We will assume you followed Alpha Jag Principle #1. If you did, you should be sitting in your second primary residence with a nice credit score, very low consumer debt, some savings and rental income hitting your bank account every month. Congratulations!
If you didn’t follow Alpha Jag Principle #1 or you think it’s crappy advice … all is not lost. I mean, you stuck around to read the second principle so I’m assuming there is some value received. If that’s the case, we’ll get right to it.
Maximizing income doesn’t mean getting a second job. We don’t want you trading more time for money. That exchange rarely leads to maximizing your income when it comes to success in the corporate world.
At some point, you will hit diminishing returns when you invest more and more of your time for income. You will simply kick into higher tax brackets (meaning a higher percentage of that income is going to Uncle Sam) and you will have less time to invest in growing multiple streams of income.
Alpha Jag Principle #2 is all about positioning yourself for success in your career–whether this means you bloom where you’re currently planted or you find opportunities outside of your current job. How do you do that? It’s about leveraging the resources you have at your disposal to demonstrate the value you deliver to a company and ensuring you are appropriately compensated for that value.
I learned an acronym from a former corporate colleague who rose to high C-suite levels at a Fortune 100 financial services institute: P.I.E. It is the simplest formula I’ve come across that describes how corporate progression happens. P.I.E. stands for Performance. Image. Exposure.
Here’s how it works:
- (P) – Performance: This is table stakes. You MUST be performing on the job in order to have any remote chance at progression. Performance isn’t simply a matter of doing all the things you think you should be doing on the job. It’s a matter of understanding what your direct manager thinks you should be doing and how well they think you are doing it. Understanding where you sit requires open communication and an ability to build a genuine, professional relationship with your direct manager.
When I was a corporate executive, I used to be amazed at the number of people reaching out for advice after performance review time … surprised at their rating. The work to influence your performance review happens long before performance review time. It happens the seconds/minutes/days after you received your performance review from the previous year. Most companies evaluate employees on an annual basis … though some do it quarterly or every half. Independent to what your manager, executives, or peers might say, most companies have an expectation of leaders where employee performance lands on some kind of bell curve. This means, roughly, that most employees will be determined to be “Meeting” expectations and there are expected outliers that “Are Not Meeting” and “Exceeding” expectations in some capacity. You will be told “Meeting Expectations” is actually a great rating.
If you’re okay with just avoiding the career and financial hit of being rated as “Not Meeting”… then “Meeting” expectations is, in fact, a great rating. However, you must be seen as “Exceeding” across multiple performance cycles in order to be in the promotion/progression ballgame. Promotion outliers happen. But they are rare.
- (I) Image: Ahh… the tricky part. If Performance is about WHAT you do. Image is about HOW you do it. More specifically … it is the perception of HOW you do it. You might be legitimately doing all of the things your direct manager asks you to do and much more.
But, if you are perceived to be scorching the Earth to get it done … that’s where the labels come into play. “Not a team player”. “Toxic”. “Difficult to work with”. “Defensive”. Do any of those sound familiar?
The Image dynamic impacts the “in the room” discussions. And trust me … those happen. Company leadership typically has some form of employee calibration sessions to ensure people are being “evaluated consistently”. What your direct manager and her peers say and think about you are critical. And, unless you have the HOW you work part down … and the PERCEPTION of how you work down … you will struggle to gain career traction that leads to increased income.
- (E) Exposure: This is all about WHO is exposed to the IMAGE of how you work. And this part is not transitive … meaning it’s extremely difficult to let your performance speak for itself if you are perceived to be cutthroat or difficult to work with. You might not be. But, if the image you have (think “brand”) is of someone that others don’t want to work with… you could be dead in the water. WIth great performance and a great image of how you work at play … you have a chance to get access to more decision makers. Why? Because you are delivering value with top performance and you are perceived to do so in a way that aligns with corporate values. Trust me: having this as your trademark transcends race, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity or any other historical barrier you can think of. If you can drive value that exceeds your current salary cost by a wide margin … and are perceived to do so as a “team player” … you WILL get more opportunities.
So, let’s say you have this nailed. You should be on your way! It becomes a matter of having honest conversations with your manager and the people that you have gotten exposed to. You will get the real scoop on why the promotion might not be happening when you expect it to happen. It could be that your company has placed a cap on promotions. It could also be a matter of “waiting your turn”. It could also mean that you have to invest time in new relationships that have influence at the decision making table.
Even then, you will be financially rewarded if you have positioned yourself as a person adding value to your company. Besides promotions, there are incentive and retention bonuses, annual and out of cycle raises for performance and other financial factors that medium to large companies have at their disposal to reward employees.
Now, let’s play through the scenario where you were terrible at the P.I.E game and you have burned so many bridges that there is no chance to recover. You have to make the difficult decision to leave for another company if maximizing your income is your goal. Frankly, you should be exploring new opportunities every 3-5 years anyway as a means to reset your pay to the broader job market.
Changing jobs can be a daunting task. LinkedIn job postings have 100 applicants each within a matter of hours. Applying on company websites often results in your application getting lost in a dark database in the netherworld of applications.
This is where participating in network groups like Rising to the Top’s Business and Barrels is the best avenue for new job opportunities. We discuss Building Your Team often… mainly in the context of preparing to create multiple streams of income. However, building your team makes navigating the job market much easier.
Which of these would you rather do? Cold call a recruiter, apply on LinkedIn, or ask a close friend who is a tech company VP whether they have any job leads? I don’t know about you … but I’m picking the last option!
Whichever way you go … leaving a dead-end situation where your career is capped is a recipe for career frustration. Navigating to a new opportunity can jump start a stagnant or regressing career. And, you have a formula on how to play the game in your next opportunity. P.I.E works across industries and countries: work your ass off in the job you have, build genuine relationships, be conscious of HOW you perform and seek opportunities to add value for peers at different levels of your company. That approach is at the heart of P.I.E!
I could be wrong. But, I doubt it!