(Don't) Stick To The Status Quo

This afternoon, I had the honor of escorting my older daughter to a local live performance of Disney's High School Musical at the Des Moines Playhouse.  While "teen bop" generally is not my preferred genre, let alone sitting in a theatre with hundreds of screaming children, the performance overall was well done.  Of course, any time spent with either of my daughters is a great investment regardless of the activity.

The plot of High School Musical is simple.  One of the basketball players and one of the "brainiacs" fall for each other, and they both try to break out of their stereotypical cliques by landing leading roles in their high school musical (hence, the name).  In their quest, they must deal with the basketball team, the other brainiacs, and the theater prima donas... none of whom are too happy about the change in roles.  One of the songs that caught my attention was called "Stick to the Status Quo."  The first half of the song was about suppressing the desires of kids to branch out into interests beyond their "assigned clique"; the remainder of the song was encouraging them to break out and try new things.

We may snicker at the concept of high school cliques, but I see a lot of people who are pigeon-holed in their careers.  Sometimes the labels are warranted from prolonged poor performance issues, but just as often they are simply unfair.  Heck, even I "fall victim" to the labels.  Being a part-time college professor, there are those who have used it as my primary professional label... those who have worked with me know I'm much more practitioner than theorist any day.

So, what can you do if you find yourself being pigeon-holed by others, thus stalling out your career?  Here are a few simple tips:

1. Figure out what you have done (or are doing) to fuel the perceptions.  This may take some honest but painful self assessment, but in the long run, it could benefit you.  If everyone else is perplexed about why you are not being promoted, and there's only one spiteful petty supervisor telling you that "you're just not promotion material" then there's cause for genuine concern on your part.
2. Take ownership of the perceptions.  You need to be aware of (and to own) the buzz that's being said about you.  If you want to be promoted to the next level, start acting like the next level.  Pursue assignments that they are working on.  Dress like them.  Act like them.  Hire a personal coach to help you get past any annoying habits or mannerisms.
3. Cultivate some outside interests/relationships.  I see too many people put complete stock into their jobs and careers and the perceptions held of them at these places... to the point of being unhealthy.  If your career is the only place in your life where you are not respected, consider yourself lucky.  You probably have other relationships that are far more valuable than work.
4. Move along, little doggie.  Sometimes, the perception of you may be buried deep in culture of your team or department... whether it is right or wrong.  You may need to come to terms with when it is time to move on, far away from the current set of players.

Those are just a few ideas.  What have you done to overcome negative perceptions and pigeon-holing in the past?  After all, "we're all in this together."

Comments

[April Groves]

Awesome! My favorite part is that all your tips focused on personal choice and what we can do the create change.

[Timothy Johnson]

Hi April - thanks for joining the conversation. Personal choice (as you've shown in your blog) are a key aspect of life. It's SO critical to maintain personal ownership of the things we actually can control.