Getting noticed by management

Dear Bob …

I’m hoping you can tell me, from management’s perspective, what I’m doing wrong.

When I leave a job (which is happening too frequently for my tastes, lately,) I notice two things happening:

The people downstream (meaning folks who benefit from my work, not people who report to me,) become upset when I tell them I’m leaving, though they wish me well.  When I call them back some time after I’ve been gone, they’re frantic because either no one is helping them, or the help is not to their satisfaction.  The fact that they feel loss when I leave tells me that I’ve done my job well.

Management’s response, however, is different.  Though they wish me well, they don’t seem to care that I’m leaving.  One company didn’t take me up on my offer to train my replacement.  (I was concerned the ball would be dropped when I left, and I found out months later that I was right.)

I suspect that the problem is that I don’t “blow my own horn,” which is something I’ve never been good at doing.  The people who benefit from my work know exactly what I’m doing, because they’re on the receiving end.  But management might not know what I’m up to.  All they know is that their phone doesn’t ring, and they might not realize why.

Am I on the right track?  How do I solve this problem?  And how do I keep management up to date on what I’m doing without wasting their time on what is (to me, at least,) obvious?

– Mr. Invisible

Dear Mr. Invisible

You aren’t giving me much to go on. Heck, I don’t even know what kind of work you do. But I’ll give it a try.

From your phrasing, I infer you’re a contractor rather than an employee. That, and your retiscence to “blow your own horn” are suggestive.

Here’s my guess: When you sign a contract you leave out the part about governance – about making it clear who it is who has the authority to declare your work successful. Whoever that individual is, he or she is your sole customer. The folks downstream are “consumers” – they make use of what you do. The company as a whole is the “wallet” – it provides the money.

Customers are the people who make the buying decision about your services. It appears you’re ignoring yours.

From here on in, define governance in your contracts – a regular meeting with the individual who has the authority to decide whether your work is satisfactory, and to whom you are supposed to raise issues for resolution that are beyond your authority to decide. Provide a written status report and walk your customer through it – not because you’re blowing your own horn, but because your customer has a right to understand what it is that you’re doing, what decisions you’re making, and what value you’re providing in exchange for deciding to engage your services and pay you for them.

Business is about relationships. You’re doing an outstanding job of building them with everyone except the one individual in each client company who is the most important to your success: Your customer.

– Bob