Over my 40 year career in the world of business, I have slowly come to learn that you are hired for your technical skills, that is, what you know about your job and how you can perform it; but you are almost always promoted because of how you treat people. I consider this one of the best-kept secrets in corporate America…but you only have to look at your boss to prove just how accurate that fact is….you will be promoted, based on your people skills.
I did not always believe that, in fact, I believed quite the opposite, which many people do. I was hired into my first full-time job because of my education and my experience in retail and foods. I operated a single convenience store, than 5, then 7 and at the end of this position, right before I was promoted, I was in charge of 8 stores. I ran them profitably, franchised all of them and, as a result, was promoted to my “dream” position of Training Manager for around 400 stores in the northeastern portion of the United States. It was during my tenure at this company that began to suspect that my technical skills were not the reason I received that promotion. You see, it is very difficult to tell franchisees to do anything. You must “convince ” them that it is in their best interest to perform certain duties. No amount of technical expertise will ever make them want to do something they really do not want to do. You have to use your “people” skills and abilities. I was just beginning to understand.
In my next series of positions as Training Director for several companies both in retail and other industries, I kept slipping back into the false belief that it was my technical training abilities that would get me promoted. Again, I was wrong and changed positions far too often as I learned this important fact. I vowed to become an astute observer of people and started to notice that the people who were always promoted in those companies were often… no very frequently given more responsibilities, not because of what they knew, but by how well they treated the people who reported to them. I was now “on” to something.
I left those internal training positions and became an external consultant and owner of my very own training and development company. I had to sell my company and myself to people who did not have to attend my training sessions or go along with my recommended training solutions. It was then that I “discovered” the fact that no amount of training skills, abilities or jargon would ever convince a client to buy what I was selling. They had to first see what it would do for them and their company and how they could best use my services….for the least amount of money. My training background got me into the door, but it was my ability to sell and relate to my customers, my “people” skills that would always land me that ‘gig.” I was now completely convinced. It was all about the “people skills.”
Have you ever noticed, that in most organizations, you will find that the higher up in a company you go the nicer the people become? You have to ask yourself,;did they get to the top and then realize they should be nice to others, or is it the other way around? Do you rise to the top because of how you treat people? I vote for the latter statement. You will be promoted because of how well you treat the people you deal with every day. Need another example?
In almost every sales course I have ever attended, somewhere in the workshop, you will be told that the key to getting in to see the person who “signs the checks,” is to be nice to his or her administrative assistant. If you are like me, you almost always will laugh a bit at this statement. If you are young, you are laughing because you think this is a very foolish way to make a sale. If you are older, and hopefully wiser, you are laughing because you remember a time or even many times, when treating an administrative assistant with respect, got you into the door and you met the person who “signed the checks.” It really does work, almost every time. Your sales training worked.
Return to the Bible and you will no doubt remember reading that you should treat others the way you want to be treated yourself. Call it the golden rule as the Bible does, or call it just plain common sense, but the fact of the matter is that people will prefer to deal with people who treat them right and you will be rewarded and promoted based on how well you treat the people you meet every day.
Now you can argue with my belief, you can even defy it if you want to, but ultimately, you must come to believe that you will always be promoted based on your “people” skills. The three worst managers I ever worked for during my career all stood in direct contrast to what I have writing. They all firmly believed that you ran over people on the way to the top, you instilled fear in your subordinates each and every day and that the key to success, as one of those terrible managers once told me one day is that “Managers hate wusses and that you have to trample everyone, every day, to succeed.” She told me this during my performance review, exactly one week before she was escorted from the building by security, never to return. My two other managers, who quite honestly really did not like people, are currently running one person “consulting” firms, unable to find continued employment within an organization. The boss who told me to run over everyone, is currently unemployed and has been on unemployment for almost a year. I suspect she will remain as such for a very long time. Her total lack of even the most minimal people skills has finally come home to roost.
“People “skills can be learned and trained by almost everyone. What cannot be trained, however, is a true and genuine concern for others; you simply cannot “fake” people skills. In the end, if you just do not like people, cannot stand to interact with them every day of your working life, then, sooner or later, you will stop working with people or someone will make that decision for you. It is simply a pillar of corporate life. In the long run, the people who run corporations have a unique and special understanding of how to treat people. They have discovered, as I have also come to understand, that the better you treat people, the better you will be treated yourself…and it is up to you to take the first step. Wait to be treated better and you will find yourself waiting for a very, very long time. Start treating others the way you want to be treated….well, you can start that right now. You see, the choice is all up to you. What are you waiting for?