Going Long Podcast_SOLO Episode 471_Billy Keels

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

corporate promotion, traffic jam, high achiever, CEO aspirations, organizational chart, special projects, alliance building, overperforming role, corporate competition, top job, probability of success, work-life balance, advisory program, Billy Keels, nine to five

SPEAKERS

Billy Keels

‍

Billy Keels  00:00

The truth about the corporate promotion traffic jam. Today's conversation is sponsored by the Billy Keels advisory program. If you want to learn more about how to make your nine to five optional, just go to Billy keels.com. Forward slash advising. Once again, that's Billy keels.com. Forward slash advising. The truth about the corporate promotion traffic jam is something that comes up all the time, especially when you are a high achiever. You've got amazing, amazing energy, especially when you're early in your career, you know exactly where you want to go. You want to be at the top of the heap, the top of the corporate stack. You want to be the big cheese, the CEO, probably of the entire company, although at some point in time you may realize it's pretty high, pretty big hike. You just want to become the CEO of a region or maybe even a particular division. You know how I know that? Because I've been that guy, I was there, been there, done that, knew that that was what I wanted to do, because after I Well, realized that I had to give up one dream to catch another. And that's that's definitely something that I've kind of talked about in the past, maybe even check out episode 465, but one of those things where, you know, I wanted to be at the top of the stack. I wanted to go there. I wanted to be there. And you know what? Let me tell you how it ended up. Because the thing is, is I was pretty spoiled right out of college, my first five years out of college. And I believe I've talked to you about this before, and if you don't know, right out of college, I've been rejected for my dream job twice, and ended up at a point where I was right looking for my very first job out of college, super excited, and I had this amazing opportunity to work and travel throughout some 58 different countries. But the more important part was I was working very closely with CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, names like Ken Chenault, who was the CEO of American Express, or Jack Nasser was CEO of Ford Motor Company at the time, people like John Chambers or even Bill Gates and his teams and people like Michael Dell. And the thing is, is when you're working closely, not directly with them, but when you're in the same environment that is these people, you start realizing, like, wow, these people seem to be pretty important. There's always lots of people going around with them. There's people taking pictures and all this other kind of stuff. But it was for me the first five years out of college. So it sort of became the norm. I just thought it was normal to be in close proximity with these, with these individuals who were running these really big companies. And I would see them on the front page of when I was in, flying in and out of lots of airports around the world, especially in the US, the USA Today. And usually I would see these people's faces. And at that time I was, you know, very early on late night, even 2526 something like that. I had just become accustomed to seeing them. And it wasn't actually until I started my one year sabbatical, or at the end of that one year sabbatical, like, basically from 2002 to 2021 I started realizing how fortunate I was, because when you start working in these big companies, you start realizing, like I thought, I was in close proximity, because I could see the these people, these influential people, or people that reported directly to them, right? Let me, I don't want to give you the perception that was only them, but I had interactions with them and people that worked and reported directly into these, either founders or CEOs of very large, multi billion dollar companies. But the thing is, is when I started looking at the org chart, once I started working at these types of companies, I was like, wow, I am very far away from them in the org chart. Like I used to ride down the street or in the same either luxury car or limo or driver or whatever. And now it's like impossible, like they were literally seven, eight, sometimes even 10, steps up on the org chart, organizational chart. So that whole goal of, like, telling everybody I want to become a CEO, this is the thing that I really, really want. Well, you know, I at the end of the day, I realized one that I was buying into somebody else's dream. But more importantly, I wanted to be able to show to others that I could do it, that I was worth it. And so, but having that really stark difference between being close to somebody and then seeing how far I was away from them on the org chart, it really gave me the perspective of how difficult it could be to get to the to the path, to the beat, to the top spot, the top job, right. And so as I started paying attention to this, and it really the first time it really hit me was when I was in the south of France, and I realized, like, how far I was away from the founder of the company that I started working for. If you don't know what that company is, I'm not going to say it here, but go check out it. Go check it out on my LinkedIn profile. And by the way, if we're not connected there, make sure you connect and tell me you're listening to the going on podcast with yours truly are watching. So sorry about that little plug. Anyway, back to back to the back to the story. Because, like, the thing is, is when I started realizing that, though, like, how far I was in terms of distance, there was something else that. Being pretty clear to me, and I started realizing, wow, like it is possible, because somebody's in that job. So I had the POC, the proof of concept that I frequently talk to you about. This comes from my software days, but that is one of the things. So because I actually saw that it was possible, then it got me back into what I like to do, is typically going and starting to set to set forth. What is the plan like? What is my plan of attack? How am I going to actually get there, even though it seems so far away, because that was the dream that I had, like I was going to become the CEO. So I knew, number one, that I had to be able to perform in my role, in every role that I had, and whether that was data entry, maybe one day I'll tell a story that, because I don't even think I've told that story after managing teams of 350 a business of 350 people, and leading those teams, I went from that to actually order entry and so very big step back, however, it was for a higher purpose, and I realized I haven't shared that with you, so that's one of the things I will do. But let me not digress, because I knew that I need to over perform in whatever the role that I was in. One of the things that I learned right out of school is it was really important to have the proper alliances, the proper support with you. So I knew that that was something that also had to be a part of this plan to get me to the top spot. I also knew that I had to a part of building alliances is to be a part of special projects, like when someone needed help, put my hand up, get involved. And not just put my hand up and say I'm involved, but actually be in the group, be in the project. Actually bring value, challenge, common thought. So it was pretty simple plan, right? It was one of those things where it was basically the plan was really simple, which was, number one, over performing my role. Number two, build those alliances. And number three, be able to to be a part of special projects and things like that. And by the way, if you want to know the difference between simple and easy, you should definitely go check out episode 474 70, because I do it really. What's been told to me is really, really relevant breakdown, especially because it happened with me and my sons. So check that out. But anyway, so that was my plan. So I put the plan together, and as I started to go out, I realized, like, these were the things that I need to do to be in the right position for the top job. But this is the thing that happens, right? And I talked to you about that, this is the truth about the corporate promotion traffic jam, because here's what happens, and if it hasn't happened to you yet, and you're that ambitious person, you're probably in your late 30s, maybe early to mid 40s, and you're starting to move up and up and up. You've gone beyond manager. You're a director or VP or SVP or EVP, or whatever the case may be, but you're starting to realize that there are not just other colleagues that are like you, but other colleagues that have more experience than you. Maybe have a better alliance structure, maybe have more special projects than you do, whatever the case may be, you realize that it's not just you going for the top job anymore, right? It was never just you, by the way, anyway, even to get into the company, you had to go to the selection process. But now it's becoming more evident, because now you know the other candidates. Now you know who's coming from what region, potentially for the same job. Because the higher you go up the org chart number one, the less roles there are, but also to the the higher the competition, because the same people, or similar people, have done similar types of projects. They're also probably part of the top talent program. They they also have the right, uh, alliances within the organization. And the competition becomes stiffer and stiffer and stiffer, because as the as the roles came up, the senior people are positioning their people because they want you to be there. And so there's this constant internal battle that is, okay, look, I really want the top spot. And you realize how many more people are vying for the exact same positions. Let me just give you an example. Like to make this really concrete, maybe I'll give you two examples as I think about it. So the last company that I worked for, and I spent 16 years at that company, there were 150,000 employees working there, and if you wanted to get the top job, that's one role. There was only one possibility for the CEO of the company. So one out of 150,000 chance of getting that role you do the math. Because when I try to divide one by 150 like, I couldn't even get if there were so many point 0000, 0% like, I couldn't even multiply it times 100 right? So let me make it simpler, right? Not easy, but simpler. Basically, if you think about if there are 100 jobs, right? The last company I was at was 150,000 but imagine there's only 100 jobs, and of those 100 jobs, 100 roles, there's only one top role, so it's one out of 100 is 1% chance of getting into that job. If you look at it based on the number of roles that are in the company. So in my last thing, it's 1% times, 1500 times the possibility, right, of being able to get that job in a company that has 150,000 people. So what I mean by that is. Competition is so intense, and everybody's going for the same job, and the probabilities of getting that role are so low, you start to ask yourself, is sitting in this traffic jam worth the wait? Is it worth the extra hours? Is it worth missing the family events? Is it worth eating in airports, in fast and being able to have to speak every single second that you're in a taxi cab and you get to your home and you're sitting out in the front, front yard, or in the lawn, or not in the lawn, but in the driveway, and you're still talking on the phone because you can't go in the house. Is it worth all of that? Is the probability of you actually getting to the role high enough to throw all the other things to the side, I don't know, but I just want to have you think about it, because that is the truth about the corporate promotion traffic jam. It is a real thing, but sometimes you're so focused on being able to get to the next goal that you just don't take a step back, right? And that's by design. It's not your fault. It's kind of what's supposed to be there. That's how the corporate machine continued to run. And so with that, like as I started realizing that it was like 345, 1500 times harder to get to the role that I actually wanted. Well, you know what? I got to a certain point. I never got the top job. I never got the top job ever. From a corporate perspective. Never got it. So it's something I'll have to go to my grave with. I guess that dream never was realized. But the thing is, is I realized that you could actually contribute, and I did contribute to the corporation, to the companies that I worked for, to the individual people that I was working with and had the pleasure of working alongside because there were other ways that I could, that I could genuinely give to a company without having to have the title. I mean, I even talked about that. I think it was episode 410 you want to go all the way back the ways that you can contribute to to other companies without being on the promotion path. So anyway, so I just wanted to highlight this right? Think about the probabilities. Think about, yeah, I've been there. I've done that. I had to give up on a dream because it decided it wasn't the right dream for me. It doesn't mean that I wasn't the CEO. I just I was never the CEO of a big company. I became the CEO of my life, something I never thought about when I got started in corporate. But this is one of those things, is being the CEO of your life, controlling your time being able to invest your time with those that you love when you want and where you want. I even think about that right, which is why I'm sharing it with you, because I want you to be aware of it. I want you to think of it. I want you to design a life that will allow you to achieve those things, to have the option to stay and work in your corporate job for as long as you want, and when that time comes to an end, because all relationships come to an end that you feel that you're in control of the next step, the day after. So with that, what I would always, as I mentioned to you all the time, is take today's episode. Share it with family, share it with friends. Get it out into the to the ethos. And then, more importantly, once it's out there. Talk about it. Talk about the concepts that I'm sharing with you. Talk about that probability. Or is it, or do you want to continue to sit in the parking lot or in the driveway and be on the phone and do all that stuff? Is the probability of your success, of achieving a title, a role? Is it high enough to forego all the things that you want? I don't know. You know the answer. Take today's episode, share it, family, friends, talk about it, go from theory to practice. And while you're doing that, guess where I'll be. I'll be right here. I'll be right here. Yes, I am, and I'll be preparing for the next episode. So until then, I want you to go out and make it a great day. And I want to say thank you very, very much. Today's conversation was sponsored by the Billy Keels advisory program. If you're looking to make your nine to five optional and need some help, just go to Billy keels.com. Forward slash advising. Once again, that's Billy keels.com. Forward slash advising. Free

‍