Is this a level playing field?
What level are you in your current role?
Stop and think about that for a moment. Consider the reasons why you are at that level, and if it is the level you believe you should be. What criteria or scoring markers have you used to work this out?
Is experience a major factor? What about skills? Qualifications? Length of service in your organisation?
Now a final question for you to ponder.
How much of where you are today is down to luck? Good breeding? Sexism or pretty much any -ism? Or are you there, simply because you deserve to be.
Levels at work can be both damaging and essential in understanding a person’s ability to move through the ranks. I have been lucky over the past four years, as I am working somewhere, where the intention was to keep the majority of roles on a flat structure. Ideally, to also enhance the T-Shaped nature of every role. We are all Delivery Managers until we step out of our virtual offices and into our engagements.
I know for some that this can be difficult. Progression and growth is all too often seen by the changing nature of the labels we carry around with us. In work I have been a Post-Room Clerk, a Project Officer and a Deputy Chief Information Officer. To name but a few roles I have had.
In life I am a husband, dad, dog wrangler, homeowner, electric car driver – all of which were seen or held as status symbols as I was growing up. Some of which may be out of reach – homeowner – or obsolete – family man – for future generations.
So why do we still look at progression this way?
My current gig sits somewhere between Delivery Manager and Scrum Manager. But my perception is likely to be that of a Senior Leader in a Delivery function. I am happy with that, because it’s about the engagement and the impact I can make, not the label I carry around.
Someone needs something doing. I have the experience of putting this together. I like working with a team at one level, and a leadership structure at the next. It’s a whole package, rather than being stuck making sure numbers match up in excel spreadsheets between two organisations.
Where this could fall down, is if I worked somewhere with levels. I am not a scrum manager. Those are not my core skills. I am an experienced Delivery Lead and Portfolio Manager. The Head of a Department, even. Hands off is good with me, as such, a company might expect me to do a particular, senior role if they are paying me the wage associated with my experience.
But what if – someone who was acting in a more senior role, in another engagement, suddenly got compared against me. How would they feel if a level system came in and they were all of a sudden “demoted”? We’d taken a chance on them with one supplier (they knew the systems and process better than anyone) but that was all changing now they are working with another partner?
A good company doesn’t let this happen. They look across their teams and ensure they have the right person for each engagement, and it doesn’t matter what level they were at. Thankfully, I work for a good company. Others in the same place, may disagree.
However, that could all change. And it got me thinking that – against a backdrop of discussions around organisations dropping Diversity, Equality and Inclusion policies in the workplace – levels are always there to be used to stop more people progressing, than they are to encourage growth.
If your face fits, you go up a level or two. Getting “found out” too late for it to make a difference. If your face doesn’t fit, and I don’t need to spell out what that means, then certain rooms and toilets will always be, just out of reach.
Companies lose good people this way. They always have.
Now go back to the original question – what level are you and why?
Think of all the factors you can to determine why someone might see you at a level, a pay grade or a rank – then ask yourself honestly, was it all me?
If it wasn’t, tell me - how are you going to work with others around you to make sure they have the chance to reach your level – to say it was because of them?
Or if you feel you should be higher and you haven’t been given the chance - who are you going to work with to change this?
The real point of being at a higher level is to make sure others have the chance to match or even surpass you. This only works if we remember this, no matter how hard it was for us to get there.
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