and with our current manager for 3 years and his basic sales numbers.
I feel that I am more qualified because the position focuses heavily on teamwork and getting others to perform better. People turn to me for help daily, including my managers. They know that I am reliable and can be counted on to do basically whatever they ask and perform the task quickly and get the job done. The person that currently holds the position is selfish and does not readily help others; he asks for help from almost everyone and turns to me first for help. He does not do things that do not directly benefit him. He will avoid and stick others with difficult situations so he can focus on easy tasks.
I do not know how much of these things my manager is directly aware of, but he is smart so I assume he knows. He makes comments under his breath insinuating as much. But as long as this person is successful my manager is, so why would he ruin a good thing?
How do I ask for his position? How do I bring it up to my manager? And how do I ask for his position without directly bashing the other employee? Frankly I do not like him, but obviously I want to keep it professional and focus on my strengths and my qualifications. I feel that if I focus on my strengths, I need to counter them with his shortcomings- how do I avoid this, or is it necessary to avoid this? Should I highlight his shortcomings?
Thanks
Keep proving your value
Keep proving your value every day. Find ways to improve your results, increase your knowledge and continue to help others excel. Your manager is aware of your abilities if he's as good as you say he is.
You might consider having a frank discussion where you ask him to describe the things you do well, the things you need to work on, and any fatal flaws. There's a podcast for that at http://www.manager-tools.com/2012/07/self-development-informal-360. You can learn a lot from having that talk with your boss and being open to the answers.
The key is to really pay attention to what they're saying, even if it's uncomfortable for you. At a minimum, it will let him know you are serious about improving your performance (from his where he stands) and, therefore, advancing your career.
If your boss is open enough to truthfully answer the questions and you're open enough to accept the answers as they're given, you will probably be in pretty good shape. Have your pen and notebook ready when you ask the questions so you don't miss anything.
Act on what he tells you, and he won't be "ruining a good thing" when you demonstrate that you can make the team more successful than the incumbent can. Prove to him that you are more valuable to him in that role.
I wish you the best!
Steve
DiSC 7114
Be careful and CLEAR about your motivations here ...
This might just be echoes from a past bad experience of mine: I perceive some possible problematic motivation.
You say you want a colleague's "position", and follow up with negatives about him and positives about you. Be honest with yourself here: do you just want something he has, and do you want it at his expense?
If it's just you want to fulfill the type of work his position fulfills, with the corresponding pay bump, talk with your manager. I suspect you'll need to meet the "capable of 100% of your current role, 50% of the new role" rule-of-thumb for promotions. There's at least three conversations here: making sure you're considered 100% of your current role, and making sure you understand what you need to be promotable to the new role, and getting that promotion.
Likewise, if his better position gives him some benefit you lack but want (eg more pay, better parking spot, more contact outside the team), work out with your manager how to get more of that benefit without going through more effort than you have to.
If he and you both can serve this role in the same team, you don't even have to refer to what he's doing -- just continue to improve and get the good results you're giving so far. If it's a "billet" (military term, Mike/Mark/veterans/service-personnel please correct me if I err in usage), then he'll need to step out of the slot for you to step up into it -- so he'd need to move to free up that spot for you on this team.
Here's where the second half of my second-paragraph question comes in. If you want it *at his expense*, you are swimming into dark waters. Little good for you lies that way, long-term, for the organization currently prefers the other guy in the role in question, and both the organization and you are better served with you knowing how to behave (and motivate yourself) ethically and in the interests of the organization. Doubly so if you "want to put him in his place" (lower than you) by supplanting him.
There's plenty of ethical ways to deal with "road-blocks". If he's in the billet you want to fill, help your manager find him somewhere to step up/aside to. If he doesn't want to move, for whatever reason, well that's the lay of the land for now, and you go step into that next billet/role yourself. Or find another team with an open position, and step in there -- yes, it'd change managers. Or go to a different company and step into their equivalent role. Or just intentionally choose to let the situation be for some period of time before reassessing for constructive action.
Just don't let unethical motives taint your efforts and progress. What you sow, you reap.
-- Joseph (DiSC: 4247)
Put "His" Position out of your mind
I would suggest you completely ignore the performance (or lack of) the current position in the role. Your control over it is nearly 0. It sounds as if you want the company to dump the person who has the role now and put you in that position. If others perceive it as such it may be a career limiting move.
If this person is higher than you on the org chart, you may not have a clear picture of the factors that contribute to your perception of this person's "Poor performance". Maybe they have to deal with person x who is terrible to work for or with. Maybe his boss and others higher in the orgare giving conflicting priority to him. Remember, every rank higher in the food chain has more information than the one below it.
Just to be clear, your comments and perceptions about the person in the role now may be nearly 100% correct. In summary, I just want to point out that bashing the person in the current role either out loud or in your mind is NOT effective in any way. Lastly, it is possible (though unlikely) there are reasons for his "Poor" performance that you don't see. As others have mentioned in great detail, focus on being ready for the role instead.
Its Really Great that you
Its Really Great that you helping everybody in the company including managers and employees turn to you for help, I suggest you that you keep doing what you are doing by neglecting all the others factors because as I think that this will surely help you get in the eyes of management and one day you would be rewarded the managers position ,But asking yourself for that position would not be good ,As that would change your impression completely in front of management.
As you may sound with an impression of being fake of whatever work you did for that managers position ,So I suggest that you better wait let the right time come and you would be definitely rewarded.